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Are the Mac Pros ever coming???
- Thread starter tony3d
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Because with the rumors of discontinuance I think they owe us some sort of statement. If HP and Tyan, etc can do it, why can't Apple. I think it is very arrogant at this point. I'll wait and I'll buy, but I'm dissapointed in the seemingly arrogant way they are handling this. Feel free to disagree, I stand by my feelings.
Because with the rumors of discontinuance I think they owe us some sort of statement. If HP and Tyan, etc can do it, why can't Apple. I think it is very arrogant at this point. I'll wait and I'll buy, but I'm dissapointed in the seemingly arrogant way they are handling this. Feel free to disagree, I stand by my feelings.
The rumors were created by bloggers and no-nothings for clicks. Why do they need to address such nonsense? So I disagree. Panty-bunching all over the place.
Are you building your own workstation? I've been window shopping and am curious what you went with. I notice Newegg only has two dual processor LGA 2011 motherboards for example.
And if they're not discontinuing there is no statement. That's the problem.
If they're discontinuing, there will be a statement. If they're not discontinuing, they can't make a statement that will kill the current model by saying there is a new one coming.
What's a statement going to do for you anyway? If they do cancel it, you'll have time to buy the current model. If there is no statement, a new model is still coming.
If the Mac Pro is being discontinued, I highly doubt it will be sticking around past the next few months.
Because they made it in to the mainstream places that we read and made us question their intentions. What harm would it do for Apple to do the right thing for a part of it's customer base (small part maybe) for a change? I'm not the only one who feels this way.
+1
The day Apple decides to do press releases based on what a couple of schmos have posted isn't going to come.
Let these threads die until the 23rd at latest.
Are you all forgetting that the 6 o'clock news will soon be full of images of people standing in lines in front of Apple stores?
Of mother's crying because they can't get little Jimmy his new iPad for his birthday?
Of mall cops frustrated that they can't chuck the riff raff out of their mall because they have been in line all day?
Give them their week of glory. Then come back here.
If we are lucky, someone will interview Bill Gates during that so he can have an angry moment of pointing out that Microsoft thought of pads first before he storms off set. THat will help kill the time.
The real question is how do so many of you have jobs where you can fritter away the hours reading drivel? Here comes your boss, now BACK TO WORK !!!
I admit I have a short attention span and and have very little patience. (sound familiar to anyone
But I need to make some long overdue decision and really don't mind waiting even months if I knew something was coming. They could wait till all MP's are gone and say , well, that's all folks. It's just big brother marketing arrogance and I simply don't like it. Again, I don't care who disagrees. Just as many or more will likely agree. Once it is released, I'll shut up for another year. I also am realistic that the platform is winding down. I am just heavily invested in OSX apps etc., and also like an over the top system. I know I'm ranting . . just venting . .----------
Day off.
By the way, it's not us or them. I have 3 ipads, one on order,3 iphones, imac, macbook pro and of course 2 Mac Pros, so I can support both ends of the equation but I'm still cranky. ... .
The harm is if they do announce they are updating the Mac Pro, it could destroy existing sales. HP can announce, but it will destroy HP's existing sales. That's HP's choice though.
I admit I have a short attention span and and have very little patience. (sound familiar to anyone
Again, if they announce the Mac Pro is being updated, it will destroy existing sales.
Apple has also never ever sold out of something and then said "well that's it." Newton, G4 Cube, XServe, Macbook, PowerPC all got "send off periods" where they were still being sold but announced as canceled to give people time to get their last orders in. Usually when Apple announces a cancelation, they announce a date a few months in the future when the product will be removed from the store.
The G4 cube famously became one of Apple's best sellers after it's cancellation was announced.
It's not like Apple times it perfectly and goes "Well that's it! Last Mac Pro is on the Fedex truck! Let's post the announcement!"
No announcement is good news.
2x E5-2687w and Asus Z9PE-D8-WS. Wanted EVGA SR-X but the PCI-E layout they chose was fail.
I agree that it would be awesome to know what is happening at Apple. But then it wouldn't be Apple anymore, would it? I am used to the mistreatment. I almost want it now. Please hit me again Apple. I've been bad.
Not as much as you might think, as their sales are primarily dependent on large corporate sales. Which are based on both purchasing schedules and IT support concerns (as many identical systems as possible to simplify IT support = lower IT costs). So the announcements are a necessity for their customer base.
The MP's sales OTOH, seem to be based more, if not predominantly, on small purchase quantities (i.e. independents and SMB's; I'm not saying large companies don't buy, just not in massive quantities). Combine this with fewer MP's sold comparatively speaking, it matters to their sales figures. So their willingness to keep their customers in the dark to prevent stalled sales has logic behind it.
Unfortunately, such a position can also turn customers against them, which is what threads such as this are reflecting IMO. Existing customers are understandably nervous (i.e. customers with a substantial investment in OSX based software and training), as they're unable to plan system purchases.
The reason behind the planning it seems, is smaller companies and independents are doing more of a formal cost-benefit analysis lately as a result of financial pressure in their respective markets (shrinking margins, less work, ... = no choice; essentially plan or die). Large corporations figured this out long ago, but small/independents have finally figured this out and tightened their belts so to speak.
So now that they need information on which to plan as well, and Apple isn't delivering, they can perceive it as Apple just doesn't care. Understandable IMO.
Ball's in Apple's court as I see it.
