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Apple to Halt Mac Pro Sales in Europe Effective March 1 Over Regulatory Requirements

sseaton1971 said:
Stop worrying... This "ban" has nothing to do with what Apple will decide to do.
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Yes, I realise this... But it feels a bit ominous to me. It's coming to something when Apple are so slow to release updated hardware that the current hardware has to be removed from sale due to breaching safety regulations. That can't be good. I mean, how difficult is it to redesign a tower computer? Apple business is designing and manufacturing computer hardware after all. It's almost as if they can't really be bothered. That's my worry.

Based on your "I need..." list, I think you should just buy one of the Mac Pros that are currently for sale. This will take you several more years into the future, and then you will have time to see what Apple does regarding the Mac Pro.
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It's definitely an option. But I'd prefer newer processors if I'm plonking down a lot of cash on a new machine. And I know I'll find Thunderbolt very useful moving forward. There would be no way to add Thunderbolt to the existing M.P. even if you did have a spare PCIe slot.

By far the best scenario for most pros would be that Apple develop a new Mac Pro without f*&king it up by taking half the pro features off it. It's surely better to include expansion options and find some users don't need them than try to second guess what pro users don't need and lose sales as a result. The Mac Pro is Apple's super-powered swiss army knife for professional users - it doesn't warrant the same stripped-down design and price point as their other Macs.

Hey... d'ya think this will force Apple to announce the "new Mac Pro" (if there is one) by the end of February?... So, if they're going to dramatically change the features, people like me can still get the old one before they disappear from sale?
 
Ubele said:
I think you answered your own question: companies that update their desktop lines every 12-18 months are barely profitable, whereas the company that doesn't update its pro line every 12-18 month is the most profitable company on earth. :D
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:)

Joking aside, I know where most of Apple's profits are coming from today: iPad and iPhone.

Still, I don't see how a company with 137bn in the bank can't use just 100-250 million (that pays for a lot lot of engineers and R&D) to keep its Mac software (iWork and so on) and its Pro line updated.

It would be money well spent. Look how much money they now spend - I would argue squander - on dividends for AAPL shareholders. Under CEO Steve Jobs AAPL never paid a dividend and it didn't hurt.
 
Shagrat said:
and you should be sorry.

iToys are fun, and "THAT'S ALL THEY ARE..."

you really have no idea do you.

Look at the figures here

even assuming these figures may not be entirely accurate ( I can't say for sure)

They claim:-

The iPhone generates more profit than GE, for example (all of GE). It generates more profit than Microsoft. It generates more profit than Google and Walmart. It generates almost as much profit as Exxon-Mobil!

If even approximately true, it rather makes your comment look like the nonsense it clearly is.

If you have a product that sells in those sort of quantities, and generates that amount of profit, as has been said in these forums many a time...

"Glad you aren't in charge of Apple"

If you had your way, Apple would now be the size of Dell, or even smaller.

Sorry, I would love a nice new MacPro, but I'd rather we had a strong Apple, than no Apple at all, which is probably what we'd have if you had your way.
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I usually don't respond to comments like this - but do you seriously think delegating a few designers to make a new Mac Pro would kill Apple?

Honestly... tell me that with a straight face.
 
Ubele said:
I think you answered your own question: companies that update their desktop lines every 12-18 months are barely profitable, whereas the company that doesn't update its pro line every 12-18 month is the most profitable company on earth. :D
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The update frequency is not as important as doing rigid and/or non-focused product update strategies. Those companies primary problem is that they update products with widely different growth rates at that same refresh rates. So if there is some shrinking sub-segment that gets as much R&D resources as a segment that is growing.

That shotgun approach works when there are more growing than shrinking sub-segments and there is little self inflicted cannibalization at the edges of the sub-segments. Update everything and something will stick to the wall and be a high growth winner to cover the losses on the losers sank money into.

Apple tends to prune off the shrinking sub-segments and reallocate more resources to those that have better match to the subset of customers they are targeting. As desktops plateaued Apple expanded the number of laptop subsegments and effectively shrank the desktop/non-mobile ones. That have still bet on desktop/non-mobile segments that are moving up; All-in-one.

