“Most of Apple’s product lines are severely overdue for a refresh,” Joel Hruska writes for ExtremeTech. “Apart from the recently refreshed MacBook, many of the company’s Mac products are well over a year old. The Mac Mini is nearly two, the high-end workstation Mac Pro is almost three, and the sole remaining non-Retina MacBook Pro is now more than four years old.”
“Apple’s relatively lax refresh cycle is mostly driven by the low rate of improvements in PC hardware these days,” Hruska writes. “Apple is just more honest about it… Apple has held off on making fundamental platform changes precisely because it’s been waiting for the underlying technology to advance enough to make the changes worthwhile.”
Hruska writes, “I’m not an Apple apologist.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, you are an Apple apologist.
There is no reason for a company with $200+ billion dollars on hand to sit around with their thumbs up their asses regarding any aspect of their business, much less one that sold 4.252 million units for revenue of $5.239 billion in the last 91-day period.
SEE ALSO:
Here’s why Apple doesn’t care about updating Macs or something – August 5, 2016
Apple should stop peddling four-year-old Macs – August 4, 2016
Is Apple phasing out the pro-level Mac? – August 2, 2016
Apple confirms Mac market share loss – July 29, 2016
Apple prepping new MacBook Air with USB-C, reports claim – July 27, 2016
What’s happening with Apple’s Macintosh? – July 14, 2016
Sales suffer as Apple neglects the Mac – July 12, 2016
Apple’s Mac sales fall, economies shudder – July 12, 2016
IDC, Gartner: Apple’s Mac no longer bucking PC industry’s sales slide – July 12, 2016
Here’s the problem: Apple is ignoring the Mac – April 28, 2016
Apple’s Mac sales tumble 12% in second-biggest downturn since ’07 – April 27, 2016
Apple reports earnings miss in Q216 – April 26, 2016
Apple’s languishing Macintosh: Is a massive re-invention near? – April 25, 2016
Hey Apple, how about shipping a new computer sometime? – April 15, 2016
Apple’s aging Mac Pro is falling way behind Windows rivals – April 12, 2016
I actually agree with his point, it’s one I’ve made several times. The last couple of generations of processors haven’t provided the massive boost in compute performance that the early core2 and i series did. Our 15″ 2012 MacBook Pro’s computationally are not much slower than the 2015 variant, in fact only a couple of seconds in large encodes, and since they’re in raid 0 have ssd transfer rates around 1GB/s. The only real difference is the pcie storage and the graphics horsepower of some of the newer chips, however the 650m does do pretty well still. And if you look at the Xeons since 2013, the newest ones aren’t much faster than the E-5’s in the trash can Pro’s.
I know I’ll get a bunch of shit for this, but when you look at the generational difference between haswell-broad well-sky lake , there isn’t a massive performance gap especially in mobile CPUs. The only real difference with the broad well-E and skylake desktop chips is the addition of more cores tot he high end unlock able chips. Now on the graphics front? Yes, that should be updated. Gpus have had big gains in the last two years, so they need a bump.
However, these new Kaby lake processors are probably the generational leap they’ve been waiting for. And also thunderbolt 3 boards, etc.. I still maintain that there will be a complete refresh of the entire line up this fall from top to bottom. If there isn’t then I think they need to get some serious shit, but let’s just wait and see.
There is no reason why we shouldn’t see Mac refreshes every 6 months. New GPUs alone are reason enough to refresh especially since you can’t replace them on your own. The whole Mac product line is a said state right now aside from the new Macbook. Hackintosh here I come.
“There is no reason why we shouldn’t see Mac refreshes every 6 months”
The average update cycle for Apple products (especially Macs) has NEVER been 6 months!
Not only is that much too frequent to be financially feasible, but also people would complain if they bought an expensive Mac that they thought was “new” only to have it be made “old” a few months later.
So it isn’t financially feasible to drop in the latest GPU every 6 months? How do you figure? People on the PC side of things can switch stuff out on the fly whenever they want to. We’re stuck with mobile graphics cards in desktop computers.
