Larry Jordan on MacBreak Weekly: no MP update anytime soon

[Chupa Chupa]

Did anyone catch MacBreak Weekly yesterday or watch/listen to the podcast later? It was broadcast from NAB so Larry Jordan was on discussing FCPX and the forthcoming update he got a "sneak peak" at. I was struck when he said he asked Apple if it could commit to delivering new hardware, i.e., new MP, to take advantage of the new features to which he was told "no."

http://goo.gl/AnS7j and scan to approx 32:15


We all know that Apple doesn't pre-announce, blah, blah, blah. But they also usually use weasel words when asked about product. Rarely do they just say "no." For the first time I'm wondering if the MP era is really over. Larry Jordan is quite reliable so I'm positive he wouldn't screw up his own rep by misrepresenting what Apple execs told him. No is no, not a enigmatic "we have a powerful product line up coming later this year."

Thoughts?

 

[strausd]

Well all we can really do is hope that he is wrong :/

Personally, when I need to upgrade my Mac Pro, I am going to just build my own desktop, I know that may not be a possibility for people who don't have the time or need certain support, but it will offer great performance at a lower cost for me.

 

[pianoman88]

Finally ...

Not a problem for me.

For those of you who have never tried building a PC, it's not as difficult as you might think. You are attaching a power supply, storage devices, memory, expansion cards and a CPU. The cables, cards, and memory are designed so that they only fit one way. The only challenging bits may be installing the CPU - what with the paste and selecting an appropriate heat sink - getting a suitable case, and the "right" power supply and video cards, but there is lots of information available on the Web and salespeople can help.

Will I miss my shiny tower when I sell my MP? A little bit. But I do relish the thought of having Thunderbolt available (among other things).

 

[Glen Quagmire]

Another "Mac Pro is doomed" thread? Oh god, make it stop.

Why would Apple tell him anything? Why would the person he was talking to about FCPX know anything about future Mac Pros or other hardware?

Are people going to continue to create threads about this topic at the merest prompting? This is getting (even more) tiresome.

 

[deconstruct60]

I was struck when he said he asked Apple if it could commit to delivering new hardware, i.e., new MP, to take advantage of the new features to which he was told "no."
.....
We all know that Apple doesn't pre-announce, blah, blah, blah.

But he did not ask for a pre-announcement. He asked for a contractual commitment from Apple. Of course the answer is "no". There are only a few executives in the company that can commit Apple to a course of action. I doubt he was talking the upper inner circle.

If he wanted a weasel answer he should have ask a weasel question.
His exact question was "Can you speculate on hardware?". Of course the answer to that is no. It is explicitly against company policy to speculate in public on the record. This is equivalent to asking "are you willing to break your company's disclosure policy?". Let's see keep my career at Apple viable versus dribble some rumor ....


"Can you commit to hardware?". There is no way some mid level software exec can commit the whole corporation to a course of action. Again, of course the answer is no. It is not their call. Nor would it be likely that they were given approval to talk about products outside of their area. Even the non-detailed "more FCPX in 2012" is likely purely on pre-approval by someone above their pay grade.

He asked " if there is any new software " and they sent visual cues something coming. Again not too surprising if talking to software execs. They know, but cannot say anything. For hardware they probably don't even know. Even if they have internally seen an internal prototype that doesn't mean it is on track as a product. If Apple has withheld information from them then they can't leak it with visual cues. Leak protection is done inside of Apple as well as outside.

For the first time I'm wondering if the MP era is really over.

You are free to do that. However, this commentary by FCPX execs is a non-informational. Given the questions asked there were no useful answers coming.

 

[Umbongo]

Another "Mac Pro is doomed" thread? Oh god, make it stop.

Why would Apple tell him anything? Why would the person he was talking to about FCPX know anything about future Mac Pros or other hardware?

Are people going to continue to create threads about this topic at the merest prompting? This is getting (even more) tiresome.

