Watching Apple right now is like watching the X-Files in those years when they clearly had no idea where to take the show.
How does it make sense to cancel a product like this (or displays) but keep a very niche product like Logic?
If you depend on any product from Apple other than the iPhone, iPad, or MacBook I suggest you start looking for alternatives because no matter how good the product is, no matter how popular within its market, and no matter how much you are willing to pay -- Apple can and in many cases will kill the product with no clear reason and no warning.
People 'need' Logic. Nobody 'needs' an Apple display (which is just a rebadged LG or something anyway), or an Apple router.
Why can't they do both like they have been doing for years? Why is Apple hurting so bad that they need to cancel these products?
It's called "a business decision". I'm sure it wasn't because they "just felt like it".
Watching Apple right now is like watching the X-Files in those years when they clearly had no idea where to take the show.
How does it make sense to cancel a product like this (or displays) but keep a very niche product like Logic?
If you depend on any product from Apple other than the iPhone, iPad, or MacBook I suggest you start looking for alternatives because no matter how good the product is, no matter how popular within its market, and no matter how much you are willing to pay -- Apple can and in many cases will kill the product with no clear reason and no warning.
People 'need' Logic. Nobody 'needs' an Apple display (which is just a rebadged LG or something anyway), or an Apple router.
But they do 'need' secure routers and that is the point of this news story.
Might have been point of the story, but it wasn't the point of the specific discussion thread I was replying to. In any case I'm unaware of any proprietary security features built into Apple's routers.
Actually, you just hit on my main need for Airport Extreme over other networking devices - printer sharing. While other brands offer printer sharing, I haven't found a single one that can do it with Macs - they all only have drivers for Windows! If anyone wants to start a company out there, please produce Mac drivers for print sharing. Thanks!
In addition to supposedly supporting Time Machine, Netgear claims to support printer sharing to Macs as well, at least according to their manuals:
Actually, you just hit on my main need for Airport Extreme over other networking devices - printer sharing. While other brands offer printer sharing, I haven't found a single one that can do it with Macs - they all only have drivers for Windows! If anyone wants to start a company out there, please produce Mac drivers for print sharing. Thanks!
In addition to supposedly supporting Time Machine, Netgear claims to support printer sharing to Macs as well, at least according to their manuals:
It looks as if Netgear may be trying to set itself up as the successor to the AirPort routers.
Wireless routers are an intrinsic part of all their main products. If Apple stops making their own routers I'm sure they'll do what they did with the external displays and recommend some options that work great with the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
[...] Perhaps they're right, and Mac Pro sales have dropped to the point where they care less about it.
It's frustrating though, when a product may be a huge seller with some adjustments. Sometimes the reason it's not selling is not that there isn't demand in that segment, but rather that the particular offering isn't what that segment is waiting for. I think the Mac Pro is an excellent example of that.
If the sales of the Mac Pro are poor, is it because the market for professional desktop workstations is shrinking, or is it because the current version is not perceived as a good value proposition? Maybe a version with card slots would sell in the millions, or one with current components, or one with existing components but at a lower price, or whatever is preventing people from buying them.
You mean like the old MP? Are you suggesting Apple never thought to compare sales of the old MP to the new?
Apple has the data. All the data. The data nobody on any of these rumor sites or forums will ever have. They analyze it, they study it, and they make decisions with it. They've been doing this longer and better than any of us here. I am continually amazed when commenters don't stop and think about that.
The specifics I mentioned were arbitrary examples. I thought that would be clear from the context, but maybe I should have said so explicitly. Sorry if it was unclear.
You're amazed that people don't think Apple analyzes data. What amazes me is that some people think Apple has some kind of magic crystal ball that allows them to read user motivation from sales data.
Apple knows that I did not buy a Mac Pro this year. There is no way they could possibly know WHY I didn't buy one. Is it because the existing one is working well enough that I don't perceive a need to replace it? Is it because my experience with the last one was negative? Is it because there's a specific feature or function I'm hoping will appear in a future iteration? How many others made the same decision as me for similar reasons? How would that affect sales? Should the product be discontinued, or is there something Apple can do to make me buy one?
