With respect I think you're wrong. I think Apple are in the business of holding back - whether it be due to neccesity or profit.
...
The evidence:
The flaw in your reasoning here is that you don't acknowledge that Apple is shipping the fastest G4 that they currently can due to what is available to them from their chip supplier(s). If they continue with this strategy (and I believe they will) then you can expect to see an Apple machine with the fastest 970 that they can deliver in quantity. Below that point is where Apple staggers out the product line, and they need to in order to differentiate models.
Fortunately the arrival of the 970 significantly expands the room they have in which to organize their products -- both because its a newer faster and more capable chip, and because it is at higher clock rates. This means all of their products should get speed bumps over the next little while and pricing/availability will have more of an impact than the need to differentiate.
Power Mac G4 line up is currrently 867MHz/1.25GHz/1.42GHz. What happened to the 933MHz & 1.0GHz parts? Did Motorola lose the plans overnight? The 867MHz part debuted in the initial Quicksilver G4 for fecks sake! If apple were in the business of delivering the fastest parts they could lay their hands on, the Power Mac G4 family would be at 1GHz/1.25GHz/1.42GHz. Again, they're not putting the 933MHz or 1GHz parts into the entry level machine because the two other machines need to look fast by comparison.
Dang, I guess someone ought to tell the Apple Store they are selling the wrong box. 1GHz/1.25GHz/1.42GHz is the current range and has been for a little while. The 1 ghz entry level box even sells for $200 less then my PowerMac 800 single did when I got it. More power, less money.
I really wish Apple wouldn't take advantage of us consumers that way.
i don't understand you people. first, a couple of weeks ago everybody is very, very, very pleased with a sweet 970 running 1.8Ghz max. and bonk their heads against their crt screens about how they would love it to have such a machine on their desktop and now it isn't good enough.
Heh. I've been waiting for a couple of months now for someone to whine that they aren't going to buy a new desktop until the 980 arrives....
I've been tempted to say this for a joke, but it would be much more fun to see someone say this for real.
I also don't think that Apple is in the game of holding technology back. It just doesn't make any commercial sense.
Plain and simple. Apple followed a roadmap with Motorola that didn't pan out the way that either party expected. Now they are paying the price of an unexpected detour. It's a difficult road back and theres certainly no magic shortcut with the PowerPC 970.
From the numourous similar threads on the G4 vs 970 - whatever products get released there is potential for both elation and disappointment.
So here is my attempt to rationalise why I will run through a range of emotions and my thoughts on what Apple could do to change this.
My hobby is music. Last year I replaced my G4-350 with a Dual 1 Ghz. On day one with the new system I was able to do everything I could do with the old system and nothing more. To be honest it was a bit of an anti-climax. My musical abilities didn't suddenly change.
18 months down the line through a period of exploration I have moved my home studio into the digital domain with all music generation being done internally on the Mac. It's the same music but I now I get there a lot quicker and can explore many more options than in the past - which allows me to be more creative.
I have recently started to hit system performance barriers which limit my options to explore further. The problem is that I have no options to expand the capacity of my current system.
Crazy isn't it. I actually know that if Apple release a Dual 1.8 970 I won't just be looking at and going wow. Under the covers my brain is going but it might only last you 18 months and it's not expandable - and worse in 18 months there's going to be a PC at 5GHz etc etc
All the positives of integration, rationalisation get swamped by a set of what, ifs and maybes!
So with that in mind I suggest that it's time for Apple to get out of the MHz game altogether and start selling it's high end products around a flexible processing capacity model.
Just as I will add in a stick of memory to run a larger application or add in a bigger disk to store more data. Isn't it time Apple made it easy to drop in a Processor. Sell me a box with enough empty processor slots that lets me choose my system capacity to match my application growth. OSX is more than capable of supporting this model
So this years model might have 4 slots that will take 1.8Ghz processor sticks. Next years could have a new name, 8 slots and a number of other compelling reasons to upgrade. But if I want I can stay with my system and upgrade my capacity no longer caring that a PC at 5Ghz has any meaningful comparison.
Apple does however have a habit of surprising us -So time to "Think Different"
I think Apple needs to make a splash. And I'm not talking 'look at that big laptop' kind of splash. I'm talking 'Chris Farley, John Goodman, Queen Latifa jump in the pool together' kind of splash.
The bake-off can't be: 'Look, we're faster than a 3ghz P4.' It needs to be 'Why on God's green Earth would you use anything but a new PowerMac?'
That's why, if they have them, Apple needs to use 2.5 ghz instead of 1.8 ghz in their top end. It needs to be so outrageous people will feel like idiots for buying anything else.
That will get you market share. Smaller incremental climbing, like what we've been facing for years, will get them nowhere.
Give this man a hand, that makes more sense than anything else posted above.
Comments
If apple was holding back, then why are they using 1.42 GHz "over-clocked" G4s. Moto only advertises G4 speeds up to 1.3 GHz.
