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

The End of Apple's Professional Presence Is Here

T

theusualsuspect

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 9, 2010
39
6
First off, this is friend of a friend information, so I can't completely vouch for it, but I heard some sad news today that I wanted to share.

I work for a company that primarily does post production and motion graphics in Los Angeles. We exclusively use Apple products - about 60+ Mac Pros, a handful of iMacs, 10 Macbook Pros, and all the server parts to have about 150 TB of storage over a fibre network. The owner has been invited by Apple to give talks on his business at Apple stores occasionally, and for the most part it's been Apple all the way. (Accounting even uses imacs that run windows.)

The IT director told me today that his sources told him that Apple is getting out of the professional market. No Xserves (done), no professional editing software (done), no professional hardware (headed that way.) He mentioned that the Mac Pro is a dying breed at Apple, and it's possible that we won't ever see an update.

As a company, Apple has been trending toward meeting the needs of the average consumer. Since the iphone and ipad now represent the majority of Apple's market (and profit), there isn't a need to meet the needs of the professional anymore. (I say anymore since we all know it wasn't always this way. Before the iphone, Apple's strongest customer was the professional.)

Apple has been known for changing directions abruptly and at times seemingly without justification. (Does everyone have to upgrade to lion for icloud support? Is rosetta really weighing lion down that much? Is Final Cut X really a replacement to Final Cut 7?) Love Apple or hate Apple, it does what it wants and isn't afraid to alienate a consumer if it no longer wants to cater that that market.

So now we find ourselves in the sunset of Apple's professional presence. I'm not expecting any new Mac Pros. Editing systems here won't be running Final Cut anymore. Motion graphics will be running Adobe products on PC's since it will be better optimized. If an iMac isn't enough, a PC for us.

The IT director is hoping that the current tech we use will be fine for the next 3-5 years. After that, it's a transition to windows machines. He's hoping he won't be around to support it. They may be much faster machines 3-5 years from now, but support on them will be a nightmare, he says. I'm not trying to speculate for the sake of speculation, but I thought I'd let you all know what is most likely around the corner for Apple. If you think about, the writing has been on the wall for a while, but the reality of all this may be sooner than you think.
 
Oh man, my buddy once told me that Apple is building a spaceship that will launch iPhones to the moon so you can talk to Siri in space!

The odds of Apple abandoning the MacPro are slim to nil, as one is often still necessary to manage large networks of macs, and increasingly iPhones and iPads as well. Yes a Mini CAN do this, but only for a certain # of computers.

Not to mention that without MacPros, I doubt Apple would be able to do a lot of what it does. You think that the software designs for the iPad were done on an iMac? Doubtful, they need beefy hardware capable of running OS X for their own purposes. Yes they could do hackintosh and the like, but the cost of doing so would be to the point that they might as well keep the mac pro around.

You seem to be under the impression that mac pro updates have somehow slowed recently, here's a hint, they haven't. Apple only releases new models when Intel releases new CPUs for them, your buddy's idle speculation notwithstanding.
 
theusualsuspect said:
First off, this is friend of a friend information, so I can't completely vouch for it, but I heard some sad news today that I wanted to share.

I work for a company that primarily does post production and motion graphics in Los Angeles. We exclusively use Apple products - about 60+ Mac Pros, a handful of iMacs, 10 Macbook Pros, and all the server parts to have about 150 TB of storage over a fibre network. The owner has been invited by Apple to give talks on his business at Apple stores occasionally, and for the most part it's been Apple all the way. (Accounting even uses imacs that run windows.)

The IT director told me today that his sources told him that Apple is getting out of the professional market. No Xserves (done), no professional editing software (done), no professional hardware (headed that way.) He mentioned that the Mac Pro is a dying breed at Apple, and it's possible that we won't ever see an update.

As a company, Apple has been trending toward meeting the needs of the average consumer. Since the iphone and ipad now represent the majority of Apple's market (and profit), there isn't a need to meet the needs of the professional anymore. (I say anymore since we all know it wasn't always this way. Before the iphone, Apple's strongest customer was the professional.)

