Has Apple lost their mind? March 8th Event Disappointment

[Homy]

Last year I took screen shots of all iMac 27" prices here in Sweden (tax included). An iMac 27" with 10-core i9, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Radeon 5700 XT 16GB VRAM, 10Gb Ethernet and keyboard and mouse costed ca $4943 with current exchange rate $1=9.93 SEK.

The base Mac Studio with 10c CPU, 32GB unified RAM, 512GB SSD, 24cGPU 32GB VRAM and 10Gb Ethernet costs today $2567. I'm sure for $2376 you can find a good monitor, keyboard, mouse, webcam and speakers AND superior CPU/GPU performance.

 

[sb in ak]

I think the Mac Studio and monitor look like a nifty combo. Reminds me a little of the G4 Cube and monitor setup. Apple hasn't offered a desktop setup that's priced toward the more prosumer (for lack of better descriptor) audience in a while so I don't think it's disappointing.

 

[DocMultimedia]

If I was still working for a company that bought my computer I'd get the studio in a second. And no one seems to have mentioned the new finger print iPhone. Big for many. But not me. Bring on the 14 Pro.

 

[ADGrant]

What upper-end Mini? I think the only reason the have kept that Mini is to have a "cheap" Intel Mac to offer since the iMac 27" is also gone. I don't think there will be a new top Mini, just like there is no bigger iMac either.

They probably kept the Intel Mac mini around for software developers who still need to test their software on Intel Macs.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm more offended by the fact that mouse and keyboard are sold separately. Will this be a common practice going forward? I can't remember any Apple machine that didn't come at least with mouse and keyboard in the past.

Wait…what?
Really? I totally missed this part of it

That sucks completely (and is more nickel and diming)

 

[NT1440]

Wretched they did not put a T4 port on the Studio Max. They've crippled it IMO. You get a Thunderbolt port on every single Mac except for that Studio, which will be the biggest selling version. Crazy.

There’s 4 on the back?

 

[ade555]

Some nice additions for people who need it, specially for the ones who wants 27" monitor and know it will work as it should with other apple devices, I was hopping for display around the 1k mark so is bit out of my price range been honest or should I say is more then what I'm willing to spend on display.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Serious question, who’s using these things? I can’t find any business online that uses MacOS as its primary ecosystem let alone one that would need this much computing power. Most corporations that do require this type of computing use Windows.

Apple always shows us music artist, photographers, designers, etc using $10K setup but why on earth would any of these people need this? And if you’re an indie developer or solo artist you probably can’t afford it.

Apple’s hardware is at the point they need to focus on software that can actually take advantage of their devices.

 

[Melbourne Park]

Serious question, who’s using these things? I can’t find any business online that uses MacOS as its primary ecosystem let alone one that would need this much computing power. Most corporations that do require this type of computing use Windows.

The volume of software available shows business uses Macs. My son has a franchise from a tech company, owned by the largest robotics company in the world. They specify some mac hardware.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Serious question, who’s using these things?

It’s a really great question.

I’m sure the usual handful of very well off developers and podcasters will be raving about them.

But it’s honestly just like a discretionary sports car purchase for those folks more so than a really smart allocation of capital and efficient return on investment.

 

[ArkSingularity]

Serious question, who’s using these things? I can’t find any business online that uses MacOS as its primary ecosystem let alone one that would need this much computing power. Most corporations that do require this type of computing use Windows.

Apple always shows us music artist, photographers, designers, etc using $10K setup but why on earth would any of these people need this? And if you’re an indie developer or solo artist you probably can’t afford it.

Apple’s hardware is at the point they need to focus on software that can actually take advantage of their devices.

Pro-res video editing and various game-engine offline renders could definitely utilize this kind of performance. As could AI tasks and other data-science tasks.

Every tasks? Definitely not. Even Logic Pro X runs fantastic on enormous projects on the base-level M1, but if someone has enough complex third-party software instruments running at high sample rates, I could see this kind of performance being useful.

For most of us, this is overkill, but there are definitely folks out there. This is the kind of performance you normally see in high-end enterprise-grade servers, so they're used to paying a premium for it.

 

[ian87w]

Problem here, is folks are thinking about the Mac Studio as a Mac Mini. It is not, in any way a new Mac Mini. It may be replacing the "high" Mac Mini in the product stack, but this is in no way a new Mac Mini. The price alone proves that point. Whether you are shocked about how high or low it is (based on your perspective), this is not targeting the previous customers for the Mac Mini. I think there is a reason that it is called Mac Studio (no mini in there), as it is either targeting folks who looked at the iMac Pro, or folks wanting a smaller Mac Pro.

Watching their presentation, they actually targeted 27" iMac users. They compared the Mac Studio with the 27" iMac quite often. It's weird.

In any case, the Mac Studio is a good deal for people looking to get a Mac Pro. You get the performance, ports, for less. But it's not a consumer device, so it's weird that Apple expected this to replace the 27" iMac.

 

[the8thark]

Watching their presentation, they actually targeted 27" iMac users.

They targeted the high end 27 inch customers. Apple did not target the prosumer level (low and mid tiers of the 27 inch) of customer.

 

[EntropyQ3]

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.

Colour accuracy is, for reasonably good monitors, a matter of calibration. Crappy monitors are too limited in colour gamut to be well calibrated, but there are $400 4k 27” screens that can be made to yeild effectively perfect colour response. (DCI-P3) And that allows simultaneous connection of different computers.

 

[Maven1975]

If Windows worked natively with Apple diver support, these would be much more attractive. At 5k+, I’d expect to work and play on the machine.

