I don't remember exactly where I read the CPU comments, could have been here, or maybe from a less rumor, more AAPL stock site. It was before the WWDC debacle though.
In prior to the Xeon E5's being avaialbe to system vendors in volume. (very late April '12 and previous) that was true. The delta between the June updates and their predecessors isn't that large. So it really didn't make much sense to release those earlier in 2011 like some suggested. If they are 'woefully bad" now in 2012 rolling back 6-8 months into 2011 doesn't really make that much better. Furthermore, it would have blown the "Plan B" option from being invoked in June if Apple stumbled along the way (which they did).
Apple is clearly being hugely myopic about attention to the pro market in general.
Not really. Even for he various variants of the "pro" connotation thrown around.
Pro == Enterprise and/or "big ticket price" market. Those market typically are risk adverse and move slowly on capital equipment purchases. A few will be updating at a time but the group as a whole largely does far, far, FAR, more talking and prima donna strutting ( 'either you do exactly what I say or I'm going to the next sandbox to play') than doing.
Pro == significantly above average high performance with more than average (for Macs) prices. Again, typically a substantially slow equipment turn over rate.
The Mac Pro is not the key to the Mac business. Never has been. Ever.
The bean counters don't see the value in a pro presence, just the cost of doing so when the vast majority of profit is coming from laptops and mobile devices.
It is growth not profits. Growth is what inflates the Apple stock by large amounts over longer period of times.
As for GPUS's, I stand by what I said. If they are going to make us wait, adding a GTX 670 or even base 680 option (dual six pin power) and a few lines of code to get a boot screen would have cost next to nothing
The boot code is not Apple's code. Whether the card presents to EFI is the card vendor. I suppose Apple could hand over a wad of R&D money as a bounty for the card vendor to do the work. While Apple does that for some parts for the most part they slide risks to the components vendors side of the table. That's primarily why there are no cards.
If there was a gap between OpenGL and the card that is more so the area where its "Apple's fault".
and would help them get rid of remaining stock while keeping defections down.
Apple generally does not have an inventory problem.
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/06/01/apple-inventory
They have one of the most highly tuned "just in time" supply chains in the business. That is one reason why they have been highly successful and a primary reason why Tim Cook is now CEO.
If the suggestions you are sending are along the lines of "you should do blah, blah, blah to clear out inventory" then they are most likely being politely dumped into the trash can.
That's like trying to sell air conditioners, ice makers, and "walk in" freezers to Eskimos living North of the arctic circle.
