Great news for Pro users:
- Mac Pro updated with a spec bump today
- Brand new redesigned Mac Pro in the pipeline (won’t ship in 2017)
- Brand new Apple-branded Pro displays in the pipeline
- New iMacs coming, including a “Pro oriented” model
That should teach all the criticasters who all sayed Apple left the pro-customers territory , Apple is doomed, etc… 
Hopefully this will stop the negativity at macrumors.com … hmmm… come to think of it … no it probably won’t… they will probably keep moaning on and on and on and on …
Christophe, there is a thin line between understable enthusiasm for a brand, and anti-critics intellectual terrorism. It is just as toxic as precisely, irrecoverable enemies of the brand.
Anybody is entitled to an opinion. It is quite possible that precisely, Apple heard critics from long time users, and that motivated them to revive models that had been left dormant for several years.
Want to replace my six-year-old Mac Book Pro (Mid 2010) with a 2017 iMac (USB3, HDMI,…
-> Hopefully it has still HDMI ports, dear Apple). 
I am glad to hear this. I am one of those (mostly non-vocal) critics of Apple that thought they were no longer as serious about what had been the pro products. I thought they were too concentrated on iOS - which I dislike immensely.
I am especially glad to hear about the displays. I am a photographer running a Mac Pro with 2 aging Cinema Displays that I am going to have to replace in the near future…
BTW, I’m here because I write software for photographers.
I think Daring Fireball has a nice writeup on it. http://daringfireball.net/2017/04/the_mac_pro_lives It’s the closest I’ve ever seen to Apple admitting a mistake. The Mac Pro was a poor concept for the pro market from the get go in many respects.
I never wanted an all-in one, not because of wanting to do GPU or CPU upgrades myself, but because computers usually need replacing more often than monitors. I used to buy bottom of the line Power Macs and added more 3rd Party RAM… But with the intel transition, even before the “trashcan” Mac Pro, the price got too high to justify for me, and I did not think the Mac Mini was “enough” in the configurations available…
So that went with the 27" iMac (which as user upgradable RAM) . I’m on my second iMac (the first has been passed on in the family at home) … and It will be 4 years old in December… I usually buy a new Mac every 4 years and pass the old one down (So a Mac in my house usually runs for 8 years)… I can go 5 years years (which means the older one will have been used 9 years) but what then?
I have a feeling the low end of the redesigned Mac Pro will be still be too expensive… And while the iMacs are nice, I hate the idea of putting one in mothballs (and it’s screen) with it …
A new souped iMac will likely be very expensive as well, and still be an all-in-one…
I want an affordable mid-range tower… Will apple very have one again? (If the iOSification of the macOS continues too far, I may consider the dark side…)
- Karen
Over xmas break I bought a classic 2010 Mac Pro dual processor on eBay and upgraded it to two 3.46 westemere processors (12 cores) and 48 gig of ram (I read it gives you triple channel memory, not sure it’s really that advantageous though). I also grabbed a flashed AMD 280x, and a 512gig PCIe SSD. For about $1700 I’m getting benchmarks around the current 9k trashcan Mac Pro. I kept the price down by being patient and buying the parts (and the unit itself) on eBay.
If anyone is looking for an economical dev setup it’s the way to go in my opinion. If you don’t want to build one then check out eBay there are folks building them and adding about a 20% markup.
I suspect a lot of Mac loyalists are thinking the same thing and Apple knows this. Hence them talking to the press about future Mac’s. Been a Mac users since 1986 and we do the hand me down computers in our household too and it sucks to have one mothballed.
I am tempted by some of the new Windows hardware too. But, because of the cross-platform nature of my business it makes more sense to stick with a Mac (at least for now). I know I can do a Hackintosh but then you’re always fighting Apple and chasing compatibility issues. But I do have a nice all-in-one Lenovo that I use as a DB server and test machine (rather than always relying on VM’s).
I can see someone making a tosh with a Surface Studio. Something like a 28" iPad Pro, for graphic artists, can be extremely useful. But judging from Adobe Photoshop, I’ll take the Mac version any day over the Windows version. Somehow, macOS is way smoother, and apps are way more polished.
Karen, before jumping to the dark side, try your favorite tools in a VM. You may find that your present Mac is way better.
It’s good of them to admit that they made a mistake, but IMHO this should have come a lot sooner.
This and the recent MacBook Pro Air smells like the company took their attention of the Mac (which I’m pretty certain you can agree). The recent MacBook upgrade stunk of unpreparedness; the reason main reason as to why it’s not been as widely accepted as it should have been is because of the battery. Its well known that the battery is up to 75% of the capacity of the previous model. The choice in processor and 16GB memory limitation was dictated by the lackluster battery.
Once Apple knew that the battery wasn’t going to happen, they had several choices.
