Unless you're trying to do stuff in Bootcamp, I don't really think "too buggy, not really supported" fits eGPUs at this point.
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MP 7,1 Is the new 7,1 Mac Pro a failure on arrival
- Thread starter ZombiePhysicist
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Unless you're trying to do stuff in Bootcamp, I don't really think "too buggy, not really supported" fits eGPUs at this point.
Right, but if you're in that 5% then sorry, they don't feel like it's worth making a machine for your needs. That's their business decision to make, and we don't know the full extent of the data they have to make that decision, but clearly they don't see that market as being worth the investment, because it's pretty much been a decade without anything. I'd love a Mac like that, too....but instead I just got the Mac Pro.
That 5% is a number you pulled out of thin air. To my knowledge it's not supported by data.
No duh it’s a number he pulled out of thin air, but the obvious answer to “why doesn’t Apple do X” is Apple doesn’t see the profit in it, and they are more likely than us to have the hard numbers to back it up. People on Macrumors or Ifixit or most vocal internet communities are in no way, shape or form representative of Apple’s consumers as a whole, otherwise Apple’s sales would have cratered almost ten years ago when they started soldering RAM in their notebooks and never recovered, and we’d have had an xMac for the better part of two decades now.
You're right, but it's probably even smaller; I felt like I was being generous. When you exclude the gaming market, which pretty much is 100% NOT Apple, and the corporate market, which is close, then you've probably excluded almost the entire expandable desktop market. I can't think of a single person I know that has an expandable desktop computer--that market for personal use died a decade ago, outside of the two categories I just mentioned.
I think an xMac would be more than profitable. In fact it would be even more so if they did away with the Mac Mini, iMac, and iMac Pro. I bet sales of an xMac would really take off.
I highly doubt most computer users upgrade any components; most computer users are on laptops and tablets rather than desktops; and the iMac has always been far more popular than the Mac mini. I don’t think your beliefs line up with reality.
Also, cancelling a bunch of already-successful Mac lines and all-in-ones for an xMac would be lunacy.
Exactly. I'm much more technically inclined than the average computer user--I had a nearly 20-year career in technology--and the last time I bought a card to install/upgrade a computer was about 2006. I just got a NVMe card for my Mac Pro, that's the first time since then. Would I have bought a xMac? Probably, but I just bought a Mac Pro instead. That's probably the case with almost anyone like me, and I don't doubt Apple has the data to show that, which is why we see the offerings they have.
If the xMac were the only option offered I'm fairly confident it would be a success.
I think these 5% are because there was/is no other option. I'm quite sure that more pro would have gone with a headless iMac instead of an AIO if possible.
I'd say that their investment of making such a great computer like the MacPro would even better if Apple would take that design and make a smaller version of it and sell it to another target group. Maybe that will be the rumored (eSports) gamers (but I don't think so)...
Of course you hear nothing from ATI, they aren’t around as a company anymore? Haven’t been for years?
If you can get any color you want as long as it's black, then black will be a success. But chances are, it will be less successful than if a wider variety of colors is offered.
Knowing what I know about iMac owners' preferences... I seriously doubt Apple would sell nearly as many xMacs as they do iMacs. iMac has been an incredibly successful product, in large part because it is neat and simple. It has the same footprint as an LCD display. One power cord instead of two, no cable between display and CPU, no big box taking up space either on the desk or beneath it (and if that big box must be under the desk, no crawling around on your belly to make connections/troubleshoot loose connectors, etc.).
Yeah, I know, what's the big deal about a couple of cables? To someone like me, who spent decades in recording and broadcast studios... child's play. But just as there's a cultural gap between Urban and Rural, there's a huge gap between those who love tech gear and those who simply want to use it (and want it to be simple to setup, intrude minimally into their environment, etc.).
Effectively, xMac crowd is "Rural" - self-sufficient individualists who, like farmers and ranchers, know how to fix anything and prize repairability, modularity, etc. There's nothing wrong with being this kind of person, it's just that the vast majority of the population is not this kind of person.
There is a portion of the Apple fan base that wants Apple to return to its roots. No iPhone, iPad, or Watch, no services... just (presumably) beige boxes with lots of card slots running macOS. What it translates to, as far as I'm concerned, is that they want an Apple that is focused solely on their interests. Pretty much what Apple was during Steve Jobs' "years in the wilderness." It's the Apple that nearly went bankrupt. When Steve returned, he arrived with the follow-the-money focus that Apple pursues to this day. A company that focuses not on the hard core of computing enthusiasts, but on the far larger portion of the population who are not computing enthusiasts. If you don't understand why someone would want an iMac, then you don't understand Apple's customer base. If you think they'd happily buy an xMac if that's all Apple offered, you're very wrong.
Oh, I'm sure Apple would find a way to make xMac seem sexy to some portion of that non-tech population, just as the auto makers have successfully sold pickup trucks and SUVs to suburbanites who never transport something heavier than groceries and never stray off well-paved roads. I just wonder whether TV ads filled with computer geeks gaming in their bedrooms will be as appealing as ads showing ranchers hauling bales of hay to stranded livestock in the wide open spaces.
Now you know why your argument fails. An xMac isn't available and therefore you can't judge its success / failure as a result.
Athlon was AMD and again, ATI hasn't existed as a company in a long time.
ATI Technologies - Wikipedia
| Defunct | 2006 (acquisition completed) 2010 (branding phased out) |
|---|
They are SO not that. The iMac is some Apple exec's insanity and refusal to admit that AIO desktops are long past their time. Everyone uses either a laptop or a powerful tower now.
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and this conclusion is based on what? Hard market research data you have? Inside information on Apple’s sales volume by product line?
Oh the irony of asking someone for market research data from someone who hasn't provide their own.and this conclusion is based on what? Hard market research data you have? Inside information on Apple’s sales volume by product line?
You would only need to ask someone for that when they're making claims that should be based on market research data but are more likely pulled out of their ass.
This is a rhetorical black hole. I use known, overall PC-buying behavior to explain what likely Mac buyer behavior would be, and you say, "But we can't know what Mac buyer behavior would be, because there isn't a Mac that fits this description."
Make a case as to why the needs and desires of Mac buyers are so different that Windows PC buyer behavior must be ignored.
I just returned from a Costco store. They had a prominent display of Mac laptops and iMacs (no Minis), and a prominent display of Windows laptops - no all-in-ones, no compacts. At the back end of one aisle I located two Dell Inspiron towers and a gaming tower. If towers were as appealing as you think, they'd be front-of-store, and there would be a larger variety. That's how retailing works.
We know from Apple's own mouth that iMacs are by far the most popular desktops, and that laptops are by far the most popular product lines.
Even when Apple was regularly updating the Mac Pro it was a small percentage of sales, and as iMacs have gotten more powerful it's shrunk even before you get to Apple's missteps.
The idea that "all in one desktops are past their prime" is so obviously divorced from reality I think some of you guys need to get off the internet and interact with the real world a bit more.
You're using PC buying behavior to demonstrate that laptops are preferred over desktops. That doesn't prove that there isn't a market for an xMac type of Macintosh nor does it prove such a Macintosh would be unprofitable.
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How can an xMac even be considered popular (or not) if they don't offer one?
How can you assert that they'd be popular if they don't offer one? Your rhetoric cuts against your own argument?
I don't recall claiming they'd be popular. Do you have a quote of mine where I made such a statement?