Wither the Mac Pro?
It’s been over 2 years since Apple released a new Mac Pro model. With Apple’s stock at an all time high (breaking $600 a share today), and consumer products like the MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone taking the lion’s share of sales (no pun intended), pro users of Apple’s hardware are wondering whether Apple still cares about supporting them. The jury’s still out, but the writing appears to be on the wall…
Does an iMac make sense as a Mac Pro substitute? No. And here are two reasons why:
- The iMac is not expandable. Pro users need the ability to add RAM, storage and video cards to expand the machine’s capabilities. An iMac is a closed system, with limited upgrade potential.
- The iMac saddles the user with a glossy-screen display. I’ve used the iMac display, and while it is sharp and vibrant, it is also a reflective mirror. An expandable system like a Mac Pro gives the user the flexibility to choose a display from any number of manufacturers.
My Mac Pro is 4 years old. With the addition of RAM and a solid state drive, it’s still wickedly fast, handling pro apps with aplomb. I would buy a modern Mac Pro if it were available, and I know I’m not alone.
In short, an expandable machine like the Mac Pro is needed in Apple’s line up. Let’s hope Apple upgrades this venerable machine.
–Krishna
These beautiful and intelligent people wrote
Tell me what you think!
JackB
March 15, 2012 at 3:46 pmApple’s response will be one word: Thunderbolt. It will let you add all those things (except memory). You can get third-party Thunderbolt card cages for different video cards, and obviously you can add storage and different monitors.
Now, don’t think that I don’t agree with you – but I think that will be Apple’s response.
Kevin S
March 15, 2012 at 4:32 pm(except memory) indeed. Thankfully I hear it’s a trivial process to upgrade your memory: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-iMac-Intel-27-Inch-Mid-2011-RAM/7570/1
Benjamin Schollnick
March 15, 2012 at 11:05 pmJacob has it correct. Everything, except for memory and the screen can be upgraded via thunderbolt. Faster graphics, more disk space, and faster drives are all accessible through thunderbolt.
The screen reflectiveness does need to be addressed, but there are matt screen filters that can help…. But Apple does need to address this issue directly at sometime.
James
March 17, 2012 at 9:49 amiMac’s with Thunderbolt expansion may work for many as it did recently at the TED conference, where it replaced Mac Pros used in previous years for video and photo processing. But an iMac is still not a Workstation class computer. The Mac Pro is not a PC Desktop. It compares more to an HP Z400 Workstation. Thunderbolt won’t give you up to 12 cores and 32GB+ RAM. Storage and expansion is a small part of the Mac Pro and Thunderbolt offers a lot to bring that flexibility to other Mac’s. Most people would only use the ambient heat to warm their toes and raise heir electric bill! Engineers, scientists, programmers with huge code bases can use that parallel processing and gobs of RAM to do amazing things. I bought the last model Mac Pro when it was new. It is still the fastest most powerful computer I have ever used. Remember OSX is based on NeXTStep /OpenStep and the NeXT Cube was a workstation competing with Sun, DEC, Digital, HP, IBM, etc. All of them were UNIX, just like OSX is today. I don’t believe Apple will abandon the Workstation Mac Pro but I don’t see them in Apple stores anymore. They just don’t sell at the retail level and most buyers want to make many custom changes at the time of purchase that is not practical at the retail level. Apple will continue to innovate and a future Mac Pro may change the game in the future, like 128 cores using ARM CPU’s optimized for super computing with extensive power savings. There are companies working on this, it is not new. Apple has a lot of experience with custom silicon ARM CPUs in the iPhone and iPad
Krishna
March 17, 2012 at 10:04 amI haven’t seen too many (non-Apple) Thunderbolt solutions. I really hope the iMac isn’t the last word on desktop machines from Apple.
Rob
March 19, 2012 at 5:25 pmOoooohhhhhh … Woz Autographed Apple IIgs! If you don’t have a need for that I’ll be glad to take it off your hands …
Krishna
March 19, 2012 at 6:18 pmAlas, Rob – the IIGS is not for sale. Twas my first machine!
Rob
March 21, 2012 at 3:20 pmCurses … I “loaned” mine to my sister back in the day and she “lost” it during a move. It even had a third party processor accellerator. Oh the memories! Arkanoid was tons of fun. I still have the disks for a ton of programs, games, and files. One day …
Krishna
March 21, 2012 at 3:22 pmArkanoid was amazing on the IIGS. My Woz edition had an 8MHz (!) accelerator card and a “whopping” 4MB of RAM. Those were the days!
ComaC
March 20, 2012 at 4:20 amI’d start thinking of alternatives if I were you. Looks like Apple is pushing us all into the hackintosh realm. Can you think of any better solution from a technical point of view?