I don't doubt that laptops are outselling desktops, they are more than powerful enough for the average user. But, do those numbers include people who BUILD a desktop as opposed to buying one pre-built? Even in the apple world, many professionals are starting to 'build your own' given that the Mac Pro is WAY behind the price/value curve at this point (you are now paying a massive premium for a 2 year old platform).
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Don't Understand Apple's Direction
- Thread starter salamatali
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I don't doubt that laptops are outselling desktops, they are more than powerful enough for the average user. But, do those numbers include people who BUILD a desktop as opposed to buying one pre-built? Even in the apple world, many professionals are starting to 'build your own' given that the Mac Pro is WAY behind the price/value curve at this point (you are now paying a massive premium for a 2 year old platform).
I've felt the same way for some time. I finally switched, finished my build last night and am working on burning it in. I've been frustrated by Apple in the same respects. I just couldn't ignore the draw of having multiple hardware upgrade lanes available to me all the time. Being locked in a room where the walls seemed to be slowly but not imperceptibly closing in was driving me nuts! Sounds like you're just about there yourself. I was really on edge contemplating going either way and being disturbed by it, but I decided to just go ahead and build. I was enthralled studying the various hardware components and I think I got bit by that bug. Now I'm looking at computer porn, custom rigs with color coded interiors and cooling solutions, reminds me a lot of car tuning! I think I'm bit!
Anyhow, good luck with the new box! I really hope Apple does wow us in 2013. I could be won back, but this machine I built is gonna be good for years so I have some time to sit back now and watch the Apple direction without going out of my mind!
As for the guys talking about the midas/soundcraft consoles and needing a 'magic' solution for touchscreens to compete on a tactile level, it seems Apple is really pouring some r&d into capacitance touch screens which will actually give you tactile feedback to objects on the screen. I imagine it will be some time before we see stuff like this. I have a hard time imagining Apple to be the ones to pioneer on this kind of frontier. I could see them leading the way bringing it to an ipad or iphone, but a full size capacitance touch screen computer seems too niche for Apples mainstreaming agenda.
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The OP asked why Apple is prioritizing laptops over desktops. I provided numbers from Apple's last quarterly financial statement that pretty clearly answer that question.
I'm not sure why the number of people that are building their own hackintosh is significant to this point. (And I think you are over estimating the number of professionals that would use unsupported hardware with an unlicensed OS.)
In most situations, I'd expect this to be the case. But for highly under capitalized companies, independent single person companies in particular, this may be more of a possibility than ever.
That said, it's still very likely a very small number of people. Those I've had contact with, are looking to switch, but aren't looking at a Hackintosh very seriously (i.e. too uneasy/scared to deal with OS X licensing issues and lack of support). So most in this group are looking at a vendor or DIY system, but running Windows, not OS X (software as much as hardware factoring in these decisions).
Small sample overall, but that's what I've gotten from clients anyway...
I may throw another drive in my machine and try the hackintosh as an experiment since others have successfully used my hardware profile, but it wouldn't be for prime time working, it would be more for fun and maybe cross platform compatibility testing if anything work related. For the most part when I made the switch I said bye bye to Apple for now. I'll still use my MBP for a lot of web surfing and such as I don't have to worry so much about viruses etc., and it wont be my primary work machine anymore so if it were to somehow get infected, wiping it or dealing with it wouldn't be a problem.
Maybe Apple sees it that way too, who knows. Let them have the PC's for the workstation horsepower and then switch to an Apple device at home for seamless safe web browsing, surfing, and consumption. If that were the case maybe the whole ios-ifying of osx isn't such a bad idea. IF that were what's going on...
Maybe Apple sees it that way too, who knows. Let them have the PC's for the workstation horsepower and then switch to an Apple device at home for seamless safe web browsing, surfing, and consumption. If that were the case maybe the whole ios-ifying of osx isn't such a bad idea. IF that were what's going on...
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I don't have a large sampling statistic to go by either, but I have heard several professionals that are heavily bought in to the Mac Pro ecosystem complaining about the state of the Mac Pro and either have started building hackintoshes or were seriously considering it but holding off with the expectation that this WWDC would have a refresh announcement. The usual comment I hear is 'we just need one more refresh, even if they want to kill it off after that'.
These are the people that NEED the Thunderbolt and/or USB 3 connectivity in their workflow and the raw horsepower of the Mac Pro running at 100% CPU across all threads. You can currently get both Thunderbolt and USB 3 in hack-pro but not a mac pro.
They are not doing it because they want to, or are even that comfortable using them in their production environment. They are getting pushed in to the corner of doing this or switching platforms. A year ago they would never have though seriously about doing this.
The BIG concern about direction is that Apple is 80/20% the professionals back in to Windows systems. They keep dropping features that only 20% of people use, but combined those features end up being used by 80% of the professional users.
I don't think trucks will exctint,they will just change fuel=Os and engines=Cpus.
Pro users will still exist,i don't think schools will die just because amlot,of people never go (or has the resources to go)to any classroom.
Apple has bornt with Pro within,cannot survive as a Pro reality with just I-Toys or laptops.
That doesn't mean it won't try to,but at this point and for many years to come
no Arm Cpu-Gpu can compete with Xeon,Desktop Cpu and Desktop Gpu.
Pro users will still exist,i don't think schools will die just because amlot,of people never go (or has the resources to go)to any classroom.
Apple has bornt with Pro within,cannot survive as a Pro reality with just I-Toys or laptops.
That doesn't mean it won't try to,but at this point and for many years to come
no Arm Cpu-Gpu can compete with Xeon,Desktop Cpu and Desktop Gpu.
I've heard similar, save the willingness to go with a hackintosh.
Those that indicated they would take this route, tended to be very short on physical cash (i.e. little to no choice, based on funds). Most indicated they would have to switch to Windows however, as Linux wasn't really plausible for their needs.
I don't see it this way, based on what clients I've dealt with are primarily doing.
Yes, some could benefit due to sharing devices between field work and their workstations (i.e. location shooting using a camera, laptop, and portable disks, and editing that content back at the office on their MP's). But this is currently a small % from what I'm seeing (those that get their own location data).
But overall, it's more interest in a new product than actual need from what I've seen and discussed.
My reasoning, is that most apparently get that content sent to them from the client, and connect to it on a more common interface, such as eSATA or FW800.
Obviously this could change, but that will take time (needs further market saturation/increased adoption levels), assuming this isn't displaced by by other technology, such as 100Mb/s or better ISP plans in pretty much any location (same cost or less than what they may be paying for 1.5Mb/s or so for example; figuring on a 10x fold increase in throughput with little to no cost increase).
Ah, the car analogy.
But will there every really be less, or will it just be that less "regular" people own them?
This is the big concern I see. Debating how 'necessary' something like TB or USB3 is ... misses the point: each one is merely YA symptom of a larger problem.
-hh