'Constant Negativity' From Pro Users Led Apple to Develop Modular Mac Pro, Which May Not Ship Until 2019

[MH01]

2 years? Are you kidding me? I could have one built next week if there were proper drivers for pascal out. We don't need "new modular designs". They just need to grab any decent PC motherboard, ,install OS X, and put it in a serviceable case. Done. How do I know this? I'm typing on one!!! I just wish I didn't have to boot into windows to use my 1080.

Ooooo... Maybe their new one can move the power plug to the underside of the case so you can't plug it in while using it!

And there lies the issue. Apple is too damn lazy to even upgrade to pascal..... if they cannot support driver, it might take them 2-4 years to make a new Mac Pro. Mind you took a few years to resolve BT issues on my Mac Pro....yet again....those impossible drivers.....getting them to work with thier own BT KB and mouse..... I just bought wired and gave up anyway.

 

[borgusio]

Exactly. More than great for average users like me. But the real power users need more, and Apple needs to provide it. Hopefully this means they will (again), because providing for high-end graphic/video/business pros is a huge part of what made them great.
Catering solely to average users like me makes us happy - but makes Apple no better than Dell or Gateway (ugh) in the end
[doublepost=1491543305][/doublepost]

Yep. Guys like you are the market and users that made Apple great in the late 90s, and distinguished Apple from Dell, Gateway, and all the other PC cookie-cutters.
I'm praying that Apple recovers that ethos. For the sake of the Pro users like you, and for their own sake.

This highlights the amazing beauty of Sj's macs pipeline:
One MacBook for guys like you. One MacBook Pro for guys like me. Sometimes guys like you would buy the more expensive version and sometimes guys like me would buy the cheaper one.

Now Apple had the brilliant idea to sell you more of my machine and by doing so they messed up the entire sense of Apple lean product pipeline set by jobs almost 20 years ago.

The troubles they had with the products' name continuos changes show clearly the lack of clarity they have on their desks.

 

[Theophil1971]

This highlights the amazing beauty of Sj's macs pipeline:
One MacBook for guys like you. One MacBook Pro for guys like me. Sometimes guys like you would buy the more expensive version and sometimes guys like me would buy the cheaper one.

Now Apple had the brilliant idea to sell you more of my machine and by doing so they messed up the entire sense of Apple lean product pipeline set by jobs almost 20 years ago.

The troubles they had with the products' name continuos changes show clearly the lack of clarity they have on their desks.

Ya. Steve had the form/function balance more intuitively in place. I feel like in the Cook era, they've struggled a bit to find that balance. They've rightly trusted Jony Ive with much, but the result has ended up favoring form over function.
I think it's a simple matter of fine tuning that balance now, to get back on track. I'm encouraged today that they seem to be doing this.
It's the balance between true Pro-functionality and utterly brilliant design that has made Apple unique. I don't think it's lost with Steve's loss. Just needed some time to find its center again.

 

[ventricle]

I’m going to have to skip all 18 pages of comments and add my outrage at the risk of repeating what others said.

@Apple: Get off your exquisite-design high horse and come up with a clobbered-together solution before the end of This Year. The more you think/tinker and invest on the next MP the more you risk coming up with a dud. Buy stuff, spray paint it with Kool Aid and start pre-selling it once you can estimate a delivery date. At today’s interest rates, given that many have not added to your MP revenue because of poor product offerings, you’d be surprised at the scramble to get into the queue. As it is you haven’t seen my MP business since the 4,1 because the wimpy 5,1 upgrade made me hold off until I had to get it second hand.

Then come up with your over-designed mMP at your convenience. I’d be happy to make the interim solution a backup system and get the pretty box, so you’d see two sales instead of one. You’ll make less on the interim unit because you’d probably have to make less margin on purchased components whose price can’t be concealed by clever machinations, but consider that like a mea culpa of sorts.

 

[Ries]

Within the last 24 hours, the direction of Apple has changed... and I like it.

Apple is "rumored" to be listening. Don't be surprised if the next Mac Mini is a mini trash can and the new Mac Pro is a smaller version with laptop CPU's.

 

[MH01]

Not really. Most people think their incessant whining constitutes "feedback".

While Incessant arrogance with focus on profits constituted "best MacBook peo" we have ever made....Highest ever preorders etc etc....

Not just "people" who are delusional , it's a group effort here

 

[ventricle]

Apple is "rumored" to be listening. Don't be surprised if the next Mac Mini is a mini trash can and the new Mac Pro is a smaller version with laptop CPU's.

