In the interest of full disclosure, I want a PCI-e Mac Pro. I love my 5,1, [...] I'm also a realist, and don't think that I'm going to get what I want.
Damn, I'm always late to these parties!
Given the mandate given to the design team, we can assume that they will develop competing prototypes in different directions. So Apple is likely to build your PCIe Mac Pro, but it may not win the competition.
Offhand, I can't think of any examples that parallel the position the Mac Pro design team is in, with the advent of Thunderbolt 3. I realize there are still some limitations, but it gives them options that didn't exist in the past. So the competition that your perfect redesigned 5,1 is going to face will be innovative and exciting.
Your chances of winning may be tied to what Apple is planning with the new displays. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 5K and an 8K. But there will likely also be (as Dan has mused, IIRC) an elegant prototype that puts the GPU in the display. I don't really have a clear sense of whether this would allow, for example, a MacBook Pro to work well with the 8K display at full resolution. If it did, it's not hard to see Apple opting for that approach, since the MBP is so important.
That said, an external GPU enclosure could serve the same purpose, so that's another prototype. Apple could be seeing an opening there, since most (all?) current external GPU enclosures are, well, not exactly going to win any awards for industrial design.
So that's basically three competing prototypes right there, without even considering other parts of the computer.
I too believe Apple has "awoken" and realized that the Mac still has a future.
Would this be despite having events entitled "Back to the Mac" and routinely making comments such as "The Mac is very important to us" and "We use Macs and don't imagine not using them" etc over the recent years?
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
The state of the mac went from stale to dusty to long silence to emergency catch-up mode. Ugly.
You got that exactly right. Something stinks at Apple, I'm not sure what it is but frankly the Mac division needs a new manager. Frankly they could hire a stripper form the local strip joint and get more active management of the division. Probably smarter too, as she would likely be able to understand customer needs better and have demonstrated communications skills. All we get from Apple these days, with respect to the Mac is complete BS, no useful information or commenting at all.
/s?
His stripper comment may be hyperbole, but I think the tone of his message is void of any sarcasm.
The Mac Pro and Apple display mess was indeed a fuckup of amateurish proportions. They are a computer company that is privy to roadmaps of their component suppliers. Yet, they built a Mac Pro that they themselves could not upgrade. They themselves. That's unbelievable. They lost about 2 cycles of workstation sales due to it. This is a sign that some high level designer or manager pushed the design all the way through production and ignored people who said it was a bad product, or they didn't understand how such a computer would be used and how it would be advantageous over what they had before.
(second bold mine)
No, it's not a sign of that at all -- that's your uninformed speculation (no insult, that's just true). If you read the articles and interviews from the recent media event, they spoke about it pretty clearly. What they intended, how it didn't come to pass, and then realizing they couldn't salvage it. They're pretty open and clear (thinking Craig Federighi in particular). There's no mention of there being one guy who ignored everyone and pushed it through. No mention at all.
Apple made it's fortune skating to where the puck is going. If it didn't go where they thought this time, oh well, they're adjusting. It's not the end of the world, they aren't super-humans, and the world will keep on turning. But it's also not going to put out nearly as many people as the online hand-wringers seem to think it will. It's easy to be an armchair executive who doesn't actually produce anything. It's much harder to do it in real life. Thus I find the hand-wringing a silly use of time.
In the interest of full disclosure, I want a PCI-e Mac Pro. I love my 5,1, [...] I'm also a realist, and don't think that I'm going to get what I want.
Damn, I'm always late to these parties!
Given the mandate given to the design team, we can assume that they will develop competing prototypes in different directions. So Apple is likely to build your PCIe Mac Pro, but it may not win the competition.
Offhand, I can't think of any examples that parallel the position the Mac Pro design team is in, with the advent of Thunderbolt 3. I realize there are still some limitations, but it gives them options that didn't exist in the past. So the competition that your perfect redesigned 5,1 is going to face will be innovative and exciting.
Your chances of winning may be tied to what Apple is planning with the new displays. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 5K and an 8K. But there will likely also be (as Dan has mused, IIRC) an elegant prototype that puts the GPU in the display. I don't really have a clear sense of whether this would allow, for example, a MacBook Pro to work well with the 8K display at full resolution. If it did, it's not hard to see Apple opting for that approach, since the MBP is so important.
