Could the nMP have been discontinued?

[cohen777]

Three words: Kaby Lake Xeon. Apple is waiting, and Intel is late, on Kaby Lake Xeon processors. Apple won't make a Mac Pro without Xeon processors and Kaby Lake runs thunderbolt/usbc natively. Skylake doesn't.

 

[Larry-K]

If you spun off Macs into their own company, it would be a Fortune 500 company. Let that sink in for a minute.

A Fortune 500 company that sells three laptops and three desktops. And they can't be bothered to update them at least once a year. It would be comical, if I didn't want a new Mac so much.

Good point.

Could be called "4 Macs" (5?), could do cross promotions with "5 Guys".

Wonder how much "Courage" that company would exercise.

 

[sigmadog]

Three words: Kaby Lake Xeon. Apple is waiting, and Intel is late, on Kaby Lake Xeon processors. Apple won't make a Mac Pro with Xeon processors and Kaby Lake runs thunderbolt/usbc natively. Skylake doesn't.

Don't you mean "Apple won't make a Mac Pro without Xeon processors…"?
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Could be called "4 Macs" (5?), could do cross promotions with "5 Guys".

And the Mac Pro can keep your burgers hot.

 

[AidenShaw]

the worst thing for me is that it is really nagging me at the moment and is effecting my work / business. I am commenting on these boards / checking to see if anything has been released rather than working which is not good. Should get my focus sorted out, but release the friggin computers so I can work !!!!!

You really need to stop looking at Apple rumours, and look at how Linux or Windows could be incorporated into your workflow. The final message from Apple could be that the MP6,1 is discontinued, with no replacement.

Look at the Xserve, Xserve RAID, Thunderbolt Display and other products to see Apple's pattern of sudden "no more" announcements. Has macOS Server been announced, or did OSX Server quietly meet its demise after a death of a thousand cuts?

Many people using Adobe apps find it relatively simple to switch to Windows. (The creatives stare at Adobe screens all day, which are mostly the same.) Many other workflows can be moved to Linux or Windows - often on hardware that's both much faster than Apple systems and much cheaper as well.

If you're basing business decisions on Apple creating a new Mac Pro - if you're a senior exec you should be fired. If you're a worker-bee - it's time to start floating your resumé!

 

[Larry-K]

And the Mac Pro can keep your burgers hot.

That's what my old "G5" does best.

 

[andiwm2003]

It's unlikely anyone outside of Apple knows the future of the nMP. If my livelihood depended on the Macintosh I would have already started migration plans to move off of the platform. It is completely unacceptable for Apple to keep their customers guessing as to if there is a future with their products.

This is not limited to the Mac Pro either. It seems almost everyone who follows the Mac on a regular basis is guessing where Apple is going with it. Be it other forums on this site or other web sites. Everyone is wondering what Apple's future plans are for the Macintosh.

Yep, when I was asked in my new job what computer I want I opted out of the MBA and took a windows machine instead. At this point it's important to have one foot on the windows side. Unless Tim Cook changes his strategy I would not trust mac's as platform for productivity beyond word processing. So students should be fine for a few years but any pro with long term investments in software and people skills should be rethinking this.

Mac's are more for media consumption than productivity. There are of course still people doing great stuff on macs but you just don't know what the situation will be in 2 years from now. For all we know there will be only the iPhone and AppleTV left (ok that's a bit exaggerated....).

 

[Botts85]

Yep, when I was asked in my new job what computer I want I opted out of the MBA and took a windows machine instead. At this point it's important to have one foot on the windows side.

The correct answer would have been the 12" MacBook or 13" rMBP + Boot Camp.

That said, I'm holding out hope Apple blows our minds on the Mac side next month!

They kept the lid on the nMP rumors better than any product in the last few years. The same may remain true with the new MBPs and Mac Pros.

 

[DrMickeyLauer]

That said, I'm holding out hope Apple blows our minds on the Mac side next month!

I WANT TO BELIEVE!

 

[ITguy2016]

The correct answer would have been the 12" MacBook or 13" rMBP + Boot Camp.

That said, I'm holding out hope Apple blows our minds on the Mac side next month!

They kept the lid on the nMP rumors better than any product in the last few years. The same may remain true with the new MBPs and Mac Pros.

And if they don't? What is the next milestone you'll be waiting for? In the spring we heard "Wait for WWDC". After WWDC came and went we heard "Wait for September". Now that September has "come and gone" it's now wait until October.

 

[andiwm2003]

The correct answer would have been the 12" MacBook or 13" rMBP + Boot Camp.

That said, I'm holding out hope Apple blows our minds on the Mac side next month!

They kept the lid on the nMP rumors better than any product in the last few years. The same may remain true with the new MBPs and Mac Pros.

good luck convincing a professional IT department in a secure research department to use bootcamp or any other not by the company validated settings..........

