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Steve Jobs - "Apple is a mobile company" - Desktops will go!?

richthomas said:
well the iMac uses notebook parts and is Apple's and Steve's baby so i dont think thats going anywhere! maybe the Mac Pro or XServe might diminish, but they are workstations for professional niches that i cant see going atm.
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the imac doesnt use that many mobile parts! i think it uses more desktop parts then it does mobile!

Techhie said:
I've always thought that the existence of the XServe was to show that Apple was trying to enter the enterprise workspace, but I'm guessing the sales have demonstrated that real IT managers are choosing companies that actually have a viable grip on the server market. If I were building a data center, I would go with the company that wasn't producing servers as a parlor stunt. :rolleyes:
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the xserve seems alright i guess. not sure as i havent used it , but i hope it complements osx server nicely.
 
leomac08 said:
SAMSUNG is a mobile company too.... look at them
but they make laptops, and furniture and washing machines....
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..and Nokia still make excellent rubber boots (one of their original products).
(edit: checked it up, the rubber boot production is actual sold to another finnish company, Berner, under the brand "Nokian footwear" - Sorry for the confusion)

I share the opinion with many others that the MacPro line is slowly walking into the sunset. So far it has probably been kept up by having high profile user groups in the music, graphics and film sectors.

From a marketing perspective it may beneficial not only to be associated with sleek, user friendly consumer products, but also being known for making high performing professional equipment for prominent users.

The car and motorcycle industry do not spend huge amounts of money each year in racing sports just for fun. A brand associated with successful high performing niche products may benefit a lot from that in their consumer lines as well.

However, this value probably decreases a lot when the consumer products all by themselves reach the position of being "the design to beat" by the competing companies. We may just hope that Apple still for some time see a value in keeping a high performing professional product line.
 
TheVidEditor said:
Let me paraphrase what Steve is trying to say; in a few years you'll have the power of Mac Pro in your pocket/carrying case. No more need for a 40 pound slab of metal.
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Excellent; everything will be soldered into one piece and the only way to upgrade is to buy a new machine altogether.
 
He just meant that the majority of their income comes from the mobile devices, I would not worry about it, he was just bragging about how theyre destroying the competition.
 
#1 market share

Doubtful anytime soon...With a hot selling, premium priced, fat margin product such as the iMac that's also a gateway to other things Mac once a user is on the OS X platform? ... doubtful
The iMac suite was the best-selling desktop in the U.S. in the December Quarter. The 21.5-incher was apparently the best of them all. In a Recession nonetheless. This could continue for multiple quarters.
 
DoFoT9 said:
If apple is losing money over the desktop line they won't hesitate to drop it, imo.
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Whats to say the desktop line isn't making money...

He only said those mobile devices are the top three sellers.

The company is making crap loads of money, and for all you know the desktops could be making 1% less than the lowest profit making mobile device.

It does not instantly mean 'oh my gawd!!! the worlds going to end for desktop users!!!'

Honestly.:rolleyes:
 
Desktops made up ~11% of Apple's revenue last year.
Desktops were ~30% of all Macs shipped and made up ~30% the Mac revenue.
Desktops made up ~11% of Apple's revenue last quarter (the first quarter of this year).
Desktops were ~37% of all Macs shipped and made up 38% of the Mac revenue.

Doesn't really say the end is nigh to me. While Apple's numbers aren't going to be as relative to the non-Apple segment, Workstations made up around 1% of desktops, notebooks and x86 severs sold during Apple's 2009 financial year. If that were Apple's ratio then Mac Pro's would be around 100,000 units. Considering the margin Apple have on the 2009 Mac Pros and where it fits in to the Apple ecosystem, I find it hard to believe that it will be getting discontinued any time soon. Even at 10,000 units that is a profitable enterprise.

I saw the Xserve mentioned earlier. Apple made that because they needed servers as did certain clients. They need the Mac Pro to design and build many of their own products on. It may not be updated often (as workstations aren't) and it may be expensive (as workstations are) but it has a place that nothing else currently can replace. The iMac is not an all out replacement just because it's high end processor beats the low end Mac Pro processor slightly.
 
Umbongo said:
Desktops made up ~11% of Apple's revenue last year.
Desktops were ~30% of all Macs shipped and made up ~30% the Mac revenue.
Desktops made up ~11% of Apple's revenue last quarter (the first quarter of this year).
Desktops were ~37% of all Macs shipped and made up 38% of the Mac revenue.
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Ahhh, there we go. They were the numbers I couldn't find before.
 
Where do you people come up with this stuff? Desktop going away? LMAO.

