Retina displays are not "nothing". They're amazing, and for another, far more important reason than just "nice to look at". They're also much easier on the human eye. With laser-sharp, super-focused images, the human eye no longer has to be "tricked" into thinking there are round shapes on the screen. Anti-aliasing, while still used, is significantly sharper and our eyes are under less strain because of it.
Also, it was Apple that put these super-high resolution displays into the market place. It is everyone else who played catch-up and follow-the-leader, not Apple. In this critical area, Apple
is the innovator! Add to that Wide Color and True-tone, and Apple is leading in all important areas regarding display tech. That means our eyes are seeing sharper, more color-accurate images, and that makes for improved eye health. All the "looks great for photographers" fluff can take a flying leap. Our eyes will be healthier, as will our children's.
Apple is also constantly leap-frogging the pack in terms of storage speeds. While there are faster PCIe drives available in high-end desktops, Apple is using the fastest available storage in laptops, and have signaled their intent to switch to NVMe in desktops, as well. They have already done this in the Mac Pro, and iMacs are certain to follow with the next major update sometime this year. I hope. Maybe.
Where other computer manufacturers are still band-aiding in 2.5" SATA SSD's, Apple is using PCIe NVMe which 2.5" SATA drives can't keep pace with. Considering storage tech is the last, hopelessly slow bottleneck in the computer, Apple is pushing performance in a critical area beyond what the consumer-facing competition can afford to do (or is even willing to do).
Al, you cannot call these things "stale" or whatever. Screen tech and storage tech were stuck in a major rut until Apple brought advanced, modern technologies into the mainstream, beginning with the iPhone (whose mass-market appeal forced DRAM prices down), then the MacBook Air, and now all laptops in the lineup. This is not to say Apple was the first—or even the fastest—but their constant, zealous push to add it to everything has forced down prices and made it possible for these technologies to advance beyond high-end systems into the mainstream.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds like your biggest complaint is design, more even than internal power. Macs are fast! Granted, there are faster systems out there and—for serious creative pro's—way behind when it comes to expandability.
The desktop screen (the monitor, not the computer) has peaked in terms of design. There are no round displays in the future. No "see-through" Hollywood gimmicks. Touch is stupid on a vertical monitor (unless you happen to be using a POS system). The industry (including Apple) have settled on a horizontally arranged rectangle, and users are happy with this arrangement. The web and all our software are settled in with this arrangement as well. The CD/DVD are clearly gone from the Apple world, and will
never return. Hard drives are old tech, and I won't be surprised if the next generation iMac eliminates them entirely, as has the Mac Pro. PCIe flash is the future of storage. TB3/USB-C is also the future (at least for the next year or so
), and all Macs are going to be shipping with it in their next full cycles.
The next Mac Mini will be pure solid-state. The next iMac will offer flash in all configurations, if it is not the
only option. As far as the design is concerned, I suspect the next iMac will be thinner, perhaps space-gray, faster, etc. But it will still be based on the horizontal rectangle, wide-color retina display, and perhaps get True Tone. But it's overall shape will change very little, because rectangles!
The MS Surface Studio is very interesting (and I called it genius), but it runs flaky Windows. Worse, it runs flaky Windows 10 with touch BS. It's just more Microsoft shoe-horning and the entire thing is ruined because of it. Some say it's too expensive, but it isn't. It's priced in line with a top-end iMac and does more. I see Apple competing with this by making the iPad Pro work seamlessly with the iMac of the future and becoming
the Wacom-replacing drawing tablet that creative Mac users will turn to. Basically, a wireless display. By the way, I call Apple foolish if they haven't already got this working in the lab!
The Mac Pro is the big question mark in the pond. I think Apple was a bit smug and arrogant regarding its design. They got all offended with the media's "can't innovate" comments and went in a super-cool, way-too-far-out-there design that was ahead of anything else ever attempted, while at the same time fired at a moving target they could no longer see. In short, they forgot who their Mac Pro customers were, and they admitted to it (sort of). Prior to the 2013 model, we sold on average two Mac Pros per month. Not a lot, but we were able to meet our pro customer's needs. After the 2013 model, that number dropped to 2 per year. That's a
huge adjustment, and it's based entirely to the complete lack of upgradeability. Price had nothing to do with anything. People were willing to pay $3000+ for Mac Pros's before 2013. After 2013, they said to themselves, "hell, if I'm going to drop $3000 on a computer I can't upgrade, I might as well get it with a screen." and they bought a 27" i7 iMac instead.
And for most purposes, they got a better computer.
The Mac Pro, of all the systems in the lineup, is the one that needs the most help, followed by the Mac Mini. The iMac is fine. The MacBook Pro's are fine. The MacBook needs to drop to $999 and the Air needs to go bye-bye.
The new MacPro needs 1 full-length PCI slot for a removable, big-ass graphics card, 4 PCIe slots for flash modules, and 4 RAM slots, each capable of taking 64GB of DDR5 ECC. It needs no less than 6 TB3 ports and 2 Ethernet ports. The whole thing need be no bigger than the GPU requires. It can be made of polished aluminum or gold, it can be red or black, it can sit on your desk or beneath it, and no one on Earth cares if it lights up when you turn it around!
The power cord prevents that from working well, anyway. Duh!! It needs to be capable of driving 4 5k displays.
Speaking of which …
It needs to launch with the new Apple Pro Display, a 5k (8k?) wonder that has a full hub on the back, just like its predecessor. It will be built to match the height of the new iMac, the color of the Mac Pro, and the Mac Mini will make one work. There will be a 21" (4k?) and 27" version and both will work with every computer in the lineup, including the MacBook. They will come with a 6-foot power chord
and a 6-foot TB cable. They will be priced at $799 and $1299.
Mac Mini - $499
21" iMac - $999
27" iMac - $1499
Mac Pro - $2499
None of these prices will come to fruition, because Apple's $.25Trillion mountain of cash is not big enough.
P.S. What Bruce said.
P.P.S. Alcimedes decided this thread was about Apple cars, and it has degraded into yet another Mac spec-fest. I suggest it be spun off into one of the "Future of the Mac" threads.