Technology advances. That’s the way the world works. Do people in the auto industry complain because a new car comes out every year? I’d rather have the latest tech available for when I have the money to spend, then to have a a 4 year old computer that costs the same that it did 4 years ago and is still THE SAME price!!! Apple needs to wake the hell up already.
Since 2007 and the Cook Era, has essentially created an overpriced iPhone peripheral and an tv update. Nine years…Hoop-te-do.
“Make great again…Dump Tim Cook®”
OK, that line alone disqualifies your opinion. Next…
Jai Guru Deva. Om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
“Across the Universe” — John Lennon grew to hate that song of his. Moreover, Happiness is a Warm Gun.
It’s fun to play on piano…still.
botty, you are still a deluded nutcase. Fortunately, you are not quite as vocal on this forum as you were in the past. Sometimes one has to appreciate the small improvements…
Melvin, be kind, you know how I feel about you…you will forever be my dreamboat.
Apple solders the CPU and GPU to the motherboard in the MacBooks, so you would need to take the MacBook apart and do your own soldering (which is not advisable). And it would invalidate your warranty.
But if you MUST have the latest CPU and GPU as soon as they come out, you will need to get a Windows PC laptop that doesn’t have them soldered to the motherboard.
But besides spending lots of money every few months on the latest and greatest CPU and GPU, you will need to also find the drivers for them, and then test them with your Windows laptop to make sure that everything runs properly (no crashing).
Apple used to do that, making early and late versions, i.e. Early 2011, Late 2011.
I see that, but my son who is going to college for engineering wants all the latest and greatest. But I wondered if he is even my biological son when he opted for a Surface Book. Apparently he wants to game at the dorm.
You are wrong.
The newest Xeons feature AVX-512 instructions which process 512 bits at at time versus a maximum of 256 bits for its predecessors. The Xeons in the Mac Pro are so old, they don’t even have AVX-2 (256-bit) instructions; they only have AVX (128-bit).
The new Xeons support DDR4; Apple’s Mac Pro Xeon: only DDR3.
There is a lot more going on in these processors besides clock speeds. Intel has been advancing. Tim Cook and Apple stand still.
Again, I just don’t get why within 6 months of a new processor coming out why a new processor cannot go in. It’s a pretty basic process for boosting sales. We don’t need radically new form factors, just stay up-to-date on a reasonable schedule. It doesn’t even need to be a refresh, just offer the latest processor as an upgrade.
With the old cheese grater Mac Pros all Apple needed to do was solder a Thunderbolt connector to the motherboard. Basic stuff that would have had the pro-market driving Thunderbolt adoption. Then they create the trash can Mac Pros and immediately kill them by letting the processors get out of date.
Unbelievable.
Depending on what you’re doing there *is* a huge difference in the processing power between Haswell and Skylake. Yes, for some things it’s less than 10%, but for some other things it’s as much as 50% to 75% improvement. Include other upgrades such as faster RAM, faster and wider PCIe based SSDs, faster GPUs, and the rest and the overall difference between the 2013 Mac Pro and what is possible now can be well over 100% increase in throughput for some users — and at least 25% to 30% for most users. Hell, for those of us that can use it, a P100 based graphics system can be as much as a four fold improvement since that GPU has a 64 bit implementation that is drastically better than any of the previous chips from either AMD or Nvidia.
There is a LOT more to system performance than the just the CPU. There have been increases in capability in almost every aspect of computers in the past three plus years since the Mac Pro was announced at WWDC in the summer of 2013.
As most of the readers on this site know, I’ve been a Mac users and corporate buyer for multiple decades (once negotiated a deal to do a single buy of several thousand Macs for a large computing system), but the current dearth of updates from Apple for its professional systems has been beyond frustrating.
“but the current dearth of updates from Apple for its professional systems has been beyond frustrating.”
