I think the FCPX team are not doing a great job of keeping pro editors to use their software. Apple monumentally botched the transition from FCP7 to FCPX. Even evangelists and gifted editors such as Walter Murch have since jumped ship. Apple lost a lot of trust from this sudden transition. The pro market needs to pay real bills and doesn't work like this. Glad to see Apple appear to have changed some things here. However, it would behoove Apple to get Murch, the Cohen's and other influential pros on board with this new vision.
All Apple has to do for modularity is look at the gamer's built PC industry! They been doing this for at least 7 years and counting! If Apple want to be cheap and be standardized. But know Apple, everything will be proprietary and can only be purchased through Apple for the most profit.
For the most efficiency, not most profit. Apple doesn't care to be cheap! They care to make the best products on their class.
If you want cheap go with windows and get what you paid for.
I think you are completely ignorant on the gaming PC and cutting edge machines and components. It make s a Mac Pro look like a beginner's gaming PC in comparison. Apple always uses the upper tier GPU engine that already a year old in their new top line machines! Apple never use the most high end graphics card because to expensive and they cannot get a good price on them because of the demand. LOL!
You realize that most Apple products that are totally brand new take many years to design, engineer, and fine tune before its announcement? This isn't just slapping parts together like a DIY PC and call it good. Apple is not Dell, HP, etc. If all you want is a bunch of parts slapped together then by all means, go get that or create your own.
If you need a professional Mac in the meantime, the iMac Pro is actually a great Pro Mac to get. It will still have significant value, even next year should you want to sell it for a new Mac Pro.
I think @larrya has a better point if he worded his statement as "Should this really take 2 [more] years??" We know that Apple stacks development of products many years down the road so I'd expect that by the time a Mac Pro is launched that team is away working on the next iteration, but if we're going 6 years between major revisions I have to assume that the team is woefully small or is being placed elsewhere, which is what we've seen in the past when Apple was focusing on something major in secret. Maybe this team also designed the iMac Pro, which is great achievement, as you note.
This is one reason I don't see a major shift from Intel to ARM. Apple
may design good chips for portable devices, but I doubt they can create
"server grade" CPUs and all their necessary support chips.
God, I hope Jony doesn't have any input into the design of this machine. Otherwise we'll be seeing something that looks pretty and is totally unfit for pro use.
You mean like the old Mac Pro tower that was also designed by Jony Ive's team? I'm sure you're the expert on what a Pro needs anyways.
This is one reason I don't see a major shift from Intel to ARM. Apple
may design good chips for portable devices, but I doubt they can create
"server grade" CPUs and all their necessary support chips.
God, I hope Jony doesn't have any input into the design of this machine. Otherwise we'll be seeing something that looks pretty and is totally unfit for pro use.
You beat me to it. Looks like Ive has been sidelined on this project. Rightly in my opinion, since the MacPro should be all about engineering.
Shouldn't they discount the current model? 15-20% discount might keep a few more on the platform
macxpress said: [...] You do realized Apple dropped this model because it wasn't selling right?
Man, I just don't get how to use Apple products. First there was the iPhone 4 that I wasn't holding right. Now I discover my beloved 17" went away because it wasn't selling right.
God, I hope Jony doesn't have any input into the design of this machine. Otherwise we'll be seeing something that looks pretty and is totally unfit for pro use.
I just imagined Jony working for Caterpillar. Imagine the results. A D-9 you'd have to lay down on to drive.I think I might do a comic about this.
Many years from now, after Apple silicon is used for Macs I wonder if we'll see a high-end Mac desktop with support for growing needs. For example, slots for, say, 16 blades, but which you can buy with as few as, say, one blade installed with room to grow. Could the interconnects be fast and smart enough that you could, for instance, choose between more central processing, more graphics, more RAM, more storage on any blade as needed? Would that cause too many potential issues?
I know people like to say that power isn't a concern for non-mobile because they're always plugged in, but that's simply not true. Whether it's the consumer end of the spectrum with Apple or a large data center, performance-per-watt is a major design concern.
The iMac Pro must be selling well enough. (I'm liking mine.) Or maybe sales were beginning to flag in anticipation of a Mac Pro this year. Hopefully the design delivered next year will restore dual-processor configurations... with performance far in excess of an iMac (Pro).
This is one reason I don't see a major shift from Intel to ARM. Apple
may design good chips for portable devices, but I doubt they can create
"server grade" CPUs and all their necessary support chips.
Time will tell.
It really will. ‘Server’ grade CPUs are not the fastest at all, however they are fully capable of being used in multi socket scenarios and best when the OS and apps are multi threaded. We’ve already seen multiple ARM CPUs being used in crypto currency rigs, and increasingly in server farms. They are fast, cheap and consume little energy.
