I think they are quiet simply because it's not ready to show to the world yet. I do hope they've gotten feedback based on the initial announcement and have decided on user-replaceable RAM. There are many who would buy this who don't know their future requirements for RAM. Sure big businesses will just have a stock config, lease them for 3 years and then hand them back, but smaller places will keep them possibly longer and will probably increase the RAM before end of life.
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Why is Apple so quiet about the iMac Pro?
- Thread starter HumpYourWayUp
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Interesting discussion - nice to see debates and interesting takes without any upset!
In the meantime we seem to have missed this: http://bit.ly/2BMyfm0
I think we're still on for a Dec launch.
In the meantime we seem to have missed this: http://bit.ly/2BMyfm0
I think we're still on for a Dec launch.
Sorry, but that train has long gone. If they had planned for it this time last year, perhaps, but they've publicly shown devices without user-replaceable memory during the fall and shown the board layout which for cooling reasons had the memory facing the screen rather than the back of the case.
Your requested change would require completely gutting the product, rethinking and redesigning the cooling, re-tooling the manufacturing chain, etc. Perhaps if enough people whine that could happen to the next model, or the one after that, but not to the initial one. This model will definitely be a "purchase what you'll need over the next few years" kind of product.
Great discussion going on here — I’m enjoying it! It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.
I'm ready. Come on Apple! One more project that needs editing on my 2011 MacBook Pro, and then I can finally ship all my current projects (Nov-Dec (6 in total)) to the new iMac Pro and hopefully have them all edited by the end of February.
This iMac Pro is going to be life-changing and could literally halve the amount of time spent doing my current tasks (3 4K streams, 10 audio device multi-cams and 1080p moving to 4K projects). I'm going to charge my clients extra for 4K delivery and make some money back on the iMac Pro from that alone. If ten clients upgrade to 4K for £300, I just made back half of what I'm about to outlay for the machine... and people say an AIO doesn't make sense...!
The model number being out now is just another step... hoping for some sort of announcement today or by the end of next week at the latest.
64GB RAM, 16GB VEGA and 10-Core XEON... hopefully won't take us over £7K... if it does, I may need to consider what I need to prioritise.
This iMac Pro is going to be life-changing and could literally halve the amount of time spent doing my current tasks (3 4K streams, 10 audio device multi-cams and 1080p moving to 4K projects). I'm going to charge my clients extra for 4K delivery and make some money back on the iMac Pro from that alone. If ten clients upgrade to 4K for £300, I just made back half of what I'm about to outlay for the machine... and people say an AIO doesn't make sense...!
The model number being out now is just another step... hoping for some sort of announcement today or by the end of next week at the latest.
64GB RAM, 16GB VEGA and 10-Core XEON... hopefully won't take us over £7K... if it does, I may need to consider what I need to prioritise.
Apple is primarily smartphone tech company. Its the same reason why it will be at least 5 years until there is an update to the Mac Pro. I've maintained for a while now nobody will probably have a new Mac Pro in their hands next year because the iMac Pro probably won't even ship out until close to 2018.
Which doesn't hurt Apple one bit. 'Buy big' is what makes for larger bottom lines, and more cash shuffled to an offshore tax haven. I'd love one of these, but can't afford it unless I can start a gofundme page for one. I may be looking at a separation, and possible legal issues soon, and that will drain my finances to zero. Oh, and the tax cut which isn't a cut.
But, Apple had better pull this one, and especially the 'New New Mac Pro' off right, or they are very likely over as a 'high end' computer vendor.
From the profile pictures, the thing looks 'skinny', and that isn't giving me ANY hope that there won't be 'issues' like thermal shutdowns and horrific issues because of the space trade-offs. Apple seems to think that anorexic hardware is the in thing. If it's not skinny/emaciated, it's not going on the product list. It's caused that ridiculous keyboard on the Macbook Pros, and many other concessions.
This is likely going to be good... Watching Apple realize that they are on the wrong track, and skinny isn't better, it's just skinny.
While that is true. The market for people that need more than 32GB of RAM is very small even in the scientific community. We run pretty intense scientific simulations on machines with 16-22 cores and ECC RAM. We have machines ranging from 16-64 GB of RAM. It is pretty rare for us to benefit from RAM above 32GB. Most high RAM usage scenarios are driven by Virtual Machines, which are more often than note hosted on rack mount servers.
Until we see the BTO upgrade prices on the RAM for the iMac Pro, I'm not going to get to worked up about it. My guess is they make the RAM upgrades pretty reasonable for this particular machine.
