I know I promised a third part in my crowdfunding series but the first two parts have generated a lot of backchannel discussions that have put part three in a bit of flux. We have a chance to do something really amazing here so please give me another day or so and I promise to be back with something fun to read in part three. In the meantime there was something I found especially interesting about Apple’s announcements yesterday….
Not all of Apple’s new and upgraded products were even mentioned in yesterday’s WWDC keynote. I was especially interested in Apple’s tower computer, the Mac Pro, which was yesterday both upgraded and killed at the same time.
The Mac Pro is Apple’s machine for media professionals. With up to 12 CPU cores, 64 gigs of RAM and eight terabytes of disk storage it is a very powerful machine aimed at video editors, DNA sequencers, and anyone else who needs a supercomputer under their desk. And yesterday Apple upgraded the Mac Pro for the first time in two years, adding faster processors, better GPU options (it has, remember four PCI Express slots), and interesting SSD options. But what Apple didn’t upgrade was the Mac Pro’s USB ports to USB 3.0.
That told me the Mac Pro is doomed.
Product lines come and go all the time at computer companies, even at Apple. But this simple decision not to go to USB 3.0 shows that Apple has no further plans for the Mac Pro beyond this model. They didn’t rev the motherboard. And what makes that worth writing about is the Mac Pro is Apple’s only expandable product. There are no card slots, no extra drive bays, no GPU options on any other Apple products.
Apple has effectively killed its last conventional computer.
Taking away customer options, especially customer-installed options, will make Macs more reliable and easier to support. But what about the power users?
Apple will eventually have to explain to those folks how less is more and how this new world is even better for them. I think I know how Apple will do it.
When the Mac Pro dies for good Apple will replace it in the market with a combination of Thunderbolt-linked Mac Mini computing bricks backed up by rented cloud processing, all driven from an iMac or MacBook workstation.
I just wonder when they’ll get around to telling us?
An email from Cook saying a Mac Pro update is coming next year was just confirmed to be authentic from Apple.
But yeah, you can add a PCIe chassis via Thunderbolt to a Mac mini. This fulfills the needs for that niche (by volume).
Actually it doesn’t even come close to satisfying the niche that the MacPro is aimed at. Apple has no other machines in its lineup that support two processors (not just two cores), and no other machines that can take as much memory as a MacPro.
For people working with cinema-quality uncompressed digital video editing, compositing, and animation, those are a pretty big deal.
Everything does seem to be moving to the cloud…
Please pardon my scepticism but when do Apple ever confirm a product for a year hence with any details? And when do they legitimately confirm their fails to outsiders? Granted I’ve not seen it but I remain eyebrow-raised…
I didn’t believe it at first either, but they definitely did:
http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/12/apple-spokesperson-confirms-new-models-and-designs-of-the-mac-pro-and-imac-slated-for-2013/
“An email from Cook saying a Mac Pro update is coming next year”
That’s not what the email says. It only says they’re working on “something great” for their pro customers. That’s not necessarily a new Mac Pro.
I am deeply suspicious of Tim Cook’s “something great for late in 2013.” … if you folks remember how well FCP X went over with working video pros. I think that this post covers some real world considerations.
I just as much suspect that Apple’s successor to the Mac Pro may be very different from what we may expect and want. It may be spiffy, but it may be like dating an alien, “REAL different.” But we’re still waiting for USB 3, e-SATA, better graphics cards, ivy Bridge E, Thunderbolt… but as the post points out, that would require a new motherboard design.
I have a top of the line quad core G5. It cost me $400 on FleaBay a few years back…
Bob,
See the post from MacRumors… David Pogue says an Apple exec said iMacs and Mac Pros are getting an update next year.
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/11/david-pogue-new-imacs-and-mac-pros-coming-probably-in-2013/
Dwight, The website link behind your name goes to https://www.cringely.com/2012/06/12/death-of-the-mac-pro/blog.chron.com/techblog .
Makes me wonder what I should actually be believing! ;-(
…and unless I’ve missed something the new Mac Pro spec isn’t even marked as “New” like the other updated models in the online store (at least in the UK)
What a great shame to see such an icon go. To quote T.S Elliot: “This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper”
Cloud computing is that whimper.
Sigh…
Remember the span between the 2007 Mac mini and the redesigned 2009 Mac mini?
I tend to believe that Apple is working on a new workstation.
With Thunderbolt’s abilities, a workstation no longer needs an internal stack of hard drives and PCI sots.
