Mac Pro no longer available from European Online Apple Stores
With European sales of Apple's Mac Pro desktop set to stop on March 1 as new regulatory requirements become active, the computer has been made unavailbable in most of the company's online storefronts in the region.
In late January, Apple announced that it would be halting sales of the venerable Mac Pro on March 1 due to incompatibility with Amendment 1 of Regulation IEC 60950-1. According to Apple, the aging desktop platform is incompatible with the revised standard's requirement for protected fan blades.
Apple noted in the announcement that authorized resellers would be able to purchase the Mac Pro until Feb. 18, but did not previously specify an exact date on which general consumer orders would be discontinued.
The end Mac Pro sales in the region is not expected to have much effect on Apple's revenue stream, as the high-priced desktop was designed for audio and visual professionals.
While the tower computer has not seen a major design change for years, Apple revealed in June 2012 that an updated Mac Pro is coming sometime in 2013, though the machine's specs and release date have yet to be nailed down.
In late January, Apple announced that it would be halting sales of the venerable Mac Pro on March 1 due to incompatibility with Amendment 1 of Regulation IEC 60950-1. According to Apple, the aging desktop platform is incompatible with the revised standard's requirement for protected fan blades.
Apple noted in the announcement that authorized resellers would be able to purchase the Mac Pro until Feb. 18, but did not previously specify an exact date on which general consumer orders would be discontinued.
The end Mac Pro sales in the region is not expected to have much effect on Apple's revenue stream, as the high-priced desktop was designed for audio and visual professionals.
While the tower computer has not seen a major design change for years, Apple revealed in June 2012 that an updated Mac Pro is coming sometime in 2013, though the machine's specs and release date have yet to be nailed down.
Comments
No, they just ignore them.
Yep. I wonder if all these people will admit how wrong they were after Apple releases the 2013 Mac Pro.
I guess that depends on what they release.
So you're pre-hating them, just in case?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Fix
Apple hates professionals.
Apple doesn't hate anyone. They just don't focus on pros as their primary audience. Or rather pros that feel the need to have a machine they can tinker with.
And if they truly hated said group they would just discontinue the Mac Pro altogether. Cook has confirmed that that isn't happening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
In late January, Apple announced that it would be halting sales of the venerable Mac Pro on March 1 due to incompatibility with Amendment 1 of Regulation IEC 60950-1. According to Apple, the aging desktop platform is incompatible with the revised standard's requirement for protected fan blades.
Hmm. I guess there are children at risk of sticking their hands in MacPro Fan Blades then? Maybe the fan blades are to loud? Maybe what?
Tuesday! But seriously. What do they expect us to work on? Windows 7 machines? I can't do my work without a Mac Pro. All I can think of is that computers have become so powerful that most people just don't need to upgrade anymore.
I'm really curious to see what Apple will do here. They went through really a lot of work to re-do their "pro" apps (mainly FCP and Logic), yet, here goes the last machine that can accommodate the required extension boards and peripherals for "pro" tasks. While Thunderbolt already provides a good solution for storage and there are some video solutions using it, it is still not possible to realize everything using it (even if one would be willing to pay for all new equipment, but, thanks to ever changing expansion slots, we are already used to buying again).
I agree, Cook did de facto promise "something" for 2013 and we do not need to buy immediately. So, there is hope. Still, this uncertainty is not helpful. If we would have to jump ship (not completely, but certainly for video work), this requires quite some planning, training, budgeting etc. I am not blaming Apple for not having anything ready now (if we would urgently need additional machines soon, we would have bought before today to be safe), but not to be able to do some mid term planning is causing quite some concern (not that this is something new, but being used to it doesn't really help). I do understand that they keep popular devices under the cover to block the copycats. But, really, the current Mac Pro form factor (introduced with the G5 Power Mac in 2003) is almost a decade old and nobody bothered to copy it... would letting some information about the successor out really hurt?
There is nothing to see here, IMO. Apple will release new Mac Pros sometime in 2013, and then all of the people who constantly talk about the Mac Pro line being "dead" or "discontinued" will have to admit that they don't know what they're talking about, and that they've all been regurgitating complete crap for a long time now.
Real pros don't run around switching out their main workhorse machines every six months, they've got real work to complete and real clients to please. The Mac Pro line is obviously not a huge seller for Apple, compared to their other products.
I think Apple should at least announce a release date for the Mac Pro. It's not like it's going to hurt the current Mac Pro sales which are very small anyways. I can see why they keep it secret for the iPads, iPhones and Macbooks because those are such cutthroat markets. The Mac Pro market isn't like that though. These production houses know what they want and will pay the premium to get it. Keeping them in the dark just pisses them off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Guy
It's sad to see, but I don't think that Apple cares much about this machine anymore, because of the lack of attention that this machine has received during the last few years. Maybe professional desktops in general are not as important as they used to be. It may also be the end of an era.
I guess you don't read much about what's going on and the rationale behind it.
The MacPro has had a marginal update, but due to it only attracting a niche market, it doesn't get major upgrades as often. They did a slight upgrade to the processors last year, but it was minor.
They are waiting until the new XEON chips Ivy Bridge get released. They are also making other substantial upgrades to it. What? I can only speculate that USB 3.0, Thunderbolt will be part of it, and since they released Fusion drives, they will PROBABLY offer Fusion drives or some variation for the new MacPro, which are supposed to be released somewhere in the March 20 to June 20th time frame. I'm sure they'll put in high end graphics cards from NVidia as well. The Thunderbolt monitors are becoming harder to get, so I'm sure they are ramping up a new thinner model to replace the existing model. There are other speculations around the new MacPros regarding case design. But these systems are forthcoming.
It's just that the high end market is not as big as the laptop, mobile devices market. That's just fact. But they will get an upgrade fairly soon and I'm sure there is a lot of pent up demand for them.
We'll see what they bring out in the upcoming months.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Fix
Apple hates professionals.
No they don't. What's your problem? They made good on the FInal Cut Pro X promises. There are people out there that first didn't like FInal Cut Pro X, but since the updates they released and they spent some time with it, they love it. So there are some professionals out there that admitted they were complaining about something that was going to get resolved. They had to release something to go after the masses of people first while they got the more high end features together because most professionals aren't going to change to another app the day it comes out. They usually take some time with it. And Apple had to make a decision, come out with something that the entry people can use while they work on the higher end features, or delay the release. They made the decision and it's working out just fine.
Logic Pro is getting an update to Logic Pro X and that'll be coming out later this year as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smalM
No, they just ignore them.
They are waiting for Intel to release some new processors. There haven't been much of anything else getting released by anyone else in the top end systems because they are waiting on Intel to release the Ivy Bridge XEONs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdkennedy1
Tuesday! But seriously. What do they expect us to work on? Windows 7 machines? I can't do my work without a Mac Pro. All I can think of is that computers have become so powerful that most people just don't need to upgrade anymore.
Uh, the current MacPros aren't going to explode. Yes, I guess if you're in a situation where you're in europe and you need to buy a new MacPro NOW, you can't. I'm assuming they'll have the new one very soon.