Has Apple lost their mind? March 8th Event Disappointment

[UBS28]

Tbh, the pricing seems more than reasonable to me. I paid well over $10k for a Mac Pro, can probably get a better Mac Studio for half the price.

Please, don’t use the Mac Pro as benchmark.

You could build a 32-core AMD + RTX 3080 for the price of the base $6000 Mac Pro, and still have money left back then.

I’m not sure if it still holds true in the current crisis, but the Mac Pro was dead on arrival when it launched. Only crazy people bought a Mac Pro.

 

[Adult80HD]

I totally disagree; I was pleasantly surprised with the Studio and enthusiastically ordered one immediately. My use case benefits from higher core counts and powerful graphics and its for my business, so the cost is a write off. I currently have 16-core and 28-core Mac Pro and my new 16" M1 Max is faster than the 16-core on many tasks and even faster than the 28-core on some. Based on that, I expect the Ultra version I ordered will easily match or best my 28-core Mac Pro and at 1/3 the cost. That's remarkable. The entry machines are very reasonable for the performance you will get as well. They are clearly selling extremely well as delivery dates are already stretching out several months now.

As for the display, I did order one for my wife to use to replace her LG UltraFine 27". That monitor sold for $1299 and this new one has vastly upgraded specs and capabilities, so I think it's a pretty good deal. Yes, the height-adjustable stand should have been included but that's not a huge issue IMO. I would prefer 32" but if you want a high-dpi 32" screen it's just going to be expensive, period, and they have a monitor that covers that market. Besides, if you want a lower-cost lower dpi monitor there's tons of cheap choices. Apple doesn't sell cheap/low quality products, especially mass commodity ones, so again no surprise the monitor isn't targeted at that market.

 

[bobmans]

Please, don’t use the Mac Pro as benchmark.

You could build a 32-core AMD + RTX 3080 for the price of the base $6000 Mac Pro, and still have money left back then.

I’m not sure if it still holds true in the current crisis, but the Mac Pro was dead on arrival when it launched. Only crazy people bought a Mac Pro.

These "you could build xxxx for less money" arguments are so stupid and only people who have no idea what they're talking about come up with those arguments. If I would've done that then I'd just have burned $6k. If it doesn't run MacOs then it's literally useless for me.

 

[oz_rkie]

These "you could build xxxx for less money" arguments are so stupid and only people who have no idea what they're talking about come up with those arguments. If I would've done that then I'd just have burned $6k. If it doesn't run MacOs then it's literally useless for me.

His point about not comparing the Mac Pro and Mac studio still stands though even if you disregard the point about building a non Apple machine for cheaper. The Mac Pro was stupidly expensive for what it was, BUT like you mentioned for those who wanted that much power AND could only use macOS, had no other option. It still does not mean that the Mac Pro wasn't just ridiculously priced.

The main point is that Mac Pro's pricing put it squarely in the serious professional space (or if money is literally no concern for you), where as the Mac studio, you could argue is in the consumer/prosumer space.

 

[Abazigal]

I am traveling so I didn’t get to watch the event video but just read the Macrumors live blog (thank you for that) and seen the announcement.

Has Apple lost their damn mind???

So the price of entry for an M1 Ultra chip is $3799 for 512GB SSD drive or $3999 for 1TB

FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS AND YOU GIVE ME A 1TB DRIVE!!! This is 2022 and your high end Mac debuts with a 1TB drive. Are you kidding me???

That is not even counting how overpriced it us to start with … HOLY BATBUCKS

Maxed out build is $7999 !!!

and let’s talk about the dispay you will need … not a 32” … not a 30” but a 27” 5K display for $1600 !!!

Want to adjust the height on that display then add $400 for A STAND. A FOUR HUNDRED DOLLAR MONITOR STAND.

And now I am reading 27” iMac is discontinued.

There is not an instrument made that can measure how disappointing today’s event was for me. My feeling are literally hurt. I feel like an idiot for being an Apple guy for the last 17 years.

The rest of that crap they announced in fancy new colors was total crap too.

Anyone else this upset?

There’s a saying about knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing…

 

[Mity]

I was bummed they didnt drop the M1Pro into the mac mini, but i bought the studio for $2599 32gb 2tb. It is a little overkill for me, dont need the gpu that the max has. On second thought maybe i should cancel my order and grab the macbook pro m1Pro...

