Oh how I would love Apple to open up its platform. But of course that is only a dream.
A more viable solution is for Apple to spin off its Mac business and let another PC manufacturer take over. Apple would only be there as a guidance and would only focus on macOS, iOS, and iDevices.
What this article seems to ignore is that we need Macs to write apps for every single iOS device out there. Without the Mac there would be no iOS, and if Apple keep paring down their offering, people won't be able to write apps because they won't want to be forced to buy something they aren't 100% invested in.
Some people prefer laptops for app development, some prefer desktops. Some need the cheapest Mac (the Mac mini) because they have a great app idea but don't have $1000 to try it out, and some are writing huge apps that need the raw processing power of a Mac Pro. It's not just "professionals" who buy the Mac Pro. Lots of people like to have the best they can afford. Not everyone is an uninformed consumer who just buys the low-end iMac because it was on display.
I'm using a 2009 Mac Pro. Everything that could be upgraded was upgraded. I'm looking forward to put in a Vega graphics card this year. When this Mac Pro dies I will set up a Hackintosh. Being kicked out of Apple's target group I will not buy an iMac, I will not buy a MacBook Pro, I will certainly not buy that tin can!
TO ADMINS: this form wipes carriage returns when posting with Safari on Mac (latest versions). I have reported that many times in the past to no avail.
Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'You Will See Us Do More in the Pro Area'
"Expect us to do more and more where people will view it as a laptop replacement, but not a Mac replacement - the Mac does so much more", he said. "To merge these worlds, you would lose the simplicity of one, and the power of the other".
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/28/apple-ceo-tim-cook-pro-creative-area-important
Apple: Mac users don't believe Tim Cook's hype about pro products
Apple has become a phone company, and everything else is a second or third level priority for them. That will continue to work great in terms of profits until enough people dump their Macs and then realize that perhaps they can live without an iPhone too.
http://www.cio.com/article/3175697/hardware/apple-mac-users-dont-believe-tim-cooks-hype-about-pro-products.html
On the other hand, headless Macs like Mac mini and Mac Pro are ecological, whereas all-in-one like iMac are anti-ecological, since a CPU may last seven years, but a display lasts more more than 20 years. Apple should make brand new headless Macs and brand new displays.
Apple doesn't care about its 20 billion dollar Mac business
:facepalm:
I think people tend read and then just massage the logic to fit what they want to hear.
If Apple did build this blazing hot, multi-slotted, bristling-with-ports machine that everyone is apparently demanding, then I guarantee that all these so-called "professionals" would spend the next year complaining how ugly it is.
Or, they could just whack all that in a classic design Mac Pro tower and release it with a mea culpa.
They could do that, and people would still complain how Hey we're being fobbed off with an old-fashioned boxy design.
What this article seems to ignore is that we need Macs to write apps for every single iOS device out there. Without the Mac there would be no iOS, and if Apple keep paring down their offering, people won't be able to write apps because they won't want to be forced to buy something they aren't 100% invested in.
Some people prefer laptops for app development, some prefer desktops. Some need the cheapest Mac (the Mac mini) because they have a great app idea but don't have $1000 to try it out, and some are writing huge apps that need the raw processing power of a Mac Pro. It's not just "professionals" who buy the Mac Pro. Lots of people like to have the best they can afford. Not everyone is an uninformed consumer who just buys the low-end iMac because it was on display.
Well there is the high end 5K iMac. I reckon you can develop iOS apps on that.
There are some potential ways Apple could rethink its Mac Pro strategy. The simplest change would be to open up its existing design to accommodate third party CPU and GPU processor upgrades. One path to do this is enabled by Thunderbolt 3, which Apple demonstrated an early affinity for last fall in its design of new MacBook Pros.
This reminded me if my own guess/fantasy for where Apple will go next with pro desktops. Apple stopped making displays because iMacs will be the pro desktop starting point. Need Mac Pro power? Add one (or two or three...) Thunderbolt 3 connected CPU/GPU modules. The modules will be Jet Black with a design that minimizes fan noise, and there will be Jet Black iMacs to match.
I'm using a 2009 Mac Pro. Everything that could be upgraded was upgraded. I'm looking forward to put in a Vega graphics card this year. When this Mac Pro dies I will set up a Hackintosh. Being kicked out of Apple's target group I will not buy an iMac, I will not buy a MacBook Pro, I will certainly not buy that tin can!
Fair enough, but you weren't actually kicked out; you have taken a conscious decision not to adapt. The wants and needs of Apple's target market changes with time as the older professionals retire or die and are replaced by new professionals with different requirements. If Apple continued to service a shrinking group at the expense of a growing one then they would go out of business.