That said, an external GPU enclosure could serve the same purpose, so that's another prototype. Apple could be seeing an opening there, since most (all?) current external GPU enclosures are, well, not exactly going to win any awards for industrial design.
So that's basically three competing prototypes right there, without even considering other parts of the computer.
Breakout boxes or Thunderbolt PCIe enclosures will exist regardless of what Apple intends to do. All Apple needs to do is support them with drivers for macOS so laptop owners, iMac or Mac mini owners can use them. This issue with using breakout boxes is the same as with the 2013 Mac Pro. I don't think people like to have external boxes and the cabling between them messing up their desks, it's not the greatest thing to support or manage, and it's limited by the performance of wire/cable performance.
The rumored display with an embedded GPU mostly seemed to be about how Apple was going to do a external 5k display when there wasn't a cable and protocol available that could drive so many pixels. This is now not an issue anymore as Apple appears happy to support multi-stream support over Thunderbolt 3 as seen with the latest round of MBP laptops. Moreover, I don't think it will address what some Mac Pro customers may want: 250 W GPUs, and for some, multiple 250 W GPUs.
The iMac (and MBP) will or can ship with 6-core Coffee Lake CPUs in 2018. The current iMac probably has the power envelope for a 135 W GPUs. If a new design gets thinner, maybe not. That puts upward pressure on a notional Mac Pro to have 2 CPU sockets, which by Intel's definition are Xeons, or maybe AMD Ryzens as their price/perf is looking competitive now. Then, the GPUs it should be handle should be in the 250 W power envelopes, and not only that, 2 of them.
This basically defines what is needed for something that is greater than the iMac: 2 CPU sockets, 2 GPU slots, and at least one more for vertical NAND (Optane) and or other I/O (10 Gbit Ethernet, etc). Obviously, there should be room for lots of storage too. If they do breakout boxes (external enclosures) on the GPUs, I think the market will reject it just like they did the 2013 Mac Pro.
tht said: Breakout boxes or Thunderbolt PCIe enclosures will exist regardless of what Apple intends to do. All Apple needs to do is support them with drivers for macOS so laptop owners, iMac or Mac mini owners can use them. This issue with using breakout boxes is the same as with the 2013 Mac Pro. I don't think people like to have external boxes and the cabling between them messing up their desks, it's not the greatest thing to support or manage, and it's limited by the performance of wire/cable performance. [...]
This basically defines what is needed for something that is greater than the iMac: 2 CPU sockets, 2 GPU slots, and at least one more for vertical NAND (Optane) and or other I/O (10 Gbit Ethernet, etc). Obviously, there should be room for lots of storage too. If they do breakout boxes (external enclosures) on the GPUs, I think the market will reject it just like they did the 2013 Mac Pro.
Apple didn't say that the problem with the 2013 Mac Pro was Thunderbolt peripherals/cabling. They did say that the problem was a bad strategic decision on GPU designs and their "thermals." So there's a chance that Apple disagrees with you re: "the market." Just sayin'
Intel's Skylake Xeon rollout is confusing as hell, with apparent nomenclature changes, so at this point it's just kind of wait-and-see for how they market them. Even if they are old news by late 2018, the Skylake Xeon structure should give us some sense of what the next few generations will look like. Definitely a dual-socket LGA 3647 Mac Pro would be a statement, but LGA 2066 seems more practical and more in line with real-world Mac Pro uses. Regardless, both sockets are new in 2017 and should be in place for the next few generations. So it's a good time to design a Mac Pro that you plan to keep up-to-date.
EDIT: Just after posting this comment, I stopped by Ars Technica and noticed they have an article up today summarizing what we know (and don't know) about the Skylake Xeon rollout, which Intel officially announced today: Intel’s Skylake “Scalable Processor” family is a new approach to Xeon
I think once the USB-Type-C nonsense starts getitng ironed out and just becomes default/standard and all they have to do is include 2 or 4 (or even 6 or 8) Type-C ports, Apple could probably just crank out any macintosh model they want...
I too believe Apple has "awoken" and realized that the Mac still has a future.
