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Apple Said to Be Working on Lower-Priced External Monitor to Succeed Thunderbolt Display

dguisinger said:
I think what we are clearly seeing is a course correction of their ignoring the Mac for several years.
While they will never admit it, I think they were considering axing the Mac before deciding to double down.

During that period, they got rid of things that were no brainers, like monitors that could connect to the ONLY port they shipped on their machines.... while at the same time shipping 4 versions of a failed keyboard design before finally getting around to replacing it with a traditional keyboard. No improvements to touch bar during that time either.... and letting their "Pro" machine go what, 6-7 years before an upgrade? It doesn't take 7 years to design a new motherboard, especially when you are one of the richest companies on earth.

It really does feel like to me they decided to pull back on the Mac, and something happened about a year and a half ago that suddenly made them decide they cared again. Maybe it was when they started seeing apple silicon macs in the lab starting to look as a success... Or maybe it was the slowing of iPhone growth to where they didn't want to throw away their other revenue streams.

Whatever it was, the last year or so has been really good for the Mac, and it really looks like they are focussed on it now.
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I think what actually happened is they started losing corporate and creatives customers who used to kit their staff out with the entire ecosystem. These customers had no choice to move to Windows as Apple abandoned the Mac, and with it, they moved off the entire ecosystem. E.g. this photographer, writing an article 4 years ago about why he moved off Apple.
 
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ALLELUIA!!!!!
I have been waiting for ages for this news. I love the XDR but it's too expensive.
Give me a nanotech/stand and hopefully 32” at $1.5k max and I'll buy two.

BTW, still rocking two ACD 30” that I purchased back in 2004. Still great monitors.
 
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sideshowuniqueuser said:
I think what actually happened is they started losing corporate and creatives customers who used to kit their staff out with the entire ecosystem. These customers had no choice to move to Windows as Apple abandoned the Mac, and with it, they moved off the entire ecosystem. E.g. this photographer, writing an article 4 years ago about why he moved off Apple.
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Sounds about right. I knew of a fairly large animation company in London that used to be full Apple with everyone having old-school cheesegrater Mac Pros and such, moved completely to Windows years ago after Apple abandoned the Pro market while offering very little support for GPU rendering (something Apple still needs to solve with Nvidia having an iron grip on that market).
 
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Karllake said:
I suspect the things that changed was market saturation in the phone market coupled with the M series chip bringing increased performance, profit and possibly market share in the computer market.
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Covid and increasing numbers of people working from home may be a factor too. Ergonomics and usability/screen size of working on laptops aren’t that great. This has the potential to be a great solution for the Mini, any other desktop that Apple dreams up and as a docking station for laptops to get us out of dongle-hell, assuming there are a good number of ports, speakers and an HD camera included.
 
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Can’t wait to listen to ATP next week after all this Mac Pro and Display news. Marco just bought the XDR lol

I recently bought the LG 5k and will sell it immediately if Apple releases a comparable offering.
 
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Mike_Trivisonno said:
Finally. I got 3 aging thunderbolt displays that need replacing. I bought an LG 27UK850-W 27" 4K UHD IPS Monitor with HDR10 with USB Type-C Connectivity and FreeSync because I read an article that said it could be hooked up to the old trashcan MacPro. It just sat there doing nothing. It did work when I connected it to the HMDI port but the image was so flickery, it was unusable. Hopefully the new monitors will work on with my old MacPro...or I will be forced to buy one of the new MacPros.

Now it just sits on the other desk along with other old Macs I never use. It taunts me. Stupid thing. Look at it.

View attachment 1713462
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I have that monitor. It works fine with my 2015 MBP but the design, especially the stand, should be classified as a crime against humanity.
 
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I am holding on to and using two Thunderbolt displays with my 2020 MacBook Pro. Works perfectly, but I can say I will be buying 2 as soon as they are available. I am glad Apple is giving up on these hideous displays they sell in the store.

I'll add if you come across one with a flickering display it is easily fixable with a Chinese replacement Thunderbolt combo plug. Readily available on eBay and Amazon and takes about 15 minutes to replace then you are back in business.
 
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I have one huge wishlist item for this monitor. When the Magic Keyboard and Mouse launched, I was sure it was coming, and then just never did.

