Shatter he status quo?????? Please. Intel rolled out early Xeon E5 v1 ( Sandy Bridge) chips to selected Supercomputer vendors before they made it to the general market.
E5 v4 (Broadwell) same thing a year ago. It has happened several times. These early drops are ways of getting lots testing down on the early versions to shake out bugs. Exactly the context that Apple would extremely likely avoid in terms of shipping a widescale product. (e.g., skipping the first round of TB3 USB power assistance chips. )
".. Wuischpard said that Skylake Xeons will be generally available in mid-2017, putting a stake in the ground, and reminded everyone that “this doesn’t mean we will not be shipping quite a few in volume before then.” ..."
https://www.nextplatform.com/2016/11/15/intel-sets-skylake-xeon-hpc-knights-mill-xeon-phi-ai/
Regardless, these are the 16xx ( 1 socket) versions anyway. In the leaked Purley/Basin Intel projected roadmap from before the Basin (workstation) version was plotted out after (or TBD ) the server versions.
Doubtful they will drop much sooner than the server versions.
Apple could sit around waiting for that. They would probably do significant damage to their market floating the MP 2013 for approximately 4 years though. However, if the objective is to go into Rip Van Winkle mode for another 3-4 years then perhaps doesn't matter since general strategy is to piss it away over time anyway.
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I'd say that at this time going with BDW is a bad move. By the time it's out everyone will say that Apple is using CPUs that are soon to be EOLed. And this will never end.
Xeon E5 do not get EOL'ed that quickly. The problem that Apple will have is that the Mac Pro 2013 they will stall on for perhaps most of 2017 waiting for an v5 options to get to market is on track for EOL.
The v1 ( Sandy Bridge) are currently in EOL
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/59138/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-Family#@All
Those launched in 2012 and the v2 launched end of 2013. They are on the same EOL clock.
Sadly this wouldn't be new since the Mac Pro 2010 (&2012) was on Xeon E5 class processor fumes in term of EOL also by the time the MP 2013 came along. So in some sense it would just be new status quo for Apple. Ride CPU to EOL and then upgrade.
v4 is no where near EOL next year. It is only a bad option for early '17 is if Apple intends to do nothing for another 3-4 years. Yeah before the end of that 3-4 years the v4 would be in EOL. If Apple waits they could ride v5 to EOL with a longer countdown clock. It is the path to doing less over time. If they went v4 they'd need to do something within 1-2 years.
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Partially delusion. The notion that there is no apple specific parts in newest Macs. Sure he acknowledges the Touch Bar but then hand waves and says the SSD are off the shelf. No. The RAM while a RAM chip supplier is a custom Apple placement ( no so-DIMM or DIMM ).
Admits that the clone thing probably won't work.
"... It’s clear that Apple’s interest in the desktop market is waning ..."
This is positioned as if it is a unilateral thing. Customers, in general, are driving away from the classic desktops. Even the HP Z2 is partially a mark of that. Same stuff folks complain about... embedded GPU. Yes. On M.2 class PCI-e slots. Yes. The major drift from Apple is willingness to let folks see the air vents. Apple is OCD on hiding them from view.
Apple doesn't particularly need to enable clones as much as spin out the Mac into a subsidiary where the flow from the iOS devices doesn't unnecessary divert resources away from the Mac. Honestly, that doesn't mean breaking about the software side or even most of the hardware side. The Mac given its own design division to do most of the Mac products, some Marketing/Ad independence, and some external investment ( partners , seed money for 3rd party projects like LG monitors , etc. ) Beats hardware is somewhat of different label. It may be time for something like that for the classical personal computer line up also. The limited, groupthink industrial design lab is problem for Apple at this point.
It is that Apple can't update the Mini or Mac Pro ... IMHO it looks like it doesn't happen because nobody is assigned to working on that the stuff. That is driven by some dogma that Jobs came up with that Apple has to stay as resource constrained as possible when it comes to design. For a company their current size that is increasingly dubious.
The laptops have some design synergies with the iOS line up, but minimally the desktops should have their own design group. That's is part of the problem. ( could perhaps through Apple TV and Airport in too. ). Stuff that stays plugged in 24/7.