Christopher Schodt for Engadget:
The last Mac Pro was a sleek black cylinder, a radical new design for a desktop computer, but one that ultimately limited the ability to upgrade the Mac Pro with new parts. The new design is a return to a typical desktop design, or so it appears. Under the hood, there’s a number of unique design decisions and parts that potentially give the new Mac Pro unique capabilities, but may saddle it with some of the same flaws as its predecessor.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple just needs to some real follow-through here and they’ve got it!
This is a real, honest-to-Jobs professional Macintosh; not meant for sale to non-professional Mac users.
Apple now just needs to demonstrate a real commitment to upgrading the Mac Pro. Those professional users who moved away from the Mac will begin to come back, the first wave will be those who were most reluctant to move, but as Apple shows regular upgrades over time, the pros will be back. These are Macs, of course – with unmatched ease-of-use, security, reliability, and superior TCO. — MacDailyNews, June 5, 2019
Not completely a modular Mac Pro is needed that is available for the masses. At 50 grand this is a pipe dream.
This Mac Pro is just another example of the confused mess that Tim Cook’s Apple is. There is evidence that Apple is basically reading online comments and then building for that. People said they wanted the cheese grater again, and that’s what Apple delivered. This isn’t innovation. This is an overpriced anachronism that will fail to gain much market acceptance.
To make this more confusing, Apple has the iMac Pro that can run in the many thousands of dollars and is itself powerful. On the face of it, what does the cheese grater offer a Professional over what the iMac Pro offers? That’s not totally clear. When a person is paying this kind of money for a computer it needs to be modular because of how quickly components change and get outdated. We’re at a point where the price-point is misaligned with the what the cost of a computer should be today, even one that has higher-end components.
This reminds me of Apple Watch Gold: an overpriced toy watch that failed to gain any marketshare.
“available for the masses”
The masses have made their desires PRETTY clear for anyone that’s been paying attention… and it’s not a desktop system with slots. They want mobile over everything else and, when not mobile, they’re fine with what’s available in iMacs.
Are there folks that want the Mac Pro that can’t afford one? Absolutely. Annnd, I guess that’s pretty much what it’s all about 🙂 When these folks were younger, they could have been the ones to afford a IIfx. But, today, on fixed incomes, this is out of their price range by about… $6000.
The Apple Lisa sold for $9995 in 1983, which today adjusted for inflation is $25,699.19. A lot of people bought the Lisa even though it really couldn’t much. I’m pretty sure that there will be people who don’t need to dream about buying the new Mac Pro.
A lot of people didn’t buy Lisas
I don’t think so! Way over priced, lack of open standards for example (HD expansion), not sure yet on repairability.
Made in China to boot….
1) When the Cylinder MP first came out and production was moving fast they couldn’t get enough workers.
CBS
“Flex’s Austin factory encountered problems finding enough skilled labor willing to work for minimum wage, according to the Journal. Then, as Mac Pro sales faltered, Flex began laying off workers in Austin, and by last year had a skeleton crew left in Austin, according to a former Flex vice president quoted by the Journal.”
2) they they couldn’t get parts. Remember to build something like a MP you need an ecosystem not just an assembly plant.
Macrumors:
“The report reveals an interesting anecdote about the latest Mac Pro. In late 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook touted that the computer would be “Made in the USA,” but sales were supposedly postponed by months in part because Apple could not secure enough custom screws for the computer from U.S.-based suppliers.
machine shop in Texas tasked with the job could produce at most 1,000 screws a day, according to the report. By the time the computer was ready for mass production, this shortage gave Apple little choice but to order screws from China where factories can produce vast quantities of custom screws on short notice.
Apple’s manufacturing partner eventually turned to another Texas supplier in Caldwell Manufacturing, which was hired to make 28,000 screws, the report adds. That company delivered 28,000 screws over 22 trips, with its owner Stephen Melo often “making the one-hour drive himself in his Lexus sedan.”
The report goes on to describe how the United States struggles to compete with China’s combination of scale, skills, infrastructure, and cost. In short, American workers are typically more expensive and unwilling to work around the clock.
In response to the report, an Apple spokesperson told The New York Times that Apple was “an engine of economic growth in the United States” that spent $60 billion last year with 9,000 American suppliers, helping to support 450,000 jobs. ”
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Apple tried to do the right thing by distributing manufacturing but it isn’t easy
Apple discontinued their Intel Mac Pro somewhere around 2009. That big aluminum case that started out as a G5 with a Motorola chip. The aluminum case we know with an Intel inside was discontinued a long time ago but nobody knew it.
That original Intel Mac Pro that was somewhat moderately priced, very powerful and easily expandable went away when Apple chose to stop upgrading it. No SATA improvements nor new ports as USB 3.0.
This was replaced by the cylindrical Mac Pro which was more expensive and extremely limited expandability. If you wanted to move your old mechanical drives and expansion cards you had to purchase external cases.
The new Mac Pro is another world. It’s starting price is beyond the reach of many individuals. For a business it’s a different story as they can lease their equipment than write if off.
The Mac Pro we knew with great expandability, power and cost is dead.
Check out my theory.
This video is absolutely correct. No modern Mac tower has ever been this expensive. Apple definitely needs a desktop tower between the mini and the pro. If Apple product managers can’t see this, then Apple needs new management.
So, when a Google search shows that there have been Macs that we’re released with a base price higher than the Mac Pro, you just be sure to leave those out of your equation when you’re trying to justify how expensive the Mac Pro is. ;}
You know what? History clearly shows that Apple has NEVER, EVER released a Intel Xeon W powered desktop for less than what they plan to release the Mac Pro for. It has, quite literally, NEVER BEEN CHEAPER!
WA earns his screen name again!
didn’t watch the video did you? starting prices were compared and adjusted for inflation, disproving your tiresome BS.
Apple could and should have an affordable Mac tower. If you can’t see that, you must be as blind as Cook
Sorry MDN, I still disagree. This is an absurdly expensive computer targeted at nobody. If it’s really just for industry insiders, why bother offering it to the public at all? And yes, I do indeed recall when a fully tricked out Power Mac with all the trimmings cost a boatload (it’s why people like Power Computing nearly ran Apple out of business). That isn’t justification for this.
I’d like to have a desktop computer that I can tinker with. I just want to be able to use all my stuff without a fuss. Is that too much to ask? I want to be able to easily swap in old spinning hard drives and the newest SSDs and the ones they don’t yet make. I want to be able to plug in any of my old stuff and not have to have a separate desk just to put my computer, peripherals and cables on. I want to be able to use my old printers, scanners, monitors, keyboards and mice and whatever else! It’s just really for nostalgic sake or maybe when I’m bored. I hate being limited by my computer!!! It seems I’m going to have to either buy a Dell or build a Hackintosh. Don’t even suggest hubs to me. They are all limiting in some aspect and shouldn’t be necessary.