While somewhat true (I've worked in institutions doing massive multi million dollar orders that will stall at the hint of a new revision), the Mac Pro falls under the same policy as the rest of the Mac line. Apple has always been paranoid of the Osbourne Effect, and they didn't even comment on the Mac Pro specifically during the PowerPC transition.
Apple's never hinted about the Mac Pro being cut in the first place. As far as they're concerned it's a bunch of rumor, and we all know Apple's policy on rumors...
Apple is not going to say anything about the Mac Pro, and that should be totally expected. Whether you feel that is appropriate for the pro market is up to you, but it's not going to happen.
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MP is a professional product, though Apple treats it as a consumer product (same with the XServe when it was still offered). In the past, though it sucked to most end-users, it worked for Apple as MP purchases were based less about formal cycle planning in my experience (by the user), and more of when the buyer had the funds available (as most of the MP buyers are independents).
I realize they're paranoid of the Osbourne Effect, but there's another point I deleted from the previous post that needs to be mentioned, and that's based on their product cycle planning.
Specifically:
- Apple has total control of what they order (volume) and when they're delivered to Apple via contract (= won't get stuck with a large inventory of old stock).
- They'd also have total control of the announcements (I expect the "leaks" on the consumer gear have been strategically planned, and done what was intended - remember, they've a very well-oiled Marketing Dept.).
So it shouldn't be that hard to get it right under these conditions, thus eliminating the Osbourne Effect entirely (too much is made of this issue when products aren't designed from the ground up).
Something to keep in mind at least...
ATM No, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
IIRC, there wasn't much notice on the XServe, and I suspect they waited until there was a very small amount of remaining stock in their warehouses (and certainly no more shipments due in).
I'm not saying that it's not coming this time around, just that I don't expect a lot of notice (i.e. they won't say "this is the last one" as soon as it's released; they'll wait until they've sold nearly all of the systems out first, announce EOL, then clear any remaining stock in the Refurbished section of the Apple store).
Institutions of that size obviously have some kind of IT support. Those guys have an idea what raw hardware is available at a component level, so if they're as paranoid as you suggest, they have some limited ability to gauge these things. Given that we're not approaching a year end, I would guess that they'd wait it out.
I don't think they'll have a huge problem clearing existing stock even without clearance prices. People buy things that have familiarity, and often when a product line is dropped, you've got a couple years of lag time where the market is lacking a solution that can easily replace it for everyone. The same thing happens with expensive displays (Sony Artisan and the CG211 both sold out fast as hell upon discontinuation notice).
It's less about having an issue clearing the stock, than it is to gain any remaining capital sitting on the floor back.
That money can generate a higher ROI by putting it back into another product that sells in far higher volumes.
Even the warehouse space can be calculated in terms of income/sq.ft per unit time. So if a product sits on the shelf for 6 months, even though it might sell for $5000, is less than 25 iPads per wk @ $500 per ($650k) in a year's time. Gross increase of $640k for the same floor space.
BTW, in the case of the Sony monitors, were those sold to customers directly from Sony, or a vendor?
I ask, as I suspect the latter, which is not only a different product (some merit due to CTO's), but Sony wasn't wasting floor space to warehouse them in such a case. And unlike a high-end monitor where there may not be a suitable replacement (from Sony or otherwise), there are competing products in the case of the MP (hardware POV). MR members are even complaining about the software for OSX, so OSX may not have the authority it once did in the decision making process (i.e. users may decide the better move is to Linux or Windows for an over-all system solution).
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I'll kill both birds with one stone here... Apple gives product hints to their big buyers (including pro buyers.)
We're not big buyers. But in the example I gave we were a big buyer, and it wasn't that IT said we shouldn't buy, but Apple actually told us that an extremely major revision was coming. They actually let us buy them before the machine was publicly announced, and we got the first ones off the line. (And it was a new major product.)
So the idea that Apple doesn't tell big pros what they're doing is a falsehood. But we're not big enough pros.
If I made an avatar to illustrate this point, it would be funny, but I'd probably get banned. Someone using a cat as an ipad rest though is still pretty funny.
That was a very nice breakdown. Something I wasn't considering which I should have is the number of variations available on the mac pro. At some point they'd have to pull the cto models if availability of parts needed for non stock configurations wanes. In the case of Sony they were to vendors. Apple could do the same kind of thing. They've mentioned before that they keep a somewhat short supply of components on hand for this reason. I meant that the vendors sold out incredibly fast when they were discontinued. I remember this as I was trying to pick up one about that time
. Regarding competing hardware I was referring primarily to situations where dedicated PCI hardware options are still a requirement.Regarding OSX it depends how much costly software would need to be switched. Cost of license swaps (available from most software companies if you ask, but cost varies) or competing software solutions as well as familiarity can make people want to remain on a particular platform.
My own primary issue with recent OSX versions has revolved around driver issues (speaking of displays, seeing 10 bit capable drivers under Lion would be nice) and bugs. It's like they're just letting it coast on the current brand popularity.
They have had almost 2 years to clear stock and prepare for this. If it had only been one year, I can understand the silence, but now, with the rumors of discontinuance, it rubs me the wrong way. Nevertheless, Apple stock is at an all time high, so what do I know. . . .
The writing is on the wall. Today's rumor on the front page stating the 15" mac pro will likely become a 15" Air is more of the same. I predict that by next year the "Pro" word will be removed from all Apple products.
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