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

Why is Apple using this "coming august" approach?

M

maximaxi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2010
14
0
I'm assuming that Apple knew the people waiting desperately for the Mac Pro update would get upset if they launched the new iMacs before the Mac Pros so they threw us a bone and said "coming august". By doing so, they must be hurting the sales of the existing Mac Pros but must have felt that it was more important to keep the relationship with the pros... is that why? why else would they do a pre-announcement like this?

Okay, so now they've got "coming august" on the site but no hard date. There are rumors of the 9th but as I'm writing this the site still says "coming august". So, why no specific date? Is it external or internal reasons? Waiting for iLife or some other internal thing or waiting on fulfillment issues from vendors? Why not list the date it will be available unless they aren't sure? Why not list the specific pricing for each model?

I know apple is super savvy and deliberate about these decisions but this particular mac pro update just seems odd.


.
 
Because they're probably waiting on a shipment of parts or finished software, and they don't know exactly when it will be in/done.

The 5870 drivers might not be totally done, for example, or maybe Intel hasn't gotten them a shipment of new CPUs. Could be a lot of things.
 
goMac said:
Because they're probably waiting on a shipment of parts or finished software, and they don't know exactly when it will be in/done.

The 5870 drivers might not be totally done, for example, or maybe Intel hasn't gotten them a shipment of new CPUs. Could be a lot of things.
Click to expand...

But more importantly than the waiting period is his question on lack of specifics, particularly in pricing and exact date.

Yea, i don't know why they only went half-a$$ on the specifics. Makes no sense to me either but I've stopped trying to analyze Apple's unorthodox methods. Saves a lot of headache.
 
I just reread the Apple press release and there is ZERO mention of the exact date.

The Aug 9th release/order date is a rumor only!

JohnG
 
maximaxi said:
I'm assuming that Apple knew the people waiting desperately for the Mac Pro update would get upset if they launched the new iMacs before the Mac Pros so they threw us a bone and said "coming august". By doing so, they must be hurting the sales of the existing Mac Pros but must have felt that it was more important to keep the relationship with the pros... is that why? why else would they do a pre-announcement like this?
Click to expand...

I think you are right. The iMacs were probably ready sooner. Apple didn't want to piss off an already impatient Mac Pro base. My guess is that the parts, testing, etc. just wasn't ready but it was close. I'm assuming the 9th but that is based on a rumor so who knows? At least we have an answer. Most of us just wanted a timeframe. Apple at least gave us that.
 
Since the 2009 and 2010 mac pro are made of the same parts, they are probably not losing money doing this.
 
They don't want any more negative press
- especially from developers
- and desperately need to release something positive after antennagate
- but don't have a LIVE product ready to sell

They know they are falling behind industry trends
- and have to show face

They haven't published the the 6 core price
- because the true price will have negative effect on the product image in the market.
- Rather than lead with value they will screw every last penny out of the userbase.

They know that they can run this right up to Aug 31st with that kind of banner

Really disappointing
Its obvious now Apple is concentrating on iProducts
No REAL MacPro upgrade since 2008 - in computer terms that's an eternity.

Apple - just playing catch up
Really looking like followers in the workstation arena - rather than innovators

Sad - you can buy better spec workstations or Hack your own.

GPUs from 2009!

If it were not for the OS and drivers etc etc jumping to Win7 would be a no brainer.
 
johnnymg said:
I just reread the Apple press release and there is ZERO mention of the exact date.

The Aug 9th release/order date is a rumor only!

JohnG
Click to expand...

I did one of the online chats with an Apple rep and asked them and they told me I will be able to order it August 9th, so I personally think it is more than a rumor. Why they did the "coming August" I dont know. If they were waiting for more shipments thats a possibility, but from July 27th to August 9th, thats not a big gap for a lot of things to come in, seems weird to me.
 
strausd said:
I did one of the online chats with an Apple rep and asked them and they told me I will be able to order it August 9th, so I personally think it is more than a rumor. Why they did the "coming August" I dont know. If they were waiting for more shipments thats a possibility, but from July 27th to August 9th, thats not a big gap for a lot of things to come in, seems weird to me.
Click to expand...