Apple has been known for changing directions abruptly and at times seemingly without justification. (Does everyone have to upgrade to lion for icloud support? Is rosetta really weighing lion down that much? Is Final Cut X really a replacement to Final Cut 7?) Love Apple or hate Apple, it does what it wants and isn't afraid to alienate a consumer if it no longer wants to cater that that market.

So now we find ourselves in the sunset of Apple's professional presence. I'm not expecting any new Mac Pros. Editing systems here won't be running Final Cut anymore. Motion graphics will be running Adobe products on PC's since it will be better optimized. If an iMac isn't enough, a PC for us.

The IT director is hoping that the current tech we use will be fine for the next 3-5 years. After that, it's a transition to windows machines. He's hoping he won't be around to support it. They may be much faster machines 3-5 years from now, but support on them will be a nightmare, he says. I'm not trying to speculate for the sake of speculation, but I thought I'd let you all know what is most likely around the corner for Apple. If you think about, the writing has been on the wall for a while, but the reality of all this may be sooner than you think.
Click to expand...

Defiantly Twilight zone time for Mac Pro users. Personally at this point, I am just hoping that Mac comes out with something that has a Xeon with the X79 in it, I don't even care if it looks like an i pad.

I'm sure they will come out with the Mac Pro, or a suitable replacement. A discontinuation would be too much bad press, especially after
Final Cut (not) Pro. All we can do is wait and see.
 
wouldent suprise me at all.. after all who gives a crap about the +45K MP's they sell a year compared to the amount of Mac Books, Iphones and ipads they flog.. would actually make sense..

and LOL about that designing ipads on a MP. LOL.. too funny.

I hope the OP is wrong as i would maybe be intrested in getting a new MP in the next 2 years or so, and i hope a new interation will be around.. but if it aint, i am sure i wont be loosing any sleep over it. :p
 
Hi. I am sorry. I've been watching these forums for a while. The notion of Apple completely abandoning the Pro market because "it's not profitable" or "they only sell xx units per year" or "because they're too focused on iPhone/iPad/consumer products" just does not make any sense to me, given the circumstances and Apple's current position and capabilities.

First, we have no idea what these #s are. Alright, we can estimate based on older data, and it's sure to be small in comparison to what they're currently doing with iPhones & iPads, even iMacs. But. The effect of abandoning the Pro market is something that may not be immediately measured-- it's a bit more intangible, and may have longer-term, larger effects. I'm not smart enough to guess what these may actually be, but common sense tells me a few things. One, pros played a large role in getting Apple where it is today. Building a consumer base, a clientele, that really supported Apple, bought into their new products and helped spread its popularity to others on the fringe when more mass-consumer products became available.

Can we not see this trend reversing itself, or at least being seriously impacted? If Apple were to just drop the Mac Pro, and/or Final Cut Pro, and/or Logic Pro, there would be some serious negative energy from a lot of professionals. One might argue that immediately, that impact wouldn't hurt. Oh, so what if Apple loses xxK in sales that were a xx% profit anyway? Sure. However, what's the longer-term effect? Such a move would begin to drive these people *away* from Apple, if nothing else because they stopped supporting their everyday lives and professions that they have become dependent on. Instead of 5-10 years ago where you have a company that not only provides great tools to professionals, but is a "cool" company that's developing other great products that "hey, you should try out!" -- it's now a sell-out company catering to the masses, that is no longer cool, that is no longer something that I want to be a part of, support, or help spread its popularity. I have less desire to own and/or use an iPad, iPhone, or whatever else is appealing to these millions of people who weren't around when I was on the "in" and knew I was buying great products from a smart, innovative company. I now have less desire to buy and spread the word, as I previously did. This negativity can spread in a scarily similar way to the positive buzz that has propelled Apple in recent years to exactly where it is today.

I'm not sure what to call this effect, but I have to believe it's a real, tangible possibility, and that Apple is aware. And that with a company as big and as smart as Apple, they can afford to dedicate a team to fulfilling that need and making sure that something catastrophic doesn't happen that impacts their growth, especially in the negative direction. As little as everyone here is claiming that the Pro market is as a % of Apple's sales and profits, it's just as little of an investment, relatively speaking, in a team to achieve this for them, right? So why *not* keep this team around to fulfull the niche and keep potentially influential people happy, when the expense for not doing so is a much greater risk for the company long-term?
 