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These are all good points. I highly doubt the new Mac Pro looks anything like a ATX desktop tower. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple use of the term "Modular" focuses more on eGPUs etc.
A small desktop that has dual Xeon CPUs, and NVMe slots, with bunch of the Thunderbolt4 ports for example could meet Apple's description. They may even come out with their own eGPU chassis for example. I think a design like that would compliment and benefit the MacBook Pro as well.
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Apple could decide to not glue the case together which would make it easier to repair, something appreciated on business devices. A trivial change in design. Even cracking a glued case is fairly easy, though, to a repair person who is prepared and trained.
Insides look to have socketed parts which would make sense for small production runs with customization options. I expect Apple will mass produce the base unit and upgrade them to the optional configurations as a special order process. Soldered parts only make sense on large runs for each configuration. If Apple can customize and fix so can a technically competent end user or an Apple certified repair agent hired or employed by that end user.
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Its not really a repairability issue - the glue itself is no big deal for a Mac service person with the correct tools and a replacement set of sticky tape. The old magnet-based solution doesn't sound entirely stress-free. However, we'll have to wait for the iFixit teardown before we know how much more you have to dismantle to get at the RAM once you're inside.
The contrast is with the current 5k iMac (and Mac Pros of the past), where RAM is officially "user upgradeable" (i.e. no automatic warranty breach) and is a completely a tool-free job, that many of us happily performed on our iMacs within minutes of unboxing them (...or the 2011 MacBook Pro I still use where I've swapped the HD for progressively larger SSDs twice).
The big unknown is how many "Pro" users actually give a fig about upgradeable RAM.
The Ram isnt an issue. Be sure to have config with 32 base or go 64 and after the warranty is gone no problem upgrading it
Imac pro it should last for 3-4–5 years
So down the road the ram still can get upgraded up to 128 after the warranty is gone
Remember that the imac glue isnt for water and dust resistant
Imac pro it should last for 3-4–5 years
So down the road the ram still can get upgraded up to 128 after the warranty is gone
Remember that the imac glue isnt for water and dust resistant
My expectation is that Apple thinks the base config is attractive enough that most buyers will find it sufficient for their needs and not have an incentive to immediately go cheap and upgrade with less-expensive 3d party parts. For other iMacs Apple does tend to underconfigure memory and likely expects that as it allows a lower entry price even if they don't get their margins on the upgraded memory and allows people who are not price sensitive to puff up Apples margins too.
Cracking the case and working inside it is only a warranty breach in most places if you break something in the process. If you get an Apple certified repair person to do any repairs or upgrades that is covered too. iFixit teardown will tell us a lot but I would be surprised if Apple made it too hard on themselves to do the built to order customization by making extensive teardown necessary to get to standard socketed parts. I might wait for the iFixit analysis and factor in whatever labor costs would be necessary to do upgrades. It might be cheaper in a lot of cases to get Apple to do it as build to order in the first place.
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What I don't get is, given the tiny percentage of sales the Mac line already represents for Apple, especially any kind of 'Pro' Mac line, why have two Pro lines aimed at nearly the same identical customer? And if what's been said here so far is true, that the Mac Pro might be just as hermetically sealed as the iMac Pro, two Pro Mac lines make even less sense.
After 2019, who is going to buy the iMac Pro?
After 2019, who is going to buy the iMac Pro?
I've yet to be convinced there WILL be two lines. The "Mac Pro" is just a rumour. Two or three sentences 6 months ago does not a computer make.
I think Apple is trying to get away with the iMac Pro as it's "Pro" computer. Then just say "if that doesn't do it for you, TS ! " It has appeared for quite some time that Apple supports what's left of it's Pro only under protest, or when shamed by a shareholder.
There is no way all of those will be true. If Apple does come out with a new Mac Pro like they discussed it will be designed for the heaviest workloads. That likely means dual-socket Xeon E5 CPUs, ECC RAM etc. Don't count on Apple releasing a Mac Pro that is cheaper than the iMac Pro at least not once you factor the cost of a display.
I expect Apple's desktop lineup to look like this:
Mac mini - remains obsolete and very limited performance as currently implemented.
iMac - as currently implemented tops out at i7-XXXk series processors.
iMac Pro - Single Xeon processor
Mac Pro - Dual Xeon processor.
I don't ever see Apple getting into the ATX i5/i7 desktop form factor market.
So, it's just a rumor....started by....? Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller themselves?
"As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do"
https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/06/t...-john-ternus-on-the-state-of-apples-pro-macs/
If that were true, I believe the release would have been postponed earlier when they postponed the HomePod release.