New 2013 Mac Pro (possibly WWDC?) - Any word?

[LongSticks]

Surprised!

So does Apple have something in the works here, or not? I know the Mac Pro community is really hoping for something drastically new, refreshed, and updated...and Tim Cook has alluded to such things with statements such as "We have something really great planned for our Pro customers" -- but other than that, he has been pretty tight lipped about the situation, with not much word coming out of Cupertino about a new Mac Pro box making the testing rounds.

So what do you all think...do you think Apple is working on this "new" Mac Pro, and that we will see something of the sorts in 2013?

Or will the cheese grater aluminum tank be the end-of-line in a phase-out, as Apple moves to concentrate all energy on its more consumerish gadgets like the MacBooks, the iPad, and the iPhone?

I want to hear some discussion on this.

I'm surprised, unless I missed it, that nobody has mentioned that Apple have NO Pro level machine for sale in the European Union at the moment.

Remember that the whole world isn't US centric and traditionally the European market has been relatively strong to the MP.

The forced withdrawal from the market does fit with the release of the new, all within 4-5 months of each other potentially. Apple know that the MP users they are catering too know that a new machine is coming, so sales would be flat at this point in the cycle! Otherwise I'm sure they would have sorted the fan issue for the MP to remain on sale in the EU.

Just a thought! C&C

 

[telequest]

As far as video editing goes, Avid is in financial trouble and Final Cut X is now fully featured so a lot of holdouts could be persuaded to invest in a new Mac Pro with this strange but wonderful new version of Final Cut. Everything changes and editors need to get with the times of be stuck on legacy systems.

Avid is far from the only alternative. Adobe Premiere CS 6 is pretty much what a successor to Final Cut 7 might have been, and a far easier transition for former Final Cut 7 editors than moving to Final Cut X. And the integration with the rest of the Adobe CS suite is a real benefit, at least for me ... seamless going back and forth between Premiere and After Effects, not to mention working with Photoshop and Illustrator (and good old Flash, though its days are no doubt numbered, still is a valuable part of the CS Suite).

At last check, Adobe stock was hitting new highs (unlike Apple!) so it seems likely they'll be around for a while and introducing regular product upgrades.

And Adobe has a pretty good reputation of listening to and responding to their pro customers. They're not perfect, nobody is, but count me as pretty happy using Adobe software and no longer relying on any of Apple's "pro" apps.

 

[handsome pete]

As far as video editing goes, Avid is in financial trouble and Final Cut X is now fully featured so a lot of holdouts could be persuaded to invest in a new Mac Pro with this strange but wonderful new version of Final Cut. Everything changes and editors need to get with the times of be stuck on legacy systems.

You're kidding yourself if you think editors are just some curmudgeonly bunch that are resistant to change. Those of us who have been in the business long enough have used any and all tools out there that will get the job done. Avid isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's still the "industry standard" as far as feature films, large studio/post houses are concerned. FCPX is a great tool to throw in the arsenal, but despite it's improvements I still wouldn't exactly call it full-featured. And I don't see it really getting a foothold in the big budget professional landscape unless Apple truly commits to the Mac Pro going forward.

 

[Sol]

You're kidding yourself if you think editors are just some curmudgeonly bunch that are resistant to change. Those of us who have been in the business long enough have used any and all tools out there that will get the job done. Avid isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's still the "industry standard" as far as feature films, large studio/post houses are concerned. FCPX is a great tool to throw in the arsenal, but despite it's improvements I still wouldn't exactly call it full-featured. And I don't see it really getting a foothold in the big budget professional landscape unless Apple truly commits to the Mac Pro going forward.

However ubiquitous Avid software may be in the film and television industries, Avid the company is in trouble.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...ngs-release/ALCuxFMLKRIJ26Cv23nt6K/story.html

If they go then editors could keep using their legacy Avid systems but eventually everyone will have to move to either FCP-X and Motion or Premiere and After Effects. Adobe may have an advantage in their comprehensive software suites (still no Photoshop or Illustrator competitors by Apple) and conservative approach to software updates (Premiere has more in common with FCP than FCP-X does with FCP) but I think many editors have dismissed FCP-X simply out of a necessity to have to learn it from scratch since it is so radically different to what came before. The new generation of filmmakers who start with FCP-X and Motion would not see this as a problem so don't think that their work will lack anything just because they don't use Avid or Premiere like the old pros who gave up on FCP just because it changed.

 

[bsbeamer]

As a whole, the production industry is in trouble in the USA. Every week there's talk of trying to establish a Hollywood style production arsenal on the east coast, last I read was upstate New York, but logistically they're not sure if it makes sense. Lack of real high-speed data lines are one of the major issues in trying to work it out from a technical standpoint, but there's numerous other issues to deal with as well. The problem is it's still massively cheaper for most "big budget" studios to outsource their intensive post-production needs where labor is much cheaper. It'll be interesting to see what happens if the Vancouver tax incentives expire. Could have a major impact on how that segment of the business moves forward.

As for the standing with Apple and the pro community, something needed to be done, so the fact they're addressing it via marketing efforts means at least SOMEONE realizes this, but that only goes so far. Owners (and the people who pay the bills) are still not over the fact that FCP7/Studio was abandoned. They invested heavily in the software, invested heavily in hardware to work within the environment, and built business around those tools. The disappearing act of Final Cut Server, X-Serve and X-Serve RAID didn't help matters at all either (regardless of how many people actually used them or if they all worked as we had hoped).

