"not new" MacPro may have been the correct move for revenue purposes

[carlgo]

I am in the "no state of the art monitor available" camp. You get an expensive new Pro and hook it up to yesterday's monitor?

There is always a vocal "too many pixels" group, but I'll bet that Apple plans to sell a lot of big, expensive "retina" displays, maybe even with something really spendy like oled screens for the pro market.

 

[theSeb]

I think things are moving closely along Apple's expectations. I suspect they thought more folks would "read" the update as there would be a Mac Pro next year. But even having to resort to openly invoking the Osborne Effect couldn't have been total surprise to them. Apple knew there was going to be a "train wreck" as far as sales growth goes until they get back into synch with regular product updates.

What I don't think Apple expected is the rumor sites increasingly spinning the notion that Apple was going to turn WWDC into a "Macworld" convention. The whole Mac product line would be updated. And magic Mac pixel dust for rain down out of the sky on everyone. That was jacked up expectation management. That's one reason why "we updated so therefore Mac Pro isn't canceled" message didn't sink in. Mac folks had been whipped up into a irrational frenzy.

I suppose that's quite a logical way of looking at it. Let's see what 2013 brings.

 

[gnasher729]

It would be interesting to know what Apple MacPro sales figures look like since the price reductions instead of the expected "new" mac.

Well, we have some budget to replace some older 8 core Mac Pros. Told my boss that it's not worth buying new ones; they would be faster but not enough to make people a lot more productive. And a top-of-the range iMac comes with a screen that is worth a lot on its own, and has some pretty fast processors, so if a Mac Pro broke down today, that might be better value for money.

 

[xgman]

It is amazing how narcissistic the "raise a ruckus" folks are. If Apple is delivering a new Mac Pro in early 2013 then they had already started on a new system months ago. There is zero indication that this was some "last minute" scrambling by Apple to respond to moaning and groaning on rumors forums and facebook petitions.

The choice to change ( CPU) but minimally change (no new GPU) was deliberate. There was a very clear idea of what they wanted to do. "This is an updated Mac Pro, this is not the result of 1.5-2 years of R&D. Hence, something else is coming later but not soon."



The mini and iMac are likely delayed primarily for same reason the mini was delayed last year. Major Mac OS X update. After Mountain Lion ships that will open the door for the mini and iMac to quickly come out of the gate.

Intel sliding the core i updates close to June/July created a logjam with coupled to the Mac OS X update cycle. The iMac and mini will just come a bit later with non-'revolutionary" upgrades. The laptops come first largely because have better competition from the Window PC vendors.

Well, I respectfully disagree on all counts. I emphatically believe that the facebook and other stories complaining about the lack of a MP update made a difference. At the very least it made Apple do something it never does. Comment on unreleased products! Bottom line is the slow demise of the Apple desktop line. I'm certainly not the only one with this opinion.

 

[deconstruct60]

Well, I respectfully disagree on all counts.

feel free from whatever alternative universe you hail from.

Bottom line is the slow demise of the Apple desktop line.

You mean the desktop line that has increased in sales in just every year since 2006?

http://gigaom.com/apple/the-ongoing-decline-of-the-desktop-mac/


That desktop line? The one that is selling more desktops in 2010 than total Macs sold in 2004.


or

"... Record Mac desktop sales due to strength of iMac. ... "
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/1...ue-tops-100-billion-in-sales-for-fiscal-2011/

Desktops unit numbers from Apple's Q4 2011 reporting.
Q4 2010 1242K
Q3 2011 1155K
Q4 2011 1278K ( about a 30K year over year increase for the quarter)


Desktop unit numbers from Apple's Q1 2012
Q4 2011 1278K

Q1 2011 1227K
Q1 2012 1479K ( about a 200K year over year increase for the quarter)

I'm certainly not the only one with this opinion.

I'm sure you are not. It is just as opinion that has more validity in some alternative universe where Apple's desktop numbers are actually going down. In this one, it just isn't based on the facts.

 

[MJL]

It is NEW. I buy a new one, add AppleCare, and I can run my business without worrying about my computer for 3 years, guaranteed. For most professionals, in my experience, having a working computer that does the job is just about the most important feature it can have.

Well said! I went back from a Mac mini 2011 2.5 Ghz to a Mac mini server 2010 because I wanted the second disk and I got in the process 18 months more warranty without spending money. (the server had been sitting unused somewhere).

 

[Dj Lee]

What I don't get is that people are building hackentoshes with new CPUs, yet Apple can't build a new Mac Pro? Really? 2013 for new technology?

They are pricing 2009 technology as if it was new 2012 technology and they even labeled it new for awhile.

What Apple should of done was drop the price to match today's value of there technology they are using in their Mac Pros currently.

