30 Years of Mac disses Mac Pro

[SamuraiArtGuy]

While the event itself was worth noting...

Anybody notice that in Apple's 30 Years of The Mac, timeline feature [ http://www.apple.com/30-years/ ], they TOTALLY skip the previous version of the Mac Pro, which was the Pro Mac for YEARS. While just about every incarnation of the iMac and MacBook is spotlighted? But the timeline scoots from the PowerMac G5 to the New Mac Pro, like the big box never existed.

Yes, It's petty and stupid, and doesn't mean a pile of beans, but somehow I feel an entire generation of hardware... and their pro users got dissed. I'm not all "die Apple, I'm gettin' a Dell!" or nothing, just a little annoyed. The stout box deserves it's props.

Yes, typing this on a still perfectly good "old" Mac Pro (MacPro5,1 Nov 2011).

Grrrr. Arrrgh.

 

[TyPod]

Inside its beautiful anodized aluminum chassis was amazing power and expandability and the engine that would propel a decade of creativity.

I think this includes the previous generation Mac Pro.

 

[Gav Mack]

It's probably too soon to mention our cheese-graters too much when they are going in a different direction for now marketing the can.

When we get to 7/8,1 models they may look back differently somewhat!

 

[iChrist]

Anybody notice that....

Nobody cares.

Very few people look at an advertisement that closely, or let it affect their lives.

 

[Cubemmal]

Who cares? Just some dumb marketing video.

But if you DO care as OP does, then you see a brief flash of the oMP at 1:50

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I noticed that, too. I also noticed the Cube and Mini were nowhere to be found on the timeline, and there are plenty of other models missing (there are 60 icons in the Mac font set created for the presentation, of which half were used).

All I can provide are guesses and rationalizations.

A) Relative importance. Each year was represented by a single, new model, presumably the model they decided was most important/representative for that year. In 2006 that made the choice Mac Pro vs. MacBook Pro. In terms of impact on the Mac community as a whole, which would you choose?

B) Form factor. The timeline does not honor later models of a particular form factor, and the G5's cheese grater was "the" Mac Pro until late 2013. One may, naturally, ask whether the case or the guts has more practical meaning, but this is, after all, a visual presentation.

C) Pertinence to the Mac user(s) being showcased in the timeline. Note the MacBook Pro in the photo of Jad Abumrad onstage.

D) Impact on users. This gets a bit fuzzier, but, while the switch to Intel meant many things, it didn't change the work habits of Mac Pro users nearly as much as the performance and portability of MacBook Pro affected those who became MacBook Pro users.

E) The tendency of all marketing materials (and that's certainly a good chunk of what that presentation is) to highlight the latest and greatest.

F) "...For YEARS." This presentation wasn't about the longevity of a design, or even the specific number of people affected by that particular model. It had much more to do with historical progression, and its impact on noteworthy individuals. When you look at the human evolutionary tree, there's one Neanderthal, one Homo Habilis, one Homo Sapiens, etc., regardless of which was more long-lived or numerous.

Someone can, I'm sure, come up with more equally plausible explanations, but only the people who produced the presentation know for sure.

 

[DeltaMac]

OTOH - the timeline shows the PowerMac G5, which is where the "cheese-grater" story begins. Very much the same enclosure as the last oMP, despite the internals going through several generations.

 

[weaverra]

Pros are pros because of who they are not what they use.

 

[SamuraiArtGuy]

Pros are pros because of who they are not what they use.

True Dat.

Was gettin' paid when I was using a drafting table and T-Square. Like I said, not a big deal, was just a little annoyed.

 

[wonderspark]

The way I see it, it's standard marketing. I think it's because it's too confusing and messy to specify every exact model, given how many people don't know or care about the differences. I had a 9600/300, and I don't see it there, either.

For example, if you want to believe that Moby could not have made his music without a Mac as he stated, that's up to you. On the other hand, I had a synth connected to a PC (not a Mac) that did the same thing from 1990-1992, so I know it's merely a tale of Moby's workflow preferences and experiences. He further states that it never dawned on him to use anything but a Mac, and that is the same thing my mother said about her Apple II, because other computers intimidated her. Anyone could "play twenty different instruments at the same time" on a PC or a Mac, but the difference was that Moby had the right combination of talent, exposure and good fortune to be a hit. Now, Apple uses Moby to give the impression that it was impossible otherwise.

Apple has always been about simplicity + magical. My mother specifically chose Apple because, in her words, "I can use a computer without having to know how to use a computer." We're all fortunate that they made great products for everyone from the simple to the extreme users. Don't let the simplicity offend you, because it's nothing personal... just business as usual.

 

[goMac]

The Power Mac G5 was the first desktop computer with 64-bit architecture. It also introduced the tower design that would define pro computing in the years to come. Inside its beautiful anodized aluminum chassis was amazing power and expandability and the engine that would propel a decade of creativity.

Erm. Looks like a reference to the Mac Pro, no?

I don't know what people are expecting. The Mac Pro gets it's own parade?