Exactly how I describe the Studio: overkill. This machine is aimed at a very niche audience. It's great engineering but it's not very useful for 90% of users, I think. I would've loved to see a revised Mini with an M1 Pro.

 

[Realityck]

So the price of entry for an M1 Ultra chip is $3799 for 512GB SSD drive or $3999 for 1TB

You noticed that isn’t the M1 ultra with 64 GPU cores. That’s $1000 more.

 

[antiprotest]

I think I've been desensitized. During the presentation I wrote here that I guess the price would start at $6000, monitor included. So I've come to expect this from Apple.

I would be displeased though, if one pays this much and then things go wrong right out of the gate, as Apple stuff seems to always do nowadays. But then MR people here would keep defending them.

In my own case I'm using my M1 MBA one year in and still very happy with it. Nothing has gone wrong and the performance is so good that I'll not need an upgrade for a while.

I think the Mac Studio is for people who can use it to help them professionally to a point that it will be worth that price. Otherwise one should simply not buy it.

 

[the8thark]

I would've loved to see a revised Mini with an M1 Pro.

That plus the 27 screen would have been a great iMac replacement too.

 

[EntropyQ3]

The studio display with a single thunderbolt input is just ridiculously hamstrung. Even more limited than my 2009 27” iMac that happily does duty as PC screen and speakers in parallell to its use as a Mac.
Truly remarkable.
Bought the Mac Studio though. Not exactly what I wanted, but close enough.

 

[Elektronenhirn]

Their $5999 Mac comes with 512GB storage.

So no, they did not lose their mind. They just did what they usually does.

View attachment 1969857

They dropped the 256gb option? I think it started with 256gb.

 

[MauiPa]

Holy Batspecs, you mean. sure the M1 Ultra is speedy and pricey, but can't very well say it is overpriced without comparing it to something else of equal performance. (oh, that might be a problem, you got go pretty high end and high price to come close)

 

[satcomer]

I tend To think about it and the New Display and M1 Ultra is iMac Pro replacement!

 

[tonywalker23]

Quite the opposite here – I find it inexpensive. I just ordered both the nano-textured monitor with adjustable stand and the maxed out Mac Studio.

Based on my experience with the transition from my maxed out 2019 16" MacBook Pro to the maxed out 2021 one, I expect a lot from Mac Studio. The maxed out 2019 16" MacBook Pro was (and is) a great machine, but the three months with the 2021 one are like I'm working on a different level. And I have that experience daily – I have a 2019 at work and a 2021 for work at home.

If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do that lets you have these machines and order this on day one? I ask sincerely (and trying not to be envious).
I work at a church and had to buy with my own money my last two computers, 2015 iMac and 2020 iMac. I was so mad when I asked the leadership and they told me no I could bite nails in two I think.

 

[MauiPa]

drivels of a peasant. Apple says you either make the money and cough up the cash to buy our products or look at the plethora of great cheap alternatives on the PC side. Judging from my experience with macOS Monterey so far I'm actually about to jump ship.

I'd love to see your great cheap alternatives, can you send me a link? Let's see must have a Geekbench 5 of 24,000 or so, super speedy SSD (not those cheap, slow Dell's), and a high end graphics card, cause that is what the M1 Ultras have. I'm waiting.....

Also, Monterey is awesome, but if you want windows babye

 

[Feyl]

I'd say everything Apple does, whether big or small, is meaningless unless they'll make macOS much better and faster.

 

[Jimmdean]

I consider the pricing on these unjustifiable simply because they have zero upgradeability. A laptop is one thing but a “pro” computer? If you don’t have at least one user-accessible M.2 slot in 2022 I think you are missing the mark.

The monitors are very niche though. The reasons you would buy an Apple monitor are really too technical for the event. I’m no creative so I only see the size, price, and low refresh rate and it’s a pass for me, but I understand some people need things like color accuracy that are much more important to them.

 

[oz_rkie]

Also, Monterey is awesome, but if you want windows babye

I don't know about that. I mean, OS preferences are pretty subjective. I daily drive 3 OSes, Monterey, Win11 and Linux (PopOS). Just comparing Win11 and Monterey, while in terms of aesthetics, Monterey definitely superior, functionally Win11 is just miles better. I can do so much more on Win11 compared to what I can do on Monterey. But yeah, pretty subjective.