Apple could be working on a smaller box that focuses on multiple CPUs and stacks of memory leaving the expansion to external Thunderbolt boxes.
Yes, but Thunderbolt is only PCI-Express x4 (and only when you’re not carrying multiple HDMI streams), so no external graphics adapters.
Thank you. Thunderbolt is in no way a replacement for the dual 16 lane slots along with the dual 8 lane slots in the Pro (4 slots total).
While impressive for a cabled interconnect, Thunderbolt does not negate the need for the Pro and the raw bandwidth that PCI Express slots provide. This continued speculation that the Pro is “doomed” is just as silly as the tin foil hat wearing speculation that Apple intends to lock down OSX to only apps from the App store.
Fear and ignorance are never a good mix, and I wish I could be surprised that Bob also choose to jump on this tired and very dead horse… but I’m not. Articles like this are great for page views. Heck it got me to post :p
Perhaps intel will have the “Next” generation of Thunderbolt technology ready to go by next year and THAT version will toast anything that exists internally right now.
Perhaps thats part of the delay a year down the road.
Bob the Mac Pro isn’t important to Apple in conventional terms. I don’t suppose Apple make a huge profit from those systems (though given the prices, they aren’t exactly unprofitable – I’d wager that they make the best margins of any Apple product, they just don’t sell that many of them).
The Mac Pro is important because it’s the content creators platform of choice. Apple are at least as much a content company as a technology company these days, so the Mac Pro is important. It is content that allows Apple to sell their “iDevices”, Apple know this. Having content created on OS X means that the content will start as “Mac friendly”, making delivery to iOS and OS X devices simple.
So why the “warm over” of the Pro? It’s a difficult beast to integrate with Apple’s new technologies. How do you put ThunderBolt into a Mac Pro? Does it need slots?
I suspect what Apple were really doing was allowing the Mac Pro to use “Power Nap”, which seems like a technology designed for a “professional workstation”.
It’s about $1B profit annually. Yes, with Apple’s recent balance sheets, that’s not overwhelming, but it’s a far cry from nothing.
The Pro was warmed over because Intel hasn’t updated the very specialized chipset Apple relies on for the Pro.
The Pro sports two physical sockets. With integrated memory controllers, there are far more paths on the motherboard which leads to complexity and expense.
USB and Thunderbolt will both come with the chipsets that are expected to be reaped next year for the multi socket Xeon processors.
Unsurprisingly, this lines up exactly with the time line widely reported in the Tim Cook email.
People can continue to read in sensationalistic and baseless speculation, or choose to look at the obvious facts and realize the sky is not falling. Since logic and reason aren’t exciting, I know what I can expect most people to do :p
The warmed-over update of the Mac Pro uses a video card that is several years old and a last-generation run of Xeon cpu’s, not the current E-Series. Given Apple’s profits, it would not taken them long or cost them much to make a few minor motherboard changes for this new model, and their failure to do so equals a big “F-U” to content creators. Surely Apple is focusing on iDevices, but their failure to treat content creators as valuable customers means that from the top on down, Apple is failing to recognize that it’s the musicians, filmmakers, and graphic designers who are the tastemakers in American culture — and sending them to competing platforms means that Apple will likely fall behind when it comes to producing cool, innovative products that the power users want and need.
As a musician with a ton of pro gear in my studio, I can safely say that cloud processing for audio content is not going to happen any time soon. Native Instrument’s latest version of Komplete shipped on a 240gb hard drive to install, a big step over the 10 dual-layer DVD’s which shipped a previous version. Most Americans don’t have the bandwidth to work with video and audio from the cloud, and for Apple to expect us to write songs and craft movies in the cloud is a bullshit dream thought up from guys who haven’t actually calculated not just the bandwidth and storage we need, but the time and energy and cost it would take to implement.
The Mac Pro is probably dead at this point. But that doesn’t mean it’s still not the best MF content creation computer I’ve ever owned. It’s just lacking in important ways for the future, which is why serious content creators may end up being forced to run Windows instead.
Someone told me that there aren’t yet USB 3.0-capable motherboards/bridge chips from Intel for the server-class Xeon processors that Apple uses in Mac Pros. I don’t see a huge pressing need for USB 3.0 in servers, so this makes sense. Can anyone confirm this? Are there any shipping machines out there using those CPUs that have USB 3.0?
