If Apple waits until Q1 of 2017 to update the Mac Pro without even the slightest hint dropped then there won't be any pro users left to buy them, when they finally do arrive.
Pure hyperbole. There will probably be fewer but none? The is extremely unlikely.
Mac Pro users tend to update boxes on a 3-6 year cycle. (e.g., depreciation schedules of 3 or 5 years ). Apple is likely to loose folks letting go of the officially obsolete models ( 2009 and earlier ), but I doubt few of those are super high value targets for Apple. Customers who don't buy anything for more than half a decade aren't really customers ( not in a exchange money for goods and services relationship. ). Folks who bought a 2012 model are at high risk (i.e., the 3 year schedule folks). Folks who bought 2013 models in 2013-2015 are not.
October is make or break for a lot of people.
A lot people isn't everybody.
Many of us have held out as long as possible, but now we're been backed into a corner and work needs to get done ('hello' HP Z).
HP Z has been an option on the table since 2010 era. That isn't new. 90% of people buying PCs buy Windows boxes every day. That happens for Appel each day. It isn't a crisis for them. And there are still people moving the opposite direction ( dropping Windows for macOS). Again not a crisis for Apple.
I hate to say it but in the pit of my stomach I got a bad feeling.
An "around every 3 years" would seem to indicate that the Mac Pro had been placed in a kind of "hobby" project status. Do one every once in a while for giggles and bragging rights ( "can't innovate my ass"). If it doesn't have to meet any growth targets then it may stick around and get occasional resource allocations. (think iPod Touch. not dead yet but some updates when Apple has copious spare time. )
For most of 2013 Apple has no Mac Pro to offer in the EU ( "old" or new) and probably chased off a decent chunk of customers and still released the Mac Pro 2013. Only they know how many they got back or where permanently lost.
I pegged the Jan-Feb 2017 window for as measure of just how low a priority the Mac Pro is. If it has been deprioritize so far as a hobby project that they can't do something by that deadline then most folks should just move on. If the release cycle is shifting from 1 yr to 3 yrs to > 3 yrs then the product is on a death spiral.
IMHO, i'd be surprised if Apple even resourced anyone to do serious work on a new Mac Pro before April-July 2015. If they had started substantially earlier than that, they would have finished by now with a reasonable resourced team.
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Ouch indeed. That used to be true. Not anymore. Apple is definitely price gouging with the desktops these days.
Apple's margins on Macs now are about what they were we Jobs was making references. Same issue of bringing what comparing against up to "apples to apples" standards. [ And throw to the outlier of the initial Mac Pros after the Intel transition which were highly just rebadged Intel stuff just to rapidly speed up the "1 year transition to x86" process. ]
The hype these diays is that Apple should be discounting for products that sit on the market longer. Jobs didn't support that. The price is fixed until the next one comes is a Jobs era policy.
Apple's Mac problem is more so that they shifted from "We don't ship junk" to "We don't ship". That seems largely due to a "can't walk and chew gum at the same time" problem. They have about one product line where they can ship at a consistent cadence. But to keep that up they have to throw other product lines under the bus. As long as suppliers are giving them not parts options faster than they can use them that was hidden. When Apple has to be more innovate with what's on the table (at slower rates) they have little value add outside of their singular focus area.
