Apple Says It's Out of the Standalone Display Business

[dantroline]

So we all woke up one morning thinking we are living in the Apple ecosystem when suddenly we see there soon will be no ecosystem to speak of. I hate Windows - I'll never forgive or forget Microsoft for what they did to the IT world over the years - dealing with them is a necessary evil at the moment - so I can only hope that someone out there will pick up where Apple is clearly leaving off.

 

[Breaking Good]

So are they out of the Mac Mini and Mac Pro businesses, as well? Or are the out of the iMac business and are they just going to concentrate on the computer?

I'd say they are just going to let OS X die on the vine and focus on iOS.

 

[Anuba]

No surprises there. Cook is obsessed with protecting Apple's exceptional profit margins in a world where they make less and less sense every day. He doesn't want to compete in any area where all products are pretty much interchangeable except for the logo, because then the ridiculousness of Apple's unique margins is laid bare for all to see. There always has to be some special twist that pertains to the Apple ecosystem, so that people forget how it compares to alternatives (because those don't have the W1 chip, or whatever).

I guess displays was an area where they could no longer come up with a way to justify the Apple Tax. It was just going to be some Samsung panel in whatever aluminum enclosure that Jony Ive sketched on his lunch break. They couldn't think up a twist that would allow them to meet Cook's requirement that it should cost no more than $50 to make and retail at a minimum of $4,999.
It's the same reason why an Apple TV in the form of an actual TV never materialized. Poor Timmy probably cried and cried till he was dehydrated, but his team kept saying "look boss, there's just no way that we can sell a rebranded 60" LG TV for $9,999, when LG's own version on the shelf next to it is going for $1,499."
"But I want it I want it I WANT IT wAAAAAAAAAAH gimme my margin gimme my fat margin my fat fat fatty fat margin fat fat fatty yummy margin I want it I want it wantitiwantitiwWAAAAAAAAAAAH"
"OK he's doing that thing again, increase the dosage".

 

[Well]

The apple displays were always more expensive to equal/better displays. If they came out with one, this page would blow-up over the cost. I have no problem with them not making stand-alone displays.

Well you could apply the same argument about their notebooks, so why haven't they abandoned them also? The LG is butt ugly for many Apple owners and therefore doesn't cut the mustard, especially if you have a eye for design and what looks cool.

If I by a monitor from LG and a notebook from Apple then I have one foot in the Windows world, where purchasing disparate products is de rigueur.

I am not happy with Apple, they are offending many loyal customers.

 

[Anuba]

Well you could apply the same argument about their notebooks, so why haven't they abandoned them also? The LG is butt ugly for many Apple owners and therefore doesn't cut the mustard, especially if you have a eye for design and what looks cool.

If I by a monitor from LG and a notebook from Apple then I have one foot in the Windows world, where purchasing disparate products is de rigueur.

I am not happy with Apple, they are offending many loyal customers.

Well their notebooks have a unique selling proposition - they run macOS. If they only ran Windows, Apple would have abandoned notebooks long ago, because the competition would've killed them with better bang for buck.

The Apple displays also had a unique selling proposition - they were essentially MacBook docking stations because they had MagSafe, nice white cables and all that. This made enough people go for the Apple alternative even though it was pricey.
The new MBP only needs a single thunderbolt 3 cable plugged in and you get both power and display signal. The only, only thing that would separate a matching Apple display from the competition would be the Apple logo. Functionality wise it would have no edge whatsoever. But Apple would still want at least 50% more for it than the competition. If Apple can't have that, they're not interested at all.

 

[iCamera]

Can we make the new "where is the new MacBook pro" post this one please? Tim really needs to watch it.

Thanks for posting this- What a great insight by Steve Jobs.

 

[recoil80]

I expected that and is not a bad news, as long as they don't go out of the Mac business.

 

[MH01]

Can the iMac be used as in target display mode?

Yup. 2009-2010 models I think.

Reason I'm keeping mine still .

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204592

 

[dannys1]

Large chunk of IBM.....these are not pro users .

Don't confuse a "work" laptop to a "pro" laptop.

Professional just means "you do that to earn a living" a professional footballer is just someone that does it for a living. If you earn your living designing websites on a MacBook, you're a professional web designer.

 

[NostromoUK]

Lots of Pro's are now out of the Apple business. Sad.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Let's face it: Apple has determined that desktop computing is yesterday's market. They see 10%of revenue as expendable instead of expandable.

The monitors are now gone, the Pro will probably follow (3 years without update??), the mini is probably going to have one more redesign into an aTV-type box without everything soldered down, and then it will just be the iMac and the MacBook Pro in 2 years.

The top iMac is an OK Pro machine, for some Pro uses, so they will make it their top-tier soon.

I was thinking in the past weeks about how nice the Apple ecosystem was when they made printers and monitors and everything you needed to have a desktop. The printer market is now such a shambolic scheme that they could clean up by entering it. Apple should be expanding! They have unusual amounts of employees, revenue, floorspace, etc., but they have less and less product, and they always work on weird, distant, unwanted projects that never go quite right and never make any real impact... corporate parasites are now eating from the Apple, no doubt.

It wouldn't be unexpected to see Macs disappear by 2020. They make money from Phones, and they dream of vaporware cars.

 

[JM-Prod]

Seems Apples out of the desktop computer business too considering Mac Pro and Mac Mini stagnation, SAD.

Tim Cook needs to focus on the core business. External displays and tools for creative professionals does not fit in there... but cars do. Obviously it makes sense.