If this is the case, no doubt whenever Intel finally adds support for USB 3.0 to those motherboards/bridge chips that’s when they’ll add in Thunderbolt support, too.
If this support isn’t there, yet, it’s no surprise that the Mac Pro has to wait until next year for more significant updates, as Tim Cook replied to someone in email. And David Pogue reported YESTERDAY that he was told by an Apple exec that the Mac Pro would get a more significant update next year.
This continues to not look good for Bob’s track record on commentary about Apple. 🙂 Sorry, Bob…
MacPro is just a name. The question is what will Apple “deem” that pro users need.
What folks at Apple (pssst) told David Pogue does not mean to much as it pertains to form factor. Only function., and function that Apple feels professionals need to migrate to. If you look at what HP has done with Xeon Proc now even in all in one devices (including USB 3.0) its clear technology exists. But I think while Steve was alive the breaks were always being applied (to some degree) to professional solutions, now he is gone so… who knows. I do think were talking smaller breakout box technology of some kind. I can’t possibly see a tower form factor after this.
Claim chowder, Cringely edition…
Maybe not, according to Apple Insider:
https://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/06/12/tim_cook_confirms_updated_mac_pro_coming_in_2013.html
Yes and No. the rumor sites say there will be updates, but a mini with a thunderbolt tower, could be very compelling. Daisy chaining towers together add processors and storage could get messing, but i’d like to see it.
As you mentioned, it has 4 PCIe slots…if you really need USB3, $20 at newegg (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815153013) will see you right.
>> adding faster processors, better GPU options (it has, remember four PCI Express slots)
How to spot a person who doesn’t pay attention to the Mac Pro (and I’m not just talking about Cringely here).
1) Person thinks these processors are faster. They’re not. They’re Nehalems (2009) and Westmeres (2010). Check the processor model numbers–those are old, old news.
2) Person thinks the graphics options are interesting and new. They’re not. The 5770 and 5870 were introduced as options along with the 2010 model Mac Pro.
I’ll forgive Apple for now but will stay with my current equipment and curse loudly until the new models are introduced.
I don’t care so much about Thunderbolt, which is, after all, meant to bring the world of PCIe peripherals to the machines with PCIe slots, which this machine clearly has.
Of course, the real reason I’m here is to beg for a copy of NerdTV Season 2. How much do I have to pay, Bob?
Yes, every time I read there are new GPU options, I run off to the Apple Store only to see they are the same old 2010 GPU options. After three times I’ve finally got it through my thick head that all the reporters are wrong and they don’t know a damn thing about the Mac Pro.
I come to Cringely for his unique insight. If I want a technology blog that just repeats the reporting (and errors) of other technology blogs, those can be had by the thousands.
Hmmm… A Quadra 700 size tower with Tbolt expansion chassis?
It’s also worth noting that Apple has outright killed the very highest end of their laptop line, as the MacBook Pro is no longer available as a 17-inch screen model (this includes the old-style models without Retina display).
I don’t think so. The new MBP is only available with 15inch screen… for now. This is just first MacBook with retina, an introductory model. Those screens aren’t mass produced yet.
That would make sense, except that Apple continues to market a line of Macbook Pro laptops without Retina displays, but does not offer one of those in a 17-inch model either.
Well, everybody else thinks so. They’re not a sentimental company. After what they did to Final Cut “Pro,” I would think that the writing on the wall should be obvious to everyone.
TIm Cook has said they’re cooking up something next year with the MacPro.
However, I tend to agree with you. A few years ago, high end machines for the few thousand people who used Apple computers for their creative apps was an important market. That has all changed.
Think of Apple as the iPhone/iPad company that sells computers. The iPad will reach over 60 million this year. It’s being brought into corporations as a replacement for Windows desktops. For Apple, this in itself is a multibillion dollar business.
The iPhone 4S is the most popular phone in the world, and Apple is gunning for China in a big, big way. iOS 6 and Mac OS X changes show that Apple expects China to drive the company to even bigger growth.
The MacBook Air is now the most popular Mac being sold, and the 11″ model is the more popular model. Professional developers, business people, and corporate executives are ignoring their desktop computer and bringing in their MacBooks.
The problem for the MacPro fans is the more iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, and MacBook Airs Apple sells, the less they need the MacPro. Apple also discontinued the 17″ MacBook Pro — another computer used by the Photoshop set, and hasn’t announced a replacement.
“Apple also discontinued the 17″ MacBook Pro — another computer used by the Photoshop set, and hasn’t announced a replacement.”