This is an important thing, we know how secret Apple are about things within the company. It doesn't mean anything.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

But he did not ask for a pre-announcement. He asked for a contractual commitment from Apple. Of course the answer is "no". There are only a few executives in the company that can commit Apple to a course of action. I doubt he was talking the upper inner circle.

Well, first, and I say this as an atty, there is nothing relating to a "contract" here. Mr. Jordan simply asked Apple execs if new hardware was forthcoming this year and they didn't try to be non-committal, yet not shut the door; no typical attempt to be clever as Apple usually does -- they simple said "no." I would not expect them to, "say, but yes, of course," as that obviously gets into announcing a product, but it's rare for Apple to simply say, "no."

During the MBW show Mr. Jordan said he was doing over 80 interviews at NAB and in each one he's probably retelling the story how Apple told him "no" to MP update anytime soon. If that was not what Apple intended to relay to the world it would have finessed its words. I think we can all agree Apple knows how to finesse expertly.

Also, I would find it hard to believe Mr. Jordan, the only "outsider" we know of to-date to be invited to see the new FCX update, wasn't briefed by at least one rep from the upper executive level. Apple's goal in showing Mr. Jordan the update is to hopefully impress him enough to go out and evangelize the update. Part of that process is giving the platinum treatment, i.e., being led around by company VIPs not a lower level dev team. Plus VIPs know the exact message it wants to get out.

Another "Mac Pro is doomed" thread? Oh god, make it stop.

Why would Apple tell him anything? Why would the person he was talking to about FCPX know anything about future Mac Pros or other hardware?

Are people going to continue to create threads about this topic at the merest prompting? This is getting (even more) tiresome.

1. Mr. Jordan did not state the MP was "doomed," but that he was told nothing anytime soon.

2. Mr. Jordan is well respected in the video world which is why it invited him to preview FCX and the recent update. Apple tells him things because it's good PR to have "opinion leaders" talk about its products rather than pushing out a press release all the time.

3. It's true someone developing FCX probably wouldn't know much about future hardware. But if that is who he asked the the correct answer for them is "that's not my department, you'd have to ask someone in hardware." A FCX dev isn't at liberty to say "yes" or "no" about future hardware... or even current except how it relates to s/w features.

4. I posted this thread b/c the source is excellent and it's the latest news we've heard about the MP. The usuall "doom" threads are personal opinion. I did not post opinion, even if it is hearsay.

 

[dagomike]

I don't think that's right. On his blog he wrote of his meeting with Apple:

"I tried to get them to provide hints on upcoming hardware, but no hints were provided."

That's not the same thing as no new Mac Pro anytime soon. That's Apple being Apple and not talking about unannounced products.

 

[xgman]

My thoughts are that the Mac Pro is actually about to be dead and Apple has in mind to bump the iMac spec a bit to ATTEMPT to compensate for the gap. If I'm right this is terrible news. Also, at this late stage of no word from Apple, doom and gloom notions are a reality. A single word from Apple can prevent this, but I really am thinking that in the "Apple knows best" philosophy, they want to move us to different "powerful" platforms. Keep in mind that in Apple's way of thinking, even an ipad is considered a "powerful" platform.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I don't think that's right. On his blog he wrote of his meeting with Apple:

"I tried to get them to provide hints on upcoming hardware, but no hints were provided."

That's not the same thing as no new Mac Pro anytime soon. That's Apple being Apple and not talking about unannounced products.

Perhaps, but if you go to the video link I posted he clearly says he asked if
"they were going to be able to commit to any new hardware and they all said no." I get Apple isn't going to talk about unreleased hardware, but Apple is asked about unreleased product all the time, esp. during quarterly analyst calls and they never outright say "no." Now maybe it's Mr. Jordan saying "no," not the execs, and that would jibe with his blog post, but it's the "no" that still has me curious.

