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I don’t understand why they announced the stand during the keynote at all. It’s not something to be proud of and it isn’t cutting-edge technology. They could ha

I don’t understand why they announced the stand during the keynote at all. It’s not something to be proud of and it isn’t cutting-edge technology. They could have just put it for sale quietly and the outrage would have been far less.

bredren 7y ago
Apparently decent pivoting, weighted stands are $400. So this is still not outrageously expensive if you are in the market for this type of thing. Perhaps Apple figured it would be seen through the same eyes as those considering a $12k Mac Pro workstation, and appreciated in a similar way. Another note: contra-wise, Apple did flirt with “luxury” watches for a time. Though I think they gave up on that direction.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  My $200 pivoting stand came with an entire screen for free. Granted, it's not nearly as nice as Apple's stand. But I suspect the reception would have been a lot better if the narrative was "the $5000 screen comes with an ok stand, the great one is $1000 extra" instead of "lol, the $5000 screen is useless unless you buy a $120 Vesa mount plus some off-brand stand, or the $1000 official stand"
  - falcolas 7y ago
    My $200, 6 year old stand came with one too, and it even includes the ability to raise and lower the screen, plus the 90° rotation. And wait, there’s more! It also pivots. Underwhelming indeed.
    - bredren 7y ago
      My Dell P2715Q also came with its own stand, and it is sufficient for me. But if you are using a six year old, $200 monitor you're not the market for a display like this. Counterbalanced, Humanscale stands go for $400+ Nice equipment is expensive--it is the whole point of this release. https://www.humanscale.com/products/product.cfm?group=m10 https://www.humanscale.com/products/product.cfm?group=m10
      - falcolas 7y ago
        I'm not talking about the monitor, I'm talking about the VESA compatible stand. It just happened to come with a really nice monitor as well. :)
- anthony_romeo 7y ago
  I'm not in the market for this kind of thing, but if I were (and iff the stand is actually superior to competitors') I could see some justification for buying it. Though I don't own a Macbook, there's one aspect that I truly love about them: you can open the laptop easily with one hand. The vast majority of laptops I've come across require two hands. It's a rather minor detail, but as a result it smooths out an equally minor nitpick that I have with other laptops. For many, little details like that are worth the extra money. For example: There's a Dell laptop to the side of my desk. Opening it one-handed causes the lid to open slightly, but then the base starts to rise. I need to either stick my hand inside a bit and wedge it open (which is a little more strenuous than I'd like) or use my other hand to pry it open (which feels fiddly and requires rotating my chair or adjusting my seating position). I don't know enough about fancy monitor stands to judge Apple's stand, but generally: if I needed to perform work that required adjusting my monitor a few times a day, there would be a quite a bit of value in buying a monitor stand that makes the process somewhat easier.
- 013a 7y ago
  I think the bigger concern is that, as far as we know, the Pro Display literally does not come with a stand. You can't even VESA mount it without the $200 addon. It'd be one thing if the $1000 stand was an upgrade from a basic static stand included in the box, but there's no indication that this is the case.
save_ferris 7y ago
I was somewhat surprised with their entire Mac Pro strategy. With a base tower configuration starting at $6k (about twice what I was expecting), they seemed to signal a shift in what they consider a “pro” user to be. They’re pretty clearly chasing after the commercial, high-end computing market, but they’ve kinda left the high-end consumer market behind in some ways. Still no definitive fix to the fly switch keyboards, lots of complaints about other design issues in MacBooks, basic spec bumps in mainstay products like the iMac. All while they continue to (somewhat unjustifiably) raise prices. The new Mac Pro is the coolest piece of tech they’ve built in a while, and it’s completely unsuited for 99.9% of users. What’s the point in mass-marketing it? It felt like watching a marketing video to buy an airplane or something.
- mcphage 7y ago
  > What’s the point in mass-marketing it? It felt like watching a marketing video to buy an airplane or something. It's because sites like this have been complaining for years that Apple has left the Pro market behind. This was their response to that. And now this site is switching to complaining that Apple's definition of "Pro" is too "Pro" for us.
  - wongarsu 7y ago
    > switching to complaining that Apple's definition of "Pro" is too "Pro" for us. If by too Pro you mean someone using an 8 core CPU with 32 GB of RAM ... The higher end models might be great, with some genuine innovation in the GPU interface that to some will justify high prices. But I don't know who the target demographic for a $6k PC with those specs is supposed to be.
    - onebyteman 7y ago
      It’s the rich people who can afford not thinking more than twice to make the purchase. If that excludes almost everyone, thats fine. Apple is making a statement that they are still the premium of the premium
Traster 7y ago
I think if you don't call it out as a separately sold product at a high price people would feel misled.
nabla9 7y ago
Its' $1000 monitor stand with magnetic connector (no screws) that replaces Vesa. It makes it easier to move expensive monitors around regularly. It's sold for professionals who use it with $5000 Apple Pro Display XDR. It's 6K monitor with 1,000 nits brightness (1,600 nits peak). Typically reference monitor of that caliber sells for $30,000 - $40,000. (check the price for Sony BVM-HX310 31" 4K HDR) They could have added $1000 for the monitor price and given the stand with the monitor. Then those who can afford $5000 but not $6000 would have suffered in silence. Internet is reactionary outrage machine.
exxybebbi 7y ago
The stand is a very calculated way to dampen the price tag on the computer. It's psychological warfare.