The overall workstation market, not just Mac Pro, has been largely comatose over the 2008 recession and the following recovery.
 
spyguy10709 said:
I usually don't respond to comments like this - but do you seriously think delegating a few designers to make a new Mac Pro would kill Apple?

Honestly... tell me that with a straight face.
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Exactly, I don't have the exact figure, but I argued above that spending just 100 million/year would be more than enough to keep all of the outdated software (iWork...) and HW (MacPro...) updated in a timely fashion, eg. a major update every 12 months.


The interest on the 137 bn Apple has in the bank would be more than enough to cover the 100 million USD in expenses.

I would also argue revenue for MacPro and Apple software would increase and thus make up for increased R&D and personnel costs.
 
It has to do with a new European market ruling. That desktops computers have to have a sticker warning of ''electrical shock hazards do not open while on''
Steve Jobs said ''no sticker ever''.
At least thats what I would suspect if Steve was still here:rolleyes:
 
Shagrat said:
Sorry, I would love a nice new MacPro, but I'd rather we had a strong Apple, than no Apple at all, which is probably what we'd have if you had your way.
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What does the sale of iPhones have to do with apples inability to update a Mac Pro. And PS apples shiny itoys are not selling that great hence the stock price dropping from an all time high of $705.07 to the 52 week low of 457.

You are the perfect example of someone who misses the point. Why do we have to give up a Mac Pro because it doesn't sell as well as an iPhone. Thats just plain stupid. They are 2 different market segments.

There is no excuse for not continuing the mac pro. There has been no R&D or case change on the pro for years keeping profits high. And a very large pro market not only needs one but wants one.

There is a built in market for a mac pro.

Get your head out of apples A**.
 
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deconstruct60 said:
The overall workstation market, not just Mac Pro, has been largely comatose over the 2008 recession and the following recovery.
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My business will be comatose soon if we don't get a new Mac Pro. :rolleyes:

Some of us have businesses that are completely centered on our Mac Pros, and not having a new one is starting to hold us back. We really like the Mac Pro and OS X, and if we're forced to change to a Windows box we'll end up unhappy, soon, and possibly for the rest of our lives.

I might go and breed dogs instead or something.
 
popelife said:
Yes, I realise this... But it feels a bit ominous to me. It's coming to something when Apple are so slow to release updated hardware that the current hardware has to be removed from sale due to breaching safety regulations. That can't be good. I mean, how difficult is it to redesign a tower computer? Apple business is designing and manufacturing computer hardware after all. It's almost as if they can't really be bothered. That's my worry.



It's definitely an option. But I'd prefer newer processors if I'm plonking down a lot of cash on a new machine. And I know I'll find Thunderbolt very useful moving forward. There would be no way to add Thunderbolt to the existing M.P. even if you did have a spare PCIe slot.

By far the best scenario for most pros would be that Apple develop a new Mac Pro without f*&king it up by taking half the pro features off it. It's surely better to include expansion options and find some users don't need them than try to second guess what pro users don't need and lose sales as a result. The Mac Pro is Apple's super-powered swiss army knife for professional users - it doesn't warrant the same stripped-down design and price point as their other Macs.

Hey... d'ya think this will force Apple to announce the "new Mac Pro" (if there is one) by the end of February?... So, if they're going to dramatically change the features, people like me can still get the old one before they disappear from sale?
Click to expand...

spyguy10709 said:
I usually don't respond to comments like this - but do you seriously think delegating a few designers to make a new Mac Pro would kill Apple?

Honestly... tell me that with a straight face.
Click to expand...

Love these points.

For those out there who don't actually know. Apple's business revolves around designing and manufacturing and selling and supporting computers. It's what it did since it first started, so to imply in any way shape or form that Apple are incapable of designing a product to comply with regulations, something it has done for years and years and years, is frankly, very stupid, even if half it's work force makes iPads and iPhones, i'm sure it can spare some of the other thousands and thousands and thousands of engineers etc to make a new Pro!

Or perhaps Jonny Ive is Apple's ONLY designer and he hasn't got the time to make a new Pro?:rolleyes:
 
Spacedust said:
I hate European Union - these idiots will ban everything ! People are clever enough not to put fingers inside working fans.

