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It doesn't look like Apple is interested in making Displays anymore...

A

animatedude

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 27, 2010
1,143
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i know this will sound weird but did you notice when Phil Schiller introduced the new Mac Pro he said something like "and of course you want to use them with third party monitors, it support 3 4K Displays"

it's like yeah....we will not be making new Displays anymore...at least this is how i saw it.

after they stopped making docks for iPhones i wouldn't be surprised if Apple stopped making displays too as they are much expensive than other displays in the market and they don't represent much of their sales...
 
Your assumption may be accurate. However, another perspective is that they'll release the monitor when they finalize the details regarding the Mac Pro! :cool:
 
I'm pretty certain they are just waiting for thunderbolt 2 so they can come out with a retina display.

Besides from a business and more specifically a marketing perspective it is a given for Apple to make their own displays. Few computer products are as visible as a 27" display. The value in having your logo on such a product is huge. And for Apple being a design company the value is even greater.
 
Semester said:
I'm pretty certain they are just waiting for thunderbolt 2 so they can come out with a retina display.

Besides from a business and more specifically a marketing perspective it is a given for Apple to make their own displays. Few computer products are as visible as a 27" display. The value in having your logo on such a product is huge. And for Apple being a design company the value is even greater.
Click to expand...

Would this mean, then, that no current MBP or MBA could drive the next ATD?
 
chaseychasem said:
Would this mean, then, that no current MBP or MBA could drive the next ATD?
Click to expand...

No, Thunderbolt 2 is backwards compatible so it would probably work. But if we're talking about a 27" retina display the resolution would have to be scaled down if a current MBA is driving it.
 
animatedude said:
i know this will sound weird but did you notice when Phil Schiller introduced the new Mac Pro he said something like "and of course you want to use them with third party monitors, it support 3 4K Displays"

it's like yeah....we will not be making new Displays anymore...at least this is how i saw it.

after they stopped making docks for iPhones i wouldn't be surprised if Apple stopped making displays too as they are much expensive than other displays in the market and they don't represent much of their sales...
Click to expand...

Of Phil could be just assuming that most customers will probably go for a third party display; end of the day it'll be interesting to see what the sales figures are like for displays and whether there is enough money in it and whether it is worth the effort for Apple to deliver something with enough differentiation to get people to buy it over the competition. Maybe they're planning for something big, Retina displays along with the Mac Pro and Final Cut Pro X release as well - turn it into a giant media event targeting creative pro's - something that is separate from the launch of consumer products. Given the amount of groaning there is in regards to Adobe's "cloud, cloud or cloud" selection of choices offered to consumers it will be interesting to see whether some dissatisfied customers will return.

Side Note: you know what would be awesome; Apple buying out Pixelmator and Hype and really get them up to feature parity with what Adobe has to offer but at the rock bottom prices that they're being offered today.
 
chaseychasem said:
Would this mean, then, that no current MBP or MBA could drive the next ATD?
Click to expand...

not if its 4k resolution. thunderbolt 1 doesnt provide enough bandwidth. however maybe they will do some resolution down scaling that will surely look like a toasted crap patty.
 
Disagree.
Apple's displays *are* its Tunderbolt strategy.
You see "pros" bitching about losing FireWire, wired networking, ect.
Guess what you get when you buy an Apple display?
FireWire, wired networking, ect.
 
Giuly said:
Even if there was a 4K Thunderbolt Display, you can't connect it to any Mac as 4K requires Thunderbolt 2.
Click to expand...

I would expect the entire Mac lineup to be updated to Thunderbolt 2 once it and new models are released.

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pposthoorn said:
This article points in the other direction:
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/10/apple-posts-27-retina-imac-sized-os-x-mavericks-background/
Click to expand...

And also hints that we won't get a new TBD until Thunderbolt 2 is officially released. There's no reason to release a new TBD only to see the Thunderbolt feature passed by just a couple of months later, so expect it to be delayed until Thunderbolt 2 is released.