Apple sold 1,234,000 desktop computers in their last quarter and 2,128,000 portables. The desktops brought in $1,692,000,000 in revenue vs. portable revenue of $2,758,000,000.

Would you drop desktops that are bringing in somewhere north of $5 billion a year in revenue?
 
leomac08 said:
SAMSUNG is a mobile company too.... look at them

but they make laptops, and furniture and washing machines....

that would be cool of apple would make a washing machine with an OS X. haha:p
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Samsung make toasted seaweed, too: it's delicious with steamed rice.

Eventually, I believe the "Apple" will be a credit card sized device which connects wirelessly to a range of peripherals, making it a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop as you like. But that's obviously years away.

Before then, tablets and laptops will be so powerful that dedicated desktop machines will be redundant, but again that's a ways off.

Until then, desktops will continue to be plenty viable.

I think Jobs emphasised Apple as a mobile company in the context of that event.
 
TheVidEditor said:
Let me paraphrase what Steve is trying to say; in a few years you'll have the power of Mac Pro in your pocket/carrying case. No more need for a 40 pound slab of metal.
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Yes, but if the power of today's 40 pound slabs of metal is in the hand-held device, I want to know what will be in the 40 pound slabs of metal in a few years time! I bet you it will be amazing. Apple has to stay in the desktop game, because all the great technology starts on a bigger scale and works its way down. It would not make sense to abandon the 'pro' market, nevermind how 'niche' the customer base is. However, that's MY opinion. Apple may make its own opinion on the matter, and I hope, for their sake and mine, it's the right one.
 
DoFoT9 said:
the imac doesnt use that many mobile parts! i think it uses more desktop parts then it does mobile!
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The Intel iMacs have been notebook computers on a monopod except for the hard drive and display until last year.

Even then you have to restrain your laughter to hear that Apple decided to switch to LGA 775 in 2009 and we're still under clocking Mobile GPUs.
 
Bubba Satori said:
It will be the other way around. The customers will abandon them.
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I see it as both. Prices get high enough customers leave causing the sales figures to drop low enough that Apple will abandon it.

Given the increasing cost on CPU's (increasing transistor counts = more cores and more complex controller sections) and their desire for yet higher margins, they're well aware of this. So milking the line for every cent possible while ignoring issues (since it costs money to solve issues), is the last step IMO before dropping it.
 
Shhh!!! The next MacPro will be mobile (and retro):

mac-g4-motorcycle-500x377.jpg
 
DoFoT9 said:
Hey everybody,

yesterday i watched the ipad release, Jobsy said that apple is a "mobile" company. so does this mean that apple will slowly phase out the desktop models of their computers?

i am scared :(

DoFoT9
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He also said there's a HUGE need for a product like the ipad.

go figure.
 
Nah. Desktops aren't going anywhere for a long time. Most of these new products are more like peripherals anyway. You need a good "base station" to really maximize the usefulness of the portables. The Mini will really fit this need nicely.
 
chet.d said:
There's a lot of pro audio - video people out there that need solid computing tools and ostensibly will for many years to come. Some / many want Mac.
I'm not sure it's in Apples best interest to let that market completely go.
Though it does look to be getting to be a smaller and more defined demand with mobile everything rising market shares.
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That's exactly why I'm very sure the Mac Pro won't be disappearing any time soon. I think it IS possible that investment in developing the line will be less, I mean all they need to do is update the internals with the latest line of processors each year, other than that it stays largely the same.

But I think the sort of people that use Mac Pros are too valuable to Apple to lose, even if the line doesn't make much profit (I believe it is profitable now, but even if it becomes less so). Artists, film makers, video people and especially musicians are the sort of people that I'm sure Apple likes to be associated with, I mean the world famous producer with 20 platinum records to his name, produced on his Mac Pro, is also quite likely to be seen around with his iPhone.

Apple sell themselves with associations of creativity and left field thinking, so I think keeping a niche product in the line that IS going to be used by these sorts of people makes a lot of sense and they will continue with this strategy. Apple can afford to, even if it becomes a loss leader - which I'm sure it is far from being at the moment - it is valuable for the image of the company.

As I said though, I can see that they will continue with minimal investment in updating the Mac Pro, but there again, it is much easier to update and improve than iMacs and iPhones and whatever, and I dare say the margins must be great.
 
That's what I didn't understand about yesterday. Apple sells a number of Desktop computers!

Apple's Mobile Devices:
iPod
iPhone
MacBook/MacBook Pro
iPad

Apple's Non Mobile Devices
Apple TV
Mac Pro
Mac Mini
iMac

They're about even.
 
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