They want to block plush teddy bears to children because they got bacteria inside...
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I was at a company once where at some point we needed to move some tables in a room. We were not allowed to do that ourselves. Instead we had to phone some special table-movers to do it for us.

This was in the US. Never occured to me before. I live in the EU.

Oh, and all these "manuals" that contain all sort of silly warnings about how not to use your equipment... that did not happen in the EU first either, because it is not (yet) that likely that a company in the EU gets sued for the consequences of the users own dumb behavior.

There are stupid rules everywhere. If you start hating every country that has them, I am afraid that you'll have a hard time finding a nice place to live.
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
A company sitting on over $130B in cash and who just posted record year-over-year sales and profits (over $13B) should be ashamed of themselves for not updating their flagship product. You can't tell me that Apple hasn't made a conscious decision to let this product die. Apple is such a large company and they can't update the Mac Pro to current industry specs for over two years? Something doesn't sound right...
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you assume that the Mac Pro is their flagship product...
 
You know it is funny reading people complain about EU regulation, because they kind of have forgotten it's partly in thanks to the American suing culture that has spread across Europe, as to why you have these regulations. Because it helps stop you suing the crap out of your company because you had an accident at work moving a table...

Ever seen those TV adverts?

No doubt it is a nanny state, but modern human culture will sue the crap out of anyone they can if it means big pay offs... just look at America.
 
JAT said:
That's what a flagship product is, the top niche, not the top seller. In most people's minds.
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No, a flagship product is what a company is most identified with, or is chiefly responsible for it's success. I don't think the Mac Pro qualifies in either case.
 
JAT said:
That's what a flagship product is, the top niche, not the top seller. In most people's minds.
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A flagship is the ship that the Admiral is on. It isn't necessarily the biggest one ( guns/units , size , displacement ) . Nor is it necessarily the smallest one. It is a ship that carries some strategic importance as to which way the whole fleet is going. [ if the Admiral is on a ship heading West and the others are all heading East it not likely East is of higher strategic importance ... ]

The Mac Pro is not indicative of where Macs are generally going. It is not the Mac product that had the executive teams primary focus. It doesn't have lead indicating technology.

Over the last couple of years the 13" MBA and recently the retina MBP revisions are the 'flagship'. That is the direction Apple is going with Macs overall. That makes them the 'flagship'.

Frankly the core count and GHz push at all costs that is the primary foundation of the Mac Pro isn't where things in generally are going in tech. It is far more system on a chip integration that is influencing the overall landscape.

The there is role to play, but going back to naval metaphor, it is similar to the role of big battleships after WWII not the flag ship. It is a class that is being superceded by new classes of products.
 
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yg17 said:
If you stick your finger into a spinning fan, you:

a) Deserve whatever injury you get
b) Are going to do more damage to the fan than your finger
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Put an auto switch on the side panel lift the lever and it shuts itself down, only injury then would be if you drop it on your foot.
 
bilbo--baggins said:
I assume the schedule for these regulations would have been announced some time ago. It makes it even more ridiculous that Apple didn't launch a redesigned Mac Pro in 2012. I was all set to buy one.
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From the link someone posted earlier :

The First Amendment of IEC 60950-1 Second Edition was published in December 2009. UL and CSA followed with their own amendment in December 2011.


That is quite a bit of notice.
 
puckhead193 said:
why do I have a feeling this will push the new mac pro back even further to meet these new standards...
when will apple release Final Cut XI for iPad? :rolleyes:
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RIP MP

I do hope iam wrong but i think this is the end of any thing that will resemble the MP as we know it now.
 
badNameErr said:
Spectacular way to drop the ball Apple. Your MacPro replacement/update can't come soon enough.
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Well, if you are going to use sports analogies, Apple didn't drop the ball, it punted. Big difference. It would be silly to spend $ to retrofit and recertify a product that will likely be EOL'd by June anyway.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Well, if you are going to use sports analogies, Apple didn't drop the ball, it punted. Big difference. It would be silly to spend $ to retrofit and recertify a product that will likely be EOL'd by June anyway.
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I doubt the new MacPro (or whatever the replacement will be called) will be out in June. Cook said "later in 2013", sounds like end of 2013 to me.

Of course, Apple shouldn't retrofit the aging machine, but the question is why they wait for 36 months to update the MacPro line.
 
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