“It’s not exactly a revelation to say Apple executives are fond of secrets. While that sense of mystery may work marketing magic with consumers, many Mac Pro customers in the professional world would very much appreciate it if Apple would cut it out with the cloak-and-dagger stuff,” Josh Lowensohn reports for CNET.
“At a starting price of $2,499, the Mac Pro is one of Apple’s most expensive products. It’s still the go-to workhorse for creative types who work in film, photography, print, and architectural jobs,” Lowensohn reports. “But many of them are losing patience with Apple following a series of erratic product updates and poor communication about future plans, and there’s only a vague indication their concerns will be addressed anytime soon.”
Lowensohn reports, “That waiting game reached a tipping point last year, when after nearly two years between upgrades, Apple finally updated the Mac Pro with newer technology. For some, what Apple delivered was too little, too late.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Anybody want a Mac Pro mini? – March 6, 2013
A new Mac Pro or just a bunch of peripherals? – February 11, 2013
Apple confirms launch of new Mac Pro in spring 2013 – February 6, 2013
Apple to discontinue Mac Pro in Europe March 1st, sources say – January 31, 2013
Rush Limbaugh: Okay, Apple, where’s my Mac Pro with Thunderbolt? – June 12, 2012
Apple reportedly confirms NYT report: New designs for iMac, Mac Pro in the works, due in 2013 – June 12, 2012
Really!
What else can’t frustrate us whenever we want something but not yet be available?
The better the products the more frustratedly are they wanted.
The thing the world should be frustrated about the most regarding Apple should be that it has been bullied by the inept legal systems worldwide, which are happily married with the slavish copier Samsung.
I understand the need for gigaflops..but the iMacs have had better specs for a little while..and the current 27 inch is no slouch. Terabytes via FireWire and 32 GBs RAM can handle a whole lot. An equivenent Pro minus the screen will be more money.
M, might I humbly direct you to this page which has an objective comparison of Mac performance:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks
The Geekbench scores don’t lie. The iMac has never outperformed the Mac Pro, ever. The newest, hottest 2012 27″ iMac’s i7 processor can’t even outperform the 2010 base hexacore Mac Pro.
..but thanks anyway. The fact that anyone even thinks an iMac can compete is reason enough for Apple to get off its derriere and update the Mac Pro to offer the very best specs on the market.
GeekBench gives very nice comparative data. But look at the numbers more carefully (especially the 64 bit scores): It’s really only the 12 core Pros that outclass the new iMac; it’s some surprise that 3 times as many cores only brings an 80% improvement in the GeekBench score — Apple needs to work on better threading in the OS. The 2010 6-core is only 10% better; the 2008 Pro’s are 12 to 20% lower.
The big advantage of the Pro’s is internal expandability and video options.
The project that would solidify Apple’s lead would be to have XGrid versions of key software. Imagine having a cluster of Mac Minis. They score 90% of an iMac and 50% of the top Pro. That would be fun…
an iMac is NOT a Mac Pro by any stretch of the imagination.
An iMac is a serviceable machine, but it is not as production machine.
I have 5 internal HDs mounted inside my Mac Pro- 4 in the bays and one in the 2nd Optical Drive Bay. They are all 2TB and are hot swappable without a single hand tool. I can open the tower and pull the CPU tray/Heat Sink and directly blow the dust out. The Pro has more connections than any other desktop Mac and mine has the WiFi and Bluetooth modules installed.
If I were to replace the Pro with an iMac or SSD mini not only would I give up raw crunching power, I would have a mess of cables and external HDs to clutter up my desks. With an 88 Key Midi controller, a scanner, 2 Eye TV DVRs, Focal Speakers, a headset for Dragon Dictate for Mac, Authentec Eikon Fingerprint scanner, Bowers & Wilkins Headphones, Moshi Card reader, Keyboard, Apple touchpad, Apple mouse, Wacom Tablet, etc there is plenty already. Switching to an iMac would be a mess.
I have a Mac Mini Sever running Snow Leopard in the LR as the ultimate Apple TV and it is a nice unit. That said, it is no replacement for my Mac Pro.
Absolutely spot on.
I figure Apple needs to do this because they should have a Flagship – a machine that says, “This is what we can do.” It should be the best.
Apple won’t sell boatloads of them like the iMac, but a Flagship will be an aspirational model and thus have promotional value. And they will sell.
Apple has $130Bn and counting in the bank. For gawd’s sake, show off a little, eh?
Hell, for all I know, that’s exactly what Tim Cook has in mind.
Oh poor little frustrated babies need more than a promise and time frame from Apple…grow up.
