Will Apple Ever Update the Mac Pro?

[wcg66]

Apple Inc. has all but officially abandoned it's 'pro' market, in favor of consumer market saturation for portable devices...

Agree 100%. Although Apple owes its existence during the dark days to the pro creative market, they don't need them anymore. They could kill the MacPro and it wouldn't even be a blip on the quarter.

However, given the vast resources that Apple does have, it would worthwhile to have a flagship Mac Pro as a dream machine for enthusiasts. Just as car companies have super cars that our out of reach for the regular person, Apple can the do the same.

 

[Branhower]

Hey tom.humphrey; that computer in your avatar looks boss!

Anyway, I would highly welcome a rackmount Mac Pro. Can you imagine how nice of an XServe server that would be; a rack of Mac Pros? With an attachment for easy hard drive addition; say, a rackmount SAS drive controller? Nice. Maybe they could offer the "top of the line" models here, with the two Core i-whatevers and the 128 possible gigabytes of RAM. Of course, these units would need to keep their internal upgradability; so they would probably be 3U in size.

Also, on the desktop front; if they just lowered the price of the current low-end models, I'm sure they would sell a lot better. It's possible to build a pretty close Hackintosh competitor to the Mac Pro (still talking low-end here) for $1000. Apple could clean up by selling these for $1300-1500, and maybe offer the new Cinema Display at a discount when buying a new computer.

Oh wait! Oops, almost forgot who I was talking about here.

 

[the_gael]

My opinion for what its worth is that Apple will assess the marketplace and look at the return on investment on the Mac Pro line. At present its is a dwindling but still substantial segment of their market. I know there have been discussions about the future of the Mac Pro but I think we may see at least one more iteration of the Mac Pro.

What lies beyond - I believe Apple are too shrewd to ignore the fact that there is a gap in the market - the very fact that tonymacx86 exists is because of a gap. It would not surprise me to see Apple launch a more configurable product between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro.

 

[phocion]

I expect the fate of the Mac Pro (either way) will be obvious within a month and a half of the Xeon E5 release in March, and then we can stop playing this guessing game.

It's hard to imagine Apple just abandoning its pro market after decades of high end audio, video, and graphics work, but stranger things have happened. They have certainly been treating pro consumers with disrespect lately (high prices + outdated products), but some of that may be due to unforeseen component delays.

The Hackintosh community would benefit greatly from new Mac Pros, which would presumably open up new graphics card options. It would also be interesting to see if/how the Mac Pros implement ThunderBolt.

I'm sure the Pro market has lost some heat in part due to Hackintosh (this Mac Pro user looking to build a Hack is one data point), but I think the vast majority of the Mac Pro market would prefer the stability and support of a legit Mac, especially in the more corporate environments.

 

[Solidww]

As an Apple user since the old AppleII. I will say that other then a notebook, I don't see a reason to buy another Apple computer. Wasn't there a gentleman that posted on here about how he built a rendering farm inside of a cabinet. I didn't get to read the entire post but it looks great and I can only imagine what kind of files he can churn out quickly.

Apple Inc. is a corporation we all know this. They care about bottom line numbers not what one sector of their business is gripping about. Let's look at Toyota. They built one of the best sports car ever for under 100k in the 90's. Sold it worldwide up until 98. Now, they give us the Ultra Expensive LFA. One of the great things about the 93-98 Supra was that it could be had by almost anyone and upgraded over time. So, just my .02 cents but isn't that why we are all here? So, that we can enter into the Mac OSX world and upgrade our machines so that we can complete our tasks and do our jobs.

rchristof - I agree with you completely. PCIe slots and more of them are needed.

 

[tonymacx86]

New Rumor from CultofMac- IMO I don't know how feasible it would be to put an Ivy Bridge cpu into the Mac Pro, maybe for a lower end model... I think a Xeon with Socket 2011 is more likely in the higher end.

http://www.cultofmac.com/146211/new-mac ... oon-rumor/

 

[tom.humphrey]

Hey tom.humphrey; that computer in your avatar looks boss!

Cheers Branhower, Am currently in the process of putting this all into a mac pro case.

 

[wcg66]

Intel just launched their new Xeons which might finally mean a processor upgrade. I agree that they need to rethink the MacPro given that many, fairly cheap, alternatives exist that are nearly as powerful. The top-of-the-line iMac is comparable to a midrange MacPro now.

Apple killed off the xserve without any reservations so they could be considering the end of the MacPro. I'd hate that.

 

[Solidww]

I agree completely.
The support for high end Video Cards is getting better and better in Lion. Also, what kind of hardware we can use is improving as well. Lastly, PC is going to get Thunderbolt/Light peak soon.

Why even bother with a Mac Pro unless Apple Care is needed.

 

[Solidww]

A buddy of mine does the same thing. He still uses his G5 and G4 machines.
He sticks with Apple because of Apple Care. He onows about Hackintosh but won't venture down the road because he wants to be able to take it in and get it fixed for 3 years. I don't blame him though. That is nice!