FCP-X, while improving with updates, is still majorly considered a personal tool. And I don't see a lot of major players going back to Apple software and investing heavily in that workflow after the recent events. It's a hard enough push to get them to stay with Apple hardware at this point. Add to the fact that they have been reducing costs SIGNIFICANTLY over the past few years, and that's where Adobe really swallowed up the market. Most people already had it on their machines but were not using it. The software works with both Mac and PC, so it made sense from a financial perspective to move there. And Adobe has responded well so far. We'll see what happens with CS6.5/7. The tighter relationship with Maxon/C4D can only help.

As for Avid, they're in trouble, but so is/was Autodesk. Better chance someone comes in and swallows them up before seeing either disappear anytime soon. A combined effort on their parts would be an interesting move...

 

[handsome pete]

The new generation of filmmakers who start with FCP-X and Motion would not see this as a problem so don't think that their work will lack anything just because they don't use Avid or Premiere like the old pros who gave up on FCP just because it changed.

You're putting words in my mouth. I never claimed such a thing. I've always said that the tools don't ultimately matter as it's the talent that will keep you working in this business. So learn anything you can get your hands on.

FCPX is intriguing on many levels, but it will be a long time (if ever) until it gains significant adoption in the "pro" environment. The future of the Mac Pro will play a large role in that.

Avid is certainly in trouble, but as bsbeamer pointed out, it's highly unlikely they'll disappear.

 

[goMac]

I do tend to find people strongly in the Avid camp seem to be people who've been in the industry a long time and simply are adverse the change.

Younger editors skew much more towards either AE/PPro, or FCP.

The number of editors complaining about FCPX because it doesn't support tape workflows well just re-enforces that notion for me.

 

[td2243]

FCPX is intriguing on many levels, but it will be a long time (if ever) until it gains significant adoption in the "pro" environment. The future of the Mac Pro will play a large role in that.

From what I understand, FCP was widely used in the pro world until X was released. I am currently in school and taking editing classes and we are still using 7 because X was a huge step backwards from 7. Our school will probably switch to Premiere sometime this year or next. Simply put. The school believes that Apple is moving away from making Pro products and targeting the average consumers. Since a school's very existence is to produce professionals, they have to go where the industry goes....software wise.

I've never used Avid, but I'm sure it is great. Why they don't teach that, I don't know. It isn't a big school.

 

[echoout]

I'm a college professor over a motion graphics program who shares two MacPro labs with an RTF department. We used FCP 7 until last summer where my area switched to Premiere and RTF switched to Avid. We keep FCP and FCPX onboard for students who need/want them but don't teach them.

I couldn't pass up Premiere's Dynamic Linking, Media Cache and CUDA acceleration.

We're due for a computer refresh next year and if MacPro's aren't announced in the next few months we're switching to preconfigured Windows machines such as z620s or similar. I would love not to but we have to move on as our schedule dictates.

 

[td2243]

Echoout,

Seeing as how you are a pro at this, do you prefer Avid or Premiere and why? Or, are both great, but for separate reasons? Like... one is better at this, which the other is better at that.

 

[echoout]

Echoout,

Seeing as how you are a pro at this, do you prefer Avid or Premiere and why? Or, are both great, but for separate reasons? Like... one is better at this, which the other is better at that.

My work in editing is lighter weight than someone doing longer form pieces for film, broadcast, ENG, etc. So, I prefer Premiere for its tight integration into a motion graphics pipeline.

Avid is the standard for bigger budget productions. Apples and oranges as far as I'm concerned. I do motion graphics for all types of industries and each one uses something different. Big game companies tend to use Premiere for cinematics, titles and trailers. Bigger film companies tend to use Avid. Most of the work I've sent off for bigger broadcast work has been using the Avid codecs.

But FCP was the norm for documentaries and independent film work. I find those folks to be the ones hanging on to FCP because their rigs are still chugging right along and there hasn't been a huge reason to move on yet. Although products like the Blackmagic Cinema Camera are complicating things a bit.

I'm pretty agnostic about this topic but Premiere is my current choice because the same hardware that accelerates AE is helping it to be faster.

EDIT: Sorry for the hijack, by the way!

 

[td2243]

Thanks for the reply.

EDIT: Sorry for the hijack, by the way!

It isn't as if we're interrupting some Mac Pro news or anything. LOL

 

[nordicappeal]

i'm sure it will be her just not sure when. I will loose hair if we are not getting a new Mac Pro with expansion slots and option of more harddrives!

Being in europe I really hope for a replacement as I have sold my old Mac Pro before moving country!

 

[handsome pete]

From what I understand, FCP was widely used in the pro world until X was released.

FCP7 is still widely used. Much of the drama about people jumping ship has been exaggerated. FCP7 is pretty long in the tooth, but unless companies/individuals were already on the cusp of upgrading at the time FCPX was released many are still using FCP7. It's just now the future of Apple's Pro Apps and hardware is murky, so I'd expect many more contemplating a switch.

I've never used Avid, but I'm sure it is great. Why they don't teach that, I don't know. It isn't a big school.

Avid used to be very cost prohibitive. It's still not cheap, but it's definitely more affordable. FCP really took off because of the users who didn't have the budget or resources to build an Avid system.