 

[xgman]

I really hate to be so negative on this, but I just can't shake this gut feeling that we already have our answer. One thing I do know, Apple like to tell us what we need as opposed to us telling Apple what to produce. They can spin this in many different ways.

 

[dagomike]

Perhaps, but if you go to the video link I posted he clearly says he asked if
"they were going to be able to commit to any new hardware and they all said no." I get Apple isn't going to talk about unreleased hardware, but Apple is asked about unreleased product all the time, esp. during quarterly analyst calls and they never outright say "no." Now maybe it's Mr. Jordan saying "no," not the execs, and that would jibe with his blog post, but it's the "no" that still has me curious.

I can't watch the video right now, but take what he wrote in his blog and that quote I would say Apple wasn't there to talk about future hardware. They were just there to pimp FCPX and get people to hate it less. Tying that into no new Mac Pros is a reach, IMO.

 

[goMac]

Huh?

All Apple said is that they wouldn't comment.

Thread subject very misleading.

As far as Larry Jordan getting pre-release hardware details, even Gruber doesn't get prerelease hardware details, and he's arguably more important to Apple than Larry Jordan.

 

[wallysb01]

Huh?

All Apple said is that they wouldn't comment.

Thread subject very misleading.

That's what I got out of it too.

 

[deconstruct60]

Well, first, and I say this as an atty, there is nothing relating to a "contract" here. Mr. Jordan simply asked Apple execs if new hardware was forthcoming this year and they didn't try to be non-committal, yet not shut the door; no typical attempt to be clever as Apple usually does --

Apple doesn't do "clever" when you are off topic.

" ... The meeting was structured and conducted very much like an Apple product announcement event. ...
... A presentation that started with the day’s focus (“We wanted you here today to talk about OS X”) and a review of the Mac’s success over the past few years (5.2 million Macs sold last quarter; 23 (soon to be 24) consecutive quarters of sales growth exceeding the overall PC industry; tremendous uptake among Mac users of the Mac App Store and the rapid adoption of Lion). ... "
http://daringfireball.net/2012/02/mountain_lion

Apple does laser focused presentations. They don't dribble out Mac Pro tidbits at iPhone announcements. They don't dribble out iOS hints at MacBook Pro announcements. This whole premise that they do cross product rumor dribbling in single presentation is weak.

but it's rare for Apple to simply say, "no."

If that is the proper answer it is not rare. "Would you care to speculate?". The simple answer to that is "No". There is an implicit "No, I would like to stay on topic". But "No, there is nothing to talk about" simply you injecting baseless speculation.

During the MBW show Mr. Jordan said he was doing over 80 interviews at NAB and in each one he's probably retelling the story how Apple told him "no" to MP update anytime soon.

It is highly like he is not saying that. If he is that's probably the last preview he ever gets from Apple because that is not what they told him. That's you rephrasing what both Apple and Jordan said to say something different.

Also, I would find it hard to believe Mr. Jordan, the only "outsider" we know of to-date to be invited to see the new FCX update,

In additon to the other quote from the blog that shows you are off base, this too is offbase.

" .. Here are the bullet points (none of this was demoed):
.....
I asked if Apple would commit to WHEN these features would be available? They politely declined to speculate. (Sigh…) ...."
http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/wordpress/archives/1800

First, he didn't pragmatically see anything. There was no demo. Perhaps some conceptual screen shots but this wasn't a visual thing. At least in the "on the record" part. They may showed him something off the record. Second, when he pressed for them to speculate on a timeline on these future FCPX features then punted. Just like they punted when pressed about timeline for hardware.

Apple's goal in showing Mr. Jordan the update is to hopefully impress him enough to go out and evangelize the update.

Right. They want him to talk about the FCPX update. Not the Apple product catalog... just about one thing.

Part of that process is giving the platinum treatment, i.e., being led around by company VIPs not a lower level dev team. Plus VIPs know the exact message it wants to get out.

