“Where are the spring Mac refreshes?” Gene Steinberg wonders for The Tech Night Owl. “Are there going to be any?”
“More to the point, when Apple CEO Tim Cook asserts that the company loves its pro users, what are they going to do to express that feeling? Will there be new versions of Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X?” Steinberg asks. “How about the languishing Mac Pro? Does Apple really believe that the 2013 version of Apple’s workstation met the standards of the creative and professional communities? If it was a misfire, do they make some changes or give it up?”
“Since the iMac is clearly Apple’s most popular desktop machine, it will no doubt receive a modest refresh soon, possibly with the Intel Kaby Lake processors and speedier graphics. The external ports may change from Thunderbolt 2 and USB 3.0 to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3,” Steinberg writes. “Based on Cook’s commitment, I’ll just assume there are plans afoot to upgrade the Mac Pro. I am sure lots of people would like to see a larger model, one that has a decent amount of external expansion. I don’t know what sort of feedback Apple receives for the current model, but it can’t be pretty. I’d also like to see a refresh for the Mac mini.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, along with many others, we’ve been harping on this issue for some time now. Here’s a selection of the litany:
It’s been an eternity in tech time — 3 years, 2 months, and 11 days to be precise — since the Mac Pro was last updated (also, conveniently, its launch date) and, for that, there really is no legitimate excuse. It’s just plain mismanagement.
We don’t care if you’re selling two units per week. Upgrade it at least annually for the sake of perception and customer retention, at the very least. That’s just Business 101. — MacDailyNews, March 1, 2017
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Cook et al. should take note: On your present course, there will rather quickly come a day when such users will choose another company’s wares. — MacDailyNews, January 4, 2017
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They’ve chopped off the edges of the bell curve — and big chunks of their key users with them. — Chuq Von Rospach, January 1, 2017
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Currently, when it comes to the Macintosh (and Apple TV, among other products and services), Apple under CEO Tim Cook is struggling.
“It’s not about charisma and personality, it’s about results and products.” — Steve Jobs
Cook, who never remotely threatened to offer either of the former attributes, is now obviously having difficulty delivering the latter.
The question is how far up the food chain does this mismanagement problem go? Is this fish rotting from the head down? Or is there a layer of incompetent upper management or an integral structural problem coming to light as Apple grows like a weed with post-Steve employees that’s gumming up the works?
Under Tim Cook, Apple has endured:
• John Browett
• Apple Maps launch debacle (tarring Maps with a bad rep to this day)
• No iMacs for Christmas 2012
• Massive undersupply of Apple Watch at launch, basically killing all momentum
• Massive undersupply of Apple Pencils and Smart Keyboards on hand for the iPad Pro launch
• No updated Mac Pro for three years
• No updated Apple TV for Christmas 2016 (A 4K-capable Apple TV would have been so easy, it’s inexplicable and unforgivable not to have this on the market right now)
• No Apple skinny bundle(s) for Apple TV while other companies ink deals and announce launches – these customers will be tough for Apple to get back once lost, if they ever get the deals signed. (Perhaps, Tim, you need to hire better negotiator(s) who can get the ink? Or make an acquisition that reshapes the industry, causing them to line up to work with you?)
• No compatible Remote app for Apple TV at launch
• No Apple Music capability in Siri on Apple TV at launch
• Apple TV remote looks to have been “designed” by Steve Ballmer himself (If Steve wasn’t already dead, the Apple TV Remote would have killed him; he would’ve had an aneurysm the second the mockup was handed to him)*
• Flagship iPhone launches without its flagship feature (Portrait mode) and is currently still only in “beta” (seriously?)
• No new iPads for Christmas 2016 (Even simply “refreshed” with current A-series processors would have created significantly more sales)
• No updated iMacs for Christmas 2016
• No updated Mac mini for 2+ years
• No AirPods in any meaningful supply for Christmas 2016Unfortunately, that’s just a partial list of painfully obvious mistakes.
When you’re walking the halls, Tim, look at the walls once in a while. Hopefully, you’ll see these:
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have… It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” — Steve Jobs
“Real artists ship.” — Steve Jobs
In closing:
This is absolutely shameful for a company claiming to be a leader in technology.
Exactly how rich and big does Apple have to be before the company runs like it has more than five guys working 18-hour days trying to do everything? The world’s most valuable company is incapable of updating the Mac Pro for two and a half fscking years? Seriously? “Mismanagement” is not too strong a word to apply to the ongoing Mac Pro fiasco.