Apple has 2 Pro models for its Mac line. The Mac Pro (desktop) and the MacBook Pro (laptop).
The Mac Pro hasn’t been updated since it went on sale in December 2013, and the reason why is very clear. I hasn’t been a big seller for Apple. It’s a beautifully designed product, but it’s priced out of the range of most people (even professionals).
It is very likely that the MacPro will be EOL’d soon.
On the other hand, Apple’s other Pro model, the MacBook Pro, was last updated just over a year ago.
Also, it has been rumoured that an entirely newly designed MacBook Pro (not just an update) will be released shortly. So this pro model has been well looked after by Apple (and not neglected AT ALL).
Halo products such as the Mac Pro are particularly telling as for what Apple’s priorities … aren’t.
And what is particularly telling there is that it may very well be a “beautifully designed” product, but particularly for Pro’s, FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION and in this regards, it has been a big stinking failure because of all of the use cases that it is markedly inferior to its predecessor.
As such, one is obligated to ask: is the product not selling well because the customer has gone away … or because the product doesn’t serve the customer’s objective needs?
We are at a point where CPU isn’t as important..so yes..not jumping on a minor update to a cpu from intel…understandable. However..Since GPUs are key to driving lots of pixels..and provide more processing anyway…Apple has had plenty of opportunities to update their computers…ESPECIALLY the Pro..ESPECIALLY…when they decide to make the GPU non upgradable…and apparently can’t decide between ATI or NVIDIA boards.
Must be a wide magazine/blog campaign on to pummel Cook into submission, so to speak.
No conspiracy, just a bunch of angry, frustrated, and like-minded individuals sharing their thoughts, concerns, and opinions. Nothing for you to worry about.
No worry, just a bit of pseudo-humor in the midst of 75 comments on this story.
I can easily say that this is one hot topic for MDN readers.
Just remember, Bo, “like-minded” is *not* equivalent to “right-minded.” Your belief in something does not make it true…this is not the Wizard of Oz and you are not the Amazing Kreskin.
OK the premise of this story is that Intel have not done much to improve the chipsets over the last few years.
Very true but it has now gone too long for updates.
So either Apple:
1. Try and force Intel to update the chipsets for their own needs.
2. Accept that the chipsets are not ideal but update the models to help drive Mac sales.
It is great to come up with fantastic new designs but when the new components are not ready then do incremental updates.
In the last 2 years I have wanted to get a new mini and rMBP. I passed on a new mini and added in a SSD to the 2009 mini unit. My first gen rMBP is still fantastic and is not slowing down at all.
Part of the problem is that the older macs are still going strong. But Apple need to give reasons for users to upgrade and updating the chipsets will be one way to encourage more sales.
Some people seem to not understand that Apple does what any smartly run business does. It puts lots of effort and resources into products that are successful and profitable, and less effort and resources into products that are less successful or are going to be EOL’d.
This is the current state of Apple’s Mac products:
– MacBook (a successful product) was updated less than 4 months ago
– MacBook Air, last updated March 2015, will be EOL’d soon (replaced by a larger model based on the 12″ MacBook) so it doesn’t make sense for Apple to spend a lot of time and money updating them again
– MacBook Pro, last updated May 2015 (not that long ago). There have been rumours that a totally redesigned MacBook Pro will be introduced in the next month or so.
– iMac was updated only 10 months ago (October 2015). It is a very successful product, and Apple updates it regularly.
– Mac mini hasn’t been updated since October 2014. This hasn’t been a big seller, and will probably be phased out by Apple.
– Mac Pro hasn’t been updated since it went on sale in December 2013. This product also has not been a big seller, and it is doubtful that Apple will continue this model much longer.
So there you have it. Apple currently has 3 successful Mac models which it has been updating very regularly. Then, there are 3 Mac models that will likely be phased out soon.
The people who are complaining seem to be focused on the 3 models that are being phased out, and don’t understand that Apple isn’t spending more money to update products that will soon be EOL’d.
