Apple plans new iMac configurations targeting pro users for later this year

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware
Despite the delay in new Mac Pro models arriving on the market, Apple is still aiming to target professional users looking for new Macs, and has revealed plans to release new iMacs this year with new configuration options that could be attractive to prosumer and creative users.




Disclosed to a group of journalists at Apple's headquarters, at the same time as plans for Apple's future Mac Pro releases, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller confirmed that new iMacs are in the works, slated for this year. John Gruber of Daring Fireball noted Schiller advised this will include configurations of iMac specifically with the pro consumer in mind, revealing that the company's popular desktop with professional users is the all-in-one iMac.

Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi spoke about the evolution the iMac has seen over the last decade, from the original candy-colored tube iMac, to modern svelte models that can still satisfy many pro user needs.

"And now you look at today's 5K iMac," Federighi said, "top configs, it's incredibly powerful, and a huge fraction of what would've traditionally - whether it's audio editing, video editing, graphics, arts, and so forth - that would've previously absolutely required the Mac Pros of old, are being well addressed by iMac."

Federighi suggested there's still even further that Apple can take iMac as a high-performance pro system, and said the current form factor can address even more of the professional market.

According to Apple's research, approximately 30 percent of the entire Mac user base use pro apps at least once per week, for media creation and software development tasks. Within this group, there is an 80/20 split between notebooks and desktops in terms of sales, and of these desktop sales, iMac outpaces the Mac Pro.

While it remains to be seen what kind of configurations Apple has planned for the pro iMac, there have already been some changes on the Mac Pro side. Early on Tuesday, Apple issued a minor speed bump to the 2013 Mac Pro, with a six-core Xeon CPU and dual AMD G500 GPUs in the base $2,999 model, while the $3,999 variant gains 8 cores and dual D800 GPUs.
«134

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 61
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,087member
    Sweet.   Next 12-18 months is going to be awesome for the Mac 
    StrangeDaysdoozydozenasdasdwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 61
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    It doesn't help when Intel continues to delay the release of anything more than a modest update. Let's go and make a prediction (based on recent news) and say that the next iMac will not be Intel based, but will have its own Apple re-designed AMD Ryzen along with its own GPU, whether it's a daughterboard BPU or a SoC design. It will obviously have USB-C ports and flash storage and doesn't really have to have any of this sealed inside the monitor. The new iMac could be a blend of the old Mac mini and the new Apple display mentioned in other articles. Make sure the architecture is such that it could handle at least one or two CPU/SoC upgrades via easy replacement along with internal flash storage and RAM upgrades (or just bite the bullet and start with at least 32GB RAM) and I bet lots of people would be happy with this new iMac. We've seen what Apple can do with compact yet powerful designs in the iPhone and iPad so I'm sure they can scale to the requirements all the prosumers have when the device doesn't need to be portable.  
    edited April 2017 andrewj5790Solithewhitefalconjkichlinedoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 61
    Time to start saving!
    doozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 61
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    toranaga
  • Reply 5 of 61
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    Time to switch platforms friend. Goodbye and good luck.
    thewhitefalconpscooter63therunningvmwlymRayz2016caliStrangeDaysdoozydozenMacsplosionwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 61
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    1) Your definition of professional is weirdly limited.

    2) Then don't buy an iMac if an AIO isn't the right fit for you. Or, build a stupid box to go over an iMac if you're OCD is so bad that having a TB RAID connected is causes you freak out and become unproductive.

    3) What does "the cloud" have to do with anything? Even if you have an iMac connected to WiFi with a wireless keyboard and trackpad, you can still have a local, networked storage with a NAS.