Just like every other human, there are things Tim Cook does very well and there are other things about which he seems painfully inept.
Hint: Make new Macs and update them with regularity while advertising them strongly. Obviously, as you might have noted by perusing iPad unit sales reports, not everyone has fallen for your “iPad is the next PC” meme, yet, Tim.
We only say that as those who were already Mac users for over 13 years at the point Cook was still over at Compaq trying to get his Windows PC to work. — MacDailyNews, July 12, 2016
*With the Siri Remote, users can’t tell which end is up in a darkened room due to uniform rectangular shape. The remote is still too small, so it gets lost easily. All buttons are the same size and similarly smooth. Only the Siri button attempts to be different, but the slightness of its concavity is too subtle to matter; a raised dot on the button would have been much easier for users to feel. The tactile difference between the bottom of the remote vs. the upper Glass Touch surface is too subtle as well; this also leads to not being able to tell which end is up. A remote with a simple wedge shape (slightly thicker in depth at the bottom vs. the top), as opposed to a uniform slab, would have instantly communicated the proper orientation to the user.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s next-gen iMac may go for power, speed (to keep Mac users from straying to Windows or something) – March 17, 2017
Apple’s desktop Macs: A showcase of old, aged tech – March 17, 2017
Come on, Apple, lets ship that cluster super computer.
Just go and build yourself a blade already.. Apple is never going to do that.. .There is a reason they use %100 HP servers in the OWN APPLE DATA CENTERS….
dude..
Yes, APPLE moved away from its own servers some years back, but given what they can now do with the ARM chip it allows them to consider other possibilities. Big players are looking at ARM chips for their data centers. I’m guessing APPLE is looking at that possibility too.
So, I don’t think it is impossible to think they just might explore the design in their Mac Pro X model. You buy a screamer but since it is Xperimental there are compatibility issues and others downsides to employing it.
But as you suggest, all wild speculation and very unlikely.
Considering Google is already working on cpus of their own design for use in their datacenters, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple considered doing the same for theirs.
It probably isn’t ‘never’, but I also doubt it will be exactly what we want, either. If we throw out desktops prematurely, someone is just going to invent them again, because in some form, they are necessary. 😉
There’s no excuse for Apple management to intentionally destroy the foundation product of the company as they are. The current computer offerings from Apple are outdated, inflexible and, despite their prices, essentially disposable.
All of the current management should be dragged from their insulated and comfortable offices that render them deaf and blind. They should be forced to respond to the questions the users who rely on Macs every day have been shouting.
Any one of them who offers a lame answer that includes the word “pipeline” or utters a feckless promise about their concern for Pro users should be immediately dismissed and their stock options retracted.
Excellent, thanks Theobelk !!!
Wow! Well said …
Keep dreaming. It isn’t happening. Apple is a iPhone company now and forever more….
If is isn’t an iPhone, it isn’t an iPhone… and Apple doesn’t care.
Make me eat those words, Tim!
I wish someone would be able to sit down with Tim Cook in an interview and ask him point blank, “Will there ever be a Macintosh upgrade? Don’t give me that ‘we don’t talk about future products’ line. Anything other than a resounding YES will be taken as a NO.”
We have really great products in the pipeline.
— Pipeline Tim
AND… imagine if the remote could sound if it was lost in a couch! (Or swallowed, like if it happens to fall in a bag of beef jerky)
Dell has an 8K monitor. Spec wise, their “alienware” laptops blow MacBook pros out of the water. They even say with the larger battery, the Dell laptop will run for 10 hours.
Apple?
I repeat, in my best Ben Stein/Ferris imitation:
Apple?
Apple?
Apple?
Apple?
Please don’t imitate Ben Stein. One of him is one too many.
No, I’d be happy with an updated iMac- just the specs, no need to reinvent the damn things. Let people whine about “lack of vision,” just give me a new model. Yesterday!
Don’t blame Ben Stein, blame ad creators who no longer value creativity, they can only imitate each other.
Like in “mic drop” so massively overused it is just nuts.
And males in tv ads that like like skinny 12 year old boys with beards and black frame glasses, the list could go on.
But then as a society we are becoming a nation of followers, so why am I surprised/
Upgrade for what purpose? We are in the middle of some major connectivity and technology shifts. With USBC and thunderbolt integration, underwhelming processor upgrades in the past year, people are calling for upgrades for the sake of upgrades.