- Redesign the enclosure so it could accommodate a bigger battery.
- Use lower powered processors and low powered memory.
- Offer both options, 1 machine that’s thin and 1 machine that’s thicker but is an option for power users.
I would have preferred it if they went with option 3, but in order to kick out a machine to try to stem the raising complaints they chose 2.
I’m guessing here, but back in 2013 when they were trying to design the revision b of the Mac Pro, they must have realized at that point that it wasn’t suitable. Why it took them 4 years to admit it, I can only presume is because they didn’t have enough resources focused on it.
The hardware is only one issue with the Mac; again its no secret that Apple have been replacing perfectly working parts of the macOS with iOS. The whole PDF and external display debacle with Sierra is down to the fact that iOS doesn’t do these things, they replaced the macOS libraries with the iOS libraries, then tried to upgrade them to make them work again. However this requires a dedicated macOS team, which we’ve been told no longer exists. Hence why even with 10.12.5 some PDF functions still remain broken.
So the long and the short of it is, Apple has thrown us a bone, but its a small one and unless they truly re-invest the entire macOS ecosystem, I don’t think it will stop users from leaving the platform.
I hope that they take the macOS seriously again; I truly do. But after years of hot air, I will be convinced when I see it with my own eyes.
I think we have several forces at play here.
macOS and iOS AFAIK is pretty much entirely in house at Apple, so one can argue that their recent vagaries with iOSing macOS are the result of some level of foolishness on the part of the powers that be, or some longer term plan we have no idea about yet. I several times pointed out the challenge of having two OSes, where now Microsoft has one, and Google has merged Chrome OS and Android, so laptops have access to the 1.5 Million Android apps.
Having one underlying software base could have the same advantage. After all, the iOS catalog is extremely varied, and even pass the huge amount of crass and toyish apps, it does contains quite a few gems that could have a desktop life. Then we could imagine what I described, iPad Pro running macOS for instance, or macOS accessing iOS apps. Is that what ultimately Apple is after ? I have no insight into the bunker, but it would make an awful lot of sense. In terms of engineering resources consolidation as well. Problem is, these are different cultures, and it breaks some fine parts of macOS.
The other part is hardware. Contrary to software, Apple does not produce the machines. In fact, a horde of little Chinese elves assemble and polish the gizmos for the Cupertino’s giant. That is a whole lot less flexible than software. The issue here is that in order to have enough iPhones and Apple Watch on the shelves for Christmas, they probably start summer the year before or something like that, even on a two year schedule. It is a whole lot less flexible. I doubt Apple is unaware of the huge roar that saluted the new Mac Pro. But given the necessary lag, I don’t expect a thicker, more powerful one before the anniversary, if even.
The Surface Studio must have been a rather painful kick in the you know what for Yves as well as Apple’s engineers. After all, when I look at the pictures, there is an uncanny resemblance with the new defunct flat Panel “Pixar lamp” iMac. I am even surprised that some industrious people have not yet offered a reclinable stand for the 28" iMac. But wait, why recline a non touch machine ? Here we go again. Incoherence between iOS devices and desktop. Here comes Federighi and his dogma that forbids any kind of touch for macOS. On one hand macOS becomes iOS inside, and on the other what characterises iOS devices is refused.
I think Apple is caught between two stools. Until they have resolved the puzzle, more incoherence is probably to come. Problem is, Apple since Steve’s departure, has no screaming boss to make the final choice.
I am used to buy the latest and fully equipped Macbook Pro for almost 10 years now. When Apple published its lateat Macbook Pro with fancy candy toolbar I rejected for the first time to upgrade my current Mid 2014 Retina i7 Macbook Pro hoping Apple will consider a major overhaul of their product line in the near future.
If their production cycle is one year, don’t expect it before autumn 2017. If it is longer, that will be 2018…
Apple is probably acutely aware of the issue, and their sales probably do not match their previsions, because you are probably not the only one refusing the obstacle. I am sure they are working on a more powerful MBP.
I guess we’ll just have to wait until “sometime soon, but not this year”.
Worst: Calendar or Fiscal Year ?
I hope not this year mans 2018, not 2019.
My wife’s old MacBook Air needed to be replaced. I considered for quite awhile and finally bought her a new ASUS PC. And then decided to go ahead and get myself a Dell All-in-One to stick in the office. She has Win10 but I stuck with Win7 because I have experience with it.
I haven’t given up on Apple yet but I won’t be buying any new Macs in the foreseeable future. What has to be replaced will be replaced with PCs.
Love diminished is. Divorce in your future I see.
Markus, my wife and I have an unspoken agreement that Divorce will never happen, murder maybe, but not divorce. So far it’s worked for 45 years.
RE: Murder, JUST KIDDING, JUST KIDDING, I live in Texas after all.