Apple's Revamped Mac Pro to Launch in 2019

[avaX]

There was a time when Apple was a leader in industrial design with their computer towers starting with the B/W G3. Those computers stood out in the looks and features department while not sacrificing power and upgradability. Nowadays there are dozens of companies that make cool looking and servicable tower designs. Far flung case designs are no longer a commodity in the computer tower arena. Apple should stop focusing on some radical, never seen before design that compromises heat dissipation or capacity to upgrade, etc., etc. Apple engineers need to stop overthinking it, over designing it, that's just a waste of valuable time delaying the release of their new "pro" mac which I am anxiously awaiting to purchase, so long as they don't muck it up. There are plenty of other innovative and expandable and flexible and efficient and economical options out there to build your own computer, but they're still not real Apple computers. I hope they give us something that those demanding users such as myself will appreciate and actually want to purchase.

 

[buckwheet]

Cause and effect.

It was precisely because of all the outcry (right after the 2016 MBP reveal) that led Mac users to complain that Apple was abandoning the Pro market. I think that at one point, it got so bad that Apple had to come out publicly and announce that they were going to work on a new Mac Pro.

Of course, I'm very much aware of that, being a 2016 MBP owner myself! (And a Pro user of Apple gear for 20+ years.)

I think the whole issue goes back to Apple having a differing vision of what "Pro" entails from its user base. I believe that the iMac Pro had always been Apple's answer to the 2013 Mac Pro, but users simply wanted a tower PC which they could upgrade themselves.

Yes, that's an interesting theory (the iMac Pro one). Certainly it's true that Apple had a differing vision, but it also seems very clear (to me, at least) that that's what they're trying to correct. Do we "want" a tower? Probably. But they want to design something else, and I'm willing to at least see where that goes. If they actually bother to consult with the average Pro user (i.e., not just huge players in the world, with super deep pockets), they'll realize that they need to find a sweet spot between functionality and cost.

I am of the opinion that any Mac Pro device would not have sufficient sales to even cover costs of development.

Respectfully, I disagree. The Pro market is a big one, and the machines aren't cheap—don't forget that "pro" generally includes film, music, and developers... A big, broad market. So they will make money on it, for sure (or at least they certainly can make money). It may take some time, but they'll make money. But they have to come up with something that satisfies that market, and that's becoming a tall order—primarily because perceptions among Pro users are in such a terrible place... And honestly, a modular system that's easier/cheaper for them to keep up to date will help their bottom-line.

That's the issue. I don't think the new Mac Pro 2019 is going to be modular in the conventional sense. It's likely not going to have parts that are easily accessible or replaceable. Apple's idea of "modular" possibly means you can tack on additional accessories for added functionality, which again means spending more.

I agree that they're probably considering a multi-device modular approach. Personally, however, I don't consider that to be a mistake. Whether each device has some upgradability is the big question, for sure. I tend to agree that it seems unlikely they'll make that easy, but who knows; they could earn a lot of goodwill from the community by allowing it. So I'd say it's at least possible. But as I've said before, I don't consider towers to be the "perfect" design by a long-shot; they're just the commonplace one. And, unfortunately, "spending more" can't be the major consideration for the Pro market. Besides, a multi-device modular approach can be cheaper, in the short term, since you can buy just what you need.
Personally, I'd love for them to go back to the old 3-tier scheme they used to use, with a (generally under-spec'ed) entry-level, a (usually perfect) mid-level, and a (generally overpriced) top-level. The strategy used to be to buy the middle, and upgrade third-party. Now, I can certainly imagine them wanting to head-off the "upgrade third-party" aspect, but I don't think they're stupid enough to solder RAM/SSD into a Pro machine, after all the heat they've taken.

The iMac Pro has replaceable ram but it's very difficult to access and swap on your own. The Mac Pro may well have upgradable components; they just won't be very high on Apple's list of priorities.

Well, that may be true. But I'm not so sure... You have to understand; Apple clearly realizes, at this point, that they're in damage control mode with the Pro community. All of these little marketing spots we're seeing attest to this. So they're trying to do the right thing for us, to improve perceptions, and to get people back and/or keeping them on the platform. Keep in mind that the 2013 Mac Pro came out under the typical Apple veil of silence. Not so anymore. In the 20 years I've been using Apple gear I've never seen anything like this.