Those same people seem to be forgetting that Apple has been regularly updating the current 3 successful Mac products.
In other words, the world isn’t coming to an end. Apple knows what it is doing, even if we don’t. ;-))
The entire Mac lineup is a mess and sadly lags behind the PC counter parts. The sad truth when you start soldering things on a board and where changes require a line retooling.
The other products in the Mac line are not as successful because they lag behind their PC counter parts. They are actually downgrading these products.
I have many PC friends who would love a mac to go along with the iPhones, but then they see the expensive prices for old specs. Who wants that?
You can’t justify a premium price because some idiot thinks a thinner desktop computer is something someone wants.
Not everyone wants to pay a super premium on a simple memory upgrade.
When Steve was running the company you paid a premium because he put out quality products and quality software.
Time puts out, outdated spec’d machines with buggy software and expects people to pay a premium because they made it thinner.
People have had enough of the “thinner” garbage. Apple lagged behind the bigger screen phones because they felt we didn’t need it. Even though people kept saying they wanted a bigger screen. Apple caved and ended up with the biggest selling iPhone of all time.
Apple needs someone who is connected with the needs of the people, stop with the obsession with “thinner” Aka breaks/bends more easily and at least keep pace with PC on the spec level.
Only low end PC’s are selling now with 8 gigs of memory at nearly half the price of an iMac. But at least the PCs have an upgrade path for memory and hard drive.
I’ll keep hanging onto my 2009 iMac until I build a Hackintosh or Apple comes to it’s senses.
(I have two upgraded Mac Pros, a 12.9 iPad Pro, a Macbook Pro etc)
“Apple isn’t spending more money to update products that will soon be EOL’d.”
if the don’t update the Mac Pro etc it will be a disaster for some users.
without the Pro there is nothing that will drive two or more large monitors successfully (I have a 27 inch cintiq and another large monitor connected to an upgraded Mac Pro).
look at GPU stats (which I’ve printed before):
Barefeats.com shows a 6 year old Mac Pro with slower subsystem and processors but with Upgraded Video card running a GPU intensive game Diablo 3 beating current macs by a wide margin .
2010 Mac Pro with Upgraded Card : 181 fps
iMac 5k : 75 fps
current cylinder Mac Pro D700 : 73 fps
(lowest price with d700 is over $4500 !)
Macbook Pro retina : 27 fps
A hackintosh (with faster subsystem than that 6 year old MP) or high end windows machine will have even BIGGER differences than the above. People have argued that fps is not important as games have a limit for fps playability but that’s not the point, the test shows GPU power. Besides games GPU power is needed for CERTAIN tasks like running multiple high res monitors or doing certain types of 3D etc.
——-
the top iMac maxes out with a 4 GB GPU and that will cost you a lot of money. If I connect a 27 inch Cintiq to it , it doesn’t have enough horsepower (two big monitors with 2 GB each won’t be able to rotate a high polygon model etc well with other files and programs open) , dwarfed by current PC cards.
—–
You said that the Mini and Pro doesn’t sell well , but perhaps they the reason is that they SCREWED UP the DESIGNS ? they neutered the Mini and created a PRO Mac where you can’t change the GPU (not only are newer GPUs much faster, GPUs are ALSO DIFFERENT for different uses,
NOTE the Mini was a the bestselling Mac desktop in some areas when it was new , even IN 2015 IN AMAZON’s LISTING OF BESTSELLING COMPUTERS THERE WERE TWO MAC MINIS ON IT.
(I can’t give the link as sometimes MDN deletes posts with links as Spam . but just google : top 10 best selling Desktop computers June 2015)
that in spite of bad design choices, and practically NO MAC ADVERTISING, not even cheap web ads.