Last edited:
You guys may take a stab at the OP but the writing is on the wall that iOS will take over from OS X. And do you really think that this profesional software will run good on iOS? It is only a matter of time, for Apple the only thing important is the bottom line so they are not going to cater for marginal stuff - and frankly Professional is only that.
 
zeussz said:
Hi. I am sorry. I've been watching these forums for a while. The notion of Apple completely abandoning the Pro market because "it's not profitable" or "they only sell xx units per year" or "because they're too focused on iPhone/iPad/consumer products" just does not make any sense to me, given the circumstances and Apple's current position and capabilities.

First, we have no idea what these #s are. Alright, we can estimate based on older data, and it's sure to be small in comparison to what they're currently doing with iPhones & iPads, even iMacs. But. The effect of abandoning the Pro market is something that may not be immediately measured-- it's a bit more intangible, and may have longer-term, larger effects. I'm not smart enough to guess what these may actually be, but common sense tells me a few things. One, pros played a large role in getting Apple where it is today. Building a consumer base, a clientele, that really supported Apple, bought into their new products and helped spread its popularity to others on the fringe when more mass-consumer products became available.

Can we not see this trend reversing itself, or at least being seriously impacted? If Apple were to just drop the Mac Pro, and/or Final Cut Pro, and/or Logic Pro, there would be some serious negative energy from a lot of professionals. One might argue that immediately, that impact wouldn't hurt. Oh, so what if Apple loses xxK in sales that were a xx% profit anyway? Sure. However, what's the longer-term effect? Such a move would begin to drive these people *away* from Apple, if nothing else because they stopped supporting their everyday lives and professions that they have become dependent on. Instead of 5-10 years ago where you have a company that not only provides great tools to professionals, but is a "cool" company that's developing other great products that "hey, you should try out!" -- it's now a sell-out company catering to the masses, that is no longer cool, that is no longer something that I want to be a part of, support, or help spread its popularity. I have less desire to own and/or use an iPad, iPhone, or whatever else is appealing to these millions of people who weren't around when I was on the "in" and knew I was buying great products from a smart, innovative company. I now have less desire to buy and spread the word, as I previously did. This negativity can spread in a scarily similar way to the positive buzz that has propelled Apple in recent years to exactly where it is today.

I'm not sure what to call this effect, but I have to believe it's a real, tangible possibility, and that Apple is aware. And that with a company as big and as smart as Apple, they can afford to dedicate a team to fulfilling that need and making sure that something catastrophic doesn't happen that impacts their growth, especially in the negative direction. As little as everyone here is claiming that the Pro market is as a % of Apple's sales and profits, it's just as little of an investment, relatively speaking, in a team to achieve this for them, right? So why *not* keep this team around to fulfull the niche and keep potentially influential people happy, when the expense for not doing so is a much greater risk for the company long-term?
Click to expand...

These threads are a symptom of bad PR. If they just said something was on the way, it would calm the waters. We are totally in the dark
 
No Mac's at Pixar? Doubt it. Apple has always had a hard on for creative professionals and being integral in the process. That could change. But I see no "writing on the wall yet" just a bunch of whiny film editors.
 
I saw the writing on the wall the minute I saw lion. Sure, you will see one or two more updates, buy there's more regular consumers than there are professionals out there. Apple is going where the best place to make money, tablets-phones-and consumer macs. Heck, final cut x should have woke most folks up what apple is up to. The PC as we know it is dying a slow death. With cloud computing growing rapidly, streaming just about everything. Soon, you will rent your programs too. Just a matter of time. The OP heard right. You fanboys wont believe it until the last kick in the gut from apple telling you it's true. Start reading the white papers on cloud computing to see for yourself. The new business model sucks.
 
You know what? Fine, IF Apple axes out the MP, I will gladly give my money to HP/Dell/whatever. I don't see that nerf bat coming soon though.
 