I think the main problem with trying to predict and optimise for user workflows is that sometimes you just end up betting on the wrong horses. Workflows can and will change over time. That was the whole problem behind the 2013 Mac Pro. Apple bet on dual-graphics card workflows, while the industry would ultimately consolidate around single, more powerful cards.

Well, perhaps... But the ML market, for example, is all about "the more the merrier", so who knows where GPUs will go. Broadly speaking, consulting with the Pro community is at least better than just designing stuff totally in-house, based on their experience (even considering that Apple does have a huge amount of experience in this stuff).

I sure hope Apple knows what they are doing, because it kinda sounds like they have learnt nothing from the 2013 Mac Pro debacle.

You see, I really don't understand why you'd say that. Everything they're doing, as far as anybody knows, is completely different to what preceded the 2013 Mac Pro. Even if that only means they're actually talking about it... Besides that, don't you think it's likely that the reason for talking about it—at least partly—is to gauge responses in the media... like our discussion here on MR?

 

[Michael Goff]

Apple uses the term 'pro user' to justify the price, its a scam !!

It must be nice to live in the future and know what the Mac Pro is.

 

[Niklas_nick]

Don’t agree that Apple wouldn’t put the arm chips on the Mac Pro because the arm “would be for more mobile, lightweight devices”.

I assume that at least in the beginning, Apple would couple arm and intel chips for computing power gains and an easier transition. If they want to transfer their system on arm chips, they also need to give developers computers with arm chips to have them adapt their software - so an intel + arm Mac Pro at least one year before the rumoured begin of mainly arm macs sounds fair enough.

Having these new chips in computers will also be expensive, at least at first, so it makes sense to put them in high-end machines first. The added power and higher end market targeting would be like with most hybrid cars nowadays.

My wild card would be a Mac Pro with one or two Xeon or i9 intel cpus and one or more A1M or similar Apple soc chips for Mac with several high-power and low power cores that can take on most basic functions of macOS.

Apple will also need to show they are still capable of building pro machines with impressive power which would be allowed by an intel + arm setup. Let’s say there’s one or two intel cpus with up to 18 cores each and several Apple soc with at least four low power four high power cores - getting all of this run together might explain why it takes Apple so long but it would also make for high potential.

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

why so long????

Probably because the Mac Pro team was, until recently, the iMac Pro team.

Apple only seems capable of working on 2-3 big things at once.

 

[EvilEvil]

It must be nice to live in the future and know what the Mac Pro is.

Prepare for disappointment.

 

[Michael Goff]

Prepare for disappointment.

Hard to be disappointed when you have low expectations.

 

[greenmeanie]

Sounds like the imac pro isn't selling so giving us some info in hopes some go buy it now.

 

[EvilEvil]

Hard to be disappointed when you have low expectations.

Low expectations with a large wallet?

 

[AdonisSMU]

Does anyone find the writing on Macrumors wordy and redundant? I could have written this article with half the words and twice the effect. Don’t know where the authors get their training, but unnecessary repetition and details are just more laborious to read than helpful or clear.

Agreed.
[doublepost=1523226722][/doublepost]

Probably because the Mac Pro team was, until recently, the iMac Pro team.

Apple only seems capable of working on 2-3 big things at once.

That sounds like they need a better organizational structure. It feels like there are a few people trying to manage way to many things.

 

[Michael Goff]

Low expectations with a large wallet?

I buy what I need when I need. That’s it. If it is trombone Apple, I buy from Apple. If Google has what I need, it’s Google that gets my money.

 

[theluggage]

Everything they're doing, as far as anybody knows, is completely different to what preceded the 2013 Mac Pro. Even if that only means they're actually talking about it...

Lets take a little trip down memory lane. It was the summer of 2012... it was either sunny or rainy. Someone was at the top of the charts with a song about something, and the world was probably coming to grips with the latest big political scandal. I expect one team had just won a ball game against another. Meanwhile, the Mac Pro had gone 2 years without an update and, although it had just finally got a rather underwhelming speed bump, it still lacked the thunderbolt Thunderbolt and USB 3 that had been already rolled out across the rest of the range... Mac pro users were not happy bunnies, and were hoping for a more substantial update:

https://www.macworld.com/article/1167247/cook_apple_planning_professional_mac_for_2013.html​

Users who rely on Apple’s Mac Pro system were disappointed when Monday’s raft of WWDC announcements didn’t include Apple’s tower Mac, but Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an email to an Apple customer that the company is working on “something really great” to address the professional market.​

Sounds like deja-vu all over again to me... True, this time they're emitting far more words, but the actual information content is about the same.