What if the refreshes were ready to go, and then connectivity changes? Then everyone screams why don’t they have the new connectivity? What if a decision to incorporate those changes pushed it back, and then there’s Kaby Lake on the horizon? Those things could delay new products. Give it time.
for what purpose?
My iMac is 5 years old. I use it every day all day. Yes, it still does very well, but as a front line business machine, it needs to be replaced. I WON’T spend 2500-3000 on two year old technology. That’s the purpose. Get it?
Apple get with the plan and take my money.
PS: I can’t ADD anyone to my “mac world” at my company either for the same reason. Update the Mac, I buy a new one. I give my still good 5 year old iMac to a coworker and Apple gets a new “convert”. Now do you get it?
Oh, do please point me to the desktop Mac with USB-C and TB3. I have heard these are awesome and they are backward compatible. I just cannot find them on any Mac I want to buy. I also cannot seem to find a desktop Mac with a decent swappable drive bay, PCI slot, current generation CPU, or a Kaby processor.
PCs are available with all this and more. But you conclude Apple should just wait a while longer? Apple is already 2 generations behind, wtf !?!??!??!!
Amen. Get a clue clueless Cook.
Upgrade? Always!
Because when it comes to one’s tools (not TOYS), the “sharpening the saw” is the regular reassessment of workflows for constant improvement, and that often means hardware & software upgrades.
Without moving forward, you’re falling behind.
And Apple has fallen way, way behind. So too has MDN, because it took MDN *more* than a full year to catch up with what we were screaming last year.
Yeah, glad to hear that MDN has finally woken up … but “we told you so”…MDN was just as tone deaf as the Apple leadership for far too long.
In the meantime, I’m personally debating a $1000 upgrade to a 2012 Mac Pro to “hold off” a little longer, or finally just say “F**k You Apple” after 30+ years of exclusivity to their products for my business.
Which is also why I’m contemplating my timing to dump my APPL stock too. This current “Leadership” isn’t competent for anything more than derivative work on the iPhone production.
“This current “Leadership” isn’t competent for anything more than derivative work on the iPhone production.”
And liberal politics and watch bands … sad.
For what purpose?
1) Businesses depreciate computer technology over a 5 year span, so there are tax advantages to upgrading
2) Equipment actually does wear out. My 2011 27″ iMac is starting to show display fade in the menu bar. It’s on its third SSD. Sierra no longer supports AirDrop to iOS.
3) Faster processors, faster connections, faster networking — all translate into more work accomplished at business rates. But we can’t get there on these old computers.
unless you have been living under a rock you should know that many upgrade cycles of processors have occurred and we are still supposed to ‘Give it time’
Professionals rely on every ounce of power to save them time and work productively. When windows machines are blisteringly faster than Macs for Pro users then its not time we are waiting for its the incompetent executives to do their job and untie other professionals from their inept restrictions. Apple is a bottle neck for all Professionals using their hardware..
Computer malfeasance…
I’ll freely admit that I’ve sworn off of FireWire audio interfaces now. Thunderbolt? Sorry, no. USB? That seems to be the only home-pro option anymore. :/
Despite clear technical superiority over USB, Apple killed off FireWire when it was clear that they would never have the mass production volumes to compete.
So Apple worked with Intel to develop a derivative of PCI-E that would replace FireWire, cost even more, and go through Apple’s customary forced connector change every few years. Brilliant.
The one good thing to happen in the last few years is that while Apple was sleeping, Intel and the USB consortium finalized the USB-C spec. The entire industry seems to be adopting it.
Let us hope that Apple also settles on the USB-C connection for the foreseeable future. What is annoying is that Apple seems to be taking its sweet time upgrading its entire Mac range to include the newest I/O connectors. You can thank Apple for the sloppy connector transitions.
Well said. Apple is way too sloopy these days …
I have the latest retina iMac. Great piece of hardware! But as a Mac user and having used:
SE
LCIII
Performa 630
PowerMac 4400
PowerMac 7600
PowerMac G4 Quicksilver
PowerMac G5
iMac G5
iMac 17″ Intel Core Duo
iMac 20″ Core2Duo
iMac 27″
iMac 27″ 5K
Apple should stop messing up macOS. I really don’t want big smileys if stuff that has been working since at least System 7 are screwed up. Yes, I submit feedback, most bugs are duplicates and they just don’t fix it. Matter of priorities, I get it.