Look apple is waiting for intel to fix the issues with the sandy bridge xeons. Apple doesn't pre anounce anything unless intel says they are ready. What do you guys really want out of the new Mac pro anyway that the current one can't do?
 
The guy at the pub told there will be a new mac pro.

I don't know how you guys can take these threads so seriously.
 
zeussz said:
Hi. I am sorry. I've been watching these forums for a while. The notion of Apple completely abandoning the Pro market because "it's not profitable" or "they only sell xx units per year" or "because they're too focused on iPhone/iPad/consumer products" just does not make any sense to me, given the circumstances and Apple's current position and capabilities.

First, we have no idea what these #s are. Alright, we can estimate based on older data, and it's sure to be small in comparison to what they're currently doing with iPhones & iPads, even iMacs. But. The effect of abandoning the Pro market is something that may not be immediately measured-- it's a bit more intangible, and may have longer-term, larger effects. I'm not smart enough to guess what these may actually be, but common sense tells me a few things. One, pros played a large role in getting Apple where it is today. Building a consumer base, a clientele, that really supported Apple, bought into their new products and helped spread its popularity to others on the fringe when more mass-consumer products became available.

Can we not see this trend reversing itself, or at least being seriously impacted? If Apple were to just drop the Mac Pro, and/or Final Cut Pro, and/or Logic Pro, there would be some serious negative energy from a lot of professionals. One might argue that immediately, that impact wouldn't hurt. Oh, so what if Apple loses xxK in sales that were a xx% profit anyway? Sure. However, what's the longer-term effect? Such a move would begin to drive these people *away* from Apple, if nothing else because they stopped supporting their everyday lives and professions that they have become dependent on. Instead of 5-10 years ago where you have a company that not only provides great tools to professionals, but is a "cool" company that's developing other great products that "hey, you should try out!" -- it's now a sell-out company catering to the masses, that is no longer cool, that is no longer something that I want to be a part of, support, or help spread its popularity. I have less desire to own and/or use an iPad, iPhone, or whatever else is appealing to these millions of people who weren't around when I was on the "in" and knew I was buying great products from a smart, innovative company. I now have less desire to buy and spread the word, as I previously did. This negativity can spread in a scarily similar way to the positive buzz that has propelled Apple in recent years to exactly where it is today.

I'm not sure what to call this effect, but I have to believe it's a real, tangible possibility, and that Apple is aware. And that with a company as big and as smart as Apple, they can afford to dedicate a team to fulfilling that need and making sure that something catastrophic doesn't happen that impacts their growth, especially in the negative direction. As little as everyone here is claiming that the Pro market is as a % of Apple's sales and profits, it's just as little of an investment, relatively speaking, in a team to achieve this for them, right? So why *not* keep this team around to fulfull the niche and keep potentially influential people happy, when the expense for not doing so is a much greater risk for the company long-term?
Click to expand...

Great post. I know a lot of graphic designers, video editors etc. and work in that field myself. If Apple would get rid of the Mac Pro these people would switch to windows based workstations. But these are also the people that buy new MacBook Pros every year for more performance on the go. Obviously it's more convenient to work within one environment so those MacBook Pros would be replaced by Windows laptops. All of these people also have iPhones, because if you already work with an all-Mac environment an iPhone provides the least hassle.

Apple has its cool image because for quite some time it has been the "creative industry" that uses them. If that goes away and it becomes the teenagers hip gadget company that cool factor might go away over time.

I agree that Apple will be keeping the Mac Pro around, as has been said a million times, they are just waiting for the new Xeons ...
 
derbothaus said:
No Mac's at Pixar? Doubt it. Apple has always had a hard on for creative professionals and being integral in the process. That could change. But I see no "writing on the wall yet" just a bunch of whiny film editors.
Click to expand...
The RenderMan for Maya runs under Windows as well as OS X (RenderMan Pro Server specification page), and I'd be willing to bet the clusters they run are built on PC's, not XServes due to the poor support alone.