The cylinder (I’m being nice now) would be a great Mac Mini, if they could figure out how to do that. But I’d still prefer the original form because I could stack it with a fitting-just-so, third party device for extra storage and ports.

 

[neversink]

Glad Apple is listening.
Soldering everything is a huge mistake.

It"s a huge mistake for the end user, but not for those guys at Apple who love planned obsolescence!

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Plus, you can be a pro without being an a**, so drop the attitude.
.

And a person can be a pro and an a** with an attitude, why give Apple a free pass?

 

[Lone Deranger]

'Constant negativity'... sounds rather petulant.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Ya. Steve had the form/function balance more intuitively in place. I feel like in the Cook era, they've struggled a bit to find that balance. They've rightly trusted Jony Ive with much, but the result has ended up favoring form over function.
I think it's a simple matter of fine tuning that balance now, to get back on track. I'm encouraged today that they seem to be doing this.
It's the balance between true Pro-functionality and utterly brilliant design that has made Apple unique. I don't think it's lost with Steve's loss. Just needed some time to find its center again.

While Ive's design skills are without question brilliant, Should he really have the last say when it comes down to computer hardware? I'm guessing he isn't a guy who in the past purchased a sound card and then struggled to to get low latency drivers installed....

 

[atropos]

LOL..... Constant negativity, finally they noticed we still here~

 

[skellener]

They could simply redo the inside of the classic Mac Pro (cheese-grater) towers they sold for over a decade with faster chips, faster bus, lots or room for the fastest RAM, multiple graphics slots with multiple graphics card options (w/Nvidia chips), multiple solid state slots for fast terabytes of storage, and all the fastest I/O ports on the back and front and make Pro's very happy. Plenty of room in that old case. No batteries to deal with. It shouldn't take two years to figure this out. It's a box. Make it fast. Sell it.

 

[apolloa]

I’m going to have to skip all 18 pages of comments and add my outrage at the risk of repeating what others said.

@Apple: Get off your exquisite-design high horse and come up with a clobbered-together solution before the end of This Year. The more you think/tinker and invest on the next MP the more you risk coming up with a dud. Buy stuff, spray paint it with Kool Aid and start pre-selling it once you can estimate a delivery date. At today’s interest rates, given that many have not added to your MP revenue because of poor product offerings, you’d be surprised at the scramble to get into the queue. As it is you haven’t seen my MP business since the 4,1 because the wimpy 5,1 upgrade made me hold off until I had to get it second hand.

Then come up with your over-designed mMP at your convenience. I’d be happy to make the interim solution a backup system and get the pretty box, so you’d see two sales instead of one. You’ll make less on the interim unit because you’d probably have to make less margin on purchased components whose price can’t be concealed by clever machinations, but consider that like a mea culpa of sorts.

I'm beginning to think this rumoured high end new iMac with Xeon processor IS Apples interim solution for the Pro market, AMD their MacBook Pro which people say is better at editing then the trash can Mac Pro!!

 

[atropos]

They could simply redo the inside of the classic Mac Pro (cheese-grater) towers they sold for over a decade with faster chips, faster bus, lots or room for the fastest RAM, multiple graphics slots with multiple graphics card options (w/Nvidia chips), multiple solid state slots for fast terabytes of storage, and all the fastest I/O ports on the back and front and make Pro's very happy. Plenty of room in that old case. No batteries to deal with. It shouldn't take two years to figure this out. It's a box. Make it fast. Sell it.

Yea, thats how Apple did years ago(why the f they forget how they did) . I m totally cool with the tower design, as long as its easy to access, and its what the Pro user needed.

 

[BeamWalker]

I hope the original article wasn't written on April 1st. There is all in all too much good news in it. As a modern day Apple user I'm not used to that.

 

[AndyJapan]

A headless iMac would be great, but would compete with the iMac and cannibalize it. Therefore, I think that Apple will never launch a headless Mac desktop. For this reason, Apple will also not make the Mac Mini powerful enough to be considered as an alternative to an iMac (minus display).

Hoping for a headless iMac aka Mac.

While I own an iPhone 6S and iPad Air, the Mac product offering was never fully meeting my expectations and kept me using Windows and MacOS in parallel.

Mac Mini: I bought the 2012 model when the 2014 model came out and upgraded RAM by myself. Mainly using it as home theater computer.
iMac: I don't like the all-in-one concept. No buy.
Mac Pro: I am not a pro-user. Hence, it's overkill and way too expensive (for a non-upgradeable machine).
MacBook Pro: I was ready to buy a MBP last year, but was disappointed by the latest iteration of the MBP (keyboard, USB-C, TouchBar, lack of user-upgradeability and overpriced RAM and SSD upgrades). No buy. Still using my Windows 10 notebook.
MacBook: I don't like the keyboard and would like to have more CPU/GPU power.