I think adopting ARM CPUs for their laptops and desktops would be Apple thinking differently, with a lot of upside and less downside than people think. We’ve already done all of the learning required with the last two transitions.
One of Apple's biggest historical failings has been communication (lack of it). They seem to be turning that around and it is very encouraging. I hope this propagates down the line.
The part on workflow didn't make a lot of sense but you can't avoid marketing these days. Everything needs to be 'sold'.
The takeaway here was the openness and doing it in a timely fashion. A big thumbs up.
All good news except the delay, I was really hoping for this year. Better late than never though. Apple should include a software division in the Pro group and move all the pro apps under that group's control. 'Hardware and Software' developed together is Apple's mantra after all.
Perhaps even rehire the Aperture team? / sigh
What delay? When Schiller first mentioned the new Mac Pro in 2017 he never gave any explicit launch date. All he said that it wasn't arriving in 2017 & every tech blogger than assumed it was arriving in 2018. That's their own fault and your own fault if you believed it. Delayed per YOUR expectation is not the same thing as an official delay.
macxpress said: [...] This isn't just slapping parts together like a DIY PC and call it good.
Fair enough, but it's not exactly rocket surgery either, is it? It's a computer. A better than average computer with a desirable operating system, but at the end of the day it's just a computer. When the time between updates exceeds the duration of depreciation write offs, the claims of special sauce, fairy dust, and omniscience start to wear a little thin.
You realize that most Apple products that are totally brand new take many years to design, engineer, and fine tune before its announcement? This isn't just slapping parts together like a DIY PC and call it good. Apple is not Dell, HP, etc. If all you want is a bunch of parts slapped together then by all means, go get that or create your own.
If you need a professional Mac in the meantime, the iMac Pro is actually a great Pro Mac to get. It will still have significant value, even next year should you want to sell it for a new Mac Pro.
I suppose you have no idea the engineering and design involve in HP workstations. I suggest you check the HP Z8, which is miles ahead off what Apple offers today. This model is capable of 3TB of RAM (yes, Terabytes), two CPU's with a max of 56 cores, a three NVidia Quadro P6000. Do you really think that a device like this is a "bunch of parts slapped together"?
In addition, these models have been updates in a frequent basis, so high end customers have the latest specs always. There is no excuse for what Apple has done to the Mac Pro line.
I think Apple's doing the right thing now, and being careful to lay the right foundations for the pro platform. The delay should be reflective not of what they are doing now, but reflective of just how long and deeply ignored the pro platform became over the years, and how misguided their design team was for the pros: the trash can Mac Pro being the best example of that. The best they can do now is take their time and make sure they get it right for years to come.
"Throughout, the idea of modularity was omnipresent. An iMac Pro with two iPad Pros hooked up to it allows for direct control, shortcuts and live access to the Logic manual all while you’re mixing a song on the main device. "
Uh wait, you can do that? If not...Why not?! I always wanted tighter integration to use iPads to make Macs better.
Comments
You mean like the old Mac Pro tower that was also designed by Jony Ive's team? I'm sure you're the expert on what a Pro needs anyways.
Shouldn't they discount the current model? 15-20% discount might keep a few more on the platform
I know people like to say that power isn't a concern for non-mobile because they're always plugged in, but that's simply not true. Whether it's the consumer end of the spectrum with Apple or a large data center, performance-per-watt is a major design concern.
Hopefully the design delivered next year will restore dual-processor configurations... with performance far in excess of an iMac (Pro).
I think adopting ARM CPUs for their laptops and desktops would be Apple thinking differently, with a lot of upside and less downside than people think. We’ve already done all of the learning required with the last two transitions.
The part on workflow didn't make a lot of sense but you can't avoid marketing these days. Everything needs to be 'sold'.
The takeaway here was the openness and doing it in a timely fashion. A big thumbs up.
Fair enough, but it's not exactly rocket surgery either, is it? It's a computer. A better than average computer with a desirable operating system, but at the end of the day it's just a computer. When the time between updates exceeds the duration of depreciation write offs, the claims of special sauce, fairy dust, and omniscience start to wear a little thin.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations-z8/index.html?jumpid=cp_r11260_us/en/psg/hp_desktop_workstations/z8-mdplink
In addition, these models have been updates in a frequent basis, so high end customers have the latest specs always. There is no excuse for what Apple has done to the Mac Pro line.
Uh wait, you can do that? If not...Why not?! I always wanted tighter integration to use iPads to make Macs better.