The reason the Mac Pro is such a small percentage of their sales, is because they failed to produce a Mac Pro that met their customers needs.
It's always going to be a tiny percentage. Yes, I'm sure there was some shift from Mac Pro to iMac or even away from the platform, but even if they made the best thing possible, it's going to be small. Pro users are a small percentage of the big pie, even if every one of they bought one.
What I'm not sure Apple is thinking about (or they'd have been on this more quickly), is the overall impact to the eco-system of not properly serving this audience. I'm not sure if they finally get that, or they are just doing damage control.
The question is: once they get an updated machine out there, will it be enough to bring back the customers that they've lost.
The customers they lost... like to Windows, etc.? I doubt it. If I make the move, I won't be coming back. And, at that point, it won't be about who's product is best, but about Apple's betrayal of my 30 years of loyalty and going to bat for them when almost no one else would. Changing platforms is a pretty big deal and undertaking. If Apple won't take the pro community seriously, there's no reason to invest in them.
Their announcement is to try and prevent more customers from abandoning ship, and to try and get them to hold out until the replacement Mac Pro is available.
Yes and no. It is an attempt to stop the exodus. However, the problem is a lot bigger than the lack of a new Mac Pro.
Apple knows that they might have lost it forever. But they're hoping to possibly salvage what is left of their market and rebuild.
Possibly. I'm not sure they even have a big-picture anymore. It seems to be mostly about pie-charts and profits, IMO.
They haven't just decided that they are going to do something - they never gave up on the Mac Pro. As i've been saying for a very long time, they have been working on a new model and prototyping many different designs (for over a year).
Then, I'd guess they'd have a better time-frame. I'm not sure I'm believing that. I question not only if they'd given up on the Mac Pro, but the Mac period. We'll see. It's positive to see them doing *something* but the question is if it will be enough. As I mentioned above, this is about a lot more than a new Mac Pro.
vote with your dollar. lack of sales speaks louder than complaining on a forum. right?
The problem is, that without abandoning the whole platform, it's hard not to buy their ill-planned products. If you're going to stay in the eco-system, you have to buy something. (i.e.: how many pro customers *would* have bought a Mac Pro, but instead are making due with iMacs and less-than-pro laptops?)
So the trash can Mac Pro was the solution to a problem that didn't exist? It was designed like it was just for the sake of design?
It was a solution to some problems, just not the right ones.
Having a fairly powerful but silent machine would be great for some. For others, the lack of GPU is a huge problem. It was also ahead of it's time, as at some point down the road, external GPUs will become much more common (I hope... and hope Apple makes it easier).
