Apple’s embarrassing Mac Pro mea culpa

“It’s just embarrassing at this point,” Evan Niu writes for The Motley Fool. “For a company that famously demarcated the consumer and professional markets decades ago and worked hard to cater to each of those markets, Apple has rightfully received an incredible amount of criticism that it is seemingly neglecting the professional market (at least when it comes to desktop users).”

“The Mac Pro, redesigned and launched in 2013, has continued to gather dust over the years with no updates whatsoever — until now,” Niu writes. “The big news today is that Apple invited a handful of journalists to its campus to deliver the message that a newly redesigned Mac Pro is coming. Not this year, but hopefully next. In the meantime, Apple will be bumping the specs of the Mac Pro, for the first time in nearly four years.”

MacDailyNews Take: Actually, all Apple did was drop the entry-level models and move entry-level price to the next model up.

“Apple doesn’t apologize often,” Niu writes. “For the Mac Pro, Apple is implicitly admitting that its design — the sleek black jet engine — was flawed. Apple designed the system with dual GPUs, while creative professionals have been shifting toward a single, larger and more powerful GPU. The problem was that the current design had thermal limitations that couldn’t accommodate a more powerful GPU.”

“Apple pre-announcing a product is almost unheard of, as it’s often aiming to avoid the infamous Osborne effect that led to Osborne Computer’s failure in the 1980s,” Niu writes. “It will be a rather long wait for a new product in a mature category. Apple probably feels like it has no choice, though, as it’s been backed into a corner with criticisms from professional customers that feel like they’re being abandoned. Remaining silent for another year or more would be untenable, as it would risk that those users would defect to another platform.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The current Mac Pro’s internal code name ought to be “Clusterfsck.”

We’d be far more amenable to cutting Apple a break on this had they owned up to and begun to fix their screw-up years ago when the rest of us had already long since recognized it.

At this point, 3 years, 3 months, and 17 days since the Mac Pro was released, “wait ’til next year” (at the earliest) just doesn’t cut it.

Some might say something about Apple brass being fat and happy after gorging on RSUs. Others might say that Apple has outgrown a management system from a time when they were much smaller with fewer product lines. Or that the company is distracted with moving into their spaceship or other issues that are, at best, exceedingly peripheral to where Apple’s focus should be: Delighting their customers and shipping high quality, dependable products.

Whatever the reason(s) for Apple’s seeming malaise, we’ve said it before, so we’ll say it again: From the outside, Apple, you look lazy and/or somewhat lost. Is that how you want to look to the world, Apple, much less to us “rabid fanboys?” — MacDailyNews, December 9, 2016

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Sometimes Apple, the world’s most profitable and most valuable company, still operates as if they only have five guys from NeXT working around the clock trying to do all the work on a shoestring budget.

Can’t manage to have a compatible Remote app or Apple Music-capable Siri for the Apple TV launch… Can’t have enough Pencils and Keyboards for the iPad Pro launch. Seriously? Can’t have any stock on hand for two months after the so-called the Apple Watch launch date. Can’t update their professional Mac for nearly two years and counting?

Why are these amateurish mistakes and lapses happening with startling regularity? You know, besides mismanagement?

Oh, you say, but Apple is making tons of money! Why, yes, they certainly are!

Listen, let’s be honest, Steve Ballmer could’ve generated the same kind of money “running” Apple Inc. given the massive momentum Steve Jobs handed over at his death. Sometimes, in fact, it looks like Steve Ballmer is running Apple. Although, no, it doesn’t really, because even Ballmer would have updated the Mac Pro by now, made sure he had enough Apple Watches ready so as not to pretty much totally kill launch momentum, and also had enough Pencils and Keyboards on hand for the iPad Pro launch. Of course, Ballmer would have never had the handle on the big picture that Tim Cook has – our issues with launches under Cook have to do solely with launch supplies and software polish.

We’re coming up on two years now (this December 19th) since the Mac Pro debuted with no updates which, along with the rest of the string of snafus (going back to John Browett, Apple Maps, no iMacs for Christmas 2012, no iPad 2 units for launch, etc.), is what understandably prompts this sort of “joke” and “failure” talk and the feeling that Apple is a bit sloppy in recent years.

We hold Apple to a high standard and we expect the company to execute better than they have of late. (read more) — MacDailyNews, November 27, 2015

SEE ALSO:
Who’s going to buy a Mac Pro now? – April 4, 2017
Mac Pro: Why did it take Apple so long to wake up? – April 4, 2017
Apple sorry for what happened with the Mac Pro over the last 3+ years – namely, nothing – April 4, 2017
Apple to unveil ‘iMac Pro’ later this year; rethought, modular Mac Pro and Apple pro displays in the pipeline – April 4, 2017
Apple’s apparent antipathy towards the Mac prompts calls for macOS licensing – March 27, 2017
Why Apple’s new Mac Pro might never arrive – March 10, 2017
Dare we hold out hope for the Mac Pro? – March 1, 2017
Apple CEO Cook pledges support to pro users, says ‘we don’t like politics’ at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting – February 28, 2017
Yes, I just bought a ‘new’ Mac Pro (released on December 19, 2013 and never updated) – January 4, 2017
Attention, Tim Cook! Apple isn’t firing on all cylinders and you need to fix it – January 4, 2017
No, Apple, do not simplify, get better – December 23, 2016
Rare video shows Steve Jobs warning Apple to focus less on profits and more on great products – December 23, 2016
Marco Arment: Apple’s Mac Pro is ‘very likely dead’ – December 20, 2016
How Tim Cook’s Apple alienated Mac loyalists – December 20, 2016
Apple’s not very good, really quite poor 2016 – December 19, 2016
Apple’s software has been anything but ‘magical’ lately – December 19, 2016
Lazy Apple. It’s not hard to imagine Steve Jobs asking, ‘What have you been doing for the last four years?’ – December 9, 2016
Rush Limbaugh: Is Apple losing their edge? – December 9, 2016
AirPods: MIA for the holidays; delayed product damages Apple’s credibility, stokes customer frustration – December 9, 2016
Apple may have finally gotten too big for its unusual corporate structure – November 28, 2016
Apple has no idea what they’re doing in the TV space, and it’s embarrassing – November 3, 2016
Apple’s disgracefully outdated, utterly mismanaged Mac lineup is killing sales – October 13, 2016
Apple takes its eye off the ball: Why users are complaining about Apple’s software – February 9, 2016
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015