Originally posted by Messiah
With respect I think you're wrong. I think Apple are in the business of holding back - whether it be due to neccesity or profit.
...
The evidence:
The flaw in your reasoning here is that you don't acknowledge that Apple is shipping the fastest G4 that they currently can due to what is available to them from their chip supplier(s). If they continue with this strategy (and I believe they will) then you can expect to see an Apple machine with the fastest 970 that they can deliver in quantity. Below that point is where Apple staggers out the product line, and they need to in order to differentiate models.
Fortunately the arrival of the 970 significantly expands the room they have in which to organize their products -- both because its a newer faster and more capable chip, and because it is at higher clock rates. This means all of their products should get speed bumps over the next little while and pricing/availability will have more of an impact than the need to differentiate.
Originally posted by Messiah
Power Mac G4 line up is currrently 867MHz/1.25GHz/1.42GHz. What happened to the 933MHz & 1.0GHz parts? Did Motorola lose the plans overnight? The 867MHz part debuted in the initial Quicksilver G4 for fecks sake! If apple were in the business of delivering the fastest parts they could lay their hands on, the Power Mac G4 family would be at 1GHz/1.25GHz/1.42GHz. Again, they're not putting the 933MHz or 1GHz parts into the entry level machine because the two other machines need to look fast by comparison.
Dang, I guess someone ought to tell the Apple Store they are selling the wrong box. 1GHz/1.25GHz/1.42GHz is the current range and has been for a little while. The 1 ghz entry level box even sells for $200 less then my PowerMac 800 single did when I got it. More power, less money.
I really wish Apple wouldn't take advantage of us consumers that way.
Originally posted by gar
i don't understand you people. first, a couple of weeks ago everybody is very, very, very pleased with a sweet 970 running 1.8Ghz max. and bonk their heads against their crt screens about how they would love it to have such a machine on their desktop and now it isn't good enough.
Heh. I've been waiting for a couple of months now for someone to whine that they aren't going to buy a new desktop until the 980 arrives....
I've been tempted to say this for a joke, but it would be much more fun to see someone say this for real.
I also don't think that Apple is in the game of holding technology back. It just doesn't make any commercial sense.
Plain and simple. Apple followed a roadmap with Motorola that didn't pan out the way that either party expected. Now they are paying the price of an unexpected detour. It's a difficult road back and theres certainly no magic shortcut with the PowerPC 970.
From the numourous similar threads on the G4 vs 970 - whatever products get released there is potential for both elation and disappointment.
So here is my attempt to rationalise why I will run through a range of emotions and my thoughts on what Apple could do to change this.
My hobby is music. Last year I replaced my G4-350 with a Dual 1 Ghz. On day one with the new system I was able to do everything I could do with the old system and nothing more. To be honest it was a bit of an anti-climax. My musical abilities didn't suddenly change.
18 months down the line through a period of exploration I have moved my home studio into the digital domain with all music generation being done internally on the Mac. It's the same music but I now I get there a lot quicker and can explore many more options than in the past - which allows me to be more creative.
I have recently started to hit system performance barriers which limit my options to explore further. The problem is that I have no options to expand the capacity of my current system.
Crazy isn't it. I actually know that if Apple release a Dual 1.8 970 I won't just be looking at and going wow. Under the covers my brain is going but it might only last you 18 months and it's not expandable - and worse in 18 months there's going to be a PC at 5GHz etc etc
All the positives of integration, rationalisation get swamped by a set of what, ifs and maybes!
So with that in mind I suggest that it's time for Apple to get out of the MHz game altogether and start selling it's high end products around a flexible processing capacity model.
Just as I will add in a stick of memory to run a larger application or add in a bigger disk to store more data. Isn't it time Apple made it easy to drop in a Processor. Sell me a box with enough empty processor slots that lets me choose my system capacity to match my application growth. OSX is more than capable of supporting this model
So this years model might have 4 slots that will take 1.8Ghz processor sticks. Next years could have a new name, 8 slots and a number of other compelling reasons to upgrade. But if I want I can stay with my system and upgrade my capacity no longer caring that a PC at 5Ghz has any meaningful comparison.
Apple does however have a habit of surprising us -So time to "Think Different"
Originally posted by rentedmule
I think Apple needs to make a splash. And I'm not talking 'look at that big laptop' kind of splash. I'm talking 'Chris Farley, John Goodman, Queen Latifa jump in the pool together' kind of splash.
The bake-off can't be: 'Look, we're faster than a 3ghz P4.' It needs to be 'Why on God's green Earth would you use anything but a new PowerMac?'
That's why, if they have them, Apple needs to use 2.5 ghz instead of 1.8 ghz in their top end. It needs to be so outrageous people will feel like idiots for buying anything else.
That will get you market share. Smaller incremental climbing, like what we've been facing for years, will get them nowhere.
Give this man a hand, that makes more sense than anything else posted above.