Thread: The New Mac Pro
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-08-06, 10:21

As a retail store, I can tell you one thing: There will never be one on display in our shop—unless Apple floors it for us, which they don't do. In the last year, we have sold exactly zero Mac Pro's at $2999. Granted, they are hopelessly outdated, but still. In that same year, we have sold exactly one iMac Pro.

And we have a lot of professional photographers/videographers/developers who are loyal to our shop. The single biggest reason for this lack of sales? The 8-core i9 27" iMac 5k Retina is $2699. That's why. And that sucker has a faster processor than a $4999 iMac Pro (however, there are data-handling differences between a Xeon and an i9 which make the Xeon better in certain situations, as well as ECC memory).

We have narrowed it down to this: The only people who are buying these things are the folks shelling out top dollar for maximum configurations, and the folks with that kind of cheddar to spend on a computer aren't in Boise, Idaho. Basically, you guys are looking at the wrong set of numbers. It's not the base configurations you need to be looking at. Those are meaningless drivel that permit Apple to give a "low, low price of" statement. It's those $15,000+ systems that Apple is selling. And they are playing in a world where the competition is hugely expensive. One of our owners is Erik Smith, Chief Technology Officer at Silverdraft Studios. The guy is a multi-node wiz and consults directly with Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan of Virginia Tech (the guy that built the Power X super computer back in the G5 days). These guys are building $650,000+ workstations for high-end graphic design studios, and salesroom VR systems for custom configuration walk-arounds—computers that cost $20,000 or more (I once helped them load a mobile mini-computer [ha!] into a moving van. The thing went out the door at $75,000!). This mac Pro is aimed squarely at those markets. It is not aimed at run-of-the-mill graphic design desks! And, really, neither is the iMac Pro.

We all know Apple is not interested in the $2000 headless Mac. I'd love to know why, but they aren't. The market is there, and Apple—for whatever reason—does not want to play in it, even though we all know that they could, and be successful at it. Seriously, you have to see the Mac Pro for what it is, and its base configuration is not "what it is".

My beef is not the new Mac Pro. I know "what it is". My beef is the lack of a $2000 headless Mac with a separate $1000 5k display. That's a computer we would sell a lot of.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9)

Last edited by kscherer : 2019-08-06 at 13:22.
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