7 ms·

I wonder who the target market is, though? The iMac Pro can cost £5000, so I assume more performance and hence price than that? The only users who I can imagine

I wonder who the target market is, though? The iMac Pro can cost £5000, so I assume more performance and hence price than that? The only users who I can imagine willing to justify paying such a premium are those who feel they must remain at the cutting edge of performance and are willing to pay for it, but surely they will have left the Apple ecosystem by then? It's as if Apple are saying "we're making a computer for people who demand peak performance, but are willing to use cheap outdated hardware until we get round to it."

rsynnott 9y ago
I'd assume mostly people who want really hefty GPUs (and for whom eGPUs aren't an option). The iMac Pro won't help you there.
- thirdsun 9y ago
  In the article it sounded as if they actually intend to achieve modularity fort the Mac Pro with eGPUs, or peripheral hardware in general. A mistake in my opinion.
VonGuard 9y ago
This is for Logic and Final Cut users who want to have the best and don't know enough about computers to understand they're being ripped off.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Or they bill $2-300/hour so they don't really care. If their tooling is on the Apple side, they don't really have the option of going for a high end PC.
  - wuliwong 9y ago
    There's actually even more to it than just not caring. There is also the marketing side of it. Recording studios will sometimes make choices to buy certain gear because of the name and recognized brand. Apple computers are certainly the recognized brand for digital recording.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      The software stack is very relevant, Apple shops would have to retrain to go PC, and some of the software they have is sub optimal. My wife is a designer, she needs much more powerful computers than I do (as just a developer). She constantly runs out of memory, GPU performance is very relevant for Photoshop, Illustrator, and other tools she uses in her work. So spending $2500 or $3000 for a high end (but not pro) imac is a given, even though I would be perfectly happy with the $1900 one. For her, the advantage in productivity is worth it. I can imagine there are many people who would see the imac pro as being worth it to them also and the price isn't going to bother them much because their time is already very valuable.
jayd16 9y ago
If you do any iOS work you need macs as build machines because of Apple's lock in. Spending the money on an iMac is just a waste of a monitor and if you're already spending the money on the hardware you might as well get something that can do render jobs as well. You need GPUs for that.
andrei_says_ 9y ago
I think this is where Hackintosh comes in. You can buy top of the line, macOS-compatible hardware for 1/3 of the Apple premium. It takes effort to set up, but not that much.
- mulmen 9y ago
  To me the value of a Mac is not macOS. It’s having a complete device solution that just works. I don’t want to fight with my workstation all the time. I want to use it to do... work.
  - poletopole 9y ago
    I have been battling Apple about my 2013 mac pro for a year. You have to be careful about the monitors you buy because Apple will say it's not their problem when your monitor knocks your wifi offline (personally) or some weird shit. Personally, I think for anyone deliberating between an iMac Pro and a Mac Pro, you should go with the iMac Pro because Apple has always been an all-in-one company--it's one of the few things they are still good at these days. I used to work on the older mac pros in high school and never had problems, but those days are over. If I knew hardware well enough to fix it I would have gone Hackintosh.
    - mulmen 9y ago
      I used to have a '14 RMBP with the Apple display and it was wonderful. Now I have a '17 13" MBP and it only has two USB ports so I have a third party dock and monitors because Apple doesn't offer a solution. The entire experience is awful but still more reliable than any Windows laptop I have ever run, although the gap is closing. Hackintosh doesn't work for me because my business isn't fixing laptops. Apple used to provide a full solution and it was really great.
      - chrisper 9y ago
        Hackintosh run very stable these days even more so now with Clover. But you need to have fun at doing that
mjamesaustin 9y ago
The Mac Pro doesn't include a monitor, so I can see it starting at less than the iMac Pro.
- walshemj 9y ago
  err no not if they do it right they will be offering the top of the line Xeons and one or two hefty GPU cards. The new imac pro has the entry Level xenon and still throttles after 10 min.
  - jonhendry18 9y ago
    They might offer that as a configuration option but not the base config.
limeblack 9y ago
> I wonder who the target market is, though? Schools for sure. The staff believes that Macs are better and have bough trash cans to replace the cheese graters.

rsynnott 9y ago

I'd assume mostly people who want really hefty GPUs (and for whom eGPUs aren't an option). The iMac Pro won't help you there.

thirdsun 9y ago
In the article it sounded as if they actually intend to achieve modularity fort the Mac Pro with eGPUs, or peripheral hardware in general. A mistake in my opinion.

VonGuard 9y ago

This is for Logic and Final Cut users who want to have the best and don't know enough about computers to understand they're being ripped off.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Or they bill $2-300/hour so they don't really care. If their tooling is on the Apple side, they don't really have the option of going for a high end PC.
- wuliwong 9y ago
  There's actually even more to it than just not caring. There is also the marketing side of it. Recording studios will sometimes make choices to buy certain gear because of the name and recognized brand. Apple computers are certainly the recognized brand for digital recording.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    The software stack is very relevant, Apple shops would have to retrain to go PC, and some of the software they have is sub optimal. My wife is a designer, she needs much more powerful computers than I do (as just a developer). She constantly runs out of memory, GPU performance is very relevant for Photoshop, Illustrator, and other tools she uses in her work. So spending $2500 or $3000 for a high end (but not pro) imac is a given, even though I would be perfectly happy with the $1900 one. For her, the advantage in productivity is worth it. I can imagine there are many people who would see the imac pro as being worth it to them also and the price isn't going to bother them much because their time is already very valuable.

jayd16 9y ago

If you do any iOS work you need macs as build machines because of Apple's lock in. Spending the money on an iMac is just a waste of a monitor and if you're already spending the money on the hardware you might as well get something that can do render jobs as well. You need GPUs for that.

andrei_says_ 9y ago

I think this is where Hackintosh comes in. You can buy top of the line, macOS-compatible hardware for 1/3 of the Apple premium. It takes effort to set up, but not that much.

mulmen 9y ago
To me the value of a Mac is not macOS. It’s having a complete device solution that just works. I don’t want to fight with my workstation all the time. I want to use it to do... work.
- poletopole 9y ago
  I have been battling Apple about my 2013 mac pro for a year. You have to be careful about the monitors you buy because Apple will say it's not their problem when your monitor knocks your wifi offline (personally) or some weird shit. Personally, I think for anyone deliberating between an iMac Pro and a Mac Pro, you should go with the iMac Pro because Apple has always been an all-in-one company--it's one of the few things they are still good at these days. I used to work on the older mac pros in high school and never had problems, but those days are over. If I knew hardware well enough to fix it I would have gone Hackintosh.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    I used to have a '14 RMBP with the Apple display and it was wonderful. Now I have a '17 13" MBP and it only has two USB ports so I have a third party dock and monitors because Apple doesn't offer a solution. The entire experience is awful but still more reliable than any Windows laptop I have ever run, although the gap is closing. Hackintosh doesn't work for me because my business isn't fixing laptops. Apple used to provide a full solution and it was really great.
    - chrisper 9y ago
      Hackintosh run very stable these days even more so now with Clover. But you need to have fun at doing that

mjamesaustin 9y ago

The Mac Pro doesn't include a monitor, so I can see it starting at less than the iMac Pro.

walshemj 9y ago
err no not if they do it right they will be offering the top of the line Xeons and one or two hefty GPU cards. The new imac pro has the entry Level xenon and still throttles after 10 min.
- jonhendry18 9y ago
  They might offer that as a configuration option but not the base config.

limeblack 9y ago

> I wonder who the target market is, though? Schools for sure. The staff believes that Macs are better and have bough trash cans to replace the cheese graters.