Just because you can... Doesn't mean you should.
Design and market a product some people might actually want or post misinformed opinion that no one wants?
Seems Twelve South have created a product purely for the sake of saying they have.
This takes a product that has a small footprint and small scale as one of its selling points and actually increases the footprint whilst creating something that would sit awkwardly.
The fact they have to mention the Apple Tech Note shows theyve had to justify the product after the fact.
Bizarre.
What's bizarre are public forums. Look, life's hectic. Maybe your really important. Or really busy. Hell, maybe both! I get it. For those that didn't take the 15 seconds to read the entire MR article, nor the additional 5 seconds to click thru to Twelve South's site, know there are two large headlines clearly indicating a couple of Twelve South's main influences behind designing, manufacturing and marketing this new product.
Spoiler alert: one of them was not just to create a "product purely for the sake of saying they have."
"Mac Pro is built to go horizontal"
Here, Twelve South references Apple's own documentation indicating the Mac Pro was designed and built to function both vertically and horizontally. "Why horizontally" I can hear you ask? Insert large headline number two...
"Crafted with professional studios in mind"
Here, Twelve South highlights their focus on the professional studio (audio or other) where vertical space is a consideration for those that have their studio gear rack mounted. If none of that makes sense, fear not - Twelve South has considered your wallet as well. The "I don't run a professional studio but do like customization and/or options" segment is (I suspect) a larger market than pro studio (another reason that Twelve South opted to create this product). But if nothing to this point has addressed your personal need, then you fall into the "not for me" customer segment. The unique characteristic of this customer segment, is that it is split into two distinct sub segments:
1) the virtually silent "not for me, I'm out" group
2) the very vocal and often impassioned "not for me and I lack the capacity to understand how it could appeal to anyone so I'm going to login and let everyone know how I feel about it" group (my personal favorite)
Obviously, Twelve South is not interested in this customer segment.
While I can't speak on the build quality of any of Twelve South's offerings, this offering seems as founded in tangible purpose as any in their catalogue. And like all of their offerings to date, this one is also not for me. But... I am glad to see a solution for some. Keep it rollin', Twelve South.
Cheers.