Breeze, if you made your living with them you would understand. You don’t so you don’t. We all understand that. The pro community is small compared to the overall consumer market for Apple products. We understand that too. Most of us have been using Macs and everything Apple for decades. We’re not newbies. We’ve lived through the good times and bad times. With Steve Jobs, without Steve Jobs. And were still here waiting. We’re patient but in reality, we don’t have any choice but to keep waiting. So please feel free to comment about anything concerning Apple. But it helps when you’re an experienced user not just someone posting a mindless comment. It helps when you make your living with the subject you are commenting about. And for all those who think they know what they’re talking about when they say that the iMac will suffice for professionals, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m waiting to buy some new Mac Pros and I’ll be waiting next week too. I don’t have much choice now do I?
I hope that they are REALLY worth the wait. Crm your jeans worth it. 😉
On the other hand why should Apple “show off” with a new limited sales high end machine? I’m hoping still for a pleasant satisfying surprise that shows the world, if nothing else, Apple truly cares about it’s entire product line.
Someone gets it …
But apparently you still don’t Breeze.
You my good man are a moron. They sell pro software, selling a pro machine has to be done, even if sales are limited.
“For years, the Mac Pro (formerly the PowerMac) was the first Mac to get the good stuff after it was introduced a decade ago. In 2006, it was the first Apple machine to make the jump to Intel chips as part of Apple’s developer kit, and for a time was the first to get other goodies like Apple’s SuperDrive technology and USB 2.0.”
That’s why. I’m thinking that the aluminum design has been the same for 10 years.(aluminum Power Mac G5 Jun 2003)
Time for something new?
I’d like the Liquidmetal. Not a high volume machine so they would be able to get the supply chain up and running smoothly. Once that was in place, THEN Apple would be able to switch over the other 50+ million devices that they make to liquid. Who knows.
Listen you arrogant ignorant, vein loudmouth, don’t you ever get tired of talking about yourself and how great you are?
I ‘made’ my living using Mac Pros for desktop publishing, video and audio recording both independently at Sony Music and with many other labels for many yers. Iv’e just finished mixing a pro tools project recorded at Abbey Road using Mac pros that sit invisibly in rigs that I designed and put together and configured for special ‘production’ needs. Mac Pros that were the unsung heros of production that did their jobs quietly and effortlessly never pounded their chests i ego. You’d think that you deserve a fucking medal for YOUR affiliation and proximity to them….STFU already you poor specimen of a (self) pro- moter.
Who the hell said anything about an “iMac sufficing” as a substitute for a mac pro, idiot?!
Every Mac Pro user is drooling and waiting for the new Mac Pros and when they get here I’m sure they will live up to the standards of excellence we expect from Apple and they will kick ass and we’ll be extatic, those of us that need them…
I was ridiculing the “restless” ” frustrated” self important whiners that can’t wait till Apple delivers on it’s PUBLIC PROMISE (Tim Cook did) and timeframe…they need to make unwarranted waves (no pun intended) and headlines demanding an END to Apple’s “secrecy and arrogance” apparently, because the world is ending unless Apple reveals to these qualified dodos it’s detailed plans and shipping dates…
The restless consumer (yes even Mac Pro users ARE consumers) strikes again.
“Listen you arrogant ignorant, vein loudmouth, don’t you ever get tired of talking about yourself and how great you are?”
lol
So funny, I posted it to a few places populated by preening adolescent technoweenies and stuffed shirt sociologists. Of course, none of them have a sense of humour…
C.D. Bales: Oh, ho, ho, humor! Oh, no, no, we don’t get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so humor‘s not really a, a high priority. We haven’t had any humor here since about, uh, ’83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.
agreed lol
I think he forgot to take his medicine. At least he knows how to spell ProTools.
Promises are one thing, but real artists ship. We need our new pro machines, like yesterday.
The’ll be there, like always, when they’re ready
Unfortunately, assurances that they’ll “always be there” are vacuously empty when we look at the product they’ve been selling for the past 3 years: the XServe is *gone*, and moving the mid-level grade CPU down to the starting grade is merely a reprice on an old product…and even it is now *gone* from the EU market, because Apple couldn’t even be bothered to change a fan grate.
And those “New Mac Pros” that Tim Cook promised?
Well, if you really were a professional, you would have already read that stuff with a fine tooth lawyer’s comb and recognized that a “New Mac Pro” was never promised … it was merely a vague ‘something great’ for the customer set which for all we know could be the complete end of the Desktop to be replaced with a high performance Cloud Service for $1000/month.
-hh
According to Tim Cook yesterday will be 01 January 2014….maybe. I certainly hope that Apple introduces its new line of both desktops and notebooks at WWDC 2013.
Someone needs to get back on their medication.
From your post it is a bit questionable that you, personally, did much of what you claim. Quite possible, but questionable.
The REAL issue is that the currently shipping (but not in the EU!) Mac Pro is at least one full generation behind in every single technology within it. In some cases it is as much as three full generations behind current technology.