It should have bluetooth, when you plug a Magic Keyboard or mouse, the device will auto pair like it does with a Mac, but *with the monitor*.

This way if the monitor is shared between multiple computers, even if some of those computers aren't macs, the keyboard and mouse would Just Work. This really needs to be a thing.
 
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MacRumors said:
I have one that was hooked up to a MBP via Thunderbolt, and now to a Mac Mini with USB-C. I've thought about replacing it for a 4K one that has both USB-C and HDMI, so I can use it with my work laptop too. If it's not significantly more than a mid-range Dell or LG, I'd consider it.
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It is absolutely remarkable to me Apple doesn’t have an external display. So much money left on the table,but more importantly, these offices all look like Dell or Samsung shops, even though everyone was using Macs and MacOS.

I welcome the return with open checkbook.
 
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The LG 5k Ultrafine is already an excellent option for an Apple-like monitor. However, It's already expensive at $1299, and it's made of plastic. How much will an aluminum Apple branded version cost? $1699? $1999? Keep in mind that Apple will not price this new monitor like they did in 2011. If they do, then corners will most certainly be cut. They might be able to swing an iPhone-esque design with aluminum edges, a glass front, and plastic back similar to the 2007 iMac. That would keep the cost as low as possible. It will be high quality regardless.

IM-20-A-3__30272__47826.1532960570.jpg
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Probably, as usual, just a Thunderbolt input that may only work properly with a Mac. People who want to connect more than one computer are out of luck (like me). Otherwise, every monitor can do that.
Probably only one year warranty as usual. Many people ignore this when comparing prices with other manufacturers, although other manufacturers even have a 5-year warranty (Eizo).
Mirror display? Make-up mirror? Or are there matte displays for a premium?
 
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Hope you can use either an included stand or VESA mounts, so you don't have to pick one or the other.
 
MacRumors said:


Apple has started early development
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... to replace a product which was ended 5 years ago.

Its strange to sit on the outside of a company like Apple and see them make some blindingly obvious strange decisions like the fact they didn't have their own branded monitors for so long. And even now only have one for the absolute top end of the market.
 
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dguisinger said:
No improvements to touch bar during that time either
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Not quite true. They made on significant improvement by bringing back the physical Escape key.
While a minor improvement technologically, it addressed major and/or very vocal complaints from users.

dguisinger said:
something happened about a year and a half ago that suddenly made them decide they cared again
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Well, something did happen then:
Jony Ive left the company.

The industrial design head under whose tenure on of the main objectives seemed to be to make products smaller, thinner, slimmer. More minimal, with reduced physical ports. With the iPhone being a notable exception of Apple caving in to customer and market demand (but remember how they were claiming an iPhone 5 to be a perfect size and held off on releasing bigger-display phones?).

Ive's departure coincides with what seems to be a slightly less dogmatic but more pragmatic approach in product design at Apple:
  • The return of the Escape key on Touch Bar models
  • MacBook Pros (slightly) heavier and thicker to accommodate scissor-switch keyboards
  • iOS 13 gaining external mouse and trackpad support, later even physical trackpads made for iPads. I'm not sure if Ive has or would have signed off on these (though on the other, it seemed a somewhat consequence of adding USB-C and external storage support to Pro iPads
  • There's now talk about Apple bringing MagSafe and "more ports" to the MacBook Pro, with Ming-Chi Kuo saying most people may not need to purchase dongles.
Now, going back to the rumoured display, I wouldn't hold my breath for Apple bringing any other port than one single latest-generation Thunderbolt. On the other hand, I wouldn't be shocked for an HDMI 2.1 port (on a 4K or 5K display).
 
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minik said:
I bought the exact same display for my 2020 iMac 5K. It runs very well with the USB-C connection. I connected to a PS4 Pro via HDMI cable and not bad. I wonder what's the flickering. Did you update the firmware on the monitor?
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I do not remember doing anything other than plugging it in using the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter I bought from Apple. The monitor just sat there. If it did any software updates, I did not see it happen. The HDMI port had horrible refresh. Moving the mouse caused a long trail of ghost pointers.

I was pretty excited about the purchase cause it was so inexpensive. I planned on getting 2 more to replace the old thunder bold displays from Apple.
 
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