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

[honeycombz]

We may see the Apple car before we see the new Mac pro.

By the way, where are all those people who complained that we the "pros" were complaining too much?

They are all busy working with their touchbars. Prosers.

 

[mi7chy]

"Can't innovate anymore, my ass."
Phil Schiller at 2013 Mac Pro 'trash can' release

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

I'm going to be so pissed if they remove the Touch Bar. Way to ruin other people's workflows, MR members.

I'm sure those people will still manage to find a way to add emoji content.

 

[sir1963nz]

Interesting read about the feedback on the new MacBook pros and people buying the previous model.

Whenever they ship the new Mac Pro , looking forward to it

HATE HATE HATE HATE the new Keyboard. The only keyboard that I have used that is worse was the one on the Sinclair ZX80.

I will NEVER own a machine with that Keyboard.

I have already started to shift to Linux/Android, gave away my ATV3 and put a Kodi box in its place, converted an old 2009 Mac mini to Linux to run DipTrace on.

I went through the years when Apple lost its way, this time there is no Steve to come back and rescue what is left.

 

[ActionableMango]

Images of the prototype Modular Mac have already been leaked:

 

[2013.1]

2019? Then the Mac Pro 4,1 could be my first machine that works ten years.
Except the next Mac Pro comes earlier or the iMac gets a non glossy version

 

[zombierunner]

Just license Mac OS to other PC manufacturers. Apple isn't making enough money from Mac hardware especially iMacs & Mac Pros. People would happily pay for Mac OS on their windows desktop machines especially since it is updated annually for free.

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

It's like the Hunger Games when Apple post the 2015 MBP on their refurb site. They sell out very quickly.

That's because people are stupid.

 

[Rocketman]

Third on the list is Mac Pro. Now, Mac Pro is actually a small percentage of our CPUs — just a single digit percent. However, we don’t look at it that way.

The way we look at it is that there is an ecosystem here that is related. So there might be a single digit percentage of pros who use a Mac Pro; there’s that 15 percent base that use Pro software frequently, and 30 percent who use it casually, and that these are related. These are not distinct little silos. There’s a connection between all of this.

So we are talking ~6% of overall Mac sales. Why not have a non cosmetic centric/design solution like a trashcan with a box attached?

And if we’ve had a pause in upgrades and updates on that, we’re sorry for that, what happened with the Mac Pro, and we’re going to come out with something great to replace it. And that’s our intention. We care about our Pro users who use MacBook Pros, who use iMacs and who use Mac Pros, who use modular systems as well as all-in-one systems, who use the pro software we make. It’s all important to us and we’re invested in that and we see a long future with that stuff.

 

[4jasontv]

Feel free to voice criticism, I'm just tired of hearing about the MP and MBP in articles that have nothing to do with that.

Are you complaining about complaining in a thread that is the correct thread to complain about the issue you are complaining about? Since this story is about Apple responding to the issues people have with the Mac Pro, it seems relivant to mention that one thing we have taken issue with is the years between updates. The Mac Pro has the update cycle of a game console.

 

[pleonber]

Is this real life? So many mac pro rumours, it's got to be heaven, right?

Good stuff

Don't worry... They'll spend the next year trying to figure out whether corners should be rounded or sharp. What color the Apple logo will be... You know... The important stuff.

They should just license OSX to Dell so they can give us the Machine we really want; which they would have ready within six months I'm sure.

 

[nfl46]

That's because people are stupid.

What do you mean? Because they want the 2015 over the 2016?

 

[iReality85]

Apple needs to 'come back home' to the prosumer, professional crowd. This crowd is what catapulted them into the mainstream in the first place. Once that prosumer appeal turned into mainstream consumer appeal, it seems Apple never maintained their niche products in ways that attracted prosumers to them in the first place.

- Upgradable Mac Pro.

- End to end product similarity, like the Mac Mini being hooked up to an Apple Display, not some asymmetric, ugly, out of place 3rd party monitor.

- Taking away functional features like the function row on the 'Pro' laptops when no one really asked for it.

- Worse battery life at the expense of thinness with their laptops.

