Mac Pros - Mac Users?
I had made much the very same point on my on blog... two years ago.
"The galling point for us Design Pros, and I am talking about Publishing, Photography, Graphics and Web Design, is that Apple has tossed us to the curb YEARS ago to the tender mercies of Adobe. Go into an Apple store and good luck finding any serious pro gear, such as an tabloid size (11″ x 17″) printer or press quality scanner. Not for the likes of us. And weve been crying for a mid-range Mac for frakkin ages. The majority of us would probably be quite comfortable with the performance range of the 27″ i7 iMac in an expandable tower configuration. The price gap between the i7 iMac nicely appointed and the Base Mac Pro and Display is enough to buy a decent laptop and the Adobe CS5 upgrade. Which I might mention is a non-trivial sum. Adobe enjoys a near monopoly in the must-have graphics applications that design pros use such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash and Actobat, and charge us accordingly. The further fact that Apple has done away with all non-glossy screens except for the BTO MacBookPro, shows their disdain for Design pros over oooohhh shiny, which does look spiffier in the Apple Store lighting." - Fantastic Realities Studio Blog - Mac-Pros? Mac Users?
And truthfully, even though I was recently forced to purchase a Mac Pro in November to run the Adobe Creative Suite upgrade, retiring my pampered and still perfectly functional G5 Tower, my needs would probably, in terms of pure performance, been adequately served by the high-end 27" iMac. I'd save some money, too. (F**ing scads, actually) Apple has been pushing the Macbook Pro and the i7 iMac as the "Pro" machines for "most of us" - to fill the "pro" niche of Steve's four part "Consumer, Pro and Desktop, Portable" strategy. And honestly, My three year old MBP will run Final Cut Express reasonably well, while my old G5 just sits there staring at the project and says, "maybe you want to go get a sandwich while I render this."
But I did want the RAM expandability, the slots, the extra drive bays, with two 1TB drives set up as a mirrored RAID array, and other expandability options. I honestly never know what the HELL my design clients are going to ask me to attempt next. So here I am.
It was funny in the Apple Store, when I strode up to the SINGLE Mac pro in the shop, the infantry level Apple minions FLED from me, and had to get a "Black Shirt" - some sort of Business specialist to assist me. To be fair, this guy was not a kid, and very polite and knowledgeable about printing and design issues. Was not a hipster pushing an iPhone at me. So points for that. Makes me an Apple "Business customer" Woot. So we're not dead just yet.
But I would put Intel's feet to the fire as much as Apple, as they only released the Xeon E5 Series Sandy Bridge processors in March... delayed over a year. So I hardly expected a new MP to appear swiftly following Intel's announcement. With Thunderbolt now appearing as a marquee feature on the entire rest of the line, I am pretty sure Apple would be loath to release a Mac Pro without it. And you can't put TB on a PCI card, as it is a processor/motherboard level protocol. But considering that the first releases of Ivy Bridge are for laptops and consumer desktops, it's obvious that Intel is not all that interested in workstations either, and is putting it's effort where it perceives it's marketand money to be.
Oh. Those of you waiting for Blu-Ray... dream on. NOT gonna happen. Apple is ALL IN for pure digital. Note the ending of optical media, boxed software and optical drives on the rest of the line. If Apple chooses to re-design the Pro case, the Optical Drive bays may be gone, and Firewire may be on the way out too.
I don't know what's going to happen with the Mac Pro, or Apples support for professional users of all types. But it's kind of strange to think that I may very now own what might be one of the last Mac Pros ever made.
I had made much the very same point on my on blog... two years ago.
"The galling point for us Design Pros, and I am talking about Publishing, Photography, Graphics and Web Design, is that Apple has tossed us to the curb YEARS ago to the tender mercies of Adobe. Go into an Apple store and good luck finding any serious pro gear, such as an tabloid size (11″ x 17″) printer or press quality scanner. Not for the likes of us. And weve been crying for a mid-range Mac for frakkin ages. The majority of us would probably be quite comfortable with the performance range of the 27″ i7 iMac in an expandable tower configuration. The price gap between the i7 iMac nicely appointed and the Base Mac Pro and Display is enough to buy a decent laptop and the Adobe CS5 upgrade. Which I might mention is a non-trivial sum. Adobe enjoys a near monopoly in the must-have graphics applications that design pros use such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash and Actobat, and charge us accordingly. The further fact that Apple has done away with all non-glossy screens except for the BTO MacBookPro, shows their disdain for Design pros over oooohhh shiny, which does look spiffier in the Apple Store lighting." - Fantastic Realities Studio Blog - Mac-Pros? Mac Users?
And truthfully, even though I was recently forced to purchase a Mac Pro in November to run the Adobe Creative Suite upgrade, retiring my pampered and still perfectly functional G5 Tower, my needs would probably, in terms of pure performance, been adequately served by the high-end 27" iMac. I'd save some money, too. (F**ing scads, actually) Apple has been pushing the Macbook Pro and the i7 iMac as the "Pro" machines for "most of us" - to fill the "pro" niche of Steve's four part "Consumer, Pro and Desktop, Portable" strategy. And honestly, My three year old MBP will run Final Cut Express reasonably well, while my old G5 just sits there staring at the project and says, "maybe you want to go get a sandwich while I render this."
But I did want the RAM expandability, the slots, the extra drive bays, with two 1TB drives set up as a mirrored RAID array, and other expandability options. I honestly never know what the HELL my design clients are going to ask me to attempt next. So here I am.
It was funny in the Apple Store, when I strode up to the SINGLE Mac pro in the shop, the infantry level Apple minions FLED from me, and had to get a "Black Shirt" - some sort of Business specialist to assist me. To be fair, this guy was not a kid, and very polite and knowledgeable about printing and design issues. Was not a hipster pushing an iPhone at me. So points for that. Makes me an Apple "Business customer" Woot. So we're not dead just yet.
But I would put Intel's feet to the fire as much as Apple, as they only released the Xeon E5 Series Sandy Bridge processors in March... delayed over a year. So I hardly expected a new MP to appear swiftly following Intel's announcement. With Thunderbolt now appearing as a marquee feature on the entire rest of the line, I am pretty sure Apple would be loath to release a Mac Pro without it. And you can't put TB on a PCI card, as it is a processor/motherboard level protocol. But considering that the first releases of Ivy Bridge are for laptops and consumer desktops, it's obvious that Intel is not all that interested in workstations either, and is putting it's effort where it perceives it's marketand money to be.
Oh. Those of you waiting for Blu-Ray... dream on. NOT gonna happen. Apple is ALL IN for pure digital. Note the ending of optical media, boxed software and optical drives on the rest of the line. If Apple chooses to re-design the Pro case, the Optical Drive bays may be gone, and Firewire may be on the way out too.
I don't know what's going to happen with the Mac Pro, or Apples support for professional users of all types. But it's kind of strange to think that I may very now own what might be one of the last Mac Pros ever made.
