Agreed... that's what I mean by 'professional context' --- how it's used, not just who uses it. In the professional context the results of reliability & support etc has much more significant weight than using it in a non professional context. This is usually because there's a significant financial consequence if something went wrong (due to using consumer parts). Likewise for support, etc... Large companies do not like a whole mess of different kinds of machines to support. They often approve of a few lines of machines and contractually make sure that they are supported by the vendor. (eg. You can get IBM server parts from 1999 and have them delivered to you in 48 hours). IBM makes sure that they still have them in stock.
So when Apple (or any other company) makes a line of professional grade workstations, it's designed to suit these enterprise (or 'higher') requirements. The shops that don't have such special requirements will still have to pay for the engineering of the machines (and the more expensive parts). Unlike Dell, Apple basically makes one line of MacPro, so they have to satisfy the 'higher end' customers demands (the 'lower end', for lack of better words, can still use it). ... I'm speaking in very general terms, since there's many different situations.
For Apple to make a tower with consumer parts, is almost like making another line of tower machines geared towards a prosumer market; OR changing the existing pro line is similar to hi-jacking this line and making it work for the prosumer market and not optimized for use in the professional context.
I understand what you are saying, but I don't accept that it has to be an either or situation like you imply.
There are a whole generation of Apple users (like me), who have always used Apple towers without being what many would call a 'power user', but who still need the functionality that only a tower system offers.
I use my Mac for writing music and occasional video editing too, so I like being able to have lots of internal storage, 2 optical drives, plenty of RAM and plenty of expansion ports - it is after all only the same options I've had on basically every Mac I've ever owned.
Housing all this in 1 tower is a lot less mess than it would be with an iMac - home studios are already messy enough with lots of external PSU's and audio cabling, so being able to keep HD's and optical drives internal is important.
I think it's brilliant that Apple do products that meet the demands of professionals in video editing or 3D animation etc etc, but they need to meet the demands of it others users like me too. They have successfully met the demands of both in the past, I don't see why it should be any more difficult to do that today.
A cheaper tower Mac isn't some kind of slur on 'the pro', nor is it indicative of any abandoning of the pro market, it's just a way to broaden the appeal of one of Apple's markets and maybe encourage growth in the sector by giving those aspiring pro's a starting point. At the end of the day I'm only a publishing deal away from being a 'pro' myself, so my needs DO matter.
When I was using my G4 tower back in the day, I don't recall the 'pro' Apple power user feeling marginalised or not taken seriously by Apple then.
It is simply ludicrous to suggest that they couldn't cater for my needs and the power users needs at the same time with different specced towers.
Camera manufacturers manage it. Canon and Nikon still do great full frame DSLRs that costs thousands and have full weather proofing, faster frame rates etc etc, but they also do a cheaper entry level full frame DSLRs and some pretty excellent APS-C 'prosumer' cameras too. It not some weird magical alchemy involved, it's simply applying a bit of common sense to serve the needs of more of their customer base.
I know Apple likes to streamline its product line, but Apple need to re-engage the significant amount of users (like me), who they effectively abandoned by making their Towers prohibitively expensive.
Many of us are the professionals of the future, so they need to attract us, not push us away.
In 2002 an new iMac was $1299 and a G4 tower was $1699.
in 2012 a new entry level iMac was $1299, (quad core 27" iMac was $1799), but the entry level Mac Pro was $2499!!!
So the cost of owning an Apple tower has risen massively over the last decade and Apple need to give us a cheaper way of owning one or it'll continue to be a niche product for the 'pro' or the wealthy, with moderately low sales and it needn't be either of those things IMO.
Many amateurs use MacBook Pro's every day too, but somehow this is okay, but joe public owning a Mac Pro Tower...Thats against the rules (sigh)!
Utter nonsense.
(MIC Gadget leak said no Xeon E3)