 

[Botts85]

good luck convincing a professional IT department in a secure research department to use bootcamp or any other not by the company validated settings..........

IBM is allowing it for their badged employees. Corporately they were buying staff Apple laptops if they wanted and allowing Boot Camp use.

 

[loby]

I WANT TO BELIEVE!

Apple updated the Mac Pro page to say it is now shipping with MacOs Seirra. If they were going to discontinue the model, I doubt they would care really.

I did a clean install on my mac pro 2013 with Seirra and what a difference. Fast, and single core tasks are faster now. Major improvements I have seen. Plus, RAID is back.

Come everyone..they are waiting on Xeon Processors from Intel. With everything custom in the trash can, they have to test and make sure everything works together etc. that is why they are a year or more behind in technology realistically speaking. Can't just throw it together and out on the market without making sure all of the custom stuff works. It is not like the PC's with generic everything. If they did, macrumors would make more advertising money on the many complaining posts we would have to sort through.. . Just saying....

 

[ITguy2016]

Apple updated the Mac Pro page to say it is now shipping with MacOs Seirra. If they were going to discontinue the model, I doubt they would care really.

I did a clean install on my mac pro 2013 with Seirra and what a difference. Fast, and single core tasks are faster now. Major improvements I have seen. Plus, RAID is back.

Come everyone..they are waiting on Xeon Processors from Intel. With everything custom in the trash can, they have to test and make sure everything works together etc. that is why they are a year or more behind in technology realistically speaking. Can't just throw it together and out on the market without making sure all of the custom stuff works. It is not like the PC's with generic everything. If they did, macrumors would make more advertising money on the many complaining posts we would have to sort through.. . Just saying....

Intel has already released new Xeon processors since those currently used in the Mac Pro.

 

[F1Mac]

Apple updated the Mac Pro page to say it is now shipping with MacOs Seirra. If they were going to discontinue the model, I doubt they would care really.

Yeah but let's not read too much into it. If it's gonna be discontinued, they're still going to "support" it until it's official. Kind of like Michael Bay who repeatedly say he's not going to direct "the next Transformers" and 2 days later his contract is signed then he can officially say he's doing it.

 

[loby]

Intel has already released new Xeon processors since those currently used in the Mac Pro.

Q3 2016 release date is too early to put out anything. Takes time to test and make sure everything syncs. Even if Apple got early processors to test, it would still not be out.

When Apple updates the Mac Pro, these posts will be forgotten and everyone got their blood pressure up for nothing.

It's amazing that people think innovation is easy and can be done quickly, even in a year or two year time frame. Phil and crew probably spent a few years on the Mac Pro. That is why I think he said, "innovation my a@@".

He was proud of the Mac Pro. It was all over his face at the keynote. Open it up and take a look at the design. Awesome and took a lot of work to get all of the custom everything to talk together. Not defending Apple, but understand a bit about technology innovation and design in my younger adventurous days.

Yes, it had or has some bugs and issues, but this is first generation design and a complete custom job. My opinion of course, but designing it completely from scratch takes time to make sure everything works out the door, which probably they needed more time to make sure the dual graphics and metal works together and other things...but they needed to get it out so people would stop complaining that they are taking too long between updates. Everyone demands yearly updates or it is considered "old" technology.

I think they are taking longer to make sure all of the new complexities work and may have had issues with consistency. Thunderbolt 3, 4K to 5k and advance pci busses etc. came to maturity or is still since the last Mac Pro came out. They might have switched out or stopped midway in design to start over or implement other technologies and therefore takes more engineering time etc. just my opinion of course.

http://wccftech.com/intel-kaby-lake-q3-2016-cannonlake-2017/

 

[AidenShaw]

Q3 2016 release date is too early to put out anything.

The E5-x6xx v3 (Haswell) processors were released in Q3 2014. Apple is still using E5-x6xx v2 (Ivy Bridge) from Q3 2013.

I think that there's been plenty of time to test those Haswell CPUs....

 

[Draeconis]

Apple hadn't done anything significant with the Mac Pro between 2009-2013 before the release of the 6,1, just swapping some components out, minor software/firmware patches, nothing major at all. So they had from say 2010 to make something new.

What they did was a totally different form factor, and it took them a number of years to achieve this, but the hard work creating this form factor has been done. Don't forget we've already been told this is the new form factor for the next 10 years. So all they really need is refine the design for newer hardware and retest. That doesn't take 3 years.

Now, they made it harder for themselves here with some of it. Bespoke GPUs slow the development process down. Intel's development work has occasionally stalled, having a knock-on affect on Apple's product line. They use proprietary things needlessly like the PCIe connector for their XP941. But overall, it shouldn't have taken them this long.

 

[lowendlinux]

Q3 2016 release date is too early to put out anything. Takes time to test and make sure everything syncs. Even if Apple got early processors to test, it would still not be out.

When Apple updates the Mac Pro, these posts will be forgotten and everyone got their blood pressure up for nothing.