Apple could easily "dramatically expanding its Mac sales" stoping with the stupid designs of late Macs
After more than 30 Apple Macs buyer since 1988 I have started using mi own-built Hackintosh, now we are using five of them and only two old Macs.
I wouldn't be forced to do that if Apple have a semi-pro model with versatility design (read: no integrated screen) easy maintenance (read: owner HD change), acceptable internal capacity (read: we don't want/need be forced to buy expensive external thunderbolt add-ons) and reasonable price/power ratio (read: not a Mac mini, not a Mac-Ashtray-Pro)
Do it easy, stop trying force everyone to follow your "classy" way. We need the Macs only to work, not to redefine the world nor finance Jonathan Ive next bullshit
There are some potential ways Apple could rethink its Mac Pro strategy. The simplest change would be to open up its existing design to accommodate third party CPU and GPU processor upgrades. One path to do this is enabled by Thunderbolt 3, which Apple demonstrated an early affinity for last fall in its design of new MacBook Pros.
This reminded me if my own guess/fantasy for where Apple will go next with pro desktops. Apple stopped making displays because iMacs will be the pro desktop starting point. Need Mac Pro power? Add one (or two or three...) Thunderbolt 3 connected CPU/GPU modules. The modules will be Jet Black with a design that minimizes fan noise, and there will be Jet Black iMacs to match.
Apple could easily "dramatically expanding its Mac sales" stoping with the stupid designs of late Macs
After more than 30 Apple Macs buyer since 1988 I have started using mi own-built Hackintosh, now we are using five of them and only two old Macs.
I wouldn't be forced to do that if Apple have a semi-pro model with versatility design (read: no integrated screen) easy maintenance (read: owner HD change), acceptable internal capacity (read: we don't want/need be forced to buy expensive external thunderbolt add-ons) and reasonable price/power ratio (read: not a Mac mini, not a Mac-Ashtray-Pro)
Do it easy, stop trying force everyone to follow your "classy" way. We need the Macs only to work, not to redefine the world nor finance Jonathan Ive next bullshit
Well, it looks like you have two options:
Carry on building Hackintoshes.
Move to a different platform.
As far as I can tell, Apple doesn't put a lot of effort into stopping people building their own Macs.
1. The opportunity cost to investing in the Mac is low. Apple has a ton of cash and most of it sits earning 1%. The Mac is certainly more profitable than that.
2. The PC market might be stagnant, but the Mac market is much bigger than it used to be. Back in 2009 (I pick that year because it's when I bought my Mac Pro), Apple sold fewer Macs than they do today yet they did a better job of keeping a diverse product line up to date.
3. The Mac might represent a smaller share of Apple's revenue and profit, but it creates big positive externalities. For some of Apple's highest income, most engaged and loyal users, the Mac is the center of the Apple ecosystem. If Apple alienates those users and drives them to Windows or Linux, then those users might find that the rest of the Apple ecosystem makes less sense with the Mac. So then it's not just a loss of a Mac sale, it's a loss of several other products. Since those users tend to be Apple evangelists, it also has spill over effects to other users.
4. If Apple made an effort with the Mac Pro, the Mac Pro could utterly dominate the workstation market. It's essentially the most user-friendly Unix workstation ever built, and with Apple's technological capabilities it could also be the most powerful workstation on the market. The Mac Pro could be the realization of what NeXT was trying to do all those years ago, but so much better because it's in the context of a larger ecosystem.
Bottom line for me -- the Mac Pro right now is a big missed opportunity. It's sad.
This editorial was great. As an Apple-focused IT professional, I love seeing how macOS continues to be a great software platform, but it seems like we get little love these days from Apple's hardware guys especially on the desktop side. When building our instructional labs (with a mandate to have them last 5 or so years), I dislike having to choose from 2 year old hardware that hasn't been refreshed as the basis for my build, though Apple's laptops are quick to get refreshes (maybe not so much from the author of this article's view).
If Apple would re-open the clone program for desktops knowing that their bottom line wouldn't change too much, I could build some great Mac labs on newer hardware and deal with a company like Dell or HP (or a big name vendor like).
Let these guys handle the supply chain issues, give them a reference motherboard that they have to base the design on and a licensing fee to pre-install macOS. Then that vendor could sell to us in a market Apple's doesn't have the energy to focus on.
Self fulfilling prophecy. Macs are not upgraded because demand is low. Demand is low because Macs are not upgraded. Apple doesn't care about its 20 billion dollar Mac business, because it has a 150 billion dollar phone business. But I think this is short sighted. Apple could gain a lot of respect and r&d experience by continuing to advance the most powerful and easiest to use computers in the world. That's worth more than just money.
