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Apple Says All-New Modular Mac Pro With Apple-Branded High-End Pro Display Coming After 2017
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Probably none. The powrmacs were built in the US for a very long time and were pretty competitive most of the time. In fact they even used to have motherboards made in the US.
It's more a problem with intel being slow to update their pro platforms. The Mac Pro is using an x79 based Xeon platform and the x99 doesn't really help much with usb3 or thunderbolt3.
Still they could have done something
See? Wonder if all the whining will stop. Apple has calmed some nerves hopefully. I think they're being very generous by " pre-announcing" a Mac Pro that only accounts for a SINGLE PERCENTAGE of Mac business.
Well, maybe so, but it will have been 5 years since meaningful attention to the Mac Pro line, which could be perceived as some form or definition of apathy. Nonetheless, they at least have now said something sufficiently specific, other than "great products in the pipeline".
I had to move mine out of my office and go back to a MacBook Pro. My trashcan fries SSDs. major major disappointment. and for the record it's not whisper quiet.
It's a single-digit user base now. Because of all the people disappointed and not buying the 2013 model (such as me).
No, that's not even a flimsy excuse. The GPUs weren't even cutting-edge in 2013; they could have been updated multiple times since then.
--Eric
It's only more popular because of how horribly you neglected the Mac Pro. Notebook users are gonna notebook use anyway.
But what you did to the Mac Pro, making it impossible to change the videocards ever, putting an uncommon port for the hard drive (can't buy a 960pro 2TB and stick it in there, and it's only recently that you can buy an OWC drive and do so), just one hard drive internal for a pro desktop while using gumstick format ssd anyway, and then not giving new options as technology moves on was just dumb.
Borderline criminal, but definitely dumb.
Why aren't they making some huge announcement? did you bother reading the article???? The Mac Pro accounts for a SINGLE DIGIT PERCENTAGE of Mac sales. In other words.....maybe a few hundred thousand people out of MILLIONS of Mac users. And you're right.
Stop talking as if the new Mac Pro is worthy of an "iPhone like" announcement, its just silly.
Fair enough.
I do think Apple has a precedent for this, where phones have been handed out to key members of the community and there were (IIRC) even one-on-one meetings with Apple executives to discuss the product, then the information is rolled out based on some predetermined embargo.
I think that's what this is about, sending a message to the Marco Arment's of the world that the Mac platform hasn't been abandoned, but in a way that still allows Apple to control the message.
Apologies if the tone of my reply to you was overly harsh.
You make jokes about it, but I love the cheese grater. A spec bump'd cheese grater would be perfect in fact.The "New" modular Mac Pro.
Finally Apple admitting the current Mac Pro was the wrong design to make and the wrong path to take for Pro users...non-modular and non-upgradable.
It's been three years since the Mac Pro, and they're "working hard" to design a new one, yet it's still over a year away?
It's been three years since the Mac Pro, and they're "working hard" to design a new one, yet it's still over a year away?
Just Macrumors mis-interpreted, to be fair Schiller was ambiguous about what was really happening, the Verge got it right though. There was no actual update just a price reduction. Probably only in US tho its possible the UK pricing will increase as it has with all the other new prices lately.
Its a fair attitude.
You have to give them credit for admitting they screwed up with the trash can and for breaking with tradition and confirming that new Mac Pros/Displays are coming though.
As you say though talking is all well and good they need to demonstrate that the Pro hardware will get regular updates.
Had this discussion some years ago: MacRumors post.
If they really want to innovate (and perhaps bring back lost customers), I believe they'd need to do something uncommon. Such as designing a system of function boxes that you could easily plug together (akin to Lego), with internal highspeed connectors between the boxes for making it nearly cable-free again.
Intel even presented a suitable platform ("Group Hug") already in 2013 (no idea if it's still around). And Apple has the required software available (Grand Central Dispatch, XGrid, XSan ...).
If they do it cleverly, they would design it in a way that a Mac Pro and a mini (and perhaps other products in their portfolio) could share the same housings and connectors, so you could customize both a mini and a Mac Pro precisely to your needs (having a standard basis and being able to add boxes for additional storage, better GPU, better/more CPU('s) etc.), while economies of scale work in favour of Apple. And you could update only the part that is your current bottleneck, instead of replacing the whole machine.
Think I even proposed all that in an eMail to Tim back in 2012.
But perhaps Apple considers "modular" to be just a redesigned cheesegrater MP with user-serviceable components again. Surely the less-risky (though also less innovative) route.
$4000 for D700 crossfire??? I could build a 1080Ti SLI machine for way less than that. Apple's gone off the deep end.
So basically, they're probably going back to something akin to what the Mac Pro was before. I'm sure it won't look like a cheese grater, but it's nice to see them admit that the trash can Mac Pro, while it looked interesting, wasn't what pro customers needed over the long haul. Let's face it...if you're going to go 4+ years between hardware refreshes, you need to give customers something that will serve them well over a long period of time.
Don't think I've ever seen so much damage control, excuses and most importantly admissions coming from Apple...
It's a stopgap. They've already admitted there will be a redesigned machine so unless you desperately need a Mac Pro now, it's silly to buy the speed bumped version. All they're doing now is offloading the remaining chassis to collectors and companies who can write off the depreciation against tax.
That wasn't my takeaway from this article at all.
In fact, this may be the first time in -- forever -- that an Apple executive has spelled out exactly what a "Pro" user is in the eyes of Apple.
So, basically, the exact opposite of what you said.
It's interesting that Apple seems to be in damage control mode with the Mac right now. It's like they had an Executive Team meeting and somebody said, "Guys, we're effing up the Mac...big time".