Would this be despite having events entitled "Back to the Mac" and routinely making comments such as "The Mac is very important to us" and "We use Macs and don't imagine not using them" etc over the recent years?
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
I don't pay attention to the titles with Apple it's always keen to follow the "your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying" ethos. The de-emphasis of the Mac happened around Jobs' infamous "Trucks versus Cars" D8 talk.
He was wrong. Tim Cook was wrong when he promulgated the notion that we live in a Post-PC era. Cook doesn't mention Post-PC as much anymore because hopefully he realizes it was bullshit. The numbers tell us clearly people want Trucks.
Apple announcing a redesign of the Mac Pro is a step in the right direction. But we still need a decent Mac App Store and we need to move away from diet frameworks designed for mobile first and then brought to desktop. WWDC and Apple's actions over the next year and a half will tell us if they really are investing into the platform.
I too believe Apple has "awoken" and realized that the Mac still has a future.
Would this be despite having events entitled "Back to the Mac" and routinely making comments such as "The Mac is very important to us" and "We use Macs and don't imagine not using them" etc over the recent years?
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
I don't pay attention to the titles with Apple it's always keen to follow the "your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying" ethos. The de-emphasis of the Mac happened around Jobs' infamous "Trucks versus Cars" D8 talk.
He was wrong. Tim Cook was wrong when he promulgated the notion that we live in a Post-PC era. Cook doesn't mention Post-PC as much anymore because hopefully he realizes it was bullshit. The numbers tell us clearly people want Trucks.
Apple announcing a redesign of the Mac Pro is a step in the right direction. But we still need a decent Mac App Store and we need to move away from diet frameworks designed for mobile first and then brought to desktop. WWDC and Apple's actions over the next year and a half will tell us if they really are investing into the platform.
I'm not arguing that we, meaning AI readers, want trucks. However, the people have clearly spoken, and most people don't want trucks. They want iPhones, iPads, and Android counterparts.
I too believe Apple has "awoken" and realized that the Mac still has a future.
Would this be despite having events entitled "Back to the Mac" and routinely making comments such as "The Mac is very important to us" and "We use Macs and don't imagine not using them" etc over the recent years?
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
I don't pay attention to the titles with Apple it's always keen to follow the "your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying" ethos. The de-emphasis of the Mac happened around Jobs' infamous "Trucks versus Cars" D8 talk.
He was wrong. Tim Cook was wrong when he promulgated the notion that we live in a Post-PC era. Cook doesn't mention Post-PC as much anymore because hopefully he realizes it was bullshit. The numbers tell us clearly people want Trucks.
Apple announcing a redesign of the Mac Pro is a step in the right direction. But we still need a decent Mac App Store and we need to move away from diet frameworks designed for mobile first and then brought to desktop. WWDC and Apple's actions over the next year and a half will tell us if they really are investing into the platform.
What you don't understand Steve Jobs didn't de-emphasize the Mac, he just re-packaged it in an iPhone form factor, as put so correctly and clearly by the Blackberry CEO of the time. And Tim Cook pushes the iPad more than anyone else, because he's so loyal to Steve Jobs' Post-PC vision.
Matt Gemmel a former developer just penned a blog post talking about the "race the bottom" effect and how it's getting to be very difficult to make money.
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
Matt Gemmel a former developer just penned a blog post talking about the "race the bottom" effect and how it's getting to be very difficult to make money.
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
You mix-up World Wide Web and cloud. Those are not the same thing.
Matt Gemmel a former developer just penned a blog post talking about the "race the bottom" effect and how it's getting to be very difficult to make money.
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
You mix-up World Wide Web and cloud. Those are not the same thing.
No they aren't they are more like Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Matt Gemmel a former developer just penned a blog post talking about the "race the bottom" effect and how it's getting to be very difficult to make money.
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
You mix-up World Wide Web and cloud. Those are not the same thing.
No they aren't they are more like Peanut Butter and Jelly.
In that they are both nice things smashed together with sugar. I'd rather have nice things. Native Apps like real apples are always going to be better.
Matt Gemmel a former developer just penned a blog post talking about the "race the bottom" effect and how it's getting to be very difficult to make money.