And in addition to that upgrades happen look like cheap tricks. C'mon, Apple, I still have MBP'15 and I won't switch to your new piece of junk with the same name, because I'm not a dongle fan at all. I don't want to by a $500+ extension for my new $2000+ MacBook Pro in order for the latter to at least look as an actual Pro. I'm a touchtyper and I have no idea what the hack do I need a touch bar for. I'd rather prefer a touch screen, but you say that Apple users don't need those. Well, I'd rather prefer a stable macOS with a couple updates a year than an overdesigned, overpacked with apps I don't use one, yet, you say that Apple users love your way of screwing with your own creation...
Whatever happens next it might only be two ways for me: — Apple realizes that mac book pro users need more tech and less jingles, dongles and other implied shmungles; — Me switching out as I did with their overpriced stone for some reason called a phone...
Yeah, I don't want new wallpapers for my desktop I need a stable alternative for a Linux system, otherwise I just don't see the need to choose the Apple's product over a much better technological multiverse of the Linux core based laptops.
Bye then. Given most of your whines are trollish you're better off out of the Mac ecosystem. Enjoy Linux.
Your Apple % sales graphic is totally misleading ... it suggests that Mac sales are a shrinking portion of a pie. But, Mac sales have been vastly expanding over the last 5 to 10 years, in absolute terms, so that looking at the proportion of the pie misses the point -- the point is that the Mac in and of itself is a fantastic vibrant business model ... sadly being starved by its own owner.
Apple doesn't care about its 20 billion dollar Mac business
:facepalm:
I think people tend read and then just massage the logic to fit what they want to hear.
If Apple did build this blazing hot, multi-slotted, bristling-with-ports machine that everyone is apparently demanding, then I guarantee that all these so-called "professionals" would spend the next year complaining how ugly it is.
This "silent majority" of real professionals either had their chance and blew it or were never as significant as the highly-vocal few on tech forums claim. Apple had the huge tower in the Power Mac G5. Then they moved to the Intel-based Mac Pro using a very similar casing with a little more usable interior volume. These two machines combined last a little over a decade before Apple released the pejoratively named "trash can" Mac Pro.
The law of parsimony tells me that we have to assume that the very large, comparatively noisy tower with expansion slots simply wasn't good enough to warrant more large towers, and that's before I even consider what happened to Xserve and my experience with seeing data centers with multitudes of Mac minis a lot more often than seeing a single Mac Pro (note that the Mac minis would almost certainly cost more than a Mac Pro for the same volume).
The new Mac Pro seemed like both an exercise for Apple to show their excellence in engineering and a Hail Mary for the professional desktop Mac user that doesn't want an AIO. It's a brilliant machine, but I certainly don't need one, but I've also never needed the old-tower Mac Pro, but I did buy the latter as a gift once.)
What is Apple is to do? Build something with very little to no profit when they can spend their limited resources on something that suits their needs and their customer's needs the best. Luckily, as a professional, I don't think Apple is done with me yet and I used this atest and most brilliant MacBook Pro as an example.
PS: Just a hunch, but I'm guessing the same people that want Apple to build the elusive xMac are probably the same ones that complain about Tim Cook being photographed having dinner with friends or that Apple Park landscaping is underway are taking away resources from releasing new Macs. The irony, if true.
One path to making Mac Pro a more broadly desirable product might be to open up licensing and franchising of Apple's core architecture designs to vendors who can add value and broaden the demand for macOS hardware....
I do not think Apple would ever do this. I think Apple like to have to much control over everything both hardware and software and it would just create more work for Apple in the long run, when they could just create the hardware themselves.
If Apple did open macOS up to consumers to build their own custom hardware, I would be very down for this. This way we professionals could build their own custom Mac, and top it with the specs we want. If Apple made much of the underlying code for macOS open source (I believe most of it is anyway) than it would just be a matter of having hardware developers write drivers for their hardware and all Apple would have to do is approve it, kind of like the App Store now and BAM, Apple would have the largest professional installed macOS user base on the planet, IMHO.
Apple already had a Mac licensing program years ago, and it was a dud.
And you can already design and build your own Mac aka "Hackintosh" today. While I'm not endorsing it, that's a reality.
Apple doesn't care about its 20 billion dollar Mac business
:facepalm:
I think people tend read and then just massage the logic to fit what they want to hear.
If Apple did build this blazing hot, multi-slotted, bristling-with-ports machine that everyone is apparently demanding, then I guarantee that all these so-called "professionals" would spend the next year complaining how ugly it is.
Or, they could just whack all that in a classic design Mac Pro tower and release it with a mea culpa.
Couldn’t wait. built my own hackintosh. you're wrong.
