At what point should we actually start worrying?

[kendall69]

Come on people, you MUST realize the Desktop works hand in hand with the laptop.

Cancel the Desktop and you not only cancel THOSE sales, but you will also lose a HUGE population of laptop loses.

A great majority of people use the Desktop, and then port over to the laptop when they go on the road.

Lose one and you lose BOTH sales. Apple has got to know this. I doubt Apple wants to take that much of a hit. Furthermore the Desktop is complete as far as R&D. All they do is drop in a new board and some bells & whistles and kaboon, new product. It's not like it's 1974 and they need to start from the ground up with untested goods.

Now, WHY they are jerking us around - is beyond me.

 

[initialsBB]

99.9% of people looking for a data or render server are not looking to apple. That is just the truth. This is the reason the Xserve was cancelled.

I'm pretty sure that when they put together the data farm in Maiden and not a single machine was to be an Xserve, that's exactly when they realized that the Xserves were out.

 

[xgman]

Now, WHY they are jerking us around - is beyond me.

Priorities . . . . .

 

[spock2112]

It wouldn't have made much sense to refresh the line until the new Sandy Bridge E5 Xeon chips came out, which was just a couple months ago. Dell and HP pro workstations are still using the last-generation chips too.

Now, just imagine a dual-octocore Mac Pro. 16 cores, 32 threads....

A few of these are going already (and have been for a month) in Hackintosh land:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=169&t=55963

In addition, while Dell isn't shipping, HP is starting to ship the lower end ones:
http://www.amazon.com/B2B78UT-Convertible-Mini-tower-Workstation-E5-2620/dp/B007TMY5BM (8 of these listed in stock - twin 6-core jobs for a low end model)

The higher dual 12-cores are supposedly not far from shipping. I'd say worry now or soon, get angry in June if there's still nothing positive.

 

[xgman]

A few of these are going already (and have been for a month) in Hackintosh land:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=169&t=55963

In addition, while Dell isn't shipping, HP is starting to ship the lower end ones:
http://www.amazon.com/B2B78UT-Convertible-Mini-tower-Workstation-E5-2620/dp/B007TMY5BM (8 of these listed in stock - twin 6-core jobs for a low end model)

The higher dual 12-cores are supposedly not far from shipping. I'd say worry now or soon, get angry in June if there's still nothing positive.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5846/hp-z420-workstation-review-competition-heats-up

 

[deconstruct60]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5846/hp-z420-workstation-review-competition-heats-up

Talk and demos are cheap. The Dell T3600 review they mention dates from April 23. You still can't buy them. That very early test system release is largely to freeze folks in place while HP was spinning they were going to ship "real soon now".

There is a huge difference between "we are shipping our whole line up in quantity" and just talking about E5 systems.

Heck, Intel was "talking" E5 motherboards back in November.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/28/intel_xeon_e5_rompley_motherboards/

People harp about Apple's secrecy and lack of "we may do this in future" announcements. However, when it comes time to backing up the "talk", there is no problems since "talk" and "shipping in quantity" typically happen at the same time. Intel spinning that E5 motherboards are "just around the corner" since November ..... that is exactly why there are bunch of folks in these threads with their underwear in a giant twist. I eventually found the amount of smoke they were blowing disappointing. This is a almost of case study on crappy expectation management. I'm not deeply worried though.

It isn't "who to talking the biggest smack"..... It is who is doing something.

I doubt Dell , Apple , or any of the other major systems vendors wanted to give HP a jumpstart on this. However, it seems highly likely that something was keeping most system vendors on the sideline.

 

[deconstruct60]

Come on people, you MUST realize the Desktop works hand in hand with the laptop.

Cancel the Desktop and you not only cancel THOSE sales, but you will also lose a HUGE population of laptop loses.

A great majority of people use the Desktop, and then port over to the laptop when they go on the road.

Lose one and you lose BOTH sales.

A whole bucket load of baseless stuff here.

First, Mac Pro doesn't "equal" Desktop.

Second, the vast majority of PC buyers get one computer. It is only the dramatically smaller minority that have two computers dedicated to just one person.

Laptop sales outpace desktop sales in the overal PC market. Mac growth even more so skewed to laptops.

source article: http://gigaom.com/apple/the-ongoing-decline-of-the-desktop-mac/
And those are dated numbers. It is even more skewed now during the entire period the Mac Pro has been highly stagnant.

Apple hasn't abandonded desktops. In the above graph, desktop sales have grown. That is one reason why Apple is still interested in them. However, they are not the primary market driver.


It is loopy to assert that the smaller number is driving the larger number. Most users don't need desktops. They have said so in what is being bought in the marketplace. The miniaturization of performance and increases in energy efficiency allow laptops to do much of what most users used desktops for 5-6 years ago.

There is a subset of cutting edge workstation power, but there is very little to indicate they are the "template model" for the whole PC industry at this point. Nor is there much to indicate that niche is even growing at the same rate as the overall PC market.