Did the rep mention WHEN the upgrade prices would be published?

thanks
Johng
 
I think Apple had a whole series of announcements scheduled. There has a been a once-a-month cycle going on now for several months. The iPhone was done in July, and IIRC iPods are traditionally announced in September. I suspect that the Mac Pros, at a minimum, have been scheduled for an August release for at least half a year. This once-a-month thing is good marketing. Most regular (i.e. non-MacRumours) people don't really care about most of the announcements, but they see Apple in the news every month. Free advertizing for Apple that keeps their brand in people's minds.

Then the antennae thing blew up in their faces. And the tech press were not going to let it go because they had nothing else Apple to write about - in this case Apple's secrecy didn't work in their favour because the tech press couldn't even distract themselves with vapourware.

So Apple slid the Mac Pro announcement up a several weeks so that the tech press could write about something that has an Apple logo, and not an antennae.

The big question is.... did Apple announce everything that there is about the Mac Pro? They still need something exciting to talk about August. They can't just re-announce the Mac Pros, so there is something still to come that Apple has held back. And you know Apple has held something back - it's just the way they work. Might not be specifically tied to a Mac Pro... but it's something.

I'm inclined to believe the August 9 date rumour. It makes sense. I think the school appropriate Macs will be bumped and/or announced closer to September.

But this is, of course, pie in the sky.... or is it my eye?
 
yeah, they did this to keep from pissing us off on the day of the imac release, BUT that said, this simple update should have been on sale weeks ago. I'm already feeling buyers remorse. Maybe they read macrumors after all? In any case there will be no surprises or new features in my opinion. I did get the same Aug 9th nod from an Apple parts reseller waiting on the new MP 1333 ram, so I think the 9th is looking at least a maybe.
 
snberk103 said:
I'm inclined to believe the August 9 date rumour. It makes sense. I think the school appropriate Macs will be bumped and/or announced closer to September.
Click to expand...

It's not a rumor though. It's already been confirmed numerous times by now.
 
snberk103 said:
The big question is.... did Apple announce everything that there is about the Mac Pro? They still need something exciting to talk about August. They can't just re-announce the Mac Pros, so there is something still to come that Apple has held back. And you know Apple has held something back - it's just the way they work. Might not be specifically tied to a Mac Pro... but it's something.
Click to expand...

Am I the only one to notice that since the SL release we have heard nearly ZERO (0) about the wonderful benefits of Grand Central Dispatch? Or OpenCl?

I would LIKE to believe that maybe the actual announcement will have some more details.

WOuld be a great place to show off those 2 technologies.

"New Mac Pro is a like a BULLET TRAIN in Grand Central, with 24 Cores pulling it at Light Speed !!!"

Or something about OpenCl abilities of the 5xxx series ATI cards...or maybe even some Quadro OpenCL/CUDA hints/promises? It has been nearly a yea since SL...and those 2 things have quietly slipped into the "3Ghz G5" file.
 
The Rominator said:
Or something about OpenCl abilities of the 5xxx series ATI cards...or maybe even some Quadro OpenCL/CUDA hints/promises? It has been nearly a yea since SL...and those 2 things have quietly slipped into the "3Ghz G5" file.
Click to expand...

I get the impression that Apple's largely giving up on the GPGPU side of things with their move to ATI. ATI's cards seem to perform very poorly compared to their nVidia brethren in GPGPU situations. CUDA seems to be far better developed so far and for me the biggest selling point of nVidia GPUs.
 
snberk103 said:
.....
I'm inclined to believe the August 9 date rumour. It makes sense. I think the school appropriate Macs will be bumped and/or announced closer to September.

...
Click to expand...

Icaras said:
It's not a rumor though. It's already been confirmed numerous times by now.
Click to expand...

Confirmed in writing by Apple? I haven't seen anything official, but of course I may have just missed it. Have you seen something?

Until it's in writing from Apple it's still just a rumour.... though I think it's an officially announced rumour.

snberk103 said:
...The big question is.... did Apple announce everything that there is about the Mac Pro? They still need something exciting to talk about August. They can't just re-announce the Mac Pros, so there is something still to come that Apple has held back. And you know Apple has held something back - it's just the way they work. Might not be specifically tied to a Mac Pro... but it's something.
Click to expand...

