“Sources inside Apple have told LoopRumors that increasing the clock speeds of its computers has become a major priority. The gap between the current G4 chips and its competitors such as Intel and AMD has strongly affected sales. Our sources have revealed that sales of Apple’s pro line have been lagging for nearly two years as a result. The good news is that changes are ‘well under way.’ Our sources also hinted but wouldn’t confirm that the current PowerMac form factor will be the last, as the new processor will reportedly bring a new design to the Pro line. When asked when we might see these changes, we were simply told: ‘Before the Fall,'” reports LoopRumors.com.
MacDailyNews take: Apple should also be painfully aware that the Power Mac form factor (case design) is so old and tired that it stands in stark contrast to all of their other new desktop and portable offerings. Slapping new inserts onto the face of the same old case each time just instantly communicates to users, “nothing new to see here, move on.” And, boy, this chip speed issue is really getting old. HURRY UP, already!
They needed “sources” to tell them that the sales of Apple’s pro line have been lagging for nearly two years?
I think it’s a bit unfair to criticise the form factor. It was radically changed inside last time, with room for and additional optical drive and two more IDE drives.
I’m not too keen on the mirrored drive front (the quicksilver was the best looking of all of them), but it’s still probably the best mini-tower case design in the world.
It’s those chips inside the box that are the concern.
Apple has been waiting for new CPUs – next generation ones – and then they’ll update, and market aggresively the new Pro-line Towers. Think G5 (or whatever it’ll be called), new metal form factor (xServe +Ti/Alum Book inspired), new mother boards that (actually) use the hardware fully (DDR, etc). It will be effeicent, powerful and beautiful, and cutting edge. The whole world will know when this baby comes out!
At last they admit the obvious. They did that at the last analyst meeting. Speaking of speed, aren’t those 17″ Powerbooks finally done?? The wait has been horrific.
Well least they are moving past the stagnated g4, as a quicksilver owner i must say the case is very well conceived and the fact that they have been doing little to the orginal design says a lot. Still a all new design to go with a (thank god ) all new cpu would be great. But knowing Apple and plastic i dont think we will see a all metal case. At least i hope not, i wont some super cool translucent plastic etc etc. Not a metal box.
I agree that the QuickSilver was the best PowerMac design of them all. Great choice of gray (almost Titanium looking), reset button on the front, lower noise than the mirror-doors, 4 IDE hard-drive bays, 4 PCI slots and dual G4s in the later configurations.
The only thing I do not like about all the PowerMacs since the B&W G3 are those dreadful little mono speakers they insist on including in the case. Once you plug in external speakers the mono speaker is muted and becomes a waste of space. It also sounds awful. I would have it taken out of the design and offer iSticks at a discount to new PowerMac owners, otherwise they could plug in their own speakers with a good USB adaptor.
As for the speed gap, maybe it is time to start offering quad processor PowerMacs. I think OS X is a great multi-processor OS and rendering video would definitely benefit from four G4s.
The case is still quite nice. Although they really could use front side firewire and usb ports, and EJECT buttons on the optical drives, like the two button mouse, useful, but they just don’t want to admit it.
As another quicksilver owner the case is very well designed, the ease of entry , open it up bam! everything in front of you. This has been a Great design period! Great designs have a habit of staying around. All they need to do is update the styling, or size of the machine to hold the newer technology, maybe a new fancy case to go with that new 970 but keep it as easy to work on as the Quicksilver. The lagging sales arent from the Great case! the Lagging sales are from the LAGGING G4! Thats why they resorted to jamming 2 of those suckers in it because 1 couldnt get the job done and even 2 are behind the 3 gigger P4!
Ever tried to put more than three drives in it. Ever tried to easily connect a headphone without sitting on your knies because the speaker is crap. Ever tried to put these empty boxes into a 19” rack. Never you should compare things to competitors and I easily believe they are much worse. I hope Apple will just make the servers more server and the iMac more MyMac. Forget about this spaceous empty box of air and focus on the devices.