Sure they did – the MacBook Pro Retina. Faster, more expansion and more screen resolution. Lighter and thinner too.
Yup the screen is 15″ and not 17″ But I suspect the amount of people willing to cart around a beast like a 17″ laptop vs those who bought it for the advanced power would be very telling.
Well as a programmer, the smaller Retina display is not a replacement for the original 17″ for my applications — I want as much screen real estate as I can haul. My current portable workhorse is the previous generation MBP 17″. I was looking forward to replacing it in July — and I will — but it will be either a new-old-stock, or refurb’d, MBP 17″ unibody — the last of the breed. This is very sad. It is hard to see how Apple isn’t forgetting about the pros, but if I can’t get Apple hardware that I love to develop software on, why will I want to continue to create software for Apple devices?
You could just install Air Display on your iPad and and have a handy, portable, external monitor…
1. I reckon the problem is Apple is having trouble with large retina panels, and it won’t release a (truly) updated Mac Pro or iMac until the 27+” retina panel is ready. Not serious trouble, just taking longer than they’d like.
2. New graphics hardware for the Mac Pro will need to be thunderbolt enabled. Maybe that’s hit a snag?
3. The ganged up mac mini idea (with offsite processing) has been kicking around a while. It’s not trivial.
4. High end mac users would be less than 1% of apple’s profits. Party’s over.
> until the 27+” retina panel is ready.
In the cinema world, HD is being replaced with 4K and JVC even sells a true 4K camcorder to consumers. With 70″ plus TV’s selling for less than $1500, manufacturers need a new standard to restore their flagship TV’s profit margins. Consumers will benefit from 4K now that we are buying such large TV’s.
At the moment, there are no consumer 4K computer monitors. Apple’s push for ‘Retina’ displays will change that.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this ain’t really an update. The MoBo’s the same eh?
In any case, the Mac pro is at the end of it’s line. It can become stronger and faster for a few more revisions if it wants to, but essentially the poroduct needs a transformation to retake its position as a leading edge product.
Pekka
I wonder if the question is, are they going to lose their market? A market long in coming. By this I mean, with no special knowledge, what I saw — again, clearly, no special knowledge — in the extras disk to one of the old James Bond movies on dvd, which showed a a roomful of Mac Pros on shelves, dozens of them, maybe a hundred of them, working on the restoration, color correction, remastering etc of pretty old movies.
Until the switch from Final Cut Pro, and the dormanc-ing of the Mac Pro, Apple was taking over the film industry.
wha happun?
“I wonder if the question is, are they going to lose their market”
Yes, a market where they outpace previous quarters sales? Yup, they are “loosing”
Look, the only thing biting Apple is their $#!&?@ insitance on shipping just one tower with slots that supports two physical CPUs. With multi core CPUs how many people really need two sockets?
I really wish they would release a slimmed down tower based on a one CPU chipset. It would be significantly cheaper, use less power and hit probably 80% of those who want a tower. Heck I bet sales woul take off if you could get a $1500 tower. I need PCI slots for video cards, and no – Thunderbolt does not cut it!
Steve would say ………. “See HP for that”
LOL
Frankly, it seems obvious that they’ve determined that the Pro market isn’t worth keeping.
We really have not seen what Thunderbolt can do yet. I suspect Apple is making greater use of it internally. I would not be surprised if they are using it extensively in their (massive) data center and they have cloud-like software that exploits its capabilities. I’m only guessing here. The next logical step would be to produce a Mac Pro replacement that is a cluster of Mac-Mini’s, Thunderbolt, and Apple’s cloud software. It would be really interesting if the cloud software someday would become an extension of MacOSX.
Just get a Hackintosh if you need an updated Mac pro.
They’ve already released thunderbolt motherboards.
Apple is notorious for saying “We will do such and such..” until they decide not to. I am not a fan of laptops or integrated computers; thus I want a modular system with discrete components for easy user replacement. I’ve not bought an Apple system since a PowerMac for a variety of reasons. I’m being forced down the Hackintosh path mostly for hardware reasons. If the only Mac Pro I have has some hardware issues, how do I debug it with no duplicate hardware to swap in/out parts?
I’d just really like a Medium $ Mac well done.
‘Apple is notorious for saying “We will do such and such..”’
As opposed to Microsoft’s raising of FUD and unfulfilled promises to an art form?