It's amazing that people think innovation is easy and can be done quickly, even in a year or two year time frame. Phil and crew probably spent a few years on the Mac Pro. That is why I think he said, "innovation my a@@".

He was proud of the Mac Pro. It was all over his face at the keynote. Open it up and take a look at the design. Awesome and took a lot of work to get all of the custom everything to talk together. Not defending Apple, but understand a bit about technology innovation and design in my younger adventurous days.

Yes, it had or has some bugs and issues, but this is first generation design and a complete custom job. My opinion of course, but designing it completely from scratch takes time to make sure everything works out the door, which probably they needed more time to make sure the dual graphics and metal works together and other things...but they needed to get it out so people would stop complaining that they are taking too long between updates. Everyone demands yearly updates or it is considered "old" technology.

I think they are taking longer to make sure all of the new complexities work and may have had issues with consistency. Thunderbolt 3, 4K to 5k and advance pci busses etc. came to maturity or is still since the last Mac Pro came out. They might have switched out or stopped midway in design to start over or implement other technologies and therefore takes more engineering time etc. just my opinion of course.

http://wccftech.com/intel-kaby-lake-q3-2016-cannonlake-2017/

Those aren't Xeons the newest Xeons are Broadwell (v4)and they were launched Q2 of '16 we won't see Skylake (v5) Xeons until the middle of next year at the earliest. The MP's CPU's are now two generations old and Xeons trail desktop by a year plus.

 

[ITguy2016]

It's amazing that people think innovation is easy and can be done quickly, even in a year or two year time frame. Phil and crew probably spent a few years on the Mac Pro. That is why I think he said, "innovation my a@@".

Upgrading to Intels latest processors is not what I consider innovation. It's a run of the mill task which every other workstation manufacturer has already completed some time ago. Apple should have no issues doing so either.

 

[rawweb]

All speculation on this topic. Not even backed up in graspable rumors...Heck, there are more rumors for next years iPhone (new one is barely shipping) then for the entire Mac lineup combined! MacRumors should probably just become "iRumors". Those of us still bought into the eco system are disgusted to read the CEO say they're still committed to the Mac and he personally loves them. It's embarrassing. Imagine if the CEO of GM came out and said they're still committed to making trucks and SUV's, and that she personally loves them.

 

[Cougarcat]

What they did was a totally different form factor, and it took them a number of years to achieve this, but the hard work creating this form factor has been done. Don't forget we've already been told this is the new form factor for the next 10 years. So all they really need is refine the design for newer hardware and retest. That doesn't take 3 years.

.

A form factor which nobody wanted.

What I would like to think (but don't) happened is that the new Mac Pro totally flopped because aside from Jony Ive's lab, setups ended up looking like a wad of Christmas lights with all the thunderbolt connections. So they went back to the drawing board to create a modern, internally expandable Mac Pro.

If the next Mac Pro update comes without a major redesign, it will still look like Apple doesn't take it seriously. Apple needs to go back to a design that professionals actually want and update it whenever there is something new from Intel.

 

[zephonic]

hmm, if you google hp z, the second (non-ad) displayed search result is this:

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/mac-to-z.html

 

[Hank Carter]

When Apple updates the Mac Pro, these posts will be forgotten and everyone got their blood pressure up for nothing.

No, all will not be forgiven and the ongoing attitude of Apple management towards the Mac will not be forgotten. Apple has used up the good will of it's longterm users and it will take a few years to rebuild that trust by consistently paying attention to their needs and not treating the Mac like the redheaded stepchild of the product line that only gets updated when the complaints of their remaining users and the press reaches a fever pitch.

If I had to take a wild guess the nMP replacement will probably be a single CPU box with 1-2 GPU cards in PCI slots and priced higher than the equivalent HP Win10 machine. If Apple follows their usual practice the top of the line model will have a single 18 or 22 core CPU and if priced like the nMP will come in around $9000 (with two top end GPU). That's not exactly competitive when compared to what companies like HP will be offering for that kind of money.

So as usual it will come down to what premium are people willing to pay for running OS X and that question is becoming increasingly difficult to answer.

 

[whwang]

I definitely still remember all the complaints about no upgrades of Mac Pro before the trash can appeared 3/4 years ago. I still remember the "We want a new mac pro" facebook page. Many of us had been through this.

This time, the record breaking >1000 days of no upgrade of Mac Pro will make people remember even more clearly.

 

[Daniel Reed]

If you spun off Macs into their own company, it would be a Fortune 500 company. Let that sink in for a minute. A Fortune 500 company that sells three laptops and three desktops...

And (I strongly suspect) after this October event, that will shrink down to 2 laptops and 1 desktop.
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I for one am tired of being stressed out about the future,or lack of a future of the Mac...

By 2021, I expect Apple will discontinue the entire Mac product line (in terms of updating MacOS only hardware).