5 ms·

When I look around at the pro market that need fast machines I see people working with 3D/CAD, video and sometimes sound and pictures. At least here in The Neth

by pasta 9y ago

When I look around at the pro market that need fast machines I see people working with 3D/CAD, video and sometimes sound and pictures. At least here in The Netherlands almost all those people are working with Windows or Linux based software. So they already get a new video card once in a while and add memory and disk space when needed. I just think that the pro market for Apple became so small because normal computers are getting fast enough for most pro people. For example photo editing works fine on a Apple laptop even with very high resolutions and a lot of layers. So I can imagine that Apple just doesn't need a pro desktop anymore because the market became too small.

blacksmith_tb 9y ago
Realistically, that is probably the case, but people who are using macOS professionally are still willing to spend money on hardware with more performance, 'it can never be too fast' etc. My old 2010 Pro compiles node.js about 4X faster than a newer i7 iMac (and uses at least that much more electricity to do it, so that may not seem like a huge win, necessarily). It seems clear that the old Pro's flexibility and upgradability are essentially at odds with Apple's general direction towards soldered and glued products that are only extensible via Thunderbolt; I would be happy to see them move back towards more user-serviceable hardware, but I am not holding my breath. The question of whether that makes sense for their business is trickier, they do have deep pockets, so unless they lost money on the new Pro, it would at least provide bragging rights.
- H1Supreme 9y ago
  I still use a Mac for audio work, but it's a Hackintosh. Last real Mac (aside from a Macbook) was a G5 Mac Pro. Which, was the last good Mac Pro ever made. As far as development work, I run it all on servers. Whether it's something cloud based, or my own Linux box at home, A low powered laptop SSHFS'd into a server is my preferred way of working.
  - dom0 9y ago
    > was a G5 Mac Pro. Which, was the last good Mac Pro ever made. Which wasn't even a Mac Pro. Interesting.
LoSboccacc 9y ago
Apple just pulled a self fulfilling prophecy. By ignoring the pro market demand for faster turnaround and bleeding edge performance they pushed everyone jumping ship faster; now that the market for the mac pro shrunk to a point the line is unprofitable the circle is complete. meanwhile the trillion dollar render/graphics/cad industry is gonna need something to keep up with the always increasing demand, and will simply look elsewhere.
- selectodude 9y ago
  The render/graphics/cad industry is not 1.5 percent of world GDP.
  - santoshalper 9y ago
    If the market for pro workstations is more than a couple billion, I'd be pretty damn surprised.
  - radley 9y ago
    Maybe he's including feature films, game development, aerospace, and anything that requires bleeding edge tech.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- gdubs 9y ago
  The ultra high-end market has always been turbulent. Look at Silicon Graphics. They dominated for a good stretch, but then a wave of less expensive windows based machines (like Integraph) followed by commodity graphics-card powered PC boxes completely decimated that market. During that entire time Apple was always positioned in a niche. For a time it was desktop publishing, video editing, photography, audio. A lot of that had to do with loyalty of the developer community, who produced killer apps that only really ran on Apple hardware, as well as appealing to a customer base that deeply preferred Mac OS. But it's worth keeping in mind that the Mac Pro wasn't really ever dominate in certain high-end spaces like 3D. I mean, I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the ID team at Apple was for a long time using non-apple hardware to run their CAD stuff until one day Ive and Jobs were like, 'this is unacceptable'.
dasmoth 9y ago
When I look around at the pro market that need fast machines I see people working with 3D/CAD, video and sometimes sound and pictures That's the market Apple have historically singled out, but it isn't the only "pro" segment. Another big one is software developers, who care a lot about compile and/or test time (and maybe having enough RAM to run a bunch of VMs...) -- and this apparent was recognised in the April meeting.

by pasta 9y ago

blacksmith_tb 9y ago

Realistically, that is probably the case, but people who are using macOS professionally are still willing to spend money on hardware with more performance, 'it can never be too fast' etc. My old 2010 Pro compiles node.js about 4X faster than a newer i7 iMac (and uses at least that much more electricity to do it, so that may not seem like a huge win, necessarily). It seems clear that the old Pro's flexibility and upgradability are essentially at odds with Apple's general direction towards soldered and glued products that are only extensible via Thunderbolt; I would be happy to see them move back towards more user-serviceable hardware, but I am not holding my breath. The question of whether that makes sense for their business is trickier, they do have deep pockets, so unless they lost money on the new Pro, it would at least provide bragging rights.

H1Supreme 9y ago
I still use a Mac for audio work, but it's a Hackintosh. Last real Mac (aside from a Macbook) was a G5 Mac Pro. Which, was the last good Mac Pro ever made. As far as development work, I run it all on servers. Whether it's something cloud based, or my own Linux box at home, A low powered laptop SSHFS'd into a server is my preferred way of working.
- dom0 9y ago
  > was a G5 Mac Pro. Which, was the last good Mac Pro ever made. Which wasn't even a Mac Pro. Interesting.

LoSboccacc 9y ago

Apple just pulled a self fulfilling prophecy. By ignoring the pro market demand for faster turnaround and bleeding edge performance they pushed everyone jumping ship faster; now that the market for the mac pro shrunk to a point the line is unprofitable the circle is complete. meanwhile the trillion dollar render/graphics/cad industry is gonna need something to keep up with the always increasing demand, and will simply look elsewhere.

selectodude 9y ago
The render/graphics/cad industry is not 1.5 percent of world GDP.
- santoshalper 9y ago
  If the market for pro workstations is more than a couple billion, I'd be pretty damn surprised.
- radley 9y ago
  Maybe he's including feature films, game development, aerospace, and anything that requires bleeding edge tech.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
gdubs 9y ago
The ultra high-end market has always been turbulent. Look at Silicon Graphics. They dominated for a good stretch, but then a wave of less expensive windows based machines (like Integraph) followed by commodity graphics-card powered PC boxes completely decimated that market. During that entire time Apple was always positioned in a niche. For a time it was desktop publishing, video editing, photography, audio. A lot of that had to do with loyalty of the developer community, who produced killer apps that only really ran on Apple hardware, as well as appealing to a customer base that deeply preferred Mac OS. But it's worth keeping in mind that the Mac Pro wasn't really ever dominate in certain high-end spaces like 3D. I mean, I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the ID team at Apple was for a long time using non-apple hardware to run their CAD stuff until one day Ive and Jobs were like, 'this is unacceptable'.

dasmoth 9y ago

When I look around at the pro market that need fast machines I see people working with 3D/CAD, video and sometimes sound and pictures That's the market Apple have historically singled out, but it isn't the only "pro" segment. Another big one is software developers, who care a lot about compile and/or test time (and maybe having enough RAM to run a bunch of VMs...) -- and this apparent was recognised in the April meeting.