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
You mix-up World Wide Web and cloud. Those are not the same thing.
No they aren't they are more like Peanut Butter and Jelly.
In that they are both nice things smashed together with sugar. I'd rather have nice things. Native Apps like real apples are always going to be better.
I agree I do as well. I probably buy too much software but I love a well crafted app. But the reality is we're enthusiasts and i'm not so sure the rank and file consumer cares about well crafted software when there is a bunch of free "good enough" stuff.
Time will tell but i'll keep on supporting good Devs.
I too believe Apple has "awoken" and realized that the Mac still has a future.
Would this be despite having events entitled "Back to the Mac" and routinely making comments such as "The Mac is very important to us" and "We use Macs and don't imagine not using them" etc over the recent years?
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
I don't pay attention to the titles with Apple it's always keen to follow the "your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying" ethos. The de-emphasis of the Mac happened around Jobs' infamous "Trucks versus Cars" D8 talk.
He was wrong. Tim Cook was wrong when he promulgated the notion that we live in a Post-PC era. Cook doesn't mention Post-PC as much anymore because hopefully he realizes it was bullshit. The numbers tell us clearly people want Trucks.
I too believe Apple has "awoken" and realized that the Mac still has a future.
Would this be despite having events entitled "Back to the Mac" and routinely making comments such as "The Mac is very important to us" and "We use Macs and don't imagine not using them" etc over the recent years?
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
I don't pay attention to the titles with Apple it's always keen to follow the "your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying" ethos. The de-emphasis of the Mac happened around Jobs' infamous "Trucks versus Cars" D8 talk.
He was wrong. Tim Cook was wrong when he promulgated the notion that we live in a Post-PC era. Cook doesn't mention Post-PC as much anymore because hopefully he realizes it was bullshit. The numbers tell us clearly people want Trucks.
The iPad was supposed to become the device that carried us forward beyond the PC. It was to be as Tim Cook states “The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing.”
13 straight quarters of declining sales says otherwise. While a profit seeking company may love the idea of an appliance that cannot be upgraded, has no access to the filesystem and has only one way of getting apps onto it consumers are electing to stick with traditional form factors.
Matt Gemmel a former developer just penned a blog post talking about the "race the bottom" effect and how it's getting to be very difficult to make money.
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
You mix-up World Wide Web and cloud. Those are not the same thing.
No they aren't they are more like Peanut Butter and Jelly.
In that they are both nice things smashed together with sugar. I'd rather have nice things. Native Apps like real apples are always going to be better.
I agree I do as well. I probably buy too much software but I love a well crafted app. But the reality is we're enthusiasts and i'm not so sure the rank and file consumer cares about well crafted software when there is a bunch of free "good enough" stuff.
Time will tell but i'll keep on supporting good Devs.
But the rank and file consumer has never cared. it's the 80/20 rule in action. The economics aren't changing other than it's vastly easier for good developers to reach people willing to pay world wide. The tech difference might get smaller but there's no reason to see it reversing. Even if the latency gets lower enough to power the interface it's still going to be faster still to just sync data.
I don't disagree that Apple should be trying to leverage swift on server and say a web-assembly swift frontend to make a cross-over platform between pure Web app and pure Native. Would be great expansion for Apple/IBM joint venture to attract businesses.
Edit: Should note this is part wishful thinking on my part. With the hope Apple will do iCloud for Business to compete with Google and MS for business systems.
What I'm worried is I need a new macbook but I don't want to buy one with a ridiculous and doomed to lose support touchbar.
I thought the same thing, but bought a new 15" MBP anyway bc I know that Apple always surprises me. I honestly viewed the Touchbar as a kind of corny gimmick. Then I got the Mac and started using it. Then I saw how I can customize my Touchbar for each Application, and that's when I started to see it's value. Now I understand. It's pretty awesome now that I assign quick keys stuff to the bar and video scrubbing audio scrubbing etc etc. and I'm no longer laughing... !!! Apple is quite amazing
I lost a lot of love for Apple after the whole 2013 Mac Pro debacle. But then a MIRACLE happened. Just as I was actually in the process of doing the unthinkable, shelling out big money for a whole new Windows based Avid Protools System.
The announcement came.........