 

[Michael Goff]

Lets take a little trip down memory lane. It was the summer of 2012... it was either sunny or rainy. Someone was at the top of the charts with a song about something, and the world was probably coming to grips with the latest big political scandal. I expect one team had just won a ball game against another. Meanwhile, the Mac Pro had gone 2 years without an update and, although it had just finally got a rather underwhelming speed bump, it still lacked the thunderbolt Thunderbolt and USB 3 that had been already rolled out across the rest of the range... Mac pro users were not happy bunnies, and were hoping for a more substantial update:

https://www.macworld.com/article/1167247/cook_apple_planning_professional_mac_for_2013.html​

Users who rely on Apple’s Mac Pro system were disappointed when Monday’s raft of WWDC announcements didn’t include Apple’s tower Mac, but Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an email to an Apple customer that the company is working on “something really great” to address the professional market.​

Sounds like deja-vu all over again to me... True, this time they're emitting far more words, but the actual information content is about the same.

Oh my gosh. You’re right. They messed up in the past, so that means they’ll always mess up. They might as well give up.

 

[CLS727]

The new Mac Pro will have similar spec options to last years iMac Pro.

Anyone that wants an upgradable tower should be on Windows. Different types of customers.

Apple hasn’t shown any interest in that market in a decade.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

There was a time when Apple was a leader in industrial design with their computer towers starting with the B/W G3. Those computers stood out in the looks and features department while not sacrificing power and upgradability. Nowadays there are dozens of companies that make cool looking and servicable tower designs. Far flung case designs are no longer a commodity in the computer tower arena. Apple should stop focusing on some radical, never seen before design that compromises heat dissipation or capacity to upgrade, etc., etc. Apple engineers need to stop overthinking it, over designing it, that's just a waste of valuable time delaying the release of their new "pro" mac which I am anxiously awaiting to purchase, so long as they don't muck it up. There are plenty of other innovative and expandable and flexible and efficient and economical options out there to build your own computer, but they're still not real Apple computers. I hope they give us something that those demanding users such as myself will appreciate and actually want to purchase.

Oh, it goes MUCH farther back than the B&W. The Mac IIcx was a beautiful machine. A simple but beautiful rectangle, it could be a desktop or tower. It could be disassembled and reassembled with no tools. That design carried through to the Quadra 700. The Power Mac 8500 was also a great design, one button to remove the side, the power supply folded out out the way, easy upgrades, and it carried through to the early G3s. The trash can Mac "Pro" was a sick joke Apple played on us. We should have seen its replacement by 2015, and now they're dragging it out to 2019.

This isn't that hard, Apple. We don't really care that much what it looks like. It's going to be behind a wall of monitors, or locked up in a server closet. We care what it runs, we care how fast it is, we care how much RAM it has, and we care how much disk we can pack into it. We want slots for graphics cards, we want slots for fibre channel, we want slots for things that haven't been invented yet.

Do not screw this one up again, Apple.

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

Agreed.
[doublepost=1523226722][/doublepost]
That sounds like they need a better organizational structure. It feels like there are a few people trying to manage way to many things.

I think, from their perspective, that they want their best people to work on a variety of things.

But yeah, it seems like they need 3-4 "A" teams to do revamps, and at least that many "B" teams to handle spec bumps and port changes to existing designs.
[doublepost=1523245517][/doublepost]

Don’t agree that Apple wouldn’t put the arm chips on the Mac Pro because the arm “would be for more mobile, lightweight devices”.

Apple-produced ARM "security" chips are already in the new MacBook Pro and the iMac Pro. By making MacOS reliant on a part that Apple 100% controls the production and distribution of, they'll be able to hobble the Hackintosh community in a few years. Hopefully after they've addressed the flaws in their design strategies that caused that market to rapidly grow.

Remember that Apple knows, through collected metrics, what kinds of systems MacOS gets installed on. A sudden surge in "Um... We didn't build that..." configs about this time last year is likely what sent them into a panic in the first place.

 

[Wingsley]

I will be in the market for a new machine down the road, but Apple's poor handling of their "pro-grade" class machines is scary. If I wanted to go mobile, the MacBook Pro is so quirky. In fact, every pro-grade machine they make is that way.

