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It's a New Mac Pro for me - Updated or Not! Well Maybe.... - Page 3

post #81 of 86
5/18/12 at 2:12pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


Gizmodo posted that article yesterday making a big point that the page only had 15 likes with this Big Red Circle around the number 15... well that was yesterday... look at this today! ONE day later...

 

THEY ARE GAINING ABOUT 1 A MINUET!!!

While that is amusing, Gizmodo's facebook survey is pretty meaningless.

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post #82 of 86
5/20/12 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 

They're up to 2048 today!

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post #83 of 86
5/21/12 at 4:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by not1lost View Post

They're up to 2048 today!

It gained 363 since 2.5 days ago so it's down to around 1 'like' every 10 minutes. Not impressive when Gizmodo gets hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per day.

There will be more than 100,000 Mac Pro owners out there so you'd expect a certain percentage of them to want an upgrade.

As you can see from the comments though, not all the people actually want to buy a Mac Pro as it stands, some are commenting saying they want a more affordable Mac Pro.

2,000 potential customers worldwide aren't enough to make a product launch worthwhile.

There are certainly reasons to make a new Mac Pro but just as many not to.

reasons for
- it's the most serviceable machine they make so good for people who need the highest reliability
- the highest-end model is 2-3x faster than the highest-end iMac at 3x the price, likely high margins and compelling for resource-intensive tasks
- the only machine that can run 6 displays
- likely the same buyers going for the Cinema Displays

reasons against
- they will have to use Sandy Bridge Xeons
- extremely low volume compared to the rest of the lineup
- only the $3500+ models offer a performance advantage over the iMac, the performance advantage is small and you still have to buy a display
- the form factor has no growth, desktops are being eroded in favour of laptops so sales will just keep on dying

While I think the Mac Pro has an audience now, I don't think it will have one in 5 years. Apple doesn't build machines for the present but for the future.

The path of least resistance is to throw in new CPUs and GPUs without a redesign but they could have done this by now. That leaves two more likely scenarios - a radical redesign or discontinuation. I'm sure Tim Cook will explain the choice they eventually make.
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post #84 of 86
5/21/12 at 7:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

There will be more than 100,000 Mac Pro owners out there so you'd expect a certain percentage of them to want an upgrade. [...]
2,000 potential customers worldwide aren't enough to make a product launch worthwhile.
There are certainly reasons to make a new Mac Pro but just as many not to.
reasons for
- it's the most serviceable machine they make so good for people who need the highest reliability
- the highest-end model is 2-3x faster than the highest-end iMac at 3x the price, likely high margins and compelling for resource-intensive tasks
- the only machine that can run 6 displays
- likely the same buyers going for the Cinema Displays
reasons against
- they will have to use Sandy Bridge Xeons
- extremely low volume compared to the rest of the lineup
- only the $3500+ models offer a performance advantage over the iMac, the performance advantage is small and you still have to buy a display
- the form factor has no growth, desktops are being eroded in favour of laptops so sales will just keep on dying
While I think the Mac Pro has an audience now, I don't think it will have one in 5 years. Apple doesn't build machines for the present but for the future.
The path of least resistance is to throw in new CPUs and GPUs without a redesign but they could have done this by now. That leaves two more likely scenarios - a radical redesign or discontinuation. I'm sure Tim Cook will explain the choice they eventually make.

A good summary of the argument. Although I imagine 2,000 (typo?) is far too low for the initial sales burst, since the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 are being left behind by both Mountain Lion and Adobe's CS 6 (no official support for those graphics processors, but you can tell it to use the CPU instead).

 

Another way to possibly reduce costs and definitely free up space in the retail stores (I'll let you guess which of these two I think is more of a priority for Apple right now) would be to offer the new Mac Pro online only. They could offer a wider range of base configurations, and there will always be people who are willing to pay Apple a hefty premium to install additional RAM and hard drives. The Mac Pro is not an impulse buy, and it doesn't need to be in the retail stores.

 

Finally, I'd argue that there are developmental reasons why Apple needs to continue to make a Mac Pro and an OS X Server. I agree the scene is changing and it will look very different in 5 years. But it's really the cloud that affects the Mac Pro, not the prevalence of laptops. As I understand it, serious rendering is all heading that way. The era of doing that kind of thing in-house is already pretty much over. So the question is, how does that affect the landscape for the Mac Pro and the OS X Server? For one thing, I think it entirely possible Apple will want to keep OS X in the server business -- they need it for themselves, and OS X is well-positioned in the long run for this purpose. So it's the server that's the Mac Pro's secret weapon, likely to keep it alive well beyond 5 years into the future.


Edited by TenThousandThings - 5/21/12 at 9:16am
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post #85 of 86
5/21/12 at 8:08am
Thread Starter 

People say Apple is moving away from the desktop models. IMO This is ridiculous, there will always be a need for powerful desktop workstations for engineers to design all these little gadgets with all the bells and whistles that are making Apple so much money right now. I would venture to say a large majority of this work is done on a Mac Pro. Powerful workstations are also needed to produce all this stuff we listen to and watch and play with. It is the "Laptop" that will go out of style and use because of the iPad and other tablets becoming more powerful and taking their place; this is happening right now extremely fast. Although the tablet will see extreme power and function upgrades in the coming years they will never replace a powerful workhorse desktop which will also get more and more powerful as the years roll  on far exeeding the ability to put that much power in a small package like a laptop. Laptops may still be around in 5 years but sales will be very small and only to a  very unique nich who would need one and want to carry one around seeing how much the tablet will have gained so much power, function, and use of the cloud in ways we might not even imagine right now. Yep! Laptops are on their way out!


Edited by not1lost - 5/21/12 at 8:16am
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post #86 of 86
5/21/12 at 8:22am
Thread Starter 

Before anyone says something about a physical keyboard... Yes I use one and love it! I have a lot of trouble trying to type on my iPad screen keyboard; but that's me 55 years old. We have a generation coming up now that is cutting their teeth on touch screens and keyboards they will get just as good and effeciant on them as we are on our clunky space waisting keyboards. That Generations will say "What?" carry around a keyboard attached to my pad ? your nuts! The mobile use of computers and the professional use will get farther and farther apart.... in what they need and use...

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