 

[progx]

The Mac Studio was a pretty cool piece of hardware, but it’s definitely not a machine for me. Since these new M-powered Macs have rolled out, I’ll either be switching to an iMac or MacBook Air (or entry Pro). These newer machines are targeted squarely at the professional who needs the flex of the Max and Ultra.

Whenever they offer an M2 or M2 Pro option for those consumer models, I’ll be upgrading my i7 mini and regulating that to server life. In the meantime, I’m getting that new iPad Air to replace my iPad 6.

 

[MauiPa]

I'd say everything Apple does, whether big or small, is meaningless unless they'll make macOS much better and faster.

huh? Do you even use Macs? if so, What specific issues are you talking about? Gaming - well who cares, if you are a gamer, you would by a gaming rig, no one ever confused a Mac with a gaming rig. Video editing? might be slow if you used some old software that needed Rosetta 2. Yah, I guess I am very confused about what you are referring to.

 

[JahBoolean]

drivels of a peasant. Apple says you either make the money and cough up the cash to buy our products or look at the plethora of great cheap alternatives on the PC side. Judging from my experience with macOS Monterey so far I'm actually about to jump ship.

I'd say that we are finally catching up with what has been going on the pc side since the last crypto bull run pricing wise. I'd even wager that in some cases (unless gpu prices drop back to msrp) the base Ultra's pricing is on spot. The upgrades really start to sting, but hey it's apple, no need to beat a dead horse.

I'd like to see comparable workstation pricing, (yes you will most likely get more memory, but that is the poor man's argument as you should have a NAS/Homeserver and gigabit anyways). Ram is a bummer though.

 

[JohnGalt81]

I consider the pricing on these unjustifiable simply because they have zero upgradeability. A laptop is one thing but a “pro” computer? If you don’t have at least one user-accessible M.2 slot in 2022 I think you are missing the mark.

What do you think the 4 (or 6 in the Ultra model) Thunderbolt 4 ports are for?

 

[MauiPa]

I consider the pricing on these unjustifiable simply because they have zero upgradeability. A laptop is one thing but a “pro” computer? If you don’t have at least one user-accessible M.2 slot in 2022 I think you are missing the mark.

The monitors are very niche though. The reasons you would buy an Apple monitor are really too technical for the event. I’m no creative so I only see the size, price, and low refresh rate and it’s a pass for me, but I understand some people need things like color accuracy that are much more important too them.

That literally makes no sense. These are so over the top in specs, if you ever did want to upgrade, you would just sell it and get a newer model. In the before times, people used to buy desktops and slowly build out everything, replace this, then that, but no, that was before

 

[ikir]

Calm down. Maxed out means nothing since you get 8TB SSD 7Gbps. The specs are just out of this world. I think the price are pretty awesome considering you don’t need a GPU which cost a lot today, this beast probably will outperform everything. I have costumers who purchased Mac Pro with high end GPU, this cost less and it si more powerful. If you find it overpriced probably you don’t need it.

 

[julesme]

I am traveling so I didn’t get to watch the event video but just read the Macrumors live blog (thank you for that) and seen the announcement.

Has Apple lost their damn mind???

So the price of entry for an M1 Ultra chip is $3799 for 512GB SSD drive or $3999 for 1TB

FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS AND YOU GIVE ME A 1TB DRIVE!!! This is 2022 and your high end Mac debuts with a 1TB drive. Are you kidding me???

That is not even counting how overpriced it us to start with … HOLY BATBUCKS

Maxed out build is $7999 !!!

and let’s talk about the dispay you will need … not a 32” … not a 30” but a 27” 5K display for $1600 !!!

Want to adjust the height on that display then add $400 for A STAND. A FOUR HUNDRED DOLLAR MONITOR STAND.

And now I am reading 27” iMac is discontinued.

There is not an instrument made that can measure how disappointing today’s event was for me. My feeling are literally hurt. I feel like an idiot for being an Apple guy for the last 17 years.

The rest of that crap they announced in fancy new colors was total crap too.

Anyone else this upset?

I was more surprised than anything else - I expected Apple to prioritize the release of their 27" iMac with Apple silicon, as this is an important, mainstream product for them. As others have noted, the Studio is more of a niche product (especially the Ultra variant).

The question remains - what is taking so long to release the 27" iMac? I assume it has to do with supply chain and more specifically, the 27" mini LED screen that is expected to be part of the new 27" iMac with Apple silicon.