In the past decade and a half, Apple repeatedly introduced and relentlessly hyped new technologies, only to abandon them a few years later. (SD card slot, USB 3, Thunderbolt 1 & 2, FireWire 400/800) I'm sorry to tell Apple this, but millions of Mac users still have tape-based FireWire camcorders or GoPros and SLRs that use SD cards or microSD cards, thumb drives, etc.

In 2016, when Apple introduced USB-C / Thunderbolt 3, I thought we would see a new Mac Pro based on the current one, stocked with at least 4 USB-A ports and 4 new USB-C/TB3 ports but it never happened. It's 2018 and they're still selling a mini-tower computer with a "pro" moniker with no USB-C/TB3. Really, how difficult would it have been for Apple to release an update to the current Mac Pro in 2016, with an updated logic board, and USB-C/TB3? If they were going to intro an all-new design in 2019 anyway, why not give the current design a refresh to tide "pro users" over for 3 years?

What is a "pro user", anyway? Is it some exclusive club you only get to join if you're an employee of a larger corporation that likes to spend lots of I.T. funds on your department?

I have a mixture of old and new video and audio equipment, and Apple's foot dragging simply made my computer purchase planning more difficult. Why ditch the 2013 Mac Pro design entirely? So it looks funny and people joke about it. It's a computer, not a conversation piece. Other manufacturers make funny looking equipment from time to time as well. No big deal.

I would like to move up from my iMac to a Mac Pro. But why all this mumbo jumbo?

I like the CURVED/labs concept art of what a new Mac Pro could look like. It's cool and it makes sense. But I actually like the idea of a trash can. If someone told me that by 1 June 2018, Apple was going to introduce a refreshed version of the trash can with USB-C/TB3 and new processors and logic board on par with what's in the new iMac Pro for less than the iMac Pro, I'd jump for joy and plan to save up my $$$ for one.

It's my understanding that the design and price for the current Mac Pro trash can are very attractive and you get server-class processors and other components. That means that the Mac Pro, while not the fastest machine out of Apple, is still a solid value. All it needed was an update to make it faster and with modern connections.

A tower has to be many things to many people. I don't know what Apple's definition of a "pro user" is, but that could be anyone from a science lab at a university, to a video/graphics production studio in the Very Big Corporation of America, to a private consulting firm, to a tiny mom 'n pop shop that needs a workstation for a variety of CAD, CAM, graphics or video needs. It could also be a variety of other needs that I haven't thought of in both larger organizations and small shops.

I also don't see why it's necessary for Apple to ignore other premium applications, such as gaming. There are millions of computer users who never look at Apple because Apple deliberately cut the Mac off from gaming and never bothered to leverage Apple's more recent success on iOS to lure iPhone, AppleTV and iPad users to grow the gaming market on the MacOS. People pay money for fancy machines and monitors for games on Windows, why not Macs?

If the new 2019 Mac Pro replacement is just a sealed-off headless $4,000 iMac Pro, then Apple just wasted everyone's time.

What I would want from an Apple 2019 Mac Pro:

The same trash can design as the current Mac Pro, but with the latest processors and logic board, on par with the iMac Pro, with user-replaceable RAM and SSD, and also at least 4 USB-C/TB3 ports (preferably 6 or 8) and at least 3 USB-A ports, and maybe a Thunderbolt 1/2 port and an Ethernet port for good measure. The new machine should be BTO with 0 GB RAM and 0 GB SSD on board; the customer should be able to buy and install his/her own RAM and SSD aftermarket, or choose from Apple's options.

If Apple wants to build and market another machine further up-market for really high-end businesses and organizations that are willing to pay $10,000 for one machine, they should manufacture and market a premium Mac Taj Mahal for those customers, separate from the Mac Pro.

At least that makes sense.

 

[loby]

Lets see if I have the gist of this thread so far
We were mad at Apple for making the Trash Can non upgradeable
We are mad and accused them of ignoring the Pro User base.
We are mad because Apple is highly successful and profitable with the iPhone
We are mad when Apple makes only quick sight spec improvements to Mac Pro .
We are mad that Apple is taking too long to make significant improvements to Mack Pro.
We are mad because Apple claims it is now listening even more to the Pro user community
We are mad and accuse Apple of this Pro user team being a PR ploy.
And if we are not mad about all of this and completely suspicious of everything Apple is doing, then we are apologists or fanboys
Did I miss anything ?

Yes...add this one...

We are mad at Apple because Steve Jobs died.