My point was and is that using sales figures as the basis for a decision to drop a product MAY be a mistake. It's possible that a particular product is selling poorly because of a specific characteristic and would sell really well if some changes are made.
How does it make sense to cancel a product like this (or displays) but keep a very niche product like Logic?
Logic is by no means a niche product. Logic is a huge seller for Apple and drives computer sales to an entire industry.
1) Logic is a software product, not a hardware product. That makes a huge difference. Why? Emagic, the company who Apple bought Logic from still make the app, just under the Apple name. The investment from Apple is complelty different.
2) Logic is almost always the highest paid app on the Mac App Store. As of today its second behind Garage Band (which itself is based on Logic).
3) Logic is a HIGHLY successful seller and is embedded in music studios and home studios alike, all around the world.
4) But most importantly, there's a BILLION dollar industry of software and hardware manufacturers that build products for DAWs, in which Logic is the biggest seller (not counting Pro Tools as it is a proprietary app that requires specific hardware and Avid makes most of it). Cubase, Digital Performer and Live are other competing DAW's but they don't push as many units as Logic does.
Again, there's a billion dollar industry behind Logic. Logic alone drives huge numbers of sales of MacBook Pros, iMac, and at one time Mac Pros (I myself have two fully loaded MacPros running in a host/slave setup with Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro, Logic and many more pro apps. I've spent a small fortune on Apple hardware to run these apps).
Logic is big business, and it's huge for Apple's PR in the music and entertainment industries.
Comments
Might have been point of the story, but it wasn't the point of the specific discussion thread I was replying to.
In any case I'm unaware of any proprietary security features built into Apple's routers.
https://www.netgear.com/assets/landing/readyshare/ReadySHAREPrintUM.pdf
It looks as if Netgear may be trying to set itself up as the successor to the AirPort routers.
The specifics I mentioned were arbitrary examples. I thought that would be clear from the context, but maybe I should have said so explicitly. Sorry if it was unclear.
You're amazed that people don't think Apple analyzes data. What amazes me is that some people think Apple has some kind of magic crystal ball that allows them to read user motivation from sales data.
Apple knows that I did not buy a Mac Pro this year. There is no way they could possibly know WHY I didn't buy one. Is it because the existing one is working well enough that I don't perceive a need to replace it? Is it because my experience with the last one was negative? Is it because there's a specific feature or function I'm hoping will appear in a future iteration? How many others made the same decision as me for similar reasons? How would that affect sales? Should the product be discontinued, or is there something Apple can do to make me buy one?
My point was and is that using sales figures as the basis for a decision to drop a product MAY be a mistake. It's possible that a particular product is selling poorly because of a specific characteristic and would sell really well if some changes are made.
1) Logic is a software product, not a hardware product. That makes a huge difference. Why? Emagic, the company who Apple bought Logic from still make the app, just under the Apple name. The investment from Apple is complelty different.
2) Logic is almost always the highest paid app on the Mac App Store. As of today its second behind Garage Band (which itself is based on Logic).
3) Logic is a HIGHLY successful seller and is embedded in music studios and home studios alike, all around the world.
4) But most importantly, there's a BILLION dollar industry of software and hardware manufacturers that build products for DAWs, in which Logic is the biggest seller (not counting Pro Tools as it is a proprietary app that requires specific hardware and Avid makes most of it). Cubase, Digital Performer and Live are other competing DAW's but they don't push as many units as Logic does.
Again, there's a billion dollar industry behind Logic. Logic alone drives huge numbers of sales of MacBook Pros, iMac, and at one time Mac Pros (I myself have two fully loaded MacPros running in a host/slave setup with Digital Performer, Vienna Ensemble Pro, Logic and many more pro apps. I've spent a small fortune on Apple hardware to run these apps).
Logic is big business, and it's huge for Apple's PR in the music and entertainment industries.