And Apple’s a lot more notorious for not saying anything. When’s the last time they ever actually announced anything about future hardware plans? Probably 2005, when they announced the PowerPC to Intel transition. It’s not like they have a recent track record of unfulfilled promises.
It’s more the Apple hardware rumors and speculation that get people disappointed, and if you’re counting on something just based on that then you don’t have any justification.
Another reason why anyone doing serious computing should avoid Apple. You can get a faster wintel box for less money – and it will have a lot more software support (windows OR unix/linix) as well for both media applications and doing anything else.
And if you do SERIOUS serious computing you have a farm of servers running (whatever) and you administer it from Mac laptops and desktops. Like Apple does for iCloud, and Google does for everything, and Pixar/Disney does, and practically every Silicon Valley/San Francisco startup does now. I expect that’s what a lot of sci/tech labs doing bio, simulations, modeling, etc. that need serious backend horsepower do, too.
It’s like a reverse mullet: Party in the front (Macs & OS X), business in the back (Linux/unix/whatever). 🙂
The market for having a lot of horsepower on your desk is fairly niche, now. Most people have more CPU than they need from any consumer machine, and the people who really need lots of processing power go past high CPU desktop machines and go straight to server farms. Then they buy cheaper consumer machines to administer them. Seeing the growth curve of Macs vs. other PCs in the market it’s obvious they’re increasingly choosing Macs for that.
Isn’t the Mac Pro the last Apple hardware built in California? Perhaps that’s what will change, easier outsource a new case design in China than to deal with MBAs at home.
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Apple would do well to ensure that those who develop software for their platforms are well served. And if they want a three box desktop solution then they should ensure that is what they can have.
What I pesonally don’t like is having to throw away a monitor. I’ve bought decent monitors, and they lasted several generations of PC. The iMac solution is nice, but I’d rather have a small processor box that I can change from system to system. Upgrading the processor whenever I need to, but keeping the screen that I like.
As for the “cloud” being used, when you’re doing serious work on large files having your work stored on the cloud is a pain. It’s simply not fast enough, and where I am dreadfully because of the dreadfully slow internet connection.
As for the 17″ MacBook Pro I have one friend who has this, but never ever takes it anywhere. Rather he’s got his MacBook Air for that!
Umm, What?
Okay, First with Grand Central Dispatch and a couple of Mini’s in the Office on a gigabit switch with a 27″ thunderbolt display the only thing you notice about not having a Mac Pro is the lack of noise from the Mac Pro.
Second, lack of customer installed options does not make a computer more reliable. If anything it makes them less repairable. soldered in memory and SSD’s make these things ticking time bombs and for what thiner computers? That just means more flexing and more need to repair. It puts the lie to Apple’s environmentalism as everything they make is becoming disposable. Extending life through making things fixable is not just economical for consumers but good environmental policy.
Third the lack of USB 3 tells me nothing. Apple wants Thunderbolt to succeed and frankly the USB 3 equipped PC’s in the office aren’t going to replace Mac’s because A) USB 3 is a bad joke it’s fast when it works but plugging USB 3 drives into the PC’s causes Windows 7 to panic quite often B) we still have firewire drives, many are quite nice drobo’s and they aren’t getting replaced for USB 3 drives any time soon. C) I still don’t see any USB 3 peripherals other than external drives and frankly my keyboard doesn’t need a faster bus and my flash drive and camera card are limited by the flash memory speeds.
Back up. How is a video editor going to replace a Mac Pro with some Mac Minis and a switch? Grand Central Dispatch doesn’t magically make that work.
The Tim Cook email does not really say much beyond that there is a “pro” solution of some kind on the way. Read between the lines… at Apple that means a pro solution that Apple “thinks” pro’s need to go in. That means all bets are off as to form factor.
Since they are talking about NEXT year…it might be that in Steve’s absence, they are making a jog in the pro direction the Steve would not have wanted were he here, and it will take a year to get that ready to roll. My guess is they had something in the works while he was here but it got set aside. Now he is gone and they are bringing it back to life…. Just a crazy guess.
I would say that long term OS X is gone. The Mac Pro will be the first to go. Remember they already tried to dumb down Final Cut (Probably to merge it with their mobile products eventually,) but were caught and got plenty of heat for it. That is the same market for the Mac Pro. It was a sign, a bad one.
Why? Apple is a “there can be only one” type of company. Perfectionists will always seek an assumed pinnacle even if it is irrelevant. Sadly, the Mac Pro is the last vestige of Wozniak’s influence at apple (which is a lot more open than Jobs) It will be sad to see it go. Subscription based consumer computing will be the Kool-Aid they will serve. Funny how the company which started in a garage will kill “garage style” development.