 

[kk1ro]

I'm sure it's been said before, but I think most tech sites are misinterpreting the "modular" aspect of the new Mac Pro.

What Schiller and Federighi meant by introducing a new "modular" Mac Pro is a desktop where the processing unit and screen are separate (unlike the iMac). Under that definition, the Mac Pro has always been a "modular desktop".

I think most tech sites are presenting it as "Apple's gonna release a new Mac Pro where you can swap in/out components as you please". I don't believe that's gonna happen. Also, if you read the transcript, they mention that the redesign will make it easier for them (as in Apple) to keep it updated with new hardware (as in selling a new version each year with updated CPUs/GPUs), not for users to upgrade it on their own.

It's possible that we'll get a redesigned Mac Pro in 2018, but I believe it'll lack the "user upgradability" that the pre-2013 Mac Pros had.

 

[Applebot1]

The way I look at it, least Apple want to correct their bad decision making.

For those threatening to leave iOS development have to remember iOS is by far the most lucrative platform to make money compared to Android. If the current Mac hardware is adequate enough to develop for iOS and is used just to develop is there a need to upgrade at this moment in time anyway?

For video editing/development pro users its obvious that conventional PC's is the way forward anyway. Apple have lost this segment long time ago.

Will be interesting to see how far Apple go with re-designs..heres hoping for a more conventional approach in terms of having the ability to upgrade which i think we all miss.

 

[Three141]

Good on Apple, the Mac news this week is welcomed and for the Pro users I'm really glad they're at least giving you guys some good news, the Mac Pro should of always been user upgradeable.

It will be interesting to see what is happening with the Mac Mini also but all in all, good steps forward.

 

[AndyJapan]

The inability to upgrade current Macs in combination with horrendous upgrade prices for RAM or SSDs are alienating many customers (incl. me) as there is no justification to ask roughly twice the price for standard components such as RAM or SSD modules. Apple is pushing the envelope with their upselling strategy, but might have pushed it too far for many customers (especially when you are looking at the hardware of the current Mac desktop line).

[...]

Will be interesting to see how far Apple go with re-designs..heres hoping for a more conventional approach in terms of having the ability to upgrade which i think we all miss.

 

[zen]

2019? What the hell are Apple doing? They have virtually unlimited funds and are the most capable tech company on the planet. They should have new machines out next WEEK, not in 2 years.

 

[nofear1az]

Yeah I don't get why they don't just go back to the cheese grader in the interim. How hard can it really be to update that? It wasn't great looking but show me an easily upgradable PC that looks great. Leave looking great to the consumer line. I want something functional with and easily repairable / upgradable with the following two things soldered to the motherboard: Jack Sh** !!!

Because Apple prefers to over-design everything they do otherwise (in their thinking) they would be just like HP or Dell. Totally unnecessary to go through a rigorous design mojo just to be different for the sake of the bragging rights of being different. Hence the predicament they are in now with the MacPro.

 

[brentsg]

Agreed! Intel's inability to produce more powerful CPU's was a factor but not the main issue. The GPU was the real issue here, the dual GPU's never were really leveraged in most pro software. This is were a single more powerful GPU is needed and Apple hit the thermal issues with it.

But, this gets into what the design parameters where with the original design of the '13 MP and what people are doing today. 4k, 5k or even 8k video was not even being thought of yet back in 2013. Today we are working with RED cameras doing 4k and NHK (http://www.nhk.or.jp/8k/index_e.html) are teasing us with 8k! This is were the Mac Pro comes up short.

Even so, there really wasn't a significant GPU upgrade out there until Pascal and the MP was roughly 3 years old by then, form factor aside.

 

[flottenheimer]

To double down on professionals does not rhyme well with keeping them in a hardware limbo for years and years.

I simply do not understand how Apple could be surprised by this. Apple must have know for at least a year that the current MacPro would need to be replaced with something completely different, since the design didn't scale.

In that light, end of 2017 for new MacPro hardware is an insult. Later than that (2018... or even 2019...), I see no other option for hardware demanding professionals than to leave MacOS and the dated+overpriced hardware it runs on. What a shame Apple.

The professional Apple hardware market will continue to decline, unrecoverably.
And the fault is largely Apples. Bad management.