Reality distortion field at its highest level.

 

[buckwheet]

Users who rely on Apple’s Mac Pro system were disappointed when Monday’s raft of WWDC announcements didn’t include Apple’s tower Mac, but Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an email to an Apple customer that the company is working on “something really great” to address the professional market.​

Sounds like deja-vu all over again to me... True, this time they're emitting far more words, but the actual information content is about the same.

That simply isn't true. Tim Cook reciting a few extremely vague enticements in "an email" to "an Apple customer" is in no way comparable to what we're seeing lately. Concretely, the example the article gave of a window that was loading slowly and destroying a user's workflow was, I think, a perfect demonstration of the different kind of attention they're giving to product development. That stuff is tricky to catch, because an engineer working on code, without doing this stuff all day, would never realize what a huge issue it is. And, crucially, this kind of improvement has zero sex appeal and zero shine—things that Apple has prioritized pretty overtly in the past. It's boring as s***, but super important and essential for a good overall user experience.

Believe me, I get that people are pissed to discover they're going to have to wait another year. I felt pretty dismayed when I realized my current 2016 MBP was really the only viable option for me last year (after having already waited 2 years for a revision). But all this anxiety about how abandoned pro users are, and how Apple is lying to them, and all the rest, is just people stirring themselves up with paranoid conjecture—it isn't grounded in anything. True, Apple isn't telling us what they're actually going to release (and I don't really see why they should), but they are telling us a lot about the process, and making a pretty blatant effort to allay fears that the pro community has been forgotten.

I'll be happy to admit I was wrong if the release day comes and they just release another trashcan. But until then I'm going to listen to what they're saying, read between the lines where possible, and wait to see what they actually do. They have a lot of very smart people working on this stuff. For me to assume I know better is just ridiculous.

 

[dutchyonabike]

Well, this tears it... here's my reasoning. In 2017 they actually announced the trashcan was a dud and that users wanted an expandable, modular machine. THAT MEANS they knew this in mid 2015 most likely. I mean, pretty much 90% of their "pro users base knew this in... 2013 when the trashcan was released. 2 YEARS later, they had to know what so many knew 2 years EARLIER.

This isn't rocket science, designing a laptop with a built in screen like the iMacs is hard, to keep it as thin as possible, along with cooling it and keeping it silent (note how as the years rolled by, it got more and more totally closed?). Designing a box to hold replaceable parts? Sheesh, the cheesegrater does it VERY nicely. Take it, a bigger PS, options for NVME storage, RAM, updated firmware, can be much smaller, what's the problem? The COULD have done it, it COULD be on the market right now.

EXCEPT they have this uber expensive laptop with a big screen they obviously poured a lot of money into. This is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT all about nothing more than filthy lucre (MONEY$$$). That is the ONLY reason they are NOW telling us they lied last year and are not planning to bring such a machine to market until 2019. If EVER. When did Apple become Steve Ballmer?

Here is the final pisser... my 5,1 cheesegrater got fast storage via a PCI card with dial SSDs on it, a decent video card in a 980 by way of upgrades. With a single 6 core 3.3GHz Xeon CPU (my model), it's actually better than mid-range hardware to run M$ software. I know instinctively that 10.13 will likely be the last OS they will allow to run on this machine, 10.14 and forward will be made to insure it will NOT run on my machine (not to mention they flat out lied to us about supporting SSDs in HS for their new file system, and their promise to fix it was unfulfilled and now long forgotten). So fine, I don't think they can figure out a way to "change" Bootcamp to restrict it from running winblowz.

Gotta accept that this is the last Apple desktop I will ever own. My run of Apple desktops started in May 1984 and will most likely end when my beloved cheesegrater totally gives up the ghost.

100% agree. I bought my first PC last October, I can't wait forever for a Pro Mac...err...Mac Pro

 

[theluggage]

Oh my gosh. You’re right. They messed up in the past, so that means they’ll always mess up. They might as well give up.

There's no maybe about it - the USS Mess Up is already steaming through the Golden Gate: Its 2018, the only "modular" pro options is the 2013 nMP. They've just told us all (by proxy) that there won't be a replacement until some unspecified date in 2019, not to expect an announcement at WWDC 2018 and not to hold off buying iMac Pros (which - along with some of the generous discounts we've been seeing - suggests that maybe those aren't exactly flying off the shelves).

