Once again, speculations. Apple won't quit its pro segment. It makes no sense.
Apple will quit
any segment that customers stop buying and/or isn't just a commodity (where Apple can't be high differentiation). Buy an Apple printer lately? See any non-docking station Apple monitors?
That isn't speculation. It is Apple's track record of the last decade and a half.
"... it can instead simply deliver a really high end, attention getting workstation just for bragging rights. ... "
Same narcissistic cruft that is often repeated but makes no business sense what so ever. Nor does it follow with Apple product strategy for the last decade and a half. The current Apple doesn't make product just for bragging rights. As soon as Jobs got back in charge he axed, Steve'd, products like the "20th anniversary Mac". Apple doesn't do products to just brag about. Apple does products that people buy in increasingly larger numbers.
The following video clip isn't a "editorial" by some "If I were Steve this is how I would run Apple". It is actually someone who has been an Apple Exec so pretty much has more weight than these "If I were steve exercises".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1srU6Z77jfc#t=12s
When he says "votes" he is talking about buy. Not raise a ruckus on rumors forums. Paychecks get paid and the lights stay on when people buy product.
The editorial is just smoke and misdirection.
There is no justification for the Mac Pro there other than "well they just gotta to so they can be braggadocious".
The vast majority of the "profit" being generated by Mac is
not the Mac Pro. Sure, Apple isn't going to kill Macs any time soon. But the overall Mac market is
not the Mac Pro. The vast majority of these bogus justifications try to wrap themselves in the overall Mac market like wrapping themselves in the "Flag". If anything the vast growth in Mac profits have come during a period of Mac Pro decline. Over the last 3-4 years Apple has put lots of R&D money into other Mac form factors and that has lead to biggest boost in Mac history in profits. That is not making the case for the Mac Pro.
[ Those profits numbers are of other PC vendors are also a bit whacked. I suspect the just took Apple's overall corporate profit margin and applied to revenues. I don't think Apple brings down margins by individual units. Indeed in source article for that charge ".. The only inference I made was with respect to Apples margins for the Mac. ..."
First, Apple's sales of OS X are weaved into the Macs numbers. Software has a totally different profit margin norm than PC hardware does. The percentage of cost for low end PCs that Intel+Microsoft takes is rather large. Just removing Microsoft from the picture has a huge impact on profits for those boxes.
Second, the PC vendors profits are also skewed a bit because the services aren't really mixed in. It may pay for HP to practically give away PC's at cost to a customer that is also a HP/EDS service management customer. If that grows HP's outsourcing business that has higher margins it is a reasonable move. But in the subcontext of these graphs on just "hardware" (which it really isn't) sales it not.
]
Hilariously the Appleinsider editorial makes no reference to the following in the underlying Asymco article:
"... Apple is not immune to a gradual erosion of Mac volumes, but they have positioned themselves for growth with devices and content commerce and services. ... "
Growth, people increasing buying things, is an important part of Apple's Mac strategy. What is completely lacking in the "Well, Apple's gotta brag" hand waving is how that fits into that strategy. It doesn't.
More likely Apple sees that there is an possible inflection point with the growth in GPGPU hardware and new software coming along to allow the Mac Pro to tap into new areas of growth. They are making a small bet that if they make something more competitive that the customers will show up. If the customer increasingly buy they'll continue. If they don't then they'll drop it in 1-3 years (depending upon how long it takes to be clear that growth just isn't going to happen and giving software time to make the GPGPU adjustments across the whole Mac product line up. )
If Apple delays until the Fall they will have shrunk the market so small and "starved" those holding out for so long there is almost guaranteed to be year-over-year growth. So it will probably be more than a year. Whether there is a Mac Pro two years out far more depends upon what customers (and 3rd party providers of hardware/software) do rather than anything Apple is going to do in the mean time.
