It could even trickle down to iOS. If you stop selling the Mac Pro, and places start switching to Windows workstations, they're more likely to buy a Surface Pro than another iPad. Game developers who don't have the hardware they need to run game engines now might switch to Windows, and do Windows or Android versions first. They've kind of cut their pro lines as much as they can. The Mac Pro is still taking the load for people who were using Xserves, but you cut that last workstation class piece of hardware and things start to get really messy.
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Looks like the end of the road for mac pro
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It could even trickle down to iOS. If you stop selling the Mac Pro, and places start switching to Windows workstations, they're more likely to buy a Surface Pro than another iPad. Game developers who don't have the hardware they need to run game engines now might switch to Windows, and do Windows or Android versions first. They've kind of cut their pro lines as much as they can. The Mac Pro is still taking the load for people who were using Xserves, but you cut that last workstation class piece of hardware and things start to get really messy.
I appreciate your point, but I think you missed the broader point. Throughout Africa, Asia and S. America in the 21st century, most people's first (and often only) access point to technology is going to be a "smart phone"/tablet that will do nearly everything they need it to do. It's not an issue of ability/skill, it's an issue of income and access. Those countries aren't wasting money erecting landlines... They've jumped straight to high speed cell towers.
I remember reading an article in Newsweek (remember that?) about a guy in New York in the mid/late 90's who'd been an overnight building cleaner/custodian. He was emptying out a garbage bin and found a battered desktop PC and grey scale monitor. On the office desk was shiny new one. So he brought the junked one home and plugged it in. It worked, and he taught himself how to run it. A year later, he'd started his own cleaning company and ran the whole thing from that PC for years. They checked in with him in a "Where are they now?" section and he was still in business, put his kids through college and ran his whole company (basically) from his handheld - at the time a Blackberry.
So, while your absolutely right, many of those things are being done in these countries, but not all of it is being done the way "westerners" did it.
I think moving forward, people without the "institutional memory" that many of us in the US have of the desktop wars, Microsoft, IBM, Apple - heck even Y2K(?) etc... Are at an advantage because they are able to create from now with whatever they have.
I was at a conference over the summer and the Keynote speaker asked everyone to hold up their Tablets, Cells, Laptops if they'd brought them. A couple of hundred people needed both hands to lift their multiple devices... Then the speaker said "To young children today, what you're holding is going to be least capable technology in their lives..."
Coachingguy
No we won't, as already said their are no new processors for it to have, at best it would get a silent upgrade on the GPU's and storage options. Next year is when I believe it will get new processors if it does.
DisplayWriters!
My memory might be playing tricks on me, but I remember having to load one 8" disk to spellcheck words beginning A-M, then once that was done another disk for N-Z.
That's a humorous response and I agree with your point in a generic sense for a random example company. I myself worked at companies with a lack of resources to do everything we would have liked. If anything, hiring more engineers can actually slow things down. But that's the short term. Eventually they will get up to speed and produce. Tim Cook is a logistics guy, he knows how to defeat choke points--it's what he's known for best.
I understand they can't do everything they would like to. But to think that Apple of all companies, with Tim Cook at it's helm and unlimited cash, can't update an already existing Mac model due to lack of resources seems incredulous to me, especially given that years go by between updates. I can think of plausible reasons for the Mac Pro to be dropped, but I don't think Apple's lack of resources is one of them.
I agree, but I also believe thunderbolt 3 is a major reason to hold on a refresh. There would be no reason for them to refresh the computer at this point when they know new processors and TB3 will soon be available. Also, I'm in the thought that if they decide to make a new display, Mac Pro would be an excellent computer to debut it with (along with new TB3 MBPs). That little trash can is basically designed to sit on your desk next to an Apple display.
With a TB3 display, I'm imagining the display could potentially send power, USB, and DP all in one cable. A hell of a docking station, and a nice accessory for an iCan. 2 birds, one stone. Apple hates cables, it really could be why they waited 5 years to refresh the ACD/ATD design.
If Broadwell-EP is on track for Q4, I could see an announcement tomorrow, but I think an announcement is more likely at a November Mac event. They're going to probably do a 5k Thunderbolt display at the same time, along with Thunderbolt 3 everything, and I'd be surprised if they can fit that in around an iPad Pro. But it would be a nice surprise.
The nMP was announced six months before it shipped, so even if Broadwell-EP isn't out tomorrow or in November, chances are still good of an announcement. Even if Broadwell ships Q1 of next year they could still announce this year.
My guess is all the uncertainty around Broadwell-EP has totally thrown any release plans.
I was thinking of Skylake Xeons? Thought they would be out next year also due to the delays with Broadwell? But a Broadwell update would be nice to see.
Apple does seriously need a new monitor, they aren't exactly cheap and it's daft for them to offer a 5K iMac but not an expensive 5K or even 4K monitor. But as you said I doubt it will be launched tomorrow.
Its uncertain only to us. I am sure Intel has been very clear with Apple what its product timelines are.
And Apple doesn't care.