 

[henrikhelmers]

I have used an M1 Mac for work since it came out and it has been fantastic. As far as hard drives go it depends on the use case. One of my work machines have 512GB of storage and it is not a problem.

The issue I have with their strategy is that I need one machine with a big HD to backup photos, music and documents locally. And that forces me to buy a 2TB disk.

It would be nice if there was a utility that would let you dump your iCloud data directly into Time Machine.

 

[Tozovac]

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?

Oh the woes from being a slave to shareholder growth expectations…

Who pays for that? The customer, oh how they pay…

 

[leslieg]

Well good thing there is more affordable computers in their lineup ?

You get what you pay for

 

[wilberforce]

They targeted the high end 27 inch customers. Apple did not target the prosumer level (low and mid tiers of the 27 inch) of customer.

Precisely. This Studio Mac with display makes sense if it generates income.

However it is going to be hard to justify for many people and families for home use, for whom the low/mid 27" iMac provided incredible value by having an awesome large screen and decent processor wrapped into an elegant package for a very reasonable price.
These people are now looking at downgrading to a 23.5" screen, or getting some plasticky 4k monitor to go with a Mini

 

[oz_rkie]

Well good thing there is more affordable computers in their lineup ?

You get what you pay for

I think you definitely are getting what you pay for (and probably more) with the mac studio, pricey of-course but it has the horsepower to justify the price.

That monitor though is a different story. There is no way in the world that monitor is worth $1600. Yeah, its 5k and good image quality and has good speakers and webcam/mic, but no HDR, no mini-led, 60hz, 27" only, fat bezels. Jeez, even at 1k I would think twice about buying it. Especially, in 2022 when you can get some really good monitors.

 

[Krevnik]

They targeted the high end 27 inch customers. Apple did not target the prosumer level (low and mid tiers of the 27 inch) of customer.

Effectively this. The 27” iMac covered a rather large chunk of space from home use to professional use when the Mini is too anemic, but the Mac Pro overkill. And then you also had the iMac Pro, and folks who for one reason or another liked the 2013 Mac Pro. Apple’s trying to cleave off a lot of these users onto the Studio.

But it does make me wonder if we’ll get an M1 Pro (or its successor) in the Mini and 24” iMac down the road? It’s a little odd you can’t get that in anything other than the MBPs at the moment when it seems even more obvious to me now that it should slot in right under the Studio and bring the lower end iMac users onto the 24” model, or onto the Mini.

 

[mr_roboto]

Precisely. This Studio Mac and display makes sense if it generates income.

However it is going to be hard to justify for many people and families for home use, for whom the low/mid 27" iMac provided incredible value by having an awesome large screen and decent processor wrapped into an elegant package for a very reasonable price.
These people are now looking at downgrading to a 23.5" screen, or getting some plasticky 4k monitor to go with a Mini

I have a very different reaction to this.

The 27" iMacs always felt like a bad value because they tied two different things into one indivisible unit: an expensive relatively high end monitor which could remain useful for 10 years or more, and an expensive computer which was going to become obsolete much faster than the monitor.

By unbundling the two, you can upgrade the computer as often as you want or need to. And if you decide your monitor isn't enough, you can upgrade it and use the old one as a second display, or with a different computer, etc.

 

[Realityck]

Effectively this. The 27” iMac covered a rather large chunk of space from home use to professional use when the Mini is too anemic, but the Mac Pro overkill. And then you also had the iMac Pro, and folks who for one reason or another liked the 2013 Mac Pro. Apple’s trying to cleave off a lot of these users onto the Studio.

But it does make me wonder if we’ll get an M1 Pro (or its successor) in the Mini and 24” iMac down the road? It’s a little odd you can’t get that in anything other than the MBPs at the moment when it seems even more obvious to me now that it should slot in right under the Studio and bring the lower end iMac users onto the 24” model, or onto the Mini.

Perhaps they have rethought how they want the all-in-ones to evolve. I picked up a 24" iMac when my 2015 27" iMac CPU board failed. I also have a 16" M1 Max MBP. You could say both those models took users away from waiting for a redesign 27" iMac. Now you have the Mac Studio and some that wanted a iMac Pro again are probably more that will give up on the 27" iMac coming sooner then later from Apple.

I daresay Apple has been scheming for a long time about what to do with the 27" iMac being a great bargain and drawing people to buy it over and over again when they want to have different desktop Mac lines (low end, middle, and high end) to market to consumers.

I hope we see a more advanced iMac with a promotion display. I love that on the 16" MBP, and if they had it on a 24" or larger I easily go for that and whatever SoC runs it.

 

[wilberforce]

I have a very different reaction to this.

The 27" iMacs always felt like a bad value because they tied two different things into one indivisible unit: an expensive relatively high end monitor which could remain useful for 10 years or more, and an expensive computer which was going to become obsolete much faster than the monitor.

By unbundling the two, you can upgrade the computer as often as you want or need to. And if you decide your monitor isn't enough, you can upgrade it and use the old one as a second display, or with a different computer, etc.

Unbundled for almost twice the price, though. You could get a pretty decent 27" iMac for $2500, and a base one for $2000.
On my last iMac the display did not really last longer than the computer (developed image retention after 5 years).

 

[Jim Lahey]

I'm impressed by the Mac Studio but not by a $1600 monitor where you have to pay an extra $400 for a height adjustable stand. Everything else was just a bit meh for me. A refurbished iPhone 8 and an M1 powered iPad that still won't be able to remember its Safari sidebar status for more than about two minutes. Apple are slowly losing my attention. Less time woke virtue signalling and ripping people off, more time fixing the ballooning amount of software bugs and unfathomable design choices therein.