Apple not expecting new Mac Pro to be available in-store until at least March
Production of Apple's new professional desktop is said to be heavily constrained, with representatives indicating that the company's retail stores will not stock the machine until at least March.
Business sales staff at Apple Australia have been instructed to point customers looking to order a new Mac Pro toward Apple's online store, according to a report from Electronista. Default configurations purchased today would not be scheduled to ship until February, while customized units could take even longer, depending on the components chosen.
The all-new Mac Pro, featuring a sleek cylindrical design and next-generation architecture, was announced in October for a December launch. Apple began accepting preorders on Dec. 18, and shipping commenced one week later.
Some customers who ordered base-model Mac Pro units received their machines as early as Christmas Eve, while many others --?including those who opted for one of the Mac Pro's 200 custom configurations --?are still waiting.
Journalists given review units from Apple have been effusive in their praise of the tower's industrial design and processing power, despite a dearth of software designed to take advantage of the new Mac Pro's dual-GPU design. Anandtech's well-regarded Anand Lal Shimpi, for instance, found the machine to be "the first desktop in a very long time that I want very close to me."
Apple has chosen to manufacture the updated Mac Pro in a new Austin, Texas facility, a return to the company's roots whose ramp-up may be contributing to the supply constraints. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company made Macs in the U.S. until 2004, when its last stateside manufacturing plant closed its doors.
For now, while Apple's own online store doesn't advertise availability of the Mac Pro until February, major resellers such as Best Buy are advertising their own stock. The entry-level $2,999.999 model is listed to ship in just one day, while store pickup is available in five to seven days.
The same goes for the 6-core $3,999.99 model at Best Buy, which is also advertised to ship from the resellers warehouse in one business day, or arrive at the nearest retail store for pickup in less than a week.
Business sales staff at Apple Australia have been instructed to point customers looking to order a new Mac Pro toward Apple's online store, according to a report from Electronista. Default configurations purchased today would not be scheduled to ship until February, while customized units could take even longer, depending on the components chosen.
The all-new Mac Pro, featuring a sleek cylindrical design and next-generation architecture, was announced in October for a December launch. Apple began accepting preorders on Dec. 18, and shipping commenced one week later.
Some customers who ordered base-model Mac Pro units received their machines as early as Christmas Eve, while many others --?including those who opted for one of the Mac Pro's 200 custom configurations --?are still waiting.
Journalists given review units from Apple have been effusive in their praise of the tower's industrial design and processing power, despite a dearth of software designed to take advantage of the new Mac Pro's dual-GPU design. Anandtech's well-regarded Anand Lal Shimpi, for instance, found the machine to be "the first desktop in a very long time that I want very close to me."
Apple has chosen to manufacture the updated Mac Pro in a new Austin, Texas facility, a return to the company's roots whose ramp-up may be contributing to the supply constraints. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company made Macs in the U.S. until 2004, when its last stateside manufacturing plant closed its doors.
For now, while Apple's own online store doesn't advertise availability of the Mac Pro until February, major resellers such as Best Buy are advertising their own stock. The entry-level $2,999.999 model is listed to ship in just one day, while store pickup is available in five to seven days.
The same goes for the 6-core $3,999.99 model at Best Buy, which is also advertised to ship from the resellers warehouse in one business day, or arrive at the nearest retail store for pickup in less than a week.
Comments
The final issue is many specialized software partners need to add support for the machine's dual video cards and the 6, 8 or 12 core processors. The pro users for this machine may be really tired of waiting, but it takes time for volumes of users to match the cost of new development.
This business really does qualify as a hobby for Apple, but it will grow with time and a rejuvenated workstation ecosystem. I would be surprised if Apple sold more than half a million Mac Pros a year. With an average selling price of $5000, that would equate to $2.5 B which wouldn't add much more than 1% to Apple's top line in sales. Apple could sell 1 Million Mac Pros in 2015 and still not break 3% of Gross sales. Profits might be a different story. High end machines like these could easily put 35% on the bottom line. A fully upgraded $11,000 machine might not cost more than $5500 to make in volume.
