Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

Well this proves they had Zero intentions of ever updating it..It also proves that iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches are their bread and butter. Macs have definitely taken a back seat.


Remember when Phil said "Our online store has had more orders for the new MacBook Pro than any other pro notebook before." Now were hearing a different story lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: Demo Kit, Queen6, arkitect and 5 others
PinkyMacGodess said:
I remember the rumors about Apple pushing everyone onto a total iOS standard. I sure hope that died the rightful death it richly deserved. There are so many things that iOS just can't even come close to accomplishing. Heck, the only reason the Surface has a chance is because it's not a closed box, and their OS isn't a hobbled mess of restrictions and limits.

The iPad Pro should have had slots, more ability to expand. Should have...
Click to expand...

Oh, absolutely. I have the 12.9 iPad Pro which was paid for by a local agency to support my freelance business. A grant, in other words which I was lucky to get. And I do agree that iOS has limitations to start with. Although my iPad Pro is used for the sole purpose of building out visuals, storyboards, concepts, and some times illustration work using the Pencil.

But having a slot would have been very handy to keep the machine's life span longer and get more usage out of it.

What I find ironic is that Nintendo's new Switch console is a clever hybrid, not too different than the Surface, and since it's using the old school approach of cartridges with compressed data with games that go for approximately 25 or 30 GB ( shockingly impressive ).

But here's the kicker. The Nintendo Switch has a storage card slot that can go up to. . . .get this. . .2 TB.

Yes, 2 Terabytes. A small console in tablet form with two controllers for $299 with the graphical capacity of between PS-3 and X-Box One via the Nvidia chip. I've seen the Switch in person and was stunned to see how Zelda played out. It's that good.

And the iPad doesn't, all the while Apple pretends to get into the gaming business with a fixed storage capacity and requirement to download. How sickening is that?

Can you imagine having to download a 25 GB game?!? It would take hours. An eternity. But a cartridge format would be instantaneous. This is why I admire Nintendo for this line of thinking. Brilliant move.

There is NO way. NO way in hell can the iPad compete with the Switch.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Demo Kit and indognito
What was really wrong with the Mac Pro from before? Nothing!! Pro users that want this are not looking for glamorous enclosures. Just utilitarian. The software and OS should shine in this case (no pun intended), not the hardware. Hardware could be a trash can (oh no), but it has to be utilitarian. My employer just gave me a HP Z840 work station. It is easy to take apart and upgrade and it is built well. It runs windows and that is its only drawback. Otherwise, it is basically an unassuming tower. It is a power house because it has two 8 core xeons, 128GB of RAM (yes 128 GB), 500GB SSD (it has 3 empty bays), and a Nvidia M5000 video card with 4 display ports and 1 DVI ports on it. If someone can make this run Mac OS X, it would be sweet. May be that is what apple should do. License Mac OS X to a select few vendors to load onto their tower workstations - May be Xeon only. Have a stipulation such that they don't cannibalize the iMac, Mac Mini, and laptop markets.
[doublepost=1491572706][/doublepost]
TomA said:
It was too heavy though...
Click to expand...

Why do you care? No one moves desktops around. If you need to move it around all the time, then get a laptop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tech4all, Rustus Maximus, gorskiegangsta and 2 others
MikeFromTexas said:
This "awakening" at Apple may already be too late. People/business/technology moves on. Not sure how realistic it is for Apple to say "wait a year or two we will figure something out and it will be way cool!"
Click to expand...

This will be very hard for people to believe what they say and frankly, this could lead to a major corporate shakedown or change up in the executive board. For Apple to get its collective a$$ moving, heads will have to roll.

Starting at the top with 'you know who'.
 
Wow, I'm almost optimistic.

Amazing how far out of touch they were - pro's had been griping for years. Apple clearly was living in their own reality distortion field if they were surprised that the touch bar was widely derided as a gimmick, and the machines overpriced and underpowered. I was afraid that those issued would get hidden under the USB-C dongle problem, but maybe they didn't.

