“Apple’s Mac Pro is arriving later this year, but there are many unanswered questions,” Mark Reschke writes for T-GAAP.
“It would be a shame to own a new Mac Pro, but be unable to get one’s hands on Thunderbolt 2 SSD drives and perhaps even a few 4K displays with Thunderbolt built-in for daisy chain capabilities,” Reschke writes. “Apple is no stranger to delivering accessories that accompany their latest and greatest technologies.”
Reschke writes, “Do not be shocked to see Apple unveil the new Mac Pro in November with a few key accessories.”
Read more in the full article here.
Um, Apple IS mostly a stranger to delivering significant accessories that accompany their latest and greatest technologies. iPod socks, anyone? Backless iPad covers? Docks and lightning adapters that can’t be used with a protective case?
Browse an Apple retail store, and look for those Apple-made accessories.
**crickets**
Yes, but I wouldn’t consider SOTA displays and external drives “accessories” on par with iPad covers.
4K is a loss leader until there is 4K content.
Look at the companies who are putting out 4K TVs.
Who will be the biggest aggregator of 4K content and what box will deliver this HUGE bitrate?
Companies will need 4K Apple TV to sell 4K sets… will Apple release a 4K AppleTV as an integrated Television, in the existing peripheral form factor, or both.
Can Netflix make the jump to 4K? Apple is building out the data centers now – I wonder which other companies have a solid 4K plan now?
Oh, and the MacPRO will be key, of course, for creating 4K content.
Netflix content is all at least one or two years old. When 4K arrives, Netflix will have it two years later.
True 4K monitors are NOT a loss leader for the production organizations. I’m referring to the true 4K Digital Cinema Standard that is 2160 x 4096. No one is currently shipping a high quality, high dynamic range monitor for that market. TB2 will support such a monitor.
The Mac Pro is not a consumer device. (Sure, a few well heeled consumers will buy them, but they will be a small fraction of the total Mac Pros sold.) If Apple sold a true 4K monitor (not the lower resolution UHDTV of 2160 x 3840 which, unfortunately, too many people are calling “4K”) with each and every Mac Pro, on average, they’d sell enough of them to make it worth it. Hell, since — at least in theory — the new Mac Pro can support up to three of these, Apple might even average more than one per Mac Pro sold.
Personally — as I’ve said on this site before — I wish Apple would ship a 2560 x 4096 monitor with 30 bit color support. That would be **THE** monitor. If I remember the math correctly that’s about 32″ monitor at about 150 ppi. It would be a digital media drool worthy monitor.
No way 4K will take off for in consumer media any time soon. Don’t even think about trying to stream it on Netflix until H.265 gets wide support – and that’s at least a year away. And I don’t think Bluray disks can support full 4K video – someone please correct me if I’m wrong about that – and no one wants to invest in yet another video disk format.
With professional video editors, however, 4K is an entirely different story. Theatrical movies have already been using ultra HD formats for a long time. And even if someone is editing regular HD video – they probably the whole 1080p video to fit on screen with space left over for a timeline, menus, and other interface elements – like you can on a Retina MacBook Pro. Video editors are key demographic of Mac Pro users, so I would be surprise if Apple doesn’t release 4K displays just for them.
Apple’s last monitor refresh was 3 years ago – today, as a matter of fact – when they introduced the quite deliberately non-pro 27″ glossy screen display (which I am unable to use in my office from 8am to 2pm due to the excessive glare).
Sorry to be a defeatist but I for one WILL be shocked if Apple bothers with a new monitor of any kind, let alone 4k.
I think there will be “modules” from Apple for a RAID (four hot-swappable drive bays) and three PCIe cards, plus a 4K display. That last one is a near-certainty.
Such “accessories” (not for Thunderbolt 2) are already available from third parties, but they would look clunky next to a Mac Pro. Apple can also make them compatible with other future Macs and MacBooks that have Thunderbolt 2, to increase potential sales. They don’t have to be ONLY for the Mac Pro.
has anyone here seen a 4k display running 4k content?
I have bought one last week here in Italy and is running now 4 K content…
The best gift in all my entire life !..
I don’t get it. Why are you guys talking about 4K content? Your computer screen isn’t a high-end TV. Doesn’t matter how many pixels it has; unless you put it in front of a couch in a room with surround-sound it’s not a good TV. It’s a personal computer.
And 4K is AWESOME for a computer screen. Apple, don’t listen to these naysayers. Give me something the size of my 30″ Cinema display but with Retina resolution, and I’ll get my credit card out.
This would be sweet. Chances are customers would have a choice between two displays.
Outside of a few cords, what accessories does Apple make? A monitor isn’t an “accessory”.
Oh goody goody! This could be a very nice Christmas.
Given the still high cost of Thunderbolt 1, I’m definitely not ready for a 2 until I can afford and own a 1. TB2 is way too early with so many TB1s collecting dust on the shelves.
Mark Reschke: So you finally got done reading everything that the forums have been buzzing about since the new Mac Pro was unveiled?
Hope is not a strategy. I am not holding my breath that Apple is prepared to offer TB2 peripherals with the new Mac Pro. No one would be happier than me if Apple was that well organized, but Cook’s track record simply isn’t that good. He’s screwed up so many product introductions, I have already assumed that the OBVIOUS devices that pro users would want — no, NEED, to plug into this new machine, haven’t yet occurred to Tim. He’s far too slow and cautious to reveal too much of his “awesome pipeline” all at once. Mac Pro users, as usual, will have to wait. …and pay through the nose, as usual.
Gonna have to disagree somewhat. I don’t think it’s a Tim Cook or organization issue, aside from the fact that I don’t think he’s sufficiently tyrranical and psychologically compulsive to be another Steve. While I doubt Steve would have greenlit the new Mac Pro, I don’t think he’d have had any inclination to create the add-ons for whatever he WOULD have released.
But Apple has NEVER been good at producing useful add-ons to their systems (except maybe the original Imagewriters and their rarely-updated displays).
And in particular, the users of the new Mac Pros will be so uncommon that it won’t be worth Apple’s time or money to produce add-ons for them, so I DO agree with you there.
I’m just hoping for a $499.99 23″ or 24″ Thunderbolt Display so we can keep all things Apple in our corporate environment!