———-
ALSO
Tim Cook and Apple Management seems very concerned about MINORITIES and OPPRESSED GROUPS:
MAYBE IF HIGH END MAC PRO USERS REGISTER THEMSELVES AS AN OPPRESSED MINORITY HE WILL PAY ATTENTION?
the other thing about the DEFENDERS of apple’s current mac policy saying the Macs are fine, so what is
YOUR EXPLANATION OF CURRENT FALL IN MAC SALES?
(sales were beating PC averages for a long time until recently coinciding with numerous complaints from Mac users. are the two UNRELATED ?)
Here’s a metric for you to try to rationalize (thanks, Reddit):
4 years ago, Apple launched the mid-2012 MacBook Pro for AUD $1349.
Today, it sells the same laptop for AUD $1699.
I’m very frustrated by the lack of a 17″ laptop. I’m still using the refurbished 2011 17″ that I bought 2 years ago and now just had to have its motherboard replaced due to its video going bad. I love this laptop. It has a matte screen and lots of ports. Probably going to put a SSD hard drive in it soon now that the prices of 1tb drives are coming way down.
I put a Bluetooth dongle on it and the handoff hack, but would much prefer a newer model that didn’t require hacks.
If Apple is going to be the only place you can buy a laptop that runs Mac OS then they need to give its users more choices. Same with their headless Macs.
“We desperately need someone to tell us why Tim Cook is not a lazy, incompetent, fuck-up, and that there is a rational explanation”
I have provided the explanation on the current state of Apple’s Mac products below.
As far as your insipid and disrespectful comments, like “Tim Cook is not a lazy, incompetent, fuck-up” and “More time spent on gay parades than new product updates”, it really reflects poorly on your character… NOT on Tim Cook’s.
“Make great again…dump Tim Cook.®”
And who would you replace him with? Scott Forstall? Bwahahaha…
actually, yes.
Well that’s proof of your idiocy. Not much else.
Please don’t be a bully or I’ll take your squirt gun emoji.
No really, you are an idiot. That’s not bullying. That’s a fact.
actually, I was rated a Mensan at age 15, I’ve learned quite a lot since then, such as: you’re fulla shït, snowflake.
Good netiquette would suggest limiting one’s posts to one or two per day.
And who appointed you Director of The Department of Internet Etiquette?
huh. A bit before the Internet, my father was in Mensa, but he quit, complaining to me that all they cared about was getting the highest score in games and other forms of silly one-upmanship. I asked him if there were any women in the organisation and he said no — but, a year previously, when he had tried competitive Scrabble the hatchet-faced women cleaned his clock, cackling as they did so. He hadn’t much of an appetite for IQ puzzles after that. Pride is so easily wounded, and so slow to recover.
actually, all they REALLY cared about was the annual fees.
However, I will say this: the Mensan organization helped me immensely in college where I majored in Unrhyming Feminist Poetry and a minor in Eco-Activist Mime Theory.
I have not seen one day of unemployment ever since.
“And who would you replace him with? Scott Forstall?”
botvinnik is a Trump supporter, so it would probably be Donny Trump that he would like to run Apple (as well as the USA).
Hey, if Trump can build a 2,000 mile long, 100 foot high wall to keep Americans out of Mexico, he should have no problem running Apple Inc. (into the ground). 😉
Sure glad Theodore Roosevelt didn’t hire you on as chief engineer on the Panama Canal project…
you’re one of those “yes, we can’t” losers.
A man, a plan, a canal–Panama!
“Mad Jane: Beyond Palindrome.”
God knows every day of your existence your parents are still apologizing to the world – misbegotten waste of skin that you are.
And btw Pete you don’t have to be so “hard-on” yourself with your pseudonym though it describes you very well.
Ignoring the ignorant (and worse) comments here…
Apple is TWO generations BEHIND implementing Intel i7 CPUs. WTF is that about?
And the Mac ‘Pro’. OMFG, with cobwebs blowing out the top of the cooling tower.
September had better deluge us with new and better Macs or there shall be protestation beyond even this page! 😡😡😡
+++
you said it.