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animatedude said:
i know this will sound weird but did you notice when Phil Schiller introduced the new Mac Pro he said something like "and of course you want to use them with third party monitors, it support 3 4K Displays"

it's like yeah....we will not be making new Displays anymore...at least this is how i saw it.

after they stopped making docks for iPhones i wouldn't be surprised if Apple stopped making displays too as they are much expensive than other displays in the market and they don't represent much of their sales...
Click to expand...

No. The new Thunderbolt Display will take Thunderbolt 2, which will do 4K, they're just waiting until Thunderbolt 2 is ready for release to bring out the updated Thunderbolt Display. Thunderbolt 2 is on target for a Fall release right now. (But since Intel is also working on it don't be shocked if it is delayed)

Also, when they say 'third party' while referencing the Mac Pro, understand that a huge demographic of the Mac Pro users are professionals who use all sorts of third party products to edit video and photographs, music, etc. Those third party peripherals range from external hard drives to external video cards to external docks to external displays. And how do you think those third party peripherals are going to hook up to the new Mac Pro? With Thunderbolt 2.

Apple didn't help create the Thunderbolt interface, and then double it's speeds (in version 2) only to stop using it. The new Mac Pro has 6 Thunderbolt 2 input/outputs, and each can daisy chain up to 6 other Thunderbolt 2 devices. That means a stock Mac Pro can use up to 36 Thunderbolt 2 devices. That doesn't sound like Apple is giving up on Thunderbolt 2 and the Thunderbolt Display. They've already leaked a desktop wallpaper at 4K resolution.

So don't get down, I just wouldn't expect a new Thunderbolt Display until Thunderbolt 2 is released, which again, looks like the Fall at the earliest. And I would expect all new Mac products/revisions starting around the Fall to include Thunderbolt 2.

----------
chaseychasem said:
Would this mean, then, that no current MBP or MBA could drive the next ATD?
Click to expand...

I don't think current MBP or MBA or mini's or iMacs/anything with Thunderbolt 1 will be able to drive a Thunderbolt 2 4K display. Maybe they will have some GPU upscaling chip built into the Thunderbolt 2 4K display since it already has a ton of chips inside, it's like it's own computer anyway. But I wouldn't cross my fingers on that.

Here's an interesting article on the tear down of a Thunderbolt Display by iFixit and the 13 different chips inside.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple+Thunderbolt+Display+Teardown/6525/1?singlePage
 
Based on the wallpaper they released which is exactly 4x the pixels of the iMac 27" display I think it is very likely we will see both updated Thunderbolt and iMac 27" Retina displays.

Otherwise providing that background in such huge dimensions makes no sense. It is more than 3820x2400 which is "true" 4K. It is exactly 5120x2880 which is exactly 4x the amount of pixels of the current 2560x1440 27" - This is no coincidence.

Logically if they weren't going to release a retina 27" they would have used either 2880x1800 to match the 15" Retina display or 2560x1440 for the iMac or 3820x2400 for just a generic 4K res. But 5120x2880? That indicates a 27" retina display is in the pipeline.
 
cocacolakid said:
H.265 is a video codec (software) it has nothing to do with hardware.
Click to expand...

Oops: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070308_001806.html

Good luck decoding your 4k h.265 stream with your software only solution. I don't understand what you guys aren't getting. Just take an Apple TV that is built to playback/decode h.265, and separate 4k television. Tape them together, and you have a 4K Apple TV display.

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Quu said:
Logically if they weren't going to release a retina 27" they would have used either 2880x1800 to match the 15" Retina display or 2560x1440 for the iMac or 3820x2400 for just a generic 4K res. But 5120x2880? That indicates a 27" retina display is in the pipeline.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. I think it would be obvious for Apple to release a 4K display, but this sounds like it's going to be 5K. That's nuts. I think I'd rather them scale it down to 4k, but the wallpaper tells me otherwise.

And then there's this: "5120×2880 pixel wallpaper images are not new to Mavericks. In fact, Apple has used them as far back as 2011, probably just for future-proofing purposes." so who knows...