 

[linuxcooldude]

People harp about Apple's secrecy and lack of "we may do this in future" announcements. However, when it comes time to backing up the "talk", there is no problems since "talk" and "shipping in quantity" typically happen at the same time. Intel spinning that E5 motherboards are "just around the corner" since November ..... that is exactly why there are bunch of folks in these threads with their underwear in a giant twist. I eventually found the amount of smoke they were blowing disappointing. This is a almost of case study on crappy expectation management. I'm not deeply worried though.

Yep, Its amazing people talking about "Well at least ( Insert Name brand Workstation ) Lets us know when they will be shipping them" Then come the delays, set the shipping date back a couple of times. Dell then completely removes its new workstations web page...ect & so on.

Another reason why Apple waits till it really is ready to ship, then announces it. Could not be easier.

 

[revelated]

Aside from the wait I don't thinks we have a problem until apple says this product will be discontinued.

Apple doesn't announce discontinuing of anything.

Poly MacBook my friend. Poly MacBook.

Mac Pro is done. But they'll gladly sell you an iMac with iLion on it.

 

[DisMyMac]

Apple hasn't abandonded desktops. In the above graph, desktop sales have grown. That is one reason why Apple is still interested in them. However, they are not the primary market driver.

Of all factors, they never admit (and rarely address) neglect as a reason for lagging sales. Then they use those graphs use to justify further neglect. It's a cycle.

 

[goMac]

Apple doesn't announce discontinuing of anything.

Wrong.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/11/05/apple_to_discontinue_xserve_after_jan_31_2011/

Macbook was replaced by the Air, which is why it didn't get a discontinuation notice.

For good measure:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/07/03Apple-Puts-Power-Mac-G4-Cube-on-Ice.html

Apple issues discontinuation notices more often than they just make lines disappear. Cube was still sold in Apple stores after the notice, as they cleared out inventory.

 

[theSeb]

Of all factors, they never admit (and rarely address) neglect as a reason for lagging sales. Then they use those graphs use to justify further neglect. It's a cycle.

So you're saying that Apple is run by imbeciles who cannot understand simple cause and effect?

 

[ugru]

Apple hasn't abandonded desktops. In the above graph, desktop sales have grown. That is one reason why Apple is still interested in them. However, they are not the primary market driver.

I would like to see those green columns divided by iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro. Then, perhaps, we will have a more precise idea of the future of the Pro...

 

[itsamacthing]

Desktop - Windows 7

I feel bad for the pros that really need a Mac Pro. And it's amazing how badly Apple is managing the development of the desktop. The Mini and iMac are notebooks in a desktop shape and the notebooks are amazing. The Mac Pro is great, but 2 years old and who the heck wants tech that old. What ever happened to the Mac? Apple can make an amazing Mac that they can update every 8 to 12 months. That Mac will be more powerful than a iMac by a long shot, and maybe it won't have 24 cores, but it will be able to crunch enough for 98% of the users out there.

Ohh... that's a hackintosh

If Apple came out with a Mac, it would be a HUGE seller for them. They have to go to understand that not everyone thinks the world is in a post PC error. Some of us still need a keyboard to do our work

Windows 7 is a nice desktop and works really well in a highly networked environment... you can get a really nice desktop these days. It's something to look at...

 

[laserbeam273]

As for the "evidence" that they will drop OSX, I never said that. What I said was that IF they drop it, and focus on iOS, they will fail... Hard. That is all. If they eliminate a large segment of the owners, and favor the mobile BS, then they will lose out. It is all a big if.

You may have mistyped your first post then:

All things aside, they cannot live on iOS alone, and once that is all they have left, they will lose to rest of the world.

The above is not a conditional, it's a guarantee that one day they will only have iOS. Maybe change "once" into "if".

 

[mikee1979]

They haven't been out for a few months now. You still cannot buy a dell workstation with Sandy Bridge xeons. What clue does that give you?

Did'nt try Dell, but the PC dealer I ordered mine from have a had the xeons as an option for a little while, but they may well of had them only as an option, actually buying one could of been a different matter.

 

[DisMyMac]

So you're saying that Apple is run by imbeciles who cannot understand simple cause and effect?

Even bright people see what they want in data, or whatever secures their salary over doing what's best in other ways.

 

[sboerup]

I hedged my bets yesterday and sold my Mac Pro. I have 5 days of work before I'll be out of the country for a few weeks, by which point the WWDC will have been finished. If they haven't announced a new Mac Pro by then, I honestly don't think they will be doing it this year, or ever.

So, I'm envisioning a beefier iMac, or a completely new type of desktop. Since there really isn't much of a need anymore for traditional sata ports (with USB3 and Thunderbolt both outperforming the internal current SATA3 ports), I'm wondering if they will bring out something new...smaller, but still beefy.

Crossing my fingers though, although my gut tells me the Mac Pro is dead :/ However, it is WWDC, and most of the attendees at WWDC probably use a Mac Pro, so maybe that was just the appropriate time to wait to announce...

 

[xgman]

Is it possible that the fate of the Mac Pro or possible replacement isn't even on the table for consideration yet? That's what it seems like to me. Even as secretive as Apple is, you'd think that we would have heard some small rumor of what might be going on by now. We have heard tidbits about every other Apple product except maybe the mini.