If there isn’t a new real Pro Mac I am going to be very disappointed. Apple used to care about productivity including high productivity of its most creative and demanding customers including scientists and engineers.
Don’t abandon us Apple! (Or more accurately, stop abandoning us!)
Apple still sells both professional digital video and audio applications. As the masters of integrating hardware with software, why would they hobble their own software with out dated hardware? This has become one of those situations where I wish they’d give me a call and ask me over to Apple to kick some lazy ass and get the company back on track. (Only sort of kidding). 😉
Something is distracting Apple from keeping the Mac up-to-date. Again my mind wanders to Mothership move planning as a possible source of distraction and lost focus.
Yes, the Mothership of All Trash Cans….
Well, maybe Apple has its reasons. But, I will keep my money and Apple can keep their current line of Macs. Sounds fair to me.
Apple should just look at all the ticked off Mac users on various boards and see the loyal customers are not happy with their product line. People holding off on upgrades the norm not the exception. I just want a Mac that will play 4k video and not cost me the price of a small car.
…. just wait a little while longer and you will all be rewarded!!
I must admit it has been very quiet from Apple Inc. on the Mac line in 2016; a little birdie tells me that there is very good reason for this, all to be revealed!!
The problem is we have waited more than enough, this line has been going on for far too long already.
If Apple wants to be the Premier Computer company like the IPhone is the best phone in the world, they would have an i7 iMac with the fastest processor available within 60 days of its release. Same with the mobile i7 in MacBook Pro. Same with the Mac Pro but 90 days.
It’s that simple.
This delay did a major disservice to those whose computers have become outdated or unusable during the upgrade lag. Long term customers who wish to stay with Apple have been forced to buy outdated, overpriced Macs in meantime. It has reinforced the impression (accurately according to us) that Apple has a large contingent of self-serving, self-righteous, customer-hating arrogant bastards (no insult to the beer intended) at the helm.
In this case, the underlying reason is that Apple has an iOS Agenda.
If Tim Cook and Co. can ever get it through their thick skulls that moving your hand up and down from the keyboard to the screen (blocking much of the screen in the process) significantly reduces the effective creation of documents, spreadsheets and detailed graphics we will see an iOS Macbook this fall.
We’re not necessarily excited about it either. That will mean that those same self-righteous… arrogant bastards will have more control over the content proved through the apps. That is a negative for freedom of expression.
It’ll be a cool machine, and divisive, but it’s coming.
So, a few thoughts:
(a) I don’t think Apple intends to throw faster and faster GPUs into it’s machines to serve higher and higher resolution monitors and faster and faster frame rates. Rather, I think it’s working on a device-independent standard that will allow the visual to be displayed at device resolution at the fastest frame rate that the monitor(s) can support. If you have a Retina MPB, the images display at Retina. If you have the soon-to-be Retina external monitor, or maybe three or more, the images display properly there. If you have a lowly MBA, the images display properly.
But the trick is to put the graphics power not in the CPU but in the display and then to develop the video standard that is skinny enough to transmit over, say, a single Thunderbolt 2 cable to ensure some measure of backward compatibility.
(b) If you take graphics out of the equation, I generally agree that the speed improvements in CPUs just haven’t been sufficient to justify a new generation of machines.
(c) Except at the very highest end (Pro). But here we run into that same graphics standard problem that I mentioned above plus we have a very small market that probably doesn’t (easily) justify the amount of work and the commitment of resources that would be required to bring out a new machine. For Apple, frankly, I don’t think it’s a question of money. (Obviously.) It’s a matter of recruiting and retaining the very best talent. There just seems to be a limited supply of such talent especially given that Apple has recruited the very best for years and years. Who else is out there?
Maybe in cutting edge areas like AI and such. But for things like video compression, I just don’t think super talented electrical engineering students go to grad school to work on such things. So the pool is probably very small and at this point, the very best probably already work at Apple. Where else would they go?