There is a gap between a senior product director or software VP and the folks who can "go / no go" a product. At Apple the "go / no go" is tightly held by a very small few. I doubt any of them were tasked with pushing FCPX. It is just that strategic of product for Apple.

 

[MacVidCards]

somebody wanted some attention

 

[Peace]

The guy asked about "Mac Hardware". You guys do realize there are other Macs than run FCPX don't you ? The iMac being one.

Does this mean no more iMacs too ?

 

[AppleDroid]

Either way it's ridiculous that there hasn't been some sort of update about a product nearly three years out-of-date. Mac Pros aren't sexy like an iphone so I don't get the secrecy if that is what this is.

My guess is that Apple was banking on thunderbolt adoption taking off much faster than it has. If we had more available external options such as hard drives and gfx boxes etc then they would drop the MP and just promote the iMac as the expandable pro machine.

I don't like this path but it seems the most Apple like move considering their push for hardware and software consolidation.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

It is highly like he is not saying that. If he is that's probably the last preview he ever gets from Apple because that is not what they told him. That's you rephrasing what both Apple and Jordan said to say something different.

I didn't rephrase. I took what he said on the show. Maybe he didn't mean to phrase it the way he did, maybe I'm misinterpreting what he means. But it's not a matter of "It is highly like he is not saying that." He said what he said. Did you bother to listen to the clip? I'm not sure how I'm being off topic but we'll just have to agree to disagree. I thought what he said was interesting given how long its been since we've seen an updated MP and also that the FCPX update will support Red. Obviously one isn't going to edit Red footage on an iMac. So why would a video pro get excited about Red support if their isn't going to be an updated machine to support it? Seems weird to me.

 

[goMac]

Exact quote: "I asked if they are going to be able to commit to any hardware and they said no."

=

Thread title: "No MP update any time soon."

Again, thread title misleading.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Exact quote: "I asked if they are going to be able to commit to any hardware and they said no."

=

Thread title: "No MP update any time soon."

Again, thread title misleading.

Different people can interpret the quote (or any quote) differently -- depends on what the meaning of "is" is...). My title is how I interpret what he meant. You see it another way, which is fair, and I see how it can be read differently. It's why I ended my initial post with "thoughts?" But my title isn't misleading unless you are only able to understand the literal. I did not put quotes around "no updates anytime soon." That would be misleading.

 

[ElderBrE]

Another "Mac Pro is doomed" thread? Oh god, make it stop.

Why would Apple tell him anything? Why would the person he was talking to about FCPX know anything about future Mac Pros or other hardware?

Are people going to continue to create threads about this topic at the merest prompting? This is getting (even more) tiresome.

Agreed.

----------

Different people can interpret the quote (or any quote) differently -- depends on what the meaning of "is" is...). My title is how I interpret what he meant. You see it another way, which is fair, and I see how it can be read differently. It's why I ended my initial post with "thoughts?" But my title isn't misleading unless you are only able to understand the literal. I did not put quotes around "no updates anytime soon." That would be misleading.

That sounds a lot to what tabloids say when asked about why they report on the private life of celebrities...

 

[Joe Walker]

If you listen a little earlier in the interview, Larry Jordan speculates that what could be holding up Apple is the possibility that they're trying to make a Fibre Thunderbolt connection to implement in the Mac Pro since right now their Laptop/iMac line is all copper thunderbolt. And thus that would help make editing realtime "true" (lol) 4K a reality. That is the one thing I took away from the interview that offered any kind of real technical insight into what "could" be holding up Apple at the moment. All the rest is pure conjecture.

 

[wafl iron]

i think this is a sign from apple to stop speculating.

 

[ScouseGeek]

i think this is a sign from apple to stop speculating.

Good point well made, Apple play the cards close to the chest all the time it drives people nuts giving them a good hype PR market, and the occasional rage quit.

Let's just see what the coming day's and weeks bring.