- Using lesser DDR3 due to thinness and reduced battery size in their laptops, when DDR4 has been out and has been the norm now for years (DDR5 is coming next year). Also, more RAM capacity.

- Or for that matter, not updating products like the Mac Pro or Mac Mini for years.

I'm glad the appropriate people at the top at Apple are waking up and realizing that there's other customers out there besides those who want phones, tablets, and laptops.

 

[RickInHouston]

Welcome news. Please lose the soldering iron.

And glue gun.

 

[Defthand]

Here’s a thought. The sales of hardware to professional users is chump change to Apple, evidently. Otherwise, Apple would not have ignored those customers’ interests as they did. Instead of designing (the guts) and manufacturing the hardware themselves, Apple should license the OS and their name to a qualified PC builder, much like they did with the PowerMacs, and like they did with the LG display. That way, Apple can focus on their cash cows. Later, if Apple wants to abandon MacOS for iOS exclusively, they can make MacOS open source.

 

[sir1963nz]

"Can't innovate anymore, my ass."
Phil Schiller at 2013 Mac Pro 'trash can' release

And what they came up with is a port-a-potty which they have effectively abandoned

 

[Pentium]

another question: they were not planning to update the Pro but negativity pushed them to?

 

[ktecac]

Guys! It worked!!!

 

[Defthand]

By the way, where are all those people who complained that we the "pros" were complaining too much?

They’re listening to Drake while they download new stickers.

 

[KPOM]

Not surprised at all. We (the customer) aren't as "courageous" with buying a multiple thousand dollar machine that has no practicality.

??? The MacBook Pro is pretty practical. I wonder how much of the negativity could have been avoided if they provided a dock in the box that included a USB-A port and Thunderbolt 2. TB3/USB-C are clearly the future.

 

[DaveP]

What about that "pipeline" Mr. Cook has yapping all the time? The pipeline must be filled with dung.

It's filled with iWatch bands.

 

[ikir]

Reseller can't keep up with new MacBook Pro orders and it has been the most preorders Mac.... pretty sad to read the opposite just for making news.

 

[KPOM]

Apple needs to 'come back home' to the prosumer, profession crowd. This crowd is what catapaulted them into the mainstream in the first place. Once that prosumer appeal turned into mainstream consumer appeal, it seems Apple never maintained their niche products in ways that attracted prosumers to them in the first place.

- upgradable Mac Pro.
- end to end product similarity, like the Mac Mini being hooked up to an Apple Display, not some asymmetric, ugly, out of place 3rd party monitor.
- taking away functional features like the function row on the 'Pro' laptops when no one really asked for it.
- worse battery life at the expense of thinness with their laptops.
- using lesser DDR3 due to thinness and thus battery size in their laptops, when DDR4 has been out and has been the norm now for years.
- or for that matter, simply not updating products like the Mac Pro or Mac Mini for years.

I'm glad the appropriate people at the top at Apple are waking up and realizing that there's other customers out there besides those who want phones, iPads, and laptops.

DDR 4 is by no means the norm on notebooks. As for the function keys, Apple could allow an option in software to keep the Fn keys active and I would not be surprised if they do that rather than release new models without the touch bar. I like the convenience of the touch bar.

 

[Naraxus]

"Ahead of Apple's announcement, Holwerda says the Mac Pro was in limbo, and Apple wasn't sure what was going to happen to the machine."

Do we need any further proof of Apple's (read:Cook) complete contempt for it's former pro-user base? Constantly shoving new watch bands doesn't help professionals. Eliminating the ports needed for professional work doesn't help professionals. Putting gimmicks like a touch bar on a Mac Book doesn't help professionals. Making gimmicky thermal envelopes at the expense of power & expansion doesn't help the pro user base.

Fortunately most professionals are moving on to Windows pc's after the finger Apple's been giving them the past 5 years.

 

[gertruded]

The fact that they just started updating the Mac Pro is really proof that they really had abandoned their pro customers. It remains to be seen if they really do come up with a new model. Two years is a long time for everyone to forget. Any Hackentosh builder could tell them just what to put in a new machine right now.

It also remains to be seen if they really do follow through with the update their iMacs or Mini. A business decision apparently really had been made to abandon the Mac line.