    4) If an AIO design that allows for little to no upgrade path is such a poor design then why are Mac Pros Apple's worst selling PCs, and the iMac and all their laptops far outsell it across every individual brand? Then you have the iPhone and iPad… which are also used by professionals.
    edited April 2017 pscooter63caliroundaboutnowStrangeDaysdoozydozenbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 61
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Good news - the iMac as it has been and evolved since the original 2006 G5 model is hands down my favourite Mac computer ever. 
    edited April 2017 caliroundaboutnowdoozydozenbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 61
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    Vampire video? I take it back, you're not stuck in 2006, you're stuck in 1991. It is indeed time for you to leave the platform. 
    caliStrangeDaysdoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 61
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.
    It's worked perfectly fine for my pro needs over the past 5 years.  I ordered it maxed out and I've been very happy to not spend any time whatsoever maintaining it since then.  I can get the work done which pays the bills and have a life outside of that without ever needing to tinker with my computer.
    caliargonautdoozydozenbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 61
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    No mention of the obvious alternative to the iMac - the mac mini. I've been waffling over moving to a mac mini and separate display for a while, since in theory, the display will long outlast the need to upgrade the computer bits. Particularly true I think with a 5k display. 

    Choices are good, upgrades are good. All that remains is the pricing. 
  • Reply 11 of 61
    steven n.steven n. Posts: 1,229member
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    As a "Pro user" of macs, I have no problem with a "glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory" iMac. I am amazed at how little people know about "pro users".
    StrangeDaysdoozydozenbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 61
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    steven n. said:
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    As a "Pro user" of macs, I have no problem with a "glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory" iMac. I am amazed at how little people know about "pro users".
    Obviously, you haven't been reading the rule book updates.  You're not a "real Pro" if you don't tinker with your box at least once a week.
    caliStrangeDaysbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 61
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Apple, more power to you targeting next Macs for the Pros but don't forget to make/offer your low end Macbook Pro laptop for students with decent specs at reasonable price. They will carry your brand into business/corporate world when they enter into work force buying upgraded expensive Macbooks and Macs. You need large student and casual users segment to continue expanding echo system(IOS,MacOS,etc) and revenue to fund the next innovation. Low end Macbook pro 13" with decent spec has sweet price between $1199-$1299 and 15" between $1499-$1599.
    edited April 2017 calibaconstang
  • Reply 14 of 61
    bill42bill42 Posts: 131member
    Did Apple just say that they will upgrade the current form factor of the existing iMacs? This design is over 7 years old isn't it? While my 2012 iMac is still a fine pro machine for photoshop, like anybody else I'm always looking ahead to new design advances and hardware innovations. That Microsoft Surface Pro sure leapfrogged the current iMacs so I think Apple really needs to innovate some kick-ass new design into a brand new iMac, fast! No I don't need to touch my screen. You touch my screen I break your fingers!!
    I admit I have no idea what I'd like to see, but that is not my job. Apple has always created things that I didn't know I needed until they showed it to me. Blow me away Apple!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 61
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    I bet these announcements and the new iPads were supposed to be for a canceled March event. Hopefully iPad Pro and Apple TV are announced soon.

    And no, the Pro doesn't look like a trash can I've ever seen. You just wanna jump on a clever iHating bandwagon. You wanna see trash? Get yourself a windows machine.

    bill42 said:
    Did Apple just say that they will upgrade the current form factor of the existing iMacs? This design is over 7 years old isn't it? While my 2012 iMac is still a fine pro machine for photoshop, like anybody else I'm always looking ahead to new design advances and hardware innovations. That Microsoft Surface Pro sure leapfrogged the current iMacs so I think Apple really needs to innovate some kick-ass new design into a brand new iMac, fast! No I don't need to touch my screen. You touch my screen I break your fingers!!
    I admit I have no idea what I'd like to see, but that is not my job. Apple has always created things that I didn't know I needed until they showed it to me. Blow me away Apple!

    The Surface Pro didn't leapfrog anything. I hate when a company rips off another and people claim they designed something genius. For fu**s sake. 

    StrangeDaysargonautdoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 61
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    steven n. said:
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    As a "Pro user" of macs, I have no problem with a "glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory" iMac. I am amazed at how little people know about "pro users".
    The 'pro' definition when it comes to the Mac - user relationship is entirely relative and subjective. In other words there is no such thing. In terms of 'branding' and 'class of device' it clearly is a thing. But a 'pro' device is nothing more than a set of specs which at best will help you navigate your way to the right class of machine if you don't already know (and that has nothing to do with being a 'pro'). As illustrative example, I had a plumber who always bought low end power tools. He told me he preferred it that way because he just threw them in the back of his van and left them there. His van had been broken into too many times and by buying low end he just replaced them whenever there was an issue. If I was a plumber I  probably wouldn't do the same but it didn't make him any less of a pro than the the guy flashing Milwaukee's.
    StrangeDaysdoozydozencityguidebaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 61
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    Sorry but Apple isn't going to cater to one person's needs. The days of every computer (Mac or PC) being totally expandable is dying. The iMac has always been this way and its obviously working for many professionals. If you max out an iMac with RAM and GPU it will last you quite a while. If you need more power than what the iMac delivers, this is where the MacPro comes into play. 

    and BTW...a 27" iMac doesn't have soldered in RAM. Only the 21" iMac does and that probably isn't what you're looking for in a Pro computer anyways. 
    roundaboutnowStrangeDaysargonautdoozydozenbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 61
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

    bill42 said:
    Did Apple just say that they will upgrade the current form factor of the existing iMacs? This design is over 7 years old isn't it? While my 2012 iMac is still a fine pro machine for photoshop, like anybody else I'm always looking ahead to new design advances and hardware innovations. That Microsoft Surface Pro sure leapfrogged the current iMacs so I think Apple really needs to innovate some kick-ass new design into a brand new iMac, fast! No I don't need to touch my screen. You touch my screen I break your fingers!!
    I admit I have no idea what I'd like to see, but that is not my job. Apple has always created things that I didn't know I needed until they showed it to me. Blow me away Apple!
    No, they did not. If you read Gruber's article he tried to get it out of Apple and they would not say anything specific about the iMac. They never mentioned the design (old or new), specs, new features, etc. 
    doozydozenbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 61
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member

    steven n. said:
    Exactly how is a glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory and on board Vampire Video GPUs going to serve a Pro Market or have any shelf life?

    The very all in one concept of the iMac or a laptop serves the constant churn that may be profitable for Apple, but not what more than a few want or need. The workstation form factor is still the most flexible design and that is precisely what Apple abandoned with the Trashcan and pushing people to the iMac.

    I do not want cables running all over the place for external storage or external GPUs and I sure do not want all my stuff in the Cloud. The cloud is fine for many things, but not everything.
    As a "Pro user" of macs, I have no problem with a "glued shut, skinny iMac with soldered in memory" iMac. I am amazed at how little people know about "pro users".
    Maybe this is a bad assumption, but I would assume that most Pro's just want to get work done, not screw around with the inside's of a computer. I would think most Pro users don't have time to tinker around with what's inside. If I were a Pro, I'd rather get a new Mac once it no longer serves my needs, or if there's an issue, get a professional to look at it instead of trying to troubleshoot something yourself. 
    StrangeDaysbaconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 61
    jumpcutterjumpcutter Posts: 100member
    This is Apple's response to many pro users complaints, make a "pro"version of the iMac. Oh boy, unless they are redesigning it so the user can easily add at least a second flash storage drive or upgrade the RAM in all versions of iMac. (instead of only the 27" 5K iMac as it exists today) Allowing for the GPU's to be easily upgradable or eliminating currently used ports for the futuristic ports (USB-C/TB3 ports) without any consideration of a transitional period.  Apple will only be doing what it always does to shut up their pro customers. This is a stop gap measure for them. All Apple is doing is adding to an existing brand a "Pro" version in name only. Apple added the "Pro"moniker to the iPad Pro and only did minor improvements to it. The current 2016 Macbook Pro is just a glorified  rendition of the Macbook. It is basically a stripped down version of what  a Macbook Pro is supposed to be. It just has 3 more USB-C ports than the current Macbook. People do not fall for Apple's scam.   
    toranaga
Sign In or Register to comment.