It ISN’T system processor alone that Apple needs to focus on. Design, Thunderbolt 3.0, USB-C, Graphics cards (no GTX 1080 on Mac? Why not?), and other things. There’ so much Apple COULD do, but they won’t for whatever given reason, and there’s just NO excuse for it. None.
The answer to the perception of slow product release from the press, investors and inpatient folks out there is that Apple simply takes longer when designing new products compared to it’s competitors. I’m not implying this is a bad thing at all because when you look at an Apple product you know darn well a lot of time has gone in to make it a reliable, quality product that is easy to use and shields the customer from all the complexities of technology issues that lead to a negative user experience. Many people are willing to pay for that positive Apple experience. There are others of course who don’t care about looks, fine craftsmanship or added complexities as they just want raw spec power and upgradability. Those people are hard core PC users or gamers. Mac users want a computer to be creative without problems. And to all the other PC users, if all you want to do on a computer is play solitaire, surf the web and count beans in a spreadsheet then you are not a Mac user. Mac users are people who change the world. I have no problem waiting for the next Mac to come out because my old Mac is still running just fine thank you and I am still happy every time I press the power button.
so if mac users who are using their Macs for work for 3D or some other type of high end work and their COMPETITORS with PCs with GPUs that are 3 or more times faster, Ram that can go to 512 GB, newer PCI buses etc should just go into a corner and suck their thumbs and not complain (while their competitors steal their clients from them) because YOU “have no problem waiting for the next Mac to come out because my old Mac is still running just fine thank you ”
that’s a selfish attitude, man.
Who are Apple’s primary customers? Folks that do really high end 3D graphics work do not use Macs or off the shelf PCs. Sure they may use them for some preliminary vision work or as I would call busy work. But the real animation work is done using Linux machines that are highly customized and cost a mint. Out of all the millions of Mac users out there who needs 512GB of RAM???
it’s not that everyone needs 512 GB , I’m just pointing out the MAX as the poster was implying there’s not much difference between Mac and PCs today (“that we can wait”) , I’m showing the extreme example to prove a point.
” Folks that do really high end 3D graphics work do not use Macs or off the shelf PC”
so why is that? That just proves that Macs are behind., you’ve actually made my point.
You also don’t seem to know the HISTORY that we long time Mac users do, in the past GRAPHICS was Mac territory, many companies had Pcs but the Mac department could be Mac as macs were the graphics powerhouse. Photoshop and Illustrator at the start were MAC PROGRAMS. Mac graphics users were the ones that kept Apple alive when most people went over to Windows during the Sculley, Amelio etc years. Mac domination of graphics has faded away due to lack of care by Apple.
for the Jobs years the Macs kept up with PCs more or less, Jobs used to do shootouts between Mac and PCs running photoshop etc to show the Mac blowing them away. You can pop in standard PC GPU cards in the old Pro tower and even (if you’re handy) upgrade the CPU.
the Cylinder was pretty fast even for 3D when it came out but it’s been stagnant and 3D work has gone up in complexity.
It would have been relatively EASY for Apple to keep up if they have kept the TOWER which used a lot of STANDARD parts instead of the Mac Pro Cylinder which you can’t upgrade the GPU. It;s relatively easy for tech companies to upgrade towers, thats why even Hackintosh users can build tower machines in their basements that are much faster than the Cylinders. let me emphasize this : the difficulty Apple has in keeping up and updating it’s Cyinder is because the design was poorly thought out: non standard parts means it makes it hard to do so.
also you’re just picking on RAM , what about the GPU? PC cards are at least 3 times faster in GPU tasks than the Cylinder. The Xeons and buses are also one or two generations ahead. Go read the posters on page one for details.
these are serious numbers for high end users. If you don’t understand this you shouldn’t comment because obviously you are not a high end user.
Lastly you think it’s right for apple to Abandon it’s high end users who LISTENED TO APPLE’S MARKETING and PROMISES and invested large amounts of money in the Mac eco system , besides hardware pro software can also cost thousands. Also like I said Pro users were the ones that kept apple alive. It’s not a honourable thing, especially from a company that touts morals like Apple.