The real bright spot for this will be how it will benefit from the reduced power demands of Intel's, AMD, and nVidia's next couple of generation of machines. Silicon simply cannot add more speed(frequency) without melting down. 2.5 GHZ is a frequency wall for Silicon beyond which leakage is the real killer problem. I find it particularly interesting that the storage is connected directly to the Video cards. Apple seems to be positioning themselves to take advantage of a new computing model over the next 10 years.
I read somewhere that Thunderbolt 2 chips are in short supply.
It is also possible that Apple was overwhelmed with orders for these machines.
FYI the non-standard configuration I ordered was:
3.0GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon E5
32GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECC - 4X8GB
1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Dual AMD FirePro D700-6GB VRAM
Only one component has to be in short supply for their sales to be hindered but I have a problem wrapping my head around the number of TB2 chips needed fore the Mac Pro market and it not being possible to make them.
Possibly GPU Computing:
Discussed here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/what-is-gpu-computing.html
Best iIllustrated here:
[VIDEO]
After I saw your first image title "How GPU Acceleration Works" I immediately thought of the Mythbuster's demo. Good to see you're on the same page.
Yeah...
Some interesting possibilities here:
I can envision that the state of the art could evolve to where ARM Class chips are the dominant CPU architecture with GPUs included in the same SOC.
An x86 class chip would be included, when needed (almost as an accessory) to run any remaining legacy code.
I am no hardware designer (though I play one on TV) -- but a critical question appears to be: "Where does the RAM live?"
An interesting question, to me: What kind of ARM CPU/GPU RAM setup would be required to run an app like Final Cut Pro?
Apple appears to have over-built the basic machine (power supply, cooling, I/O). This should be able to handle the next few generations of current-architecture components (CPU, GPU, SSD, RAM, Externals). As technology advances, we should see these components re-architected to provide more for less...
What I am trying to say is that the Mac Pro can handle any hardware we can throw at, or into it through 2016 -- then easily handle any newer hardware components having less impact. As such, the Mac Pro is defining a high-water mark of what is required in a desktop or workstation computer?
I can hardly wait for the Mac Pro Mini!
That is the first time I've seen that video. An interesting way to get a point across. My first thought was that must have cost a lot to build.
Overbuilt probably isn't the right word. In the high end model the machine runs right at its capacity limit.
This machine is probably just a start. Depending upon where they go in the next couple of years the machine could end up rather radical!!!!
Can we expect the HDDs in the Mac Mini to be reduced to a single PCIe SSD, perhaps with an addition TB port?
... I wonder if the primary issue not having any to sell in stores until March so it not being worth advertising until such time they will have units on hands. ...
I think the real issue is that Phil Schiller said that the Mac Pro would ship in 2013 when he introduced it during the WWDC keynote. Then at the "iPad Air event" in October, he promised that it would be available for purchase by the end of December. So Apple was forced to build just a few pre-production models for sale to customers (in addition to media review units) long before production is ramped up enough for volume sales.
It's just tough timing. If the new Mac Pro had been kept secret until Apple built a stock of 300K units, then announced it with no warning in March, the updated MacBook Pro would have been the biggest hardware announcement at WWDC13. That would have been disappointing. Or, if Phil had promised the new Mac Pro "some time in early 2014" at WWDC, there would have been confusion and even more disappointment. As in "We have to wait until *next year*? 2013 is barely half over!"
I don't disagree with any of your points about Apple saving face but I still wonder what is the hold up to keeping these machines from being produced en mass.
The timing is going to work out just about right for us.
I want to see The Foundry Modo optimized for this beast, for one thing. Optimized Adobe apps would also be great.
And since we'll need new displays, I'd much rather see whatever follows the current Apple Thunderbolt displays which resemble too much the older aluminum iMacs. And perhaps Apple will make displays to match the finish of the new Pro.
It seems like a natural fit especially with the iMacs looking so much more modern than their Apple TB Display but not updating their displays quickly is common for Apple and they are clearly keeping that trend going.
If Apple Stores will only start having stocks from March, I wonder how long it will take for the Authorised Resellers to get them?
But the delay is really very good. One less thing to get tempted by. Lead us not into temptation Apple, we'll find it ourselves.
Sometimes I think no company is as aptly named as Apple. The first forbidden fruit that is still the most desirable...