**** APPLE under current leadership!

Microsoft:
- Hololens
- Surface
- High performance operating system supporting latest nVidia GPUs
- Leaders and product managers who seem to care about pushing technology and tools forward for artist, researchers and engineers.

APPLE:
- rose gold
- trying to milk one or two successful products for all eternity
- and a rather unsuccessful watch

 

[gnipgnop]

Interesting to see the same people who claimed they were so dissatisfied with Apple's MBP design now claiming that they're dismayed that Apple isn't producing a stand-alone display anymore. I'm sure if Apple did announce a new 1st party display that those same people would have done nothing but criticize it. The trolling on this site is so pathetic.
[doublepost=1477745891][/doublepost]

It wouldn't be unexpected to see Macs disappear by 2020. They make money from Phones, and they dream of vaporware cars.

You must have (conveniently) missed the interview with Federighi and Schiller where they specifically said that the Mac had a long future in front of it.

 

[JM-Prod]

You must have (conveniently) missed the interview with Federighi and Schiller where they specifically said that the Mac had a long future in front of it.

And? We need to replace Mac's at my company. And I'm not alone. Maybe Macs have a future with some consumers and prosumers, but they are not making high-end tools any more. The future of Macs are not with their core users any longer as they've so clearly demonstrated.

And I wonder, how many of these core users are the actual 5% of Apple's customers in the personal computer space? I'm not sure if it really makes sense for Apple to continue with the Mac if they lose this market. And with their current pricing and offerings, I'm not really sure who else will be their customers. People who need a fashion statement and have too much money to spend?

Without an eco-system. It does not really make that much sense to run a separate operating system on your notebook, compared to your workstation or desktop computer.

 

[MarsViolet]

You'll get over it. I believe in you.

I wonder if you'll still be the winking apologist when Apple tells pros to buy their next macOS computer from Apple's new best buddy, Dell.

 

[bmacir]

IF this is true...this sucks big one!

 

[Fishticks]

Not releasing a real TVset.
Not releasing a real car.
Not releasing a real screen.
Not releasing real Macbook PROs.
Soon not releasing iMacs and MacPros...

Apple is out of everything except phones.

 

[steveOooo]

I Think apple and LG have been doing this for a few years now, behind closed doors, their ultra wides have a silver back finish and supports thunderbolt

 

[MH01]

Professional just means "you do that to earn a living" a professional footballer is just someone that does it for a living. If you earn your living designing websites on a MacBook, you're a professional web designer.

My point is IBM buying lot of them and marketing the devices for apple does not suddenly make them "pro" machines, just another office machine

 

[Fishrrman]

HiRez wrote in reply 84:
"If they refuse to update these machines for 3+ years, does it matter whether they officially announce it or not? These products are virtually dead if not actually yet."

Posted by me, in this forum, approaching 2 years ago:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20669559/

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20703977/

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20581891/

 

[9081094]

https://www.cnet.com/videos/reactions-to-apples-new-macbook-pro/

 

[123]

I honestly don't see what he saw in Tim. Tim was a number cruncher with no creative foresight, and he's the exact same way as CEO.

Narcissistic persons tend to surround themselves with idiots. A company run by a narcissistic genius (which Jobs certainly was) is doomed once the genius is gone as the only thing that is left is an echo chamber without its master.

 

[tdream]

Anyone using a Mac to earn their living will disagree with you there. So thats pretty much all record producers and engineers and according to last week, a large chunk of IBM!

And what percentage of the population are record producers and engineers? F all.

 

[WRChris]

This is very sad indeed. Just more confirmation that Apple is not only watering down their current product line but they're beginning to outsource their core products where they used to excel. Okay I admit it, I have aftermarket displays but there for very specific purposes and costs three or four times more than an apple version. It's just that the direction that Apple is headed appears bleak.

I keep thinking of the Microsoft commercial and some other new products. Microsoft definitely has the edge on AI with Google in second place.

Cortana still has its problems, in my case. Hey Cortana turn up the volume.....would you like me to search for that?
Turn up the f****** volume....turning up the volume

 

[Fishrrman]

amegicfox wrote:
"Apple should partner with Intel and release a Intel NUC skull Canyon that runs OS X so at least we can have a much better replacement for the mini
apple will discontinue the mini very soon and we'll be left with nothing"

This is a little off-topic, but since you mentioned it...
I actually suggested the same strategy some months ago in the Mini sub-forum.

I don't really have any problem with Apple working with LG for the latter to produce a display designed to work with the new Thunderbolt3 spec on the new MacBook Pros.

The only "miss" here is -- they should have had LG do a run of plastic/base parts to match Apple's brushed aluminum and gray finishes. Surely easy to do at the manufacturing end, probably wouldn't even have raised the price. Then they'd be a "better match" on the desk sitting next to one of the new MacBooks.

And if Apple really isn't interested in doing the R&D work for a new Mini, they should work with Intel in a similar manner. Let Intel furnish Apple with pre-built NUC (Skull Canyon or perhaps the next generation). Easy enough to modify the case to suit Apple's specs. Perhaps a slightly modified motherboard to comply with Apple's requirements.

Then... ship these to Apple for "finishing off" -- install the OS*, quality-check, package, and off to the Apple Stores, etc.
(* Perhaps the units could ship "drive-less", and Apple would install the SSD with MacOS pre-installed)
Of course, it would be necessary for Apple to modify the MacOS slightly to comply with Intel hardware (wifi, etc.). But for a company with Apple's engineering resources, this would be trivial.

This would give Apple a product to sell to suit the "Mini enthusiast" computing crowd, with minimal investment and probably a very good rate of return insofar as revenue is concerned.