I am a firm believer as a Mac Pro audio professional, that the Mac Pro market didn't die off because of a lack on interest. It was most definitely the 2013 design, which everyone knows what those shortcomings are, and then the punishing high price.
Apple has it right, as they will get back to a modular design. Apple is in for a big surprise on the sales they're going to see with the new Mac. I work in all the major recording studios of NYC, and I know from experience that all my professional music colleagues stayed away from the 2013 design bc of the lack of storage and HD expansion, and the fact that they'd have to completely re-invest in their entire system, making the whole move cost prohibitive. Now that these issues will no longer be valid, Apple is going to see a windfall of buyers who stuck with their old towers, and bypassed the 2013 MacPro altogether. That long list of tower users will be snatching up the new Mac Pro by the truckloads. All that talk of the Mac Pro no longer being viable, is completely false....... THANK YOU APPLE !!!!
Now hurry up and get that sucker released so we can buy it, and get back to being creative !!!!
Comments
Given the mandate given to the design team, we can assume that they will develop competing prototypes in different directions. So Apple is likely to build your PCIe Mac Pro, but it may not win the competition.
Offhand, I can't think of any examples that parallel the position the Mac Pro design team is in, with the advent of Thunderbolt 3. I realize there are still some limitations, but it gives them options that didn't exist in the past. So the competition that your perfect redesigned 5,1 is going to face will be innovative and exciting.
Your chances of winning may be tied to what Apple is planning with the new displays. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 5K and an 8K. But there will likely also be (as Dan has mused, IIRC) an elegant prototype that puts the GPU in the display. I don't really have a clear sense of whether this would allow, for example, a MacBook Pro to work well with the 8K display at full resolution. If it did, it's not hard to see Apple opting for that approach, since the MBP is so important.
That said, an external GPU enclosure could serve the same purpose, so that's another prototype. Apple could be seeing an opening there, since most (all?) current external GPU enclosures are, well, not exactly going to win any awards for industrial design.
So that's basically three competing prototypes right there, without even considering other parts of the computer.
Seriously, some people insisted Apple was ditching the Mac, then when it obviously didn't, these people are pivoting their narrative to say Apple *was* going to ditch the Mac -- despite that never being the case. Absurd.
(second bold mine)
No, it's not a sign of that at all -- that's your uninformed speculation (no insult, that's just true). If you read the articles and interviews from the recent media event, they spoke about it pretty clearly. What they intended, how it didn't come to pass, and then realizing they couldn't salvage it. They're pretty open and clear (thinking Craig Federighi in particular). There's no mention of there being one guy who ignored everyone and pushed it through. No mention at all.
Apple made it's fortune skating to where the puck is going. If it didn't go where they thought this time, oh well, they're adjusting. It's not the end of the world, they aren't super-humans, and the world will keep on turning. But it's also not going to put out nearly as many people as the online hand-wringers seem to think it will. It's easy to be an armchair executive who doesn't actually produce anything. It's much harder to do it in real life. Thus I find the hand-wringing a silly use of time.
Breakout boxes or Thunderbolt PCIe enclosures will exist regardless of what Apple intends to do. All Apple needs to do is support them with drivers for macOS so laptop owners, iMac or Mac mini owners can use them. This issue with using breakout boxes is the same as with the 2013 Mac Pro. I don't think people like to have external boxes and the cabling between them messing up their desks, it's not the greatest thing to support or manage, and it's limited by the performance of wire/cable performance.
The rumored display with an embedded GPU mostly seemed to be about how Apple was going to do a external 5k display when there wasn't a cable and protocol available that could drive so many pixels. This is now not an issue anymore as Apple appears happy to support multi-stream support over Thunderbolt 3 as seen with the latest round of MBP laptops. Moreover, I don't think it will address what some Mac Pro customers may want: 250 W GPUs, and for some, multiple 250 W GPUs.
The iMac (and MBP) will or can ship with 6-core Coffee Lake CPUs in 2018. The current iMac probably has the power envelope for a 135 W GPUs. If a new design gets thinner, maybe not. That puts upward pressure on a notional Mac Pro to have 2 CPU sockets, which by Intel's definition are Xeons, or maybe AMD Ryzens as their price/perf is looking competitive now. Then, the GPUs it should be handle should be in the 250 W power envelopes, and not only that, 2 of them.
