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Yeah, but you don't need that stuff unless you're Pixar or running production servers. I think there's a market for a midrange, expandable mac. A quad-core ma
by drewcrawford 16y ago
Yeah, but you don't need that stuff unless you're Pixar or running production servers.
I think there's a market for a midrange, expandable mac. A quad-core machine with a few extra drive bays and two PCI x16 slots. A software developer's box. A Mac Mini is underpowered, but the Pro is way overpowered, esp with regards to I/O. The quad-core iMac is a step in the right direction, but it's not really expandable.
Apple has traditionally taken the position that there's not enough margin on this sort of market. But all those iOS developers have to run something. Couldn't Apple sell it at cost and write it off as developer evangelism for iOS?
- tptacek 16y agoProbably not. Even if you (unrealistically) assume that there isn't a huge amount of overhead to designing and maintaining another Mac product, there's a huge cost involved in complicating their product line and confusing customers. Part of Apple's computer product strategy involves an extremely simple product line with few options.
- statictype 16y agoIsn't a Mac Mini a perfectly valid choice for iOS development?
- drewcrawford 16y agoThere's a pretty big difference in compile time for large projects. If you're just hacking around, sure, works great. But if you make a living on iOS and do a few hundred compiles a day, it's a no brainer to buy a quad-core or eight-core machine.