This is supposed to be a “Pro” machine? Apple does great software that can be utilized by professionals — and not just content creators, but the scientific and engineering community too who do massive number crunching and visualization of the results. Hell, Apple virtually single-handedly moved the world forward with OCL and such. Then Apple still ships hardware to support it that is three full generations behind. This situation is purely asinine.
And… There *are* users/pundits/reviewers out there claiming the maxed out, top-of-the-line iMac CAN completely replace the Mac Pro line. There is even talk of the next Mac Pro being a two or three slot “mini tower” with minimal internal storage (think one SSD and all other storage over Thunderbolt) and no optical drive. This has many high end Mac Pro users worried.
Users are asking for insight simply because Apple has NOT been forthcoming with the hardware. The last upgrade was a joke. It reallywasn’t an upgrade. It was an absolute minimum technology refresh which required ABSOLUTELY no new design efforts. The most Apple did was test the new chips and determined they could reliably be drop ins into the old architecture. Apple needs to come out with a new, true Pro machine ASAP. Barring that, Apple needs to let us know what and when. Saying, “You’ll love what we are going to provide in 2013.” just does not suffice.
Finally, every Mac Pro user is NOT “drooling and waiting for the new Mac Pros”. Many of the old faithful of whom I am aware are either building Hackintosh systems or moving to Linux to get the performance they require. At the moment the percentage of those I personally know who are defecting from Mac hardware is well less than half, but two years ago it was well under 10%. If Apple does not come out with a REAL Pro Mac within the next three to six months, I’d expect the percentage of defectors from the Mac Pro hardware line to be well north of 80%. There comes a time when the software expense (or software development time) is justified to jump ship in order to get a factor of two or three OR MORE greater performance.
“If Apple does not come out with a REAL Pro Mac within the next three to six months…”
Your “well less than half” is just as founded in certainty as your other hedged suppositions…
OK. Doing some quick arithmetic, it’s approximately 35% that have already defected to Hackintoshes or Linux so far. By the start of September this year those I talked to since my original post run approximately 50% of those left (that’s 50% of 65% or 32.5% more of the original Mac Pro users) that have said they will defect to something else. Thus if Apple does not start shipping a reasonable, true Mac Pro by September of this year, of those originally Mac Pro users I personally know (and a few of them are in charge of *several* Mac Pros) over two thirds will have defected to a different platform.
At that point the Mac Pro’s demise is a self fulfilling prophecy. The Mac Pro user community has not been a huge volume segment for Apple for several years. Two thirds of those defect to some other platform by September 2013. Apple reluctantly comes out with a new Mac Pro in October/November 2013. Apple sells less than one third as many as it did in prior years. Apple tells the Mac Pro user community that they just can’t make any money on so few sales. Apple kills the Mac Pro line by September 2014. I certainly hope this does NOT come to pass.
Now, now, breeze… didn’t your mama ever tell you that you you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar?
She did man, but flies are full of shit
Vain
It’s vain Breeze. Not vein.
I make my living with an 8 core 2.8ghz Mac Pro from 2008.
I could also make my living using the top end 27″ iMac with 16 FB Eam and a 3 TB fusion drive. With all the available external drives and/or thunderbolt pci expansion chassis, i don’t see any reason why any creative professional couldn’t either. The new top end iMac is a monster.
If you’re willing to trust $10k Pro Tools PCI cards in a third party chassis be my guest. I for one do not. Apple desktop G5 and Mac Pro made its name for reliability and on the fly customization. Audio/video pros need that, no exceptions!
Absolutely Jimmy. They just don’t understand do they?
They, we…my aren’t you a pathetic specimen of a lonely fart
“… i don’t see any reason why any creative professional couldn’t… ”
This attitude pretty much explains why some of you some of you just don’t “get” it.
Great if it works for you, but just because something works (or could) for you, it doesn’t automatically follow that it will (could) for anyone else. Your particular circumstances aren’t the same as someone else.
As much as it distresses some people, the fact is we are all unique and the things that make us different far and away outnumber what we have in common.
The frustration with Mac Pro users—like me—is watching the parade of hints, rumours, and product introductions revolving around Apple’s newfangled identity as a mobile computing platform, highlighting the new way of working—on the go, in the cloud, across multiple devices, all the while neglecting and even denigrating the core industries that kept the Mac relevant during the dark ages, much as medieval monasteries and educated Saracens kept learning alive for the Renaissance to come.
They are little better off than oppressed local artisans left behind as useless to the passing conquerors, marooned from mainstream commerce with their decaying water clocks, wine presses, and moveable type.
Decades of hard-won technical knowledge and skills handed down through generations are in jeopardy as youths abandon tradition, flocking to the passing caravans with their colourful banners and barkers. Elders’ achievements begin to slip from collective memory.