Details matter, big smileys don’t. Not one day goes by, that I don’t encounter little or big annoyances. OSX was more refined with Snow Leopard.
I think it is better if macOS has a separate development team and they release less often major versions. Now I have the feeling that the developers spend most of the time on iOS. I think that’s ok. iOS is really important for Apple. But building features in a hurry and breaking things that worked 6 years ago is unacceptable. Because the developers don’t get time to fix what they broke, unless it’s really important.
So, in the next 5 years macOS will disintegrate if they continue like this. And if it doesn’t get better, I am not so sure I will spend a lot of money on a Mac a when I need to replace my fantastic iMac.
Makes you wonder WTF they are going to sell developers to write apps for all those iPads
Coding on an iPad maybe
Compiling – doesn’t exist
Apples now fallen into the “too little too late” category for new Macs
Swift can be written with Microft and Linux computers. The future of the iOS ecosystem does not need to depend on Apple computers. It’s been said here before that doing away with the MacOS ecosystem may be the end game, so as to cut away the fat from Apple financials.
Remember when it leaked that Msft. advertisements were made on Mac? Apple fans made a lot of fun of it.
Imagine if iOS was coded completely on Windows or Linux, the PR damage would be huge. Msft. could run a line of ads saying that Apple hardware is so poor they are using Windows machines in Apple HQ to write code. That would make Apple the ‘tech leader’ into a laughing stock.
Imagine bringing reporters in like Tim cook did with 60 minutes to Apple’s new billions costing HQ and all they see are Windows machines used to write code and design hardware ( CAD) etc , 3rd party routers and LG monitors.
Steve Jobs spent decades and billions building up Apple’s ‘tech leader’ image (which helps it earn the most profit on the planet) and they are going to trash that?
I don’t think Tim Cook cares, considering the MacOS hardware that has and hasn’t come out lately. Either that, or Apple management is extremely inept.
I was at the Apple Store yesterday when I looked around it became obvious that Apple is getting out of the desktop market. There were only iMacs and only 4 of them. Everything else, iPads and iPhones. Oh yeah, a couple of really ugly LG Monitors. The writing is on the wall, the Mac is dead.
I want a new Cinema Display, but cannot have one now.
Apple: you include a Display with every iMac sold – why not also sell that Display as a separate entity, rather than giving away the trade completely??
Agreed. Makes absolutely no sense. But when you have a touchy freely liberal activist running legacy parts of the company into the ground, no surprise …
All the pro’s I know, including one who’s sound studio has done sound for commercials that were in the Super Bowl, LucasFilm games and Apple itself (Apple TV sounds, iPod games and other stuff he can’t tell me about) do not want to upgrade constantly. They want stability and everything working with their third party hardware and software. He was running OS 9 years after OS X came out and still remains “way behind” the software/hardware technology curve.
I think it’s the people who are not pros who look at the Mac Pro and claim Apple doesn’t care about the pros.
I do video professionally within my business (not for others) and my Mac Pro still cruises through Final Cut Pro as wonderfully fast as ever. At any point it has 11 hard drives connected to it for a total of 33 TB of storage and it never crashes.
I have owned 57 Macs starting in 1985 with the 512K FatMac. Most I sell after 2-3 years and upgrade. A handful get kept. I can tell you right now that my bottom of the line, 3 year old MacPro is a keeper. It’s absolutely silent which I love, It is stable and is small. It is a portable computer core that you can put anywhere.
That sounds great for those pros that have been in the industry for a while. Harder to convince new pros to buy such old Macs, if they can still find them, for their business.
depends on what kind of “pro” you are.
(‘Sound’ work in your friends example etc doesn’t doesn’t stress the GPU ).
if you need to rotate high res 3D models on a big monitor the pitiful GPU in the Cylinder sucks.
Don’t believe me watch the videos demos on Youtube etc of a Cylinder vs a PC , 3D models stagger with the Cylinder vs the smooth rotation etc with PC. (and some of those videos are from 2015).
frame rates for PCs can be 2-3 times or more faster.
yeah you can argue stability but when people need brute GPU power they have to go PC (there’s no point using the Mac if you can’t rotate your 3D objects)
I’m a mac user for over 20 years, people can flame me but what I’m saying is just the truth.
No flame here. High-five support for speaking the TRUTH …
Remove Pipeline, false promising, Tim Cook from CEO, clearly he can’t manage his team effectively.
Sign this.