Source: http://9to5mac.com/2013/06/11/we-mi...-4k-displays-this-year-from-apple-make-sense/
 
Last edited:
don't forget when full hd 1080p was in top...the imac and thunderbolt displays had 1440p....so always willl have a bit more than the iconic display resolution. so i think the 21.5 iMac will have 4K and the 27" will have 1-2 more resolutions
 
portishead said:
Oops: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070308_001806.html

Good luck decoding your 4k h.265 stream with your software only solution. I don't understand what you guys aren't getting. Just take an Apple TV that is built to playback/decode h.265, and separate 4k television. Tape them together, and you have a 4K Apple TV display.
Click to expand...

So now you're arguing against yourself?

H.265 is a video codec. It is for playing videos. Macs/PCs/ even Apple TV's do more than just play video. H.265 does nothing for displaying a GUI, a desktop image, apps, browsers, or anything that isn't a video. Period. Even the link you posted, which is from 2007 about H.264, says Apple was adding that to play videos. Not to run the GUI or apps, which it is incapable of.
 
cocacolakid said:
So now you're arguing against yourself?

H.265 is a video codec. It is for playing videos. Macs/PCs/ even Apple TV's do more than just play video. H.265 does nothing for displaying a GUI, a desktop image, apps, browsers, or anything that isn't a video. Period. Even the link you posted, which is from 2007 about H.264, says Apple was adding that to play videos. Not to run the GUI or apps, which it is incapable of.
Click to expand...

I'm well aware what a codec is. I was simply pointing out in my ORIGINAL post that Apple would have HARDWARE support for h.265. A decoding chip, much like they've used in the past with h.264. That's it man. How are you going to display a 4k image with no hardware? You think Apple can just enable software support of h.265 on the current Apple TV and it will work? Apple needs to BOTH enable h.265 codec support, AND build hardware to decode/display it. It's not hard to understand. Here's some further research for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Hardware-based_encoding_and_decoding
 
animatedude said:
i know this will sound weird but did you notice when Phil Schiller introduced the new Mac Pro he said something like "and of course you want to use them with third party monitors, it support 3 4K Displays"

it's like yeah....we will not be making new Displays anymore...at least this is how i saw it.

after they stopped making docks for iPhones i wouldn't be surprised if Apple stopped making displays too as they are much expensive than other displays in the market and they don't represent much of their sales...
Click to expand...

This is not how I saw it at all. Apple aren't stupid. They know the majority of the pros who use the Mac Pro don't actually use Apple displays. I worked for an AASP in the GTA that services high end pro users (photographers, design shops, print shops, newspapers, magazines, film studios, developers) and of the hundreds of professional Mac Pro (and before that PowerMac) setups I've seen, very, very few actually use Apple's displays (NEC anyone?).

I have no doubt 27" iMacs and TCDs with Retina are on the way.
 
Quu said:
Based on the wallpaper they released which is exactly 4x the pixels of the iMac 27" display I think it is very likely we will see both updated Thunderbolt and iMac 27" Retina displays.

Otherwise providing that background in such huge dimensions makes no sense. It is more than 3820x2400 which is "true" 4K. It is exactly 5120x2880 which is exactly 4x the amount of pixels of the current 2560x1440 27" - This is no coincidence.

Logically if they weren't going to release a retina 27" they would have used either 2880x1800 to match the 15" Retina display or 2560x1440 for the iMac or 3820x2400 for just a generic 4K res. But 5120x2880? That indicates a 27" retina display is in the pipeline.
Click to expand...

It really doesn't-a mean diddly squat. DisplayPort 1.2 has a bandwidth of 17.28 Gbit/s, barely sufficient to display 3840×2160×30 bpp @ 60Hz (unless you outsmart or redefine the DisplayPort specifications).
 
Giuly said:
It really doesn't-a mean diddly squat. DisplayPort 1.2 has a bandwidth of 17.28 Gbit/s, barely sufficient to display 3840×2160×30 bpp @ 60Hz (unless you outsmart or redefine the DisplayPort specifications).
Click to expand...

This is Apple we are talking about. To make the original 30" Cinema Display they used DVI-Dual Link, it doubled bandwidth and they were to my knowledge the first to ship a Dual-Link equipped graphics card, the NVIDIA 6800 Ultra.

And Apple has already said that the new Mac Pro will be able to output to 4K displays. If you've not noticed, it only has Thunderbolt ports. Apple claims it can run up to three 4K displays simultaneously.

Do a little research next time.
 
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