Wonder if they'll shake the sand from their ears and give us a headphone jack back too.

It's possible that this is an intentional 'we heard you' series of leaks to prevent more folks from jumping ship. I hope that's the case. One things for sure - they have one more try. If the MBP's this fall don't materialize, are grossly overpriced versus the competition, or are another meh upgrade, or worse if apple is petulant and puts desktop chips and ram into it with 3 hour battery life, it's game over for the Mac and power users (note, I don't say 'pros' anymore).

Sooner is better - the new pro and mini need to be crash projects, accelerated for a fall release or spring 2017 at the latest. MBP's and iMacs must happen this fall.

Some hopeful thoughts:

iMac - user upgradable/replaceable storage. It's the one component that has a clear lifespan and having to replace one overpriced apple storage option with another overpriced apple storage option of the same size is very annoying.

pro - rack mountable, user upgradable storage, ram, cpu and video. Fair market price.

monitor - meh, don't waste the resources. there's plenty of good screens on the market now

mini - just do it already - and make the storage user upgradable.

macbook pro - ditch the touch bar. make the touch pad pen-enabled with real resolution (apple pencil resolution doesn't cut it). 32GB of ram. reasonably priced storage options (or better yet, aftermarket upgradable), MagSafe dedicated power port. TOP end nVidia mobile graphics (AMD if you must). I'm mixed on restoring the HDMI port, and OK on sticking with USB-c instead of A. REAL keyboard back is a must. I do my happy dance if the screen folds back and is pen enabled so I can ebay my Cintiq, but I'm not holding my breath that much.

Ok Apple, balls' in your court. Give us a series of options for power users.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Demo Kit, mbonness and jwdsail
Pilgrim1099 said:
?

Can you imagine having to download a 25 GB game?!? It would take hours. An eternity. But a cartridge format would be instantaneous. This is why I admire Nintendo for this line of thinking. Brilliant move.

There is NO way. NO way in hell can the iPad compete with the Switch.
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

Cartridge format has its advantages, for sure. But it would not take an "eternity" to download a 25 GB game on an iPad, if such a thng were to exist. After all, an iPad Pro isn't too far behind PCs at this point, and there are plenty of Steam games that size and though it might take an hour or so, it isn't "forever". The point still stands that the limited internal storage isn't great for 25 GB games though :). But you could reasonably expect the iPad to get to 512 GB before long (if Apple can buy that Flash unit!) and then it would be just fine for huge games in terms of capacity. And USB disk support is essentially a switch flip away if it ever became absolutely vital.
 
One more thing…

A quick solution would be for someone at Apple to look at TonyMac, spec the most powerful Hackintosh, dust off some Mac tower concept designs, and tweak OSX a bit. Et voila! Pros are happy/happier and the whole thing's out in time for Tim's WWDC "One more thing". THEN the R&D guys can spend a bit more time getting the next MacPro specced out, fettled and prototyped.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jwdsail
TMRJIJ said:
I'm going to be so pissed if they remove the Touch Bar. Way to ruin other people's workflows, MR members.
Click to expand...

I fully expect you'll still be able to buy a MBP with the touch bar with similar features and performance as today. These sound like new models for people who *aren't* happy with the meh performance of the models from last year.
[doublepost=1491573017][/doublepost]
lostczech said:
Not surprised at all. We (the customer) aren't as "courageous" with buying a multiple thousand dollar machine that has no practicality.
Click to expand...

Yep, I was responsible for more than a few of those orders.
 
