you are wrong. Knight will do a better job than I can here but Apple has no replacement for Xserver. Most places that buy servers tend to have all their servers on a replacement schedule. That means every year you are replacing a certain percentage of your servers say 25% and gives you a 4 year life and keeps everything up to date. This can be adjusted based on life cycle.
Now Apple say nope no more after this year which means each year get farther behind. You can not afford to do an early replacement and on top of that it is not cost effective.
Now what are you going to do as your server age. Xservers were really the best thing to managing large OSX deployments. Those are gone and Mac Pros nor Mac Mini servers are suitable replacement.
Final cut server is screwed now as well.
Even servers have have long life cycles and support. They generally know what is going to happen years in advance to manage change. You can bet companies that were running on Xservers are scrambling to figure out what to do. I also willing to bet companies like Dell are going to set in and making a killing.
First off, I'm sure Dell doesn't announce the discontinuation of their server models THAT far in advance. Secondly, killing the Xserve, two and a half months in advance screws over most the people who were, for whatever reason, going to upgrade their Xserves within a year or two. That said, given that the Early 2009 Xserve (which was the last gen) wasn't all THAT much more powerful than the first Intel Xserve (which probably could've been upgraded to be close in performance to that of the 2009 model with RAM and CPU upgrades). So REALLY, we're talking about people stuck with the last generation G5 Xserves and who want to still be running Mac OS X Server on a 1U Server machine. The jump to Intel (let alone the jump from 10.4 Server or 10.5 Server to 10.6 Server), is annoying enough of a jump, but for those people, a two and a half month "Hey, you can upgrade your stuff for now and it'll last you for quite a long while, but as soon as you do, you should plan for life post-Xserve, because this is the last helping you'll get" sounds plenty reasonable as I'm sure a new set of Xserves will last any company long enough to plan for the future. Really, I get the feeling that most of the complaint is one of "They don't have a replacement solution that does what I want" and not "They didn't give me enough advanced notice". Again, it's not like the Intel Xserve had changed that drastically over the years, and even beyond that, it's not like they didn't sell the Early 2009 Xserve for two years before it was discontinued (I don't think they've ever sold a single Xserve generation for that long at a time).
That would have been great if they'd offered FCP7 alongside FCPX from the beginning. I understand they've made it available now, but cutting people off from new licenses was a huge mistake, and the sort of thing that makes me completely unwilling to use Apple for anything important.
I think that's a little shortsighted. Just because Apple is hasty in pulling the plug on things doesn't mean you necessarily have to jump ship to them. I'm still running Snow Leopard, for crying out loud! I'm taking my sweet time in moving to Lion (mainly because I'm to be buying a new machine with it preloaded [and thusly don't want to pay for Lion twice] and I want to acquire Intel-native copies of software that I had older PowerPC versions of that still run perfectly under Rosetta), and Apple isn't saying I need to adopt their newest OS this instant. I'd say that using Apple for cutting edge performance is stupid, given that they don't sell the best of the best in terms of performance (hell, most of their desktops are complete jokes [even the Mac Pro's graphics are pretty wimpy by comparison to some of the video cards available to PC desktops, let alone a lack of CrossFire or SLI support]). And yes, they shouldn't have discontinued Final Cut Studio when Final Cut Pro X came out, but to be fair, Apple had FCS out for far longer than they had Mac OS 9 on sale for. Though, granted, they did ship 9.1 and 9.2 with OS X 10.0 and 10.1.
So when Apple updates the MP early next year I wonder how many of those arguing it is dead will have the guts to come back and admit they were wrong?
I don't think there's a single person on here that isn't (a) afraid that the Mac Pro will be axed (b) hoping that Apple doesn't kill it. Anyone doomsaying the Mac Pro on here will be more than happy to come back and say that they were wrong. Though to be fair, with a lack of a noticable change over the years, it doesn't look good. That said, I don't think Apple will kill it. I think if Apple is to kill their desktop lines, the Mac Pro will be the very last one to go and it will take its sweet time in doing so.
I'd be very happy to be wrong on this, it's not a matter of personal prestige. In fact I'm really hoping I'm wrong on this.
I think everyone here is.
I really hope this isn't true. Although I don't use a MacPro, I imagine some people do.
I don't either. Don't have the money to justify it. Plus, the only thing I'd need it for would be gaming and I have a perfectly decent PC tower for that. That said, SEVERAL people do. Though I imagine that there are more Mac Pros owned by businesses and institutions than by home users, but given what they have to offer over something like a fully decked out 27" iMac, that makes a crapton of sense.
What makes matters worse is that mobile GPUs tend to be a performance category lower than they were in the past. (GTX 580M = GTX 560/Ti or HD 6990M = HD 6870)
nVidia was dragged into that mess long before ATI was.
I thought the Radeon HD 6990M was essentially a slightly underclocked (desktop) Radeon HD 6850...?
Because Apple has release lame updates to the Desktop and because of these lame updates sales have dropped off...they are thinking of dumping the desk top/
Do I have that about right?
Nope. Not even kind of. Mac Pros cost lots of money, and they last much longer before becoming too slow than their other machines. So less people are buying them less frequently. ECONOMICS!
I would have purchased two updated from my current 2008, but the boost in speed just wasn't there for the 3K.
Give me updates with a incredible advancements in option and power and I buy, that's how it works.
Wake up Apple.
Furthermore the REASON lap tops sales are so high is because people do work on desktops and want to port that work with them. No desk top sales - then the lap top sales will drop like a lead balloon.
I mean I know Steve Jobs is gone, but did Apple get that stupid they quickly?
You really make no sense, do you know that?
Just because you want this to be true doesn't mean it is. Do you have evidence for this assertion? I'm seriously asking.
After 66 pages, people are still confusing
1) their desire for Apple to offer (their definition of) Pro Macs
2) Apple having sufficient incentive to do so
The strength of the former has no bearing on the latter. These kinds of comments upset people; I don't know why.
People are confusing
1) The obvious need for a Mac Pro for things a 27" iMac simply can't do
2) Apple's increased focus on the iOS devices and wimpy computers like the MacBook Air
3) Apple's lack of fear in discontinuing products that would otherwise continue to serve others well.
Apple will do what Apple wants to do. Though they are not without logic. I have a feeling that if the Mac Pro does go away, Apple will have ensured that there won't be a mass outcry, and while many home users wouldn't be affected by the loss of a Mac Pro, many businesses would have a cow, so really, I doubt that this is anything to worry about. Apple doesn't differentiate businesses from home consumers, because to them, they're all paying customers. That said, if Apple makes this machine and it lasts too long and it costs way more money, Apple might change up the business model associated with it to better suit them hence the comment in the article about the Mac Pro "in its current form".
