Quote:
Originally Posted by Eugene
Xeon in an AIO design is such an odd decision, as is only putting only two ThunderBolt 3 controllers onboard. I simply don't get it. Also unleashing this much power in a Mac without yet touching the Mac Pro? Why? Same reason they ignored the Mac mini and don't sell their own separate displays anymore.
|
It's pretty clear that Apple didn't plan on the Mac Pro going so long without an update.
My best guess is this: Apple thought they had a killer design with the R2D2 trashcan Pro but designed themselves into a corner and made some wrong bets as to where the future was headed. Then in say, late 2015, after two years of not being able to update the Pro and realizing they would have to invest in a full-scale redesign, they lacked faith that such a large investment in an all-new modular desktop would be worth it and, seeing the success of the new 5K iMac among pros, they decided to instead start making an iMac Pro that would be able to absorb many of the trashcan Pro's use cases.
But then late 2016 rolls around and Apple is surprised by the decidedly mixed and even negative reaction to the new MacBook Pro. This, coupled with the lack of updates to the 2013 Mac Pro, and the fact that the 2013 Mac Pro was controversial for neglecting some pro use cases even when new, causes the narrative that Apple has abandoned the pro market to reach a fever pitch, or at least enough for Apple to take notice and do something they rarely do: they change course. They simply
couldn't just axe the Mac Pro and replace it with an iMac Pro now; if nothing else, the optics would be horrible. But I believe the powers that be actually did change their minds, and the people who were fighting the modular pro desktop fight inside Apple won. The problem is, whatever they start building now ("now" being late 2016 or very early 2017) isn't going to be ready for well over a year, and that's pushing it.
So, in the spring they have a weird press roundtable where they talk about how much they love their pro users and pre-announce an all-new modular pro Mac*, with the caveat that it's still quite far off and we can't even see it or know any specifics yet. This isn't really the Apple Way, but they
have to do this because they're still releasing the iMac Pro and they know if they announce the iMac Pro without also assuring pro users that a "real" pro desktop is coming people will
lose their shit. (They even remind everyone a modular pro system is coming in the iMac Pro's press release, just so nobody gets the wrong idea.)
Personally, I love the idea of an iMac Pro. All-in-one-ness has been a part of Mac DNA from day one, and it's nice to see Apple take that constraint and push the performance envelope and make a pro Mac that is very pro while still being very Mac. If anything, I'm a little disappointed that the rest of the design plays it so safe; it's just a 27-inch iMac with a darker finish and (much) faster guts. I would have liked to see some crazy 34-inch curved 21:9 display or something wild.
But still, how often does Apple introduce a new product line? Especially a new Mac? The last one was, what, the MacBook Air, in 2008?
*) I'm careful to call the future "true" Mac Pro successor a modular pro Mac, and not a Mac Pro, because I'm not sure they'll call their new headless pro desktop a Mac Pro. I wouldn't be surprised if they call it something else. Not just because iMac Pro and Mac Pro are only one letter apart, but because using the Mac Pro name for a modular pro Mac has always been sort of weird. By Apple naming logic, a Mac Pro should be the high-performance version of a similar computer called "Mac," but no such computer exists. If we are to take the MacBook's example, than the form factor should be indicated by a suffix, and a workstation Mac would be a MacStation, or something along those lines.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they drop the "i" from iMac and iMac Pro in a few years.