I remember the time when Apple designed a brand new iPod and released it to manufacturing in just 9 months. I know that a Mac is more complex than an iPod, but that was a brand new design and miniaturization is harder. What they need to do with a desktop computer is to design to a reference standard and tweak the heck out of the OS to be efficient on it. Nothing more. Sometimes things don't have to be over engineered just for the sake of over engineering. Taking two more years to come to market is unacceptable. This just shows that Apple is more about layers of management in fighting than about clear directions and having a capable engineering group to get **** done!
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeffreyg
I hope this isn't what they have in mind...

modular-mac-pro.jpg
 
MallardDuck said:
Wow, I'm almost optimistic.

iMac - user upgradable/replaceable storage. It's the one component that has a clear lifespan and having to replace one overpriced apple storage option with another overpriced apple storage option of the same size is very annoying.
.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but I've solved this problem since the 2011 iMac by just using external Thunderbolt storage. You can stash the disk in such a way you can't even see it from the front. I don't see Apple engineering an easily opened iMac case just so people can swap the SSD when they're putting external PCI ports that are excellent for just that (not to mention USB 3).
 

Cartridge format has its advantages, for sure. But it would not take an "eternity" to download a 25 GB game on an iPad, if such a thng were to exist. After all, an iPad Pro isn't too far behind PCs at this point, and there are plenty of Steam games that size and though it might take an hour or so, it isn't "forever". The point still stands that the limited internal storage isn't great for 25 GB games though :). But you could reasonably expect the iPad to get to 512 GB before long (if Apple can buy that Flash unit!) and then it would be just fine for huge games in terms of capacity. And USB disk support is essentially a switch flip away if it ever became absolutely vital.[/QUOTE]


That's true. Most iPad games I've seen have topped off close to 5 GB (the most I've seen I think) and I use DSL for my internet at home since Cable internet is a bit too expensive. I took me almost 2-3 hours to download a full iOS reboot for the new version to work. Lately, I now use the OTA updates which is faster which I just discovered.

So realistically, many consumers, I would think, have access to Wi-Fi which is DSL or Cable, speed wise. Cartridges would cost more, of course, but it would be more stable to load it up and get to playing.

I'm sure the iOS products will get to 512 GB storage but I'm afraid of how much that device would cost were it ever to reach that capacity point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Michaelgtrusa
Its not just the hardware.. Mac OS X also needs a pro orientated make over. For Audio at least, the past 3 or 4 versions of OS X have sucked.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sonic and arkitect
Asarien said:
2019. Christ.

This essentially proves Ive and Co. haven't even been designing successors to the Mac Pro in the background, over the past four years.
Click to expand...
yes, except for the fact that this is just another BS rumor and not proof of anything at all. minor detail, right?
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect
bommai said:
Why do you care? No one moves desktops around. If you need to move it around all the time, then get a laptop.
Click to expand...

It certainly is a minor point, but:

1. It was a pain to move it even when you wanted to upgrade something. (It actually scratched my desktop.)
2. There was no good reason for it to be so heavy. The weight "added" no benefit to the user.
3. It was actually more expensive and less "green" to make it that way.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect
JamieLannister said:
What about that "pipeline" Mr. Cook has yapping all the time? The pipeline must be filled with dung.
Click to expand...
funny how you people like to ignore all the past products that were new products that were in the pipeline. AirPods, 7, new MBP, Watch 2, all were once in the pipeline. but you keep acting as if nothing ever gets released.
 
Well I was one of those who bought the 2015 MacBook Pro after they released the touchbar MacBook Pro. Just couldn't see myself paying extra for features that I did not need, and the thiness also did not really draw me in.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jwdsail and ventricle
I see all this as somewhat encouraging, but make no mistake:

We WILL be disappointed with what Apple puts out.

They've never given us what we ask for, and they NEVER will.

What we can count on is on something that is almost there, but has some kind of BS compromise some of us will have to get over.

Apple will do as it always does: Work out a feature-upgrade roadmap and intentionally leave features out of the device so that you upgrade to next years' model as they trickle out these omitted features.

I hope I'm wrong and, as any long-time Apple enthusiast, I'm an EXPERT at both hoping and waiting.

But temper expectations, folks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kiwikat88, ventricle and TomA
Speak and be heard!

Seeing the rest of you complain inspired me to do the same. Now, we've shown Apple how important the Mac is. Hell, this website may have singlehandedly saved the Mac Pro. Kudos to all of us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back