I'm not saying this to troll you, but to try and make a point: the computing world is moving very quickly to mobile computing, desktops are becoming a niche market and big, powerful desktops are becoming a niche within a niche. Apple 1) doesn't wait for the computing world to move and 2) doesn't do niche markets. If Apple announced tomorrow that the Mac Pro is being discontinued, I wouldn't be at all surprised.
Now, I don't think Apple is discontinuing the Mac Pro. But the days of the cMPs—lots of slots, lots of expandability—are over. If that's really what you need for your job, then I suggest you move past the anger stage of grief and accept that you have two choices, either adapt to the nMP/iMac, or abandon Apple as your main workstation.
Personally, I will hold onto my 3.33 6-core as long as Apple supports it. When they don't I will likely move on to a Macbook Pro.
In case you don't follow the almost daily headlines here, Apple makes plenty of money. Do you think they are LOSING money on the nMP? Given the price, I doubt it. But it isn't selling (up to Apple's standards) because it's a heavy investment to throw away in a couple years because you can't UPGRADE IT! Look, 6+ years later and the cMP is still a viable higher-end computer. Why? Because it isn't, for all intents and purposes, welded shut. The nMP designed to be a failed product no one wants to buy. The same *will* happen to the iMac and Macbook crowd, as they tire of spending $3000+ every couple of years on a shiny new Mac just to keep current.
If they were interested in the higher-end market, they wouldn't have killed the Apple server line (first hint they weren't interested), turned the server OS into a toy app (2nd hint), and they would not have created yet another (practically) sealed "high end" computer that the owner can't upgrade.
Apple is becoming a gadget company. Look into any Apple store. More and more tables have teenie-tiny devices on them...where's the computers?
But, they keep making billions, so either release OSX to the public domain and let us make our own Mac(which they already give away for free), or ditch the sealed cans and all-in-ones and innovate some cool desktop box we can hang a 5K display (or more) on and that we can add to over time.
If you think Apple ever cared, then that's one of us who does. I remember when Apple was a niche product and I wouldn't be surprised if they were bested in the marketplace someday by Shiny Products International some day, you can only push style over substance so long.
I just got back from SIGGRAPH a few weeks ago and Big Iron is still viable, and content creation at that level is more and more a Windows game. I talked to lots of people hanging on to using OSX for high end Apps most of them were on Hackintoshs. With Apple's limited & overpriced options it's hard to blame anyone for taking that route, and it points out how wanting Apple's current offerings are.
I'd build one myself, but my 3.46 12-core still holds up well, especially with GPU options Apple will never provide, and companies like BOXX have desktops the size of a couple of Minis with an 18 core option coming soon, so I won't have to resort to making a living by hanging out with the Hipsters at Starbucks writing a blog on beard density on a tiny little laptop, although I'm sure that startup will bring in a billion dollars in venture capital.
iMacs? please, we carry those things out on a stretcher less than two years after they come in, it's not even worth it to send them back to get them fixed, and the hours of lost productivity we've spent on them is ridiculous, from a construction standpoint they are laptops, unfortunately they're trying to do a desktop's job (they are thinner, but I don't know anyone making a living looking at the side of their computer).
I've got 5 MacPros in-house that have been humming since 2012, and we haven't had any of them down for a day in that time(of course we threw out all the Apple RAM and Drives when we got them).
I know it's not called Apple Computer anymore, there are good reasons why. Expandability over? Not till I say it is.
Workstations are actually doing well compared to your run of the mill desktop.
http://www.studiodaily.com/2015/08/hp-retains-lead-workstations-just-barely-research-finds/
A couple of guys at Pixar were given a nMP to demo Mari on for The Foundry at WWDC. I don't think there was much more to it than that. They've always used their own custom Windows and Linux boxes.
A combined one million sales a quarter is a niche market.
Exactly. And even if Apple released the most expandable Mac Pro workstation in their history, they probably wouldn't even crack 10% of that market, which optimistically calcs out at a 100K per quarter. That's practically a rounding error compared to most of the products Apple sells.
Apple hopefully keeps the MP around so there is some sort of serious stand-alone desktop option for those of us who still want a desktop, and need more than a Mini.
I don't think even Intel knows what it's product timelines are these days.
Spot on... at least on our case, we have upgraded our MP after 7 years 2008->2015.
Very nice approach.
It means I can vote with my wallet, and it's quite happy.
If you wish to speak to an Apple apologist, I'm sure you can find one in the thread.
Until they have recouped the investments in the US facility that builds them, it's still a loss. Margins are great only if they are selling them. As an example, for years, Microsoft was profitable but their Xbox division was losing money.
I know they can't be upgraded and that they are "disposable". That's what this whole thread is based around!
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Well you can upgrade the ram and the processor, and you can add powerful external GPU boxes that connect via Thunderbolt, and then you can attach storage options.
So it is upgradable just externally as Apple said at the beginning, is it neat, not as much as putting components inside it, but it is a false statement to say it's not upgradable.