Comments
A more viable solution is for Apple to spin off its Mac business and let another PC manufacturer take over. Apple would only be there as a guidance and would only focus on macOS, iOS, and iDevices.
Some people prefer laptops for app development, some prefer desktops. Some need the cheapest Mac (the Mac mini) because they have a great app idea but don't have $1000 to try it out, and some are writing huge apps that need the raw processing power of a Mac Pro. It's not just "professionals" who buy the Mac Pro. Lots of people like to have the best they can afford. Not everyone is an uninformed consumer who just buys the low-end iMac because it was on display.
When this Mac Pro dies I will set up a Hackintosh.
Being kicked out of Apple's target group I will not buy an iMac, I will not buy a MacBook Pro, I will certainly not buy that tin can!
After more than 30 Apple Macs buyer since 1988 I have started using mi own-built Hackintosh, now we are using five of them and only two old Macs.
I wouldn't be forced to do that if Apple have a semi-pro model with versatility design (read: no integrated screen) easy maintenance (read: owner HD change), acceptable internal capacity (read: we don't want/need be forced to buy expensive external thunderbolt add-ons) and reasonable price/power ratio (read: not a Mac mini, not a Mac-Ashtray-Pro)
Do it easy, stop trying force everyone to follow your "classy" way.
We need the Macs only to work, not to redefine the world nor finance Jonathan Ive next bullshit
Nice.
- Carry on building Hackintoshes.
- Move to a different platform.
As far as I can tell, Apple doesn't put a lot of effort into stopping people building their own Macs.1. The opportunity cost to investing in the Mac is low. Apple has a ton of cash and most of it sits earning 1%. The Mac is certainly more profitable than that.
2. The PC market might be stagnant, but the Mac market is much bigger than it used to be. Back in 2009 (I pick that year because it's when I bought my Mac Pro), Apple sold fewer Macs than they do today yet they did a better job of keeping a diverse product line up to date.
3. The Mac might represent a smaller share of Apple's revenue and profit, but it creates big positive externalities. For some of Apple's highest income, most engaged and loyal users, the Mac is the center of the Apple ecosystem. If Apple alienates those users and drives them to Windows or Linux, then those users might find that the rest of the Apple ecosystem makes less sense with the Mac. So then it's not just a loss of a Mac sale, it's a loss of several other products. Since those users tend to be Apple evangelists, it also has spill over effects to other users.
4. If Apple made an effort with the Mac Pro, the Mac Pro could utterly dominate the workstation market. It's essentially the most user-friendly Unix workstation ever built, and with Apple's technological capabilities it could also be the most powerful workstation on the market. The Mac Pro could be the realization of what NeXT was trying to do all those years ago, but so much better because it's in the context of a larger ecosystem.
Bottom line for me -- the Mac Pro right now is a big missed opportunity. It's sad.
If Apple would re-open the clone program for desktops knowing that their bottom line wouldn't change too much, I could build some great Mac labs on newer hardware and deal with a company like Dell or HP (or a big name vendor like).
Let these guys handle the supply chain issues, give them a reference motherboard that they have to base the design on and a licensing fee to pre-install macOS. Then that vendor could sell to us in a market Apple's doesn't have the energy to focus on.
My two cents
But, Mac sales have been vastly expanding over the last 5 to 10 years, in absolute terms, so that looking at the proportion of the pie misses the point -- the point is that the Mac in and of itself is a fantastic vibrant business model ... sadly being starved by its own owner.
The law of parsimony tells me that we have to assume that the very large, comparatively noisy tower with expansion slots simply wasn't good enough to warrant more large towers, and that's before I even consider what happened to Xserve and my experience with seeing data centers with multitudes of Mac minis a lot more often than seeing a single Mac Pro (note that the Mac minis would almost certainly cost more than a Mac Pro for the same volume).
The new Mac Pro seemed like both an exercise for Apple to show their excellence in engineering and a Hail Mary for the professional desktop Mac user that doesn't want an AIO. It's a brilliant machine, but I certainly don't need one, but I've also never needed the old-tower Mac Pro, but I did buy the latter as a gift once.)
What is Apple is to do? Build something with very little to no profit when they can spend their limited resources on something that suits their needs and their customer's needs the best. Luckily, as a professional, I don't think Apple is done with me yet and I used this atest and most brilliant MacBook Pro as an example.
PS: Just a hunch, but I'm guessing the same people that want Apple to build the elusive xMac are probably the same ones that complain about Tim Cook being photographed having dinner with friends or that Apple Park landscaping is underway are taking away resources from releasing new Macs. The irony, if true.
Apple already had a Mac licensing program years ago, and it was a dud.
And you can already design and build your own Mac aka "Hackintosh" today. While I'm not endorsing it, that's a reality.