This basically defines what is needed for something that is greater than the iMac: 2 CPU sockets, 2 GPU slots, and at least one more for vertical NAND (Optane) and or other I/O (10 Gbit Ethernet, etc). Obviously, there should be room for lots of storage too. If they do breakout boxes (external enclosures) on the GPUs, I think the market will reject it just like they did the 2013 Mac Pro.
Intel's Skylake Xeon rollout is confusing as hell, with apparent nomenclature changes, so at this point it's just kind of wait-and-see for how they market them. Even if they are old news by late 2018, the Skylake Xeon structure should give us some sense of what the next few generations will look like. Definitely a dual-socket LGA 3647 Mac Pro would be a statement, but LGA 2066 seems more practical and more in line with real-world Mac Pro uses. Regardless, both sockets are new in 2017 and should be in place for the next few generations. So it's a good time to design a Mac Pro that you plan to keep up-to-date.
EDIT: Just after posting this comment, I stopped by Ars Technica and noticed they have an article up today summarizing what we know (and don't know) about the Skylake Xeon rollout, which Intel officially announced today: Intel’s Skylake “Scalable Processor” family is a new approach to Xeon
EDIT II: The full set of eight slides and a more complete account of the briefing is here: Intel Unveils the Xeon Scalable Processor Family: Skylake-SP in Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum
https://youtu.be/YfJ3QxJYsw8
He was wrong. Tim Cook was wrong when he promulgated the notion that we live in a Post-PC era. Cook doesn't mention Post-PC as much anymore because hopefully
he realizes it was bullshit. The numbers tell us clearly people want Trucks.
Apple announcing a redesign of the Mac Pro is a step in the right direction. But we still need a decent Mac App Store and we need to move away from diet frameworks designed for mobile first and then brought to desktop. WWDC and Apple's actions over the next year and a half will tell us if they really are investing into the platform.
http://mattgemmell.com/damage/
It's not really a surprise to me but I did not expect this to happen so soon. I give iOS and Android about another decade and then they will be supplanted by
basically a web interface. People don't want to buy software anymore because it's getting antiquated. So much of what people do is through a browser.
Applications will still exist but they will be lightweight components that facilitate data management and connections mainly to powerful cloud servers and cloud apps.
If Apple hasn't already beefed their Webkit team up they need to do it pronto. There needs to be a Mac equivalent to Chrome. Once the race to the web hits warp speed there will be another scramble who provides the product and services.
Low cost hardware will rule the day. Just like the conversations steeped in incredulity about how many $$$ were paid for computer items in the past we'll look in a decade with awe at how we forked over $1800 for a laptop much like many of us remember top laptops hitting $3000+ a decade ago.
The Network Computing concept has always made sense from an access and maintenance point of view. Our networks will be more than fast enough and pervasive to disrupt in 5 year.
I'd rather have nice things. Native Apps like real apples are always going to be better.
Time will tell but i'll keep on supporting good Devs.
Trucks: 4.2 million
The iPad was supposed to become the device that carried us forward beyond the PC.
It was to be as Tim Cook states “The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing.”
13 straight quarters of declining sales says otherwise. While a profit seeking company may love the idea of an appliance
that cannot be upgraded, has no access to the filesystem and has only one way of getting apps onto it consumers are electing
to stick with traditional form factors.
Steve said it best
https://youtu.be/65_PmYipnpk?t=3m3s
“And if we succeed, they’ll buy them. And if we don’t, they won’t. And it’ll all work itself out.”
The iPad is not a failure, but it's no savior either.
I don't disagree that Apple should be trying to leverage swift on server and say a web-assembly swift frontend to make a cross-over platform between pure Web app and pure Native. Would be great expansion for Apple/IBM joint venture to attract businesses.
Edit: Should note this is part wishful thinking on my part. With the hope Apple will do iCloud for Business to compete with Google and MS for business systems.
I am a firm believer as a Mac Pro audio professional, that the Mac Pro market didn't die off because of a lack on interest. It was most definitely the 2013 design, which everyone knows what those shortcomings are, and then the punishing high price.