 

[xgman]

What I don't get is that people are building hackentoshes with new CPUs, yet Apple can't build a new Mac Pro? Really? 2013 for new technology?

.

What is apparent to me is that Apple had zero plans to update the MP this year regardless. Maybe they were going to phase it out, or maybe they just hadn't decided and procrastinated. Either way, they saw all the flames and responded that they will build one next year which is pretty amazing since they never discuss unreleased products. Most likely waiting for Ivy Xeons at this point. Maybe it was some other issue with one of the components they didn't like, but I think they just got caught procrastinating and didn't have time to do anything. On the other hand, I do think there longer term plan is to try to move their desktop market to portables.

 

[edoates]

I disagree on clearing inventory. They added a couple processor skus. Do you really think they just keep a supply of logic boards and other parts for the next year of sales on hand?

The "inventory" may be the manufacturing production line for the MacPro cheese grater case, power supply, and every thing but the cpus. They may not assemble those on demand, at least the case/power supply.

To the "desktop" sales rate poster: that counts iMacs and Mini's, I believe; would like to see just MacPro broken out.

If there is demand for USB3 and Thunderbolt, someone like Sonnet should just make a PCIe card for that; I can live without it.

I'm guessing that the rumored 2013 MacPro will be a redesign to be more modular. I can easily envision a racking type system into which you plug modules - cpu, memory, graphics, etc.

In the pro-audio world, the API Lunchbox (and even better, the Radial Workhorse) are doing exceedingly well. Basically a 6 to 10 slot (depending on what you want) rack unit into which you plug mic preamps, equalizers, compressors, whatever into a standardized back plane. The back of the unit has all the expected interfaces - audio, etc. outputs. The units automatically talk to each other, etc. Pretty cool.

So I could easily see a similar vertical or horizontal package with modules to plug to achieve the Pro computer you want; upgrades would be replacing a module. Back side would have T-bolt, USB 2/4, Firewire, and maybe others exposed for external connections.

But that's just all speculation.

 

[xgman]

Apparently the Apple anti-desktop coolaid virus has spread to Microsoft. We are doomed.

"Speaking today at the TechEd Europe conference in Amsterdam, Antoine LeBlond, Microsoft's vice president of Windows Web Services, said that "next year, tablets will outsell desktop PCs,"

 

[thekev]

The "inventory" may be the manufacturing production line for the MacPro cheese grater case, power supply, and every thing but the cpus. They may not assemble those on demand, at least the case/power supply.

That still doesn't make it true. It's likely that they've been controlling their supply of components here relative to their needs much like any other line. I realize it may be difficult in small numbers, but I'm not inclined to believe they stocked a year's worth of construction components.

If there is demand for USB3 and Thunderbolt, someone like Sonnet should just make a PCIe card for that; I can live without it.

There are usb3 cards available. It's an issue of stable drivers. If these manufacturers can leverage Apple's driver stack in the time of mountain lion, we'll have a much better solution. The margin on those cards isn't that high, so even mediocre driver development can push the cost up.

I'm guessing that the rumored 2013 MacPro will be a redesign to be more modular. I can easily envision a racking type system into which you plug modules - cpu, memory, graphics, etc.

In the pro-audio world, the API Lunchbox (and even better, the Radial Workhorse) are doing exceedingly well. Basically a 6 to 10 slot (depending on what you want) rack unit into which you plug mic preamps, equalizers, compressors, whatever into a standardized back plane. The back of the unit has all the expected interfaces - audio, etc. outputs. The units automatically talk to each other, etc. Pretty cool.

So I could easily see a similar vertical or horizontal package with modules to plug to achieve the Pro computer you want; upgrades would be replacing a module. Back side would have T-bolt, USB 2/4, Firewire, and maybe others exposed for external connections.

But that's just all speculation.

Somehow I don't see Apple going this direction. It means having to test and support many configurations for a smaller market. It's unlikely that the mac pro is that costly for them to produce as it is. Right now I have no idea what their plan is for this market, and I don't have enough data to make a really good assessment.

 

[zzzachi]

i think most of the people ranting about the macprogate dont even use its power professionally. after the update, and finally after the 2013 statement, it was clear that there wont be an update for at least 9-12 months. this gave me the opportunity to replace my 2006 mac pro. of course it has maybe 40% of the speed a top pc has. but it is still 5 times faster as my old one and the 10-15 times faster pc also costs 50% more if you dont build it yourself. secondly i m used to my software etc. i earn my money with this machines and its easy to buy a new one in 2013 and sell this model with a loss of maybe $1000-1500 mid of next year. this money is far less than i can earn with the improved productivity in these months.
what i did to sweeten things up is to order a gtx580 with external psu to test it in the pro. (infos in this forum)