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
IMHO this is the absolute best MDN take of all time. Constructive criticism that is absolutely spot on so many levels present day and legacy users from the beginning of Apple.
Pay attention Arrogant Apple and make it so.
Apple user since my Lisa …
Apple could easily upgrade their line with new processors and minor updates.
Tim Cook needs to go, he cares more about his political causes then business. He’s amazed with himself now that he has the worlds largest soap box.
I have many long time Mac users who are jumping ship for Dell. Heck, I’ve only used Macs in my house and even I am looking to jump ship. My 7 year old imac is just not cutting it for things I want to do.
Who i their right mind doesn’t update their computer line for many years? He’s negligent as the head of Apple and needs to be kicked to the curb.
Cook has ZERO allegiance to the LEGEND founding of Apple and legacy users like yours truly that never wavered (Apple user since my Lisa).
Cook’s preoccupation with LIBERAL politics, fashion bling and clueless belief that an iPad will replace a workhorse PC IS JUST WRONG!
All the hardcore users want in an Apple Computer is yearly chip/video cards upgrades. The cherry on the top would be expandibilty and not soldered boards.
Why the world’s largest and richest company in the history of planet Earth cannot accomplish? Tone deaf NEGLIGENCE. Tim, please move on …
Ironic that you feel the need to inject a partisan attack in every comment you make. We all agree Cook is a disappointment, but it isn’t because Apple employees are liberal. Most of them are and always have been. What is screwing us longtime Mac users is that the company is run by CONSERVATIVE bean counters who take zero development risks and are bending over backwards to please Wall Street gamblers instead of paying customers.
The political problem is that Apple is now a conservative bureaucratic corporation with no soul. The underdog spirit of liberal change and innovation is long gone, replaced by selfish conservative complacency.
“Ironic that you feel the need to inject a partisan attack in every comment you make.”
Be careful of absolute statements that are clearly untrue. Over time have posted numerous comments political free, like a few here.
Simply point out the obvious you did not refute regarding the political posturing of clueless Cook. On the other hand — glad you agree he is a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT to pro users.
I never mentioned Apple employees on MDN. Not once. I’ll take you at your word they are liberal. All are free to choose their political beliefs as long as they are respectful to those with alternative views.
“What is screwing us longtime Mac users is that the company is run by CONSERVATIVE bean counters …”
Tell me again who is ALWAYS injecting politics into posts? 😉
“… who take zero development risks and are bending over backwards to please Wall Street gamblers instead of paying customers.”
Not sure that is correct. Apple under Cook has spent record amounts of R&D burned bucks with nothing to show for it, to be fair, at least not yet. Apple TV, Project Titan and Virtual Reality to name a few. But hey, they have the best watch bands on the planet. Regarding pleasing Wall Street, more like an estranged relationship. Would like to know why you think that way.
“The political problem is that Apple is now a conservative bureaucratic corporation with no soul. The underdog spirit of liberal change and innovation is long gone, replaced by selfish conservative complacency.”
You sound like a long time disgruntled liberal Apple employee and rightly so if what you say is true. Venting is good. You may be on to something. Not sure I agree 100% with the premise Apple is now exclusively a conservative money machine, but read below. I’m keeping an open mind.
On one side of the coin: Apple is more in our faces than ever before in liberal politics and thumbing their noses at Steve’s religion to stay out of politics because it is bad for business. Your honor, Exhibit A: Support AIDS red iPhone. Obvious, the iPhone is all about Apple attention and the ultimate cash cow for years now.
On the flip side of that coin: Guessing the “conservative complacency” you mention would indeed account for lack of innovation in pro computers, likely most all computer models and the death of products (monitors, routers) and various software. Hmmm, this is tough one and glad you raised it.
What is Apple today, exactly? …
I build HTML5 motion graphics for the web. I use anywhere from 10-12 different apps to produce the content. All except my motion graphics production app are available for Windows and operate the same on both platforms.
The sad truth is that the apps are very close to becoming more important than the operating system that they run on.
What does that tell you about the future? Will Apple matter in the computer world?
replying to my own post; Will Apple matter in the computer world?”
And do they care? An open question.
Curious as to the app you use for motion graphics not available on Windows? Any links to your work?
Tumult Hype
my work is contracted, but check out the gallery on their site.
Nice work, thanks.
Thanks …
The fact that we can learn about the upcoming changes thanks to your articles gives us many opportunities to prepare in advance for them.