That simply isn't true. Tim Cook reciting a few extremely vague enticements in "an email" to "an Apple customer" is in no way comparable to what we're seeing lately.

You're right, it was quite different, because a year after that email Apple had given a detailed preview of the nMP and given a fairly precise idea of when it would be available, so it probably really was already "in the pipeline" at the time of the email.

This time round, a year on from the first mention of the proverbial modular Mac Pro and - when you trim away all the marketing speak verbiage - its still just "something really great in the pipeline".

 

[KevWind]

It's a message board for a very passionate user base, with mow many members? Thousands? Shouldn't be surprising.
[doublepost=1523197678][/doublepost]
Who is going to stop buying iMac?

Content creators?

Oh I know, I was just trying to inject some humor and note the irony


Ya given the iMac came out in 98 and sold right along with the tower for decades, the assertion seems to be contrary to history.

 

[iamtheonlyone4ever]

Apple is not like Microsoft that has large teams or departments on each part or product line of their company (like having companies within a company). Apple said they moved the team to focus on other things like the iphone, the new iMac Pro, probably the recent MacBook etc. therefore they left the Mac Pro outside in the cold after they found the thermo ceiling issue with the design. It probably required a major redesign, so they probably did not Have the time to do it and work on updating their other products.

WE had to accept it if we wanted to stay with Apple. The Mac Pro 2013 is a nice machine for what it does and I use it for video editing. I bought it two years ago and it was way over priced for the older technology in the can, (even at that time) before they reduce the price by $1,000 shortly after....but....it is a nice machine and does what I need it to do.

The good thing about it is that if they discontinue it in 2019, it should “by the book” not go obsolescent until 2025. That would make it the longest running Apple product not obsolete if memory serves me well. Not sure that would happen and hope to use it for another 7 years.
[doublepost=1523166200][/doublepost]

We should be happy about this, but it shows that Apple lost touch some on the needs of their customers. Again, I like the current Mac Pro if it was able to be updated, even if we could have Apple upgrade it for us, like upgrade the graphic cards and CPU, SSD etc. (I would pay), but overall it did not suit the majority of Pro users.

Now..Apple has to listen since they lost (it seems) a lot of pro customers if they want them back.

no disrespect but it seems you are making excuses for them, there is no justification, I understand Steve is gone, times change, we have to move on and involve no problem with none of that so far but the company main focus or roots was Mac OS or apple computers, I don't have any problem with iPhones, iPads, watches, pencils, etc but they do have time to make an "iMac Pro" also they refresh all the laptop line up but the real reason is that Tim hates desktops, and want to shove thin tablets down to people's throat, because he thinks that replaces a real computer, yes they are good devices and you can do many things with them but they will never replace a desktop computer for many reasons, the thermal issue that you mentioned can be fix easily, if they don't know how to make a Mac Pro in 2018 allow me to send apple a picture of my hackintosh, maybe they will get the idea, not only does it looks pretty with water cooling but the performance is off the chart, but I will like to have a real Mac Pro because a hackintosh will always be a hackintosh it doesn't matter how good or fast it is, but I can't buy something that look like a trash can that is totally outdated and apple wants a ridiculous amount of money for an ancient obsolete device
[doublepost=1523284602][/doublepost]here is the deal, apple don't care about the Mac Pro plain and simple , why? because they are not going to sale many of them, so they see that as a failure and a waste of time, they just don't want to make a few apple fans happy, they only care about making money, iPhone, iPads, etc. can't blame them for that either, but they can try to work some kind of strategy, if you know that the Mac Pro is going to cost too much money and it might not sales at much at you will like to, well execute plan B, drop the Pro and do exactly what you did with the iPad, you made it affordable in price, yes you gave out a few things but people understand that you did that in order to lower the price, so do the same thing for the Mac, make a none Pro version sell it for less and let's see how it goes, I'm sure that if they make a Mac Pro and put a reasonable price they will sell but the problem is the price tag in the Mac Pro, even if you justify the price by thinking or saying, some times is not that is over price but that is really what it cost, based on the internal hardware, but like a said the should make the experiment and make a none Pro version and I bet you the sales on the none Pro version will triple, quadruple, quintuple the Mac Pro version. well apple there is an idea for you, I won't sue you for using my idea, make a Mac STD and a Mac Pro, why does the Mac has to be PRO only when they have many different choices in all of the other devices, here is the answer for you, narrow thinking. can't wait for Tim to go.

some times a costumer likes an item and they want that item but they don't have the money to buy it
so they have to buy some thing similar that cost less
duh
you should now that by now apple
what do you expect, for them to sell their car or go to the bank an make a loan
so they can buy the new Mac Pro

 

[JazzyGB1]

However fantastic the new Mac Pro is or isn't is irrelevant if they get the price wrong.