The Rominator said:
Am I the only one to notice that since the SL release we have heard nearly ZERO (0) about the wonderful benefits of Grand Central Dispatch? Or OpenCl?

I would LIKE to believe that maybe the actual announcement will have some more details.

WOuld be a great place to show off those 2 technologies.

"New Mac Pro is a like a BULLET TRAIN in Grand Central, with 24 Cores pulling it at Light Speed !!!"

Or something about OpenCl abilities of the 5xxx series ATI cards...or maybe even some Quadro OpenCL/CUDA hints/promises? It has been nearly a yea since SL...and those 2 things have quietly slipped into the "3Ghz G5" file.
Click to expand...

Hmmm very interesting.... I've actually alluded to it in a couple of other threads, but not quite so clearly as you have. I do think you right. Lets hope you are right! :)
 
snberk103 said:
Confirmed in writing by Apple? I haven't seen anything official, but of course I may have just missed it. Have you seen something?
Click to expand...

Yes, it has, from Apple Online Store employees to customers. I was told specifically the 9th of August via chat. Reapeated confirmations by other customers being given the same exact answer, plus Mac Rumors themselves confirming being told that via online AND phone.

Feel free to start a chat with them right now to confirm personally.

Edit: But if you're trying to look for a publicly announced statement on their website, then no, you won't find it, simply because like others have stated here, they'll continue to sell older models up to the very last, unexpecting minute. Go :apple:!
 
Because there are probably thousands of die hard Mac Pro users (like me) that are tired of waiting for a new model and are just about to buy something else instead. As I've said before, some of my coworkers already have gone with other solutions instead of the endless waiting game. (Imac, hackintosh, the used mac pro market, even jumping back to PCs).

We've been ready to buy new computers for a while but have been working on functioning older computers, so we can wait.... but :apple: keeps making the Imac better and better, in some cases surpassing the performance of the entry level Mac Pros. This latest update was a really good one, with discrete graphics, speedier processors, better graphics cards, bigger hard drives, and even the ability to put in a SSD which is a great idea. Makes a pretty compelling alternative- and the 750 dollar monitor thrown in the package doesnt hurt either.

I was all ready to pounce on a i7 27 imac with 2gb hard drive and great graphics card, but now I find myself wanting to wait until I see what the price of the 6 core will be. Thats why Apple tipped their hand. Buyers with money in hand like me could still be persuaded.:D

The whole "antennagate" thing is also another factor to some degree.... anything to distract from that mess is probably not a bad idea and is an additional bonus, but I really dont think that was the main reason.

Either way, I'm very glad they said when the new ones are coming out. I wish they would do this with all future releases of pro hardware. Im only disappointed that the lower end models are not much of a good deal- only the more expensive models seem to be priced competitively with comparable models elsewhere.

Anyway, in a nutshell, :apple: would much rather sell you a 3000 dollar computer than a 2000 dollar computer. No?
 
Cavepainter said:
Because there are probably thousands of die hard Mac Pro users (like me) that are tired of waiting for a new model and are just about to buy something else instead. As I've said before, some of my coworkers already have gone with other solutions instead of the endless waiting game. (Imac, hackintosh, the used mac pro market, even jumping back to PCs).
Click to expand...

I don't really understand why... Aside from the GPU, there was nothing really outdated with the previous models. I mean... the new models have barely changed. Intel didn't even have much in the way of more advanced processors lined up for this. They tacked on two cores, and they charge an ungodly amount of money for it. That's about it.
 
goMac said:
I don't really understand why... Aside from the GPU, there was nothing really outdated with the previous models. I mean... the new models have barely changed. Intel didn't even have much in the way of more advanced processors lined up for this. They tacked on two cores, and they charge an ungodly amount of money for it. That's about it.
Click to expand...

Some people just don't like the idea of buying technology that has been replaced by better performing technology. Especially when it was such a simple upgrade, and the cost to Apple was pretty much the same, the price increases that are there from Intel are 4% at most. Even more so when prices were high and haven't changed. And a 50% core increase is significant for some people.
 
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