New Mac Pro's, iMacs and Apple Displays

[WonkeyDonkey]

To be honest i think this is only a publicity stunt by Apple marketing. They wanted to get rid of the >1200 days since last update on macrumors. Marketing and investors didn't like that i guess. Only Apple could get away with "it´s gonna be great, but it takes more than a year....". Well they had a couple of hundred days to plan something at least.

You're right, they could get away with something like that. But there has to be some realisation or something has them spooked enough to come out in such a public way about future plans, given the normal level of secrecy that they seem to enjoy.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

When they stated that they will be making the product line "more pro", I had hopes of seeing Apple use the "E" series of Intel CPUs, i.e. Broadwell-E. Whether this be in a high end iMac or "entry level" Mac Pro doesn't matter to me.

As for GPUs, of course, we would all like to see more Nvidia options from Apple. I think they can easily pull Nvidia back in to the fold simply by putting PCI-e slots back in to Macs, dedicate a team to writing and maintaining drivers, and remove the need for custom video card firmware to get boot screens. This could benefit both AMD and Nvidia by offering them another market to which they can sell graphics card.

I think a broadwell-E or similar would likely remain in the Mac Pro. Dont you think it would blur the product lines otherwise ?

Not saying it wouldnt be good to have in an iMac of course

 

[pastrychef]

To be honest i think this is only a publicity stunt by Apple marketing. They wanted to get rid of the >1200 days since last update on macrumors. Marketing and investors didn't like that i guess. Only Apple could get away with "it´s gonna be great, but it takes more than a year....". Well they had a couple of hundred days to plan something at least.

I hardly think this is a publicity stunt. My guess is that sales figures must have shown some pretty damning numbers. That plus all the articles, blogs, and users complaining every which way we turned.

With the increasing call from the analysts and investors to diversify Apple, any contraction in the non-iPhone divisions would only make it appear that Apple is more dependent on iPhone and make them seem more like a "one trick pony". This is something Tim has been working hard to alleviate with increased focus on the Services division and why I believe there was a big price drop in the iPad. I feel that the $5B Mac division could easily increase by 50% due to pent up demand the second that Apple releases some updated, compelling products.

 

[pastrychef]

I think a broadwell-E or similar would likely remain in the Mac Pro. Dont you think it would blur the product lines otherwise ?

Not saying it wouldnt be good to have in an iMac of course

Broadwell-E in iMacs may blur the lines slightly. But if what Phil & Co said were true, that lots of the Pro base has moved to iMacs, building an iMac "Pro" could become a huge hit. It's also advantageous for Apple to sell more iMacs since they are not really upgradable and more disposable.

Another thing I'd really like to see from Apple is usage of delidded CPUs, especially in the iMacs. In the past, Apple used delidded Xeons in the MacPro4,1s where no one else did. I don't see why they can't do so again. Having delidded the i7 in my current build, I can't begin to explain what a huge difference it makes in cooling the CPU which is something all iMacs can benefit from.

 

[trs96]

With the increasing call from the analysts and investors to diversify Apple, any contraction in the non-iPhone divisions would only make it appear that Apple is more dependent on iPhone and make them seem more like a "one trick pony". This is something Tim has been working hard to alleviate with increased focus on the Services division and why I believe there was a big price drop in the iPad.

I get the feeling that Apple will soon start spending some (not all) of it's huge cash pile, well over 200 billion, on a media company. This would be a logical next step and a good way to diversify. So what will they need to create content for this company ? A Pro machine that can be upgraded quickly and easily to meet Pro demands. What a joke it would be for them to have their content creators using HP workstations running Windows 10 and Premiere Pro. They've already purchased Beats and have Apple Music so the next logical step is TV and Movies. This is why Eddy Cue was hired a few years back.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/15/14624176/apple-tv-netflix-streaming-music

Remember the most recent Steve Jobs movie ? Tim Cook was aghast out how far off it was from how he saw his former boss throughout over a 15 year period. He is the CEO now and I'm sure he''d like to create an Apple branded media division so that they can get into television and film production.

It's probably a good thing that they've mostly abandoned the idea of becoming an automotive co. It's a really hard industry to break into as they've found out. Again this is really good news for us, I couldn't be any happier.

 

[pastrychef]

I realize that there are rumors of Apple looking at acquiring a large media company, but I'm not sure I believe it. Throughout their history, they've tended to acquire smaller companies that they were more easily able to assimilate in to Apple. If they are truly considering spending such a large amount of cash, I would honestly be happier they try to acquire to AMD and have more control of the entire "widget" like how they do with iPhones. BUT, those acquisitions were not for the purpose of entering in to markets they have no footprint on...

I completely agree!! (1) The auto industry is tough to get in to and (2) even harder to profit from. I think the idea was born from all the nonsensical talk from the media about how they were not "innovating". I'm also very happy that they never produced a television. Lol

 

[trs96]

Apple does have enough cash to easily buy AMD but there are too many obstacles to that happening. Intel could easily block that purchase but more likely the regulators of the semiconductor industry would do so. They've already got enough lawyers on the payroll and current lawsuits that they would not attempt a purchase of AMD. Apple is already designing it's own A series chips and may start doing so for their own graphics processors as well. It was the AMD graphics in the 2013 MP that were a major disappointment amongst other things.

See this article that just posted yesterday. https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/04/why-apple-inc-wants-to-build-its-own-graphics-proc.aspx

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Great discussion all! Enjoying it
The BBC (UK) article about this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39494785 - does seem to hint at an admission of the thermal restrictions of the current Mac Pro quashing any major upgrades.

I wonder if the mention of iMac for Pros might be because Apple sees the number of people who don't actually buy a Mac Pro but customise and spec-up their iMac purchases with more memory, faster CPUs etc, instead.

Also I do hope Apple doesn't become a media or auto company. Buying into media like Sony ? (who I admire greatly) They lead the world in quality electronics but soured things with root-kits to prevent unauthorised copying of videos and music. They dropped laptops and VAIO branding but realistically the quality of their machines made for the only competitor to Apple for the Windows world.

Agreed, surely Apple doesn't want to be seen as a one-trick-pony - look what they've recently done to their GPU chip supplier Imagination. Too many eggs in one basket (to use two metaphors in one sentence!)

As for the keyboard - looks good - imagine the cost!

 

[richardp1512]

I've thought a new Mac Pro was on the cards for a while now because the answer to what GPU is going to be used is probably staring us in the face:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/16...mac-refresh-found-in-latest-macos-sierra-beta

With Vega promising 1080 performance or better surely this is where Apple are taking us with the high end iMac or Mac Pro?

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, Apple acquiring AMD will probably never happen. But it just seems like a more logical thing to do than to blow their cash hoard on a media company. I'd just like to see them concentrate more on that they know than to venture in to business that have little to nothing to do with their core competencies.

Yes, I'd read a little bit about the Imagination Tech situation. Some have speculated that it's a tactic by Apple to bring the acquisition price down. I disagreed with that theory and the Motley Fool article backs it. It will be interesting to see what Apple has up their sleeves.

I did see Craig Federighi's admission that engineered themselves in to a corner with the cylindrical Mac Pros. I've seen some people speculate that by "modular", Apple may employ a Lego like concept of stacking pieces to upgrade components. While even this would probably be an improvement over what we have now, I sincerely hope that they just return to a traditional tower form factor. Sometimes, change for the sake of change is not good.