The problem with you thinking is even when the wait is over the end-product is far from perfect or even up-to-date. Recent history has seen Apple falling behind and producing some buggy and unreliable software.
I Agree. Apple needs to focus more on the quality of software. To do this they will need to eventually unify the OS for desktop and mobile. But I believe Apple would instead rather have the iPad start taking over as the transition platform over the next 5 years instead of killing off the Mac. That is what Microsoft had to do and they are a company that dedicates most resources only to software. Is Windows 10 the best work they have done?
I believe for Apple to be successful they need to keep coming out with technology that everyone can use and do it better than anybody else (including their ecosystem) and they have been doing so but yes they need to step it up. Start building all kinds of stuff and have Jony Ivy oversee and kick off 50 new design teams in the new Apple campus. And I think this is going to happen.
Building a computer that costs $20k+ for high end use is not going to make Apple successful. Changing the work will.
It seems to me that it’s becoming essential that Apple take charge of its CPUs and start the painful transition to its own chips. I don’t know if that means computers with A10 chips emulating Intel for compatibility, or having both an A10 and an Intel as a coprocessor to handle compatibility issues while developers make the transition, I don’t know. But Apple certainly has the money and probably has the ability to do their own laptop and desktop CPUs. For me, Adobe is still essential, so I see that as the major issue with ARM, since Adobe has always been slow to redo their code base for previous transitions like Power PC and Mac Intel and OS X. Only other things I need are Dropbox, Google Drive. I can do without Microsoft Office. Most of my other software comes from the Apple OS X Store, which I assume would be relatively easy to transition to ARM.
Patience guys……..A series Powered Mac is coming……Amen
I think the 2013 Mac Pro design was an own-goal. The biggest advantage the tower mac had was the upgradability. Plus it had great potential for storage.
This has lead to a small industry of upgrading the 4.1 and 5.1 macs to 3.33GHz and 3.46GHz cpus’ plus the graphic cards are easily upgraded. This is the route that I have gone down.
With a PCI ssd disk and remove the DVD player the tower macs can use 6 bays for disks. At todays disk size that is 60TB of storage internally! Really, the Mac Pro is an oversized Mac Mini.
So why buy a trashcan mac today? I think this is why the 2013 Mac Pro (Mac Mini Pro) is not selling well.
Mac Pro
RIP
2006 – 2012
This article is rubbish. Why the hell would apple integrate Thunderbolt e-GPU support in Sierra if it was ignoring GPU computing? They are simply taking a modular approach, since not everybody needs this type of computing power.
Well not only has the performance not changed – neither has the price. and yet the differentials in cost for 128GB vs 256Gb etc. remain huge whilst the actual chip cost is bugger all. More money for Apple per machine.
Only if people buy them, and according to the last Apple numbers, people are not buying them anymore. Case in point, I am looking to upgrade my aging 2008 MacPro. At the moment, Apple has nothing that would cover what this old Mac can do for me, and I am not alone in this boat.
yup – cracked the screen on my 2013 MacBook Pro earlier this year and thought it was a good excuse to buy a new one until I checked out the new ones – sorry, I’m not going to essentially “re buy” the same machine I have now – likely my next desktop will be a hackintosh
Is it possible that Apple held back on refreshing these lines until this Fall in the belief that demand for the iPhone 6S(S) would not live up to the 6? A way of ensuring a stronger quarter than might otherwise have been?
First
Great article. This is something that has been concerning me for a while and I’m surprised that more Mac blogs have not taken Apple to task on this before. The state of the mid-pro mac market is abysmal, it alright to focus on profitable sectors but it you loose the confidence of professionals then Apple will loose market. I have for the first time in a long time been looking for alternatives to Apple wether thats a hackintosh or worse, I might not be a core market for Apple but when I spend I spend big and I am a decision maker for many colleagues, family and friends.