That doesn't mean they won't want to stick with Macs as the terminals, but the heavy processing is better suited to PC versions of enterprise systems (better support, hardware and software options <aka integrated solutions>,...).
 
nanofrog said:
The RenderMan for Maya runs under Windows as well as OS X (RenderMan Pro Server specification page), and I'd be willing to bet the clusters they run are built on PC's, not XServes due to the poor support alone.

That doesn't mean they won't want to stick with Macs as the terminals, but the heavy processing is better suited to PC versions of enterprise systems (better support, hardware and software options <aka integrated solutions>,...).
Click to expand...

I know for a fact Marionette runs on Linux, which is Pixar's animation software. As for hardware if you look at their job postings you'll see a mix of Linux and Mac mostly (which is unfortunate for me since I'd love to work there but I'm a Windows tech :/ ) I'm not sure what their render farm runs but I thought I'd offer my guesses up since I'm constantly browsing their job postings :p
 
Have you read the latest news? A new major revision Mac Pro prototype was mistakenly left at a bar! You can google this if your lacking brain cells.

Yes, nobody knows what Apple will do with the Mac Pros. But why do carmakers show off future way out designs at auto shows. Why do they make race cars. Usually it's to push R&D and show off what they can do to the world. Good marketing and good use of R&D that will trickle down to their consumer non-pro products. So, what will Apple do - I've got a feeling...
 
chrono1081 said:
I know for a fact Marionette runs on Linux, which is Pixar's animation software. As for hardware if you look at their job postings you'll see a mix of Linux and Mac mostly (which is unfortunate for me since I'd love to work there but I'm a Windows tech :/ ) I'm not sure what their render farm runs but I thought I'd offer my guesses up since I'm constantly browsing their job postings :p
Click to expand...
Given Marionette is in-house, I've not been able to find out much of anything. But Linux makes a lot of sense IMO, as it's (*NIX, cheaper to develop (don't need to buy as many licenses), and has good development resources and tools.

The same PC's would be able to VM both Linux and Windows, assuming they're not dedicated, as a means of reducing equipment costs. But even if they are dedicated systems, the PC's allow them to build farms/clusters for their purposes, which is no longer really viable with OS X with the loss of the XServe.

All-in-all, a rather smart approach to go about it to my way of thinking (least expensive way to create and run custom software). :D
 
zeussz said:
Hi. I am sorry. I've been watching these forums for a while. The notion of Apple completely abandoning the Pro market because "it's not profitable" or "they only sell xx units per year" or "because they're too focused on iPhone/iPad/consumer products" just does not make any sense to me, given the circumstances and Apple's current position and capabilities.
...
So why *not* keep this team around to fulfull the niche and keep potentially influential people happy, when the expense for not doing so is a much greater risk for the company long-term?
Click to expand...

I don't think it has much to do with sales % or profit. The Mac Pro is the truck and boy is it a nice and shiny truck, I love mine ! But Apple don't want to compete with the Dells and HPs selling trucks, I'm sure they would much rather create a new pro market, something where the Dells and HPs will have to gallop for years just to catch up, never mind compete.

Apple have been working tirelessly for years now creating new human-machine interactions. Touch interfaces, more importantly gestures, are going to change the way we work, like it or not, and voice is maturing to the point where it will be pervasive in the next couple of years. Some here don't see ThunderBolt being such a big deal, but I think it is. All of these are strong features that Apple are mastering and can leverage to bring about a new way of working and being creative.

I may be wrong, and I'll quite gladly admit it if it comes to that, but I really do believe that Apple don't want to sell trucks anymore. What I think Apple are about is creating new markets.

We should not ever underestimate Apple's attachment to creative professionals and creativity as a whole, but things are going to change.
“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing. And nowhere is that more true than in these post PC devices”
-- Steven P. Jobs, iPad 2 Event, 2nd March 2011 --
 
Just because Apple has now predominantly consumer based out put doesn't mean they couldn't reasonably sustain a company based predominantly on the pro market as they once did.

There is billions to be made from the consumer market, obviously that will be their focus but there is a lot of money to be made from the pro market too and it will continue especially since they have the share of that market already. They will out put what people will buy.
 
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