The biggest mistake Apple can make on the next Mac Pro is the asking price IMO.
If they believe it's only Professionals who use 'pro' gear then they are delusional.
For every professional user out there, there are thousands of semi pro/enthusiast hobbyists - many of whom are the professionals of the future and if Apple price it too high they'll make it unobtainable to many who'd wish to buy one.

In 2004 : iMac $1299, Powerbook $1999, G5 tower $1499

In 2009 : iMac $1199, Macbook Pro $1199, Mac Pro $2499

in 2013 : iMac $1099, Macbook Pro $1699, Mac Pro (trashcan) $2999

So in the 9 years from 2004, to 2013 the iMac has become $200 cheaper, the MacBook Pro has become $300 cheaper but from the G5 to the trashcan the price effectively doubled!!!!

So price is a MASSIVE factor too and Apple will need an entry level Mac Pro starting from under $2000 for it to be a success IMO.

I use my 2009 Mac Pro for recording music using Logic & Pro Tools and I use all the internal hard drive bays, I've expanded the RAM, improved the graphics card to drive a 4k monitor, I've added an SSD via a PCIE card and I AM NOT a professional.

My point being people like me are an important part of the equation too and if Apple price me out their product because they believe only professionals buy them, they will be alienating a large part of their customer base and (more importantly) harming the user base in the future as often today's enthusiast is tomorrows professional.

Of course Apple should offer models for most demanding professional applications too and they can be priced accordingly, but if they target professionals alone with Mac Pro's starting at $2999 it will be doomed to fail regardless of how good it is.

 

[laurim]

You have zero idea what I need. What you call a niche need, I and many others call a PRO need. Maybe YOU don’t actually need a Pro machine so you shouldn’t worry about the MacPro design. If YOU don’t need to move it around you aren’t inconvenienced by separate modules. People with tight workplaces or wanting to rack mount the computer would LIKE to be able to put the modules where they make best use of the space and maximize the access to inputs and outputs. And when you have an issue, you only have to take one module in to be repaired instead of the entire computer. When you want to replace a part, like a graphics card, you’re only messing around with one module. There are many reasons having separate modules would be better than one big case.

Really, if you want desktop power that you need to carry along often and a laptop isn't going to cut it for you, that is a very small fringe use case. I would absolutely hate having to disconnect and reassemble a case of modules on a regular basis. It makes zero sense to compromise a powerful desktop design to make it fit in a bag more easily.

You can get pretty close to your dream scenario now anyway. A Macbook Pro with external video cards and SSD storage boxes is one way. All you lose is some CPU performance.

And what do you think of a powerful monolithic computer as I described on your desktop and a simple MBP to take with. iCloud is actually quite good at synching your working files at this point. Given what Apple lately charges for accessories and those external video card boxes, it's probably cheap to have the mac tower and MBP than a collection of proprietary modules.

[doublepost=1523290490][/doublepost]

...then what you want is surely called a "MacBook Pro". Or, more accurately, a 2018 technology version of the good old 17" MacBook Pro rather than the current thin'n'crispy MBP offerings.

Alternatively, by the time you've unplugged the excitingly contoured future modular Mac Pro CPU, the eGPU, the external storage array, etc. and carefully rolled up all the $50-a-shot Thunderbolt cables and packed them all into protective flight cases, you might as well have grabbed a cheesegrater with all of those gubbins already inside and slung it in the trunk of your car (unless you were planning to take a 27" display on a plane?)

I have taken my trash can MacPro to Berlin, Stockholm, Barcelona and a few cities in the USA. The local AV company provides the monitor or I use the tv in the hotel room while editing my designs. My work takes me all over and I challenge you to create and render a 20 minute movie that’s 8000x1080 on any laptop. Maybe one that’s just a bunch of stock clips in final cut but I’m talking about motiongraphics with particle systems, filters, motion blur, 3D objects, etc etc. and then the computer is used to display the movie via Millumin to huge LED walls in a big theater space in front of thousands live and thousands more on the webcast. If the computer chokes I look like an ass in front of thousands of people until we switch to the backup Mac.