I dub the new cloud service : Apple Orchard Me Man.
Of all the uninformed comments yours takes the cake.
Apple is selling more OS X computers than ever, by a long shot. Why would they give up this business? And you need OS X to write apps for those iOS devices.
The truth is the Mac Pro is Apple’s least popular computer and thus they can afford to take their time with redesigning (but not killing it). All else is pure BS.
I love it! Awesome! Thank you for that. It made my day. More than 90 percent of my comment was pure hyperbole. (which is exaggeration to make a point) A satire if you will. I am not sure what to tell you other than perhaps you should read more widely. Maybe more Mark Twain?
Oh, I did leave hints. My first comment was just silly. Then there was the Kool-Aid comment, and finally my name for the new Mac cloud service was EPIC! There was the “ME” from the mobileme service and “Man” from Mac Man which, as informed apple enthusiasts know, was the name Steve wanted for the iMac. This was a trap to catch an Apple fan-boy and I am sure that I just did. So, thank you, thank you very much. I am satisfied.
Now as for the basis for Mr. Cringely’s comments. Apple as a company is known to embrace two things: Secrecy and Revolution. Apple is not sentimental or nostalgic as others have said above. What Tim Cook in an e-mail said to a customer is “don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year.” There is no commitment to anything in that statement. That is as “informed” as we are going to get until next year. Everything here then, including your comments, are pure conjecture. The difference is that you have faith, and not everyone else does. That said, It does not seem likely that Apple will dump the MacPro next year, true. Then again this is Apple, so anything is possible. Perhaps that is the point.
Cheers!
P.S. Thank you for the cake. I will cherish every bite. 🙂
-J
…and unless I’ve missed something the new Mac Pro spec isn’t even marked as “New” like the other updated models in the online store (at least in the UK)
What a great shame to see such an icon go. To quote T.S Elliot: “This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper”
Cloud computing is that whimper.
Sigh…
What’s the possibility that the retina display becomes the base for the MacTV? We’re up to 15 inches now – how long before we leap to 21 or 27 for the iMac – 3D TV is not selling but a better than HD screen could really put the go back in the TV business – add that to integration with the computer and controller simplification and consolidation of controller units would give Apple the boost into this decade with the “just one more thing from Jobs”
It won’t — HDTVs routinely go up to 55″ at which size it will be many years before HiDPI displays are possible. Plus at TV viewing distances it will be a complete waste of pixels.
However you inadvertently suggested the real newer on the missing MacPro update — Apple is waiting for the it to be possible to release a “retina” 27″ Apple Cinema Display for the real MacPro update with a better video card (which doesn’t exist yet) that can support the necessary resolution over Thunderbolt.
How everyone from Bob on down missed this simple answer is beyond me.
Hi Ted, you make a good first paragraph – quite agree about the waste of pixels threshold.
As for the Mac Pro conclusion we’ve all missed, well if Apple’s suppliers can produce a reliable 27″ Retina display it’s perfectly possible to put it in the iMac 27″ line. By the time the process is perfected and panels ready I’m guessing new mobile graphics GPU’s will be able to cope in much the same way all previous generations of iMacs (iPhones, iPads) have. Ivy Bridge desktop CPUs are seeing more power output for less consumption.
Reading the report and email Tim Cook sent, I notice he mentions the Mac Pro upgrade and that a new Pro platform is in development, but who says it’s a Mac Pro needing a separate monitor?
You miss the point – no one cares about,or more to the point is buying 55″ 60″103″ HDTVs – Sony and Samsung are getting out of the business – that’s why AppleTV has to be more than than collepction of old iTunes stuff, subscription services like all the cable providers already supply and an integrated remote.
There needs to be a wow factor – big screen retina could be that wow to bring sports and games to the next level – not a big screen 3D tv with 12 friends and 2 pairs of glasses
Also consider the super-premium price for one of these machines. 3X to 4X what most other major makers would charge.
Isn’t obvious that the only person at Apple who had an interest in the movie business was Steve Jobs. Now that he is gone, the connection between Disney/Pixar and Apple is severed. There is a lot less interest in pursuing this line of computers that represent about 1% of their business.
It’s not dead – it’s just pinin’ for the fjords.
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Is the 17″ Macbook Pro going to reemerge?