Bereft of imperial support, hardened survivors vow to preserve timeless values and set down the correct path for the future, making do with crumbs until, they pray, the light of reason once again bathes the countryside. May it happen within our lifetime.
In a dumbed down world there are no priorities beyond the animal instinct, which is taken to the slums.
Well I’ll give you credit for one thing Breeze, at least you’re not trying to impress everyone with your mastery of the English language. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone throw around $10 words trying to impress everyone on the site. But he goes on and on and on forever. I guess when he finishes reading his posts15 or 20 times his better half gets her chance to read them 15 or 20 times? I wonder if she has the nerve to critique his style? Maybe they will publish his posts in book form? Ahhhhhhh, nothing worse than pseudo-intellectuals. So self absorbed.
You are smart enough to at least see that this post isn’t directed at you don’t you breeze? Think about it. Just look around. You’ll figure it out. That’s right, now you get it………………the guy that’s constantly trying to impress everyone with his vocabulary. He’s more pathetic than you.
Shakespeare
Prior to clicking on the “Post Comment” button.
Yield that red pen with remorseless candor.
I could have sworn Tim Cook stated that the new Mac Pros will be coming in the first half of this year. Tick tick tick.
Unfortunately, that was the intended interpretation of what they chose to say, but an explicit promise of a new/upgraded Mac Pro was never made.
All that was actually said was (sic) “Something Great for our Pro Customers”.
-hh
Yes Apple, tell us more!
I mean, you could even imagine some subscribing method, some way to filter to whom you send informations. But please: give us informations! This constant waiting is making me glancing at the hackintosh side… by desperation!
I got tired of breezes posts years ago, he never says anything of value – ever – he is just stating the obvious…so I put him in a greasemonkey (google this for javascript) killfille, effectively ignoring all his posts.
It’s the first time ever I permanently ignored somebody on MDN for having nothing to say year after year.
They’re good commercials, some people aren’t happy unless they’re “bitchin”.
I agree with, and see the logic of the secret keeping tradition, but also agree they need to get moving on this hardware. It’s been too long for people that really need them.
At one point I worried they were headed the same way as the Apple Servers. Hope not.
Seriously Apple. Cut it out. Update it or say your are killing it. Are you afraid someone is going to copy the Mac Pro if you release a little product information?
Or at least give a timeline or something.
This is the pro market, not some “they don’t know what they want until we release it” category redefinition.
What, there are not enough engineers at Apple to do the basic testing required for a solid product update cycle while Apple is working on whatever Mac Pro revelation they have dreamed up?
Apple needs a Mac Pro for sure, a 3 slot Mac Pro mini, a Mac mini with a very good dedicated graphics card and an Apple server. And the people who manipulate and depress the price of Apple stock would back off if Apple made a push into business/Enterprise.
At this point with the introduction of Thunderbolt, USB3 etc it would seem a good time to introduce a new MacPro line. Modernize the I/O and provide a chassis that can be upgraded (by Apple) as new processors come online for several years.
The only problem with this I have heard is that Intel do not have the chipset for TB and USB3 with their high end processors. Not sure if this has been resolved yet.
Here’s what Tim Cook actually wrote to a customer in response to an e-mail question about a Mac Pro update.
“…”Although we didn’t have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today’s event, don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year,” the Apple CEO said in an email that was confirmed authentic by Apple’s public relations team to Macworld…”
You can’t ignore context. It seems pretty damn clear that a new Mac Pro will be forthcoming in the 3rd or 4th quarter of 2013.
I max out all the hardware options on a Mac Pro.
If I remember correctly, used to get over $40,000. (memory was a killer)
Currently it’s $13,666.00.
Whether you need the power and/or expandability of a Mac Pro or not, the argument is not about the suitability of an iMac as a substitute, it is about the inexorably long period that Pro users have waited for a Mac Pro with current technology.
There is no USB 3, no Thunderbolt, older and slower processor and memory architecture and graphics performance.
For a company of Apple’s size, talent and power, it really is inexcusable that they have left their now comparatively small but important Pro user community in the wilderness for so long.
wow. lots of drama on this debate! i have been using apple computers since the first mac classic in 1985. when i look at the power of my 2008 desktop pro 2.66 quad and GIGS of memory i feel spoiled. Logic pro does more than i ever dreamed even 10 years ago. SURE I AM ANXIOUS FOR A NEW MAC PRO but i gotta say, if you cant get stuff done with the current crop of computers then you are lacking talent and depend on the computer to make your magic happen. CALM DOWN…TAKE A BREATH and be thankful for what you have. IT COULD BE MUCH WORSE.
I wonder if this will be improved to be used for
handheld PCs someday which is where I would rather use this for rather than a laptop.
The Frequency Response of these headphones is 18-22,000Hz.
Headphones are one of the common accessories attached to a
number of musical devices.