“When it comes to a WWDC, far too many alleged tech and financial pundits just don’t get it!” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Consider the letter “D” in that acronym. It stands for ‘Developers,’which obviously refers to people who are creating software for one of Apple’s platforms. Despite the implicit purpose of the conference, there are constant complaints whenever new hardware isn’t announced.”
“It is true that new hardware is sometimes demonstrated,” Steinberg writes. “Some new Macs, such as Mac Pro, that workstation that caters to power users, scientists and content creators, have been launched at a WWDC. But hardware is not a normal part of the agenda.”
“That takes us to the software,” Steinberg writes. “What about all those improvements to watchOS 3, and how they overhaul the user experience? You didn’t know that? I’m not an Apple Watch user, but Apple’s site and media outlets that cover Apple have detailed the changes and improvements. Many of the complaints about performance and usability appear to have been addressed. Articles about the beta are promising. The third time does appear to be a charm.”
Much more about Apple’s myriad software improvements detailed at WWDC in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Same as it ever was. There are those who just can’t – or won’t – see Apple’s paradigm shifts even when they are demonstrated right in front of their faces.
SEE ALSO:
It’s Tim Cook’s Apple now: What WWDC 2016 teaches us about his vision for Apple Inc. – June 15, 2016
Apple’s Siri digital assistant made Cortana look bad at WWDC – June 14, 2016
Can’t remember a time when it was different though some do seem to invent such memories to try to make an erroneous point.
New hardware has often been announced at WWDC (the D-for-Developers includes hardware peripherals and the software devs have an obvious interest in hardware), and with WWDC being the only remaining annual Apple “show” event, it’s reasonable to expect that consumers are going to be interested and looking for product intelligence here.
It isn’t so much that I expect hardware updates at WWDC, but we have been waiting so long for updates to the Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and Thunderbolt display, that some update (even a sneak peak) would have been courteous. Even announcing a products discontinuation would be something, but the silence is just deafening. Tim Cook et al. have to know that we want some kind of answers when it comes to the Mac. There was something to be said for MacWorld keynotes. At least we heard from Apple. Now we get weird clustered events in the Fall that sometimes don’t even mention Macs.
…and yes, I get that Apple is trying to shift the paradigm, but with flat iPad sales and growing Mac sales, the market seems to be throwing a temper tantrum telling Apple they don’t want to do that.
The problem is that as of late the Mac sales are no longer growing.
Why? The vast majority of the reason is that the hardware (except for the 5K iMac) is so far behind the competition that it’s becoming laughable. (And I say that as someone who has used Apple hardware/software since the late 70s and Macs continuously since early 1984.)
I think former problem relates to the latter, buyers waiting for new hardware, especially in the pro market. Also it doesn’t yet constitute a trend and Macs are doing better than PC’s in any case.
Yes. It is a self fulfilling prophesy.
But, in the general Mac equivalent market space, in the last quarter, Mac sales actually fell compared to last year. Yes, Mac sales did not fall as much as the general “PC” market, but Mac sales still fell. That is NOT good.
The downward spiral goes something like this:
1) Don’t update the Pro lMac ines because Pro Macs do not sell that well.
2) Pros wait to get updated hardware and don’t buy.
3) “See. We were right. Pro Mac sales are falling. We shouldn’t spend the R&D dollars to update the Pro Mac lines.”
4) No new machines cause the sales to fall even further.
5) Apple continues to not update the Mac Pro lines do to declining sales.
6) Sales of professional Macs fall to nearly zero.
7) Apple discontinues the professional Mac lines as there are not enough sales to support continuing the professional lines at all.
I HOPE THIS NEVER COMES TO PASS. But, I won’t say I’m not a little concerned. I am.
Hopefully this self-fulfilling prophecy of update denial will not come to pass. Falling sales usually though are not an indicator of fatalistically doing nothing, but doing something, something a lot better.
I find myself agreeing that the D in the WWDC means that product announcements are not to be expected at the event.
But, I also agree that Mac users are wondering what is happening. My old Mac runs reliably but very slow. I was thinking of buying a new one, but the cost and general lack of certain modern features (large SSD drives for example) got me thinking what is the point? The current hybrid drives just don’t do it for me.
So, I bought a cheap external Thunderbolt SSD and solved 80% of my old Mac’s speed problems by booting through the SSD drive and running my Apps from the SSD drive. And at 1/10 the cost of a new Mac. Not a bad deal.
Apple just lost a sale. But, I will probably be looking again in 2-3 years. So, they have time to win me back.
Exactly.
Buy (if you don’t already have one) a 12 core mid 2010 Mac Pro. Max out the RAM (96 GB OS X or 128 GB Window/Linux). Add 128 GB RAM. Add two 12 GB Titan X video cards. Add a 960 GB PCIe based SSD. Add a 100 GB Blu-ray drive. Add four large, fast HDDs.
Now you have a nearly six year old machine that is roughly equivalent to the current top of the line Mac Pro and in many ways is more functional — and at a lower cost. The only draw back is that it is much larger and a bit louder. Neither of which bothers the vast majority of pro users.
I have considered this course, or go Hackintosh.
when there wasn’t any Mac announcements I reluctantly ordered a 6 core Xeon processor ($110 new) for a 4 core 2010 MP I had lying around.
The 6 core will give Geekbench 3 of around 15000 nudging out the lower end 4 core Cylinder at 14000 (Everymac.com specs) and when I put in new GPU cards it will have better GPU performance. Will throw in a USB 3 PCI card. Tech refurbished in beautiful condition the Cheese Grater MP with Ethernet, firewire, blue tooth, internal bays etc with the upgrades will cost me just over $1000 total (more if I add more RAM, SSD etc). It will equal the low end cylinder at $3000 but have better GPU which i need to power a 27 inch Cintiq I just bought and another large monitor.
BTW a Macbook has Geekbench of around 5000 (which is one third !) and weak GPU. MB Pros have better performance (i have one) but still won’t power two monitors well.
The High end iMac has very good processor specs but maxes out with 4 GB video (which pushes price to around 2500)
(I understand Geekbench doesn’t cover everything but is an indication).
I WANTED A MAC BUT FELT I HAD NO CHOICE.
the Cylinder not upgraded for 3 years without a price drop is just not enticing enough. (by the tim you upgrade the tiny 256 GB standard drive etc it will cost a lot).
the Cheese Grater will join another upgraded Cheese grater I have powering another Cintiq.
The $1000+ total upgraded Cheese grater will beat in performance nearly every Mac out there except the high end Mac Pros and iMacs. And I can keep upgrading the GPUs.
(I apologize in advance for any errors in data, some I quote from memory).
Third time is not always the charm.
Those of us old enough and have used Macs long enough just have to think back to Macintosh System 3.0 or Microsoft Word 3.0. Both had horrible beginnings that required near immediate fixes. Remember MS Word 3.0a?
Hopefully watchOS 3.0 will fare much, much better.
Where is the 32″ iMac?
Apple wont release new hardware before the back to school campaign ends. That is logical. Now they empty the inventory.
IMHO, many of us like the Apple Ecosystem. But, if the Mac part of that Ecosystem gets weak, then we lose a reason for having the rest of the Ecosystem. I’m not saying we dump our iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple Watches, but it is a crack that can widen with time.
All Macs need a refresh. The tube design is very clever and elegant but the Mac Pro needs to be a seriously expandable machine for Professional use. Pro should not designate a trim level, it should designate the type of user that would be best served by the machine.