bredren 7y ago

Apparently decent pivoting, weighted stands are $400. So this is still not outrageously expensive if you are in the market for this type of thing. Perhaps Apple figured it would be seen through the same eyes as those considering a $12k Mac Pro workstation, and appreciated in a similar way. Another note: contra-wise, Apple did flirt with “luxury” watches for a time. Though I think they gave up on that direction.

wongarsu 7y ago
My $200 pivoting stand came with an entire screen for free. Granted, it's not nearly as nice as Apple's stand. But I suspect the reception would have been a lot better if the narrative was "the $5000 screen comes with an ok stand, the great one is $1000 extra" instead of "lol, the $5000 screen is useless unless you buy a $120 Vesa mount plus some off-brand stand, or the $1000 official stand"
- falcolas 7y ago
  My $200, 6 year old stand came with one too, and it even includes the ability to raise and lower the screen, plus the 90° rotation. And wait, there’s more! It also pivots. Underwhelming indeed.
  - bredren 7y ago
    My Dell P2715Q also came with its own stand, and it is sufficient for me. But if you are using a six year old, $200 monitor you're not the market for a display like this. Counterbalanced, Humanscale stands go for $400+ Nice equipment is expensive--it is the whole point of this release. https://www.humanscale.com/products/product.cfm?group=m10 https://www.humanscale.com/products/product.cfm?group=m10
    - falcolas 7y ago
      I'm not talking about the monitor, I'm talking about the VESA compatible stand. It just happened to come with a really nice monitor as well. :)
anthony_romeo 7y ago
I'm not in the market for this kind of thing, but if I were (and iff the stand is actually superior to competitors') I could see some justification for buying it. Though I don't own a Macbook, there's one aspect that I truly love about them: you can open the laptop easily with one hand. The vast majority of laptops I've come across require two hands. It's a rather minor detail, but as a result it smooths out an equally minor nitpick that I have with other laptops. For many, little details like that are worth the extra money. For example: There's a Dell laptop to the side of my desk. Opening it one-handed causes the lid to open slightly, but then the base starts to rise. I need to either stick my hand inside a bit and wedge it open (which is a little more strenuous than I'd like) or use my other hand to pry it open (which feels fiddly and requires rotating my chair or adjusting my seating position). I don't know enough about fancy monitor stands to judge Apple's stand, but generally: if I needed to perform work that required adjusting my monitor a few times a day, there would be a quite a bit of value in buying a monitor stand that makes the process somewhat easier.
013a 7y ago
I think the bigger concern is that, as far as we know, the Pro Display literally does not come with a stand. You can't even VESA mount it without the $200 addon. It'd be one thing if the $1000 stand was an upgrade from a basic static stand included in the box, but there's no indication that this is the case.

save_ferris 7y ago

I was somewhat surprised with their entire Mac Pro strategy. With a base tower configuration starting at $6k (about twice what I was expecting), they seemed to signal a shift in what they consider a “pro” user to be. They’re pretty clearly chasing after the commercial, high-end computing market, but they’ve kinda left the high-end consumer market behind in some ways. Still no definitive fix to the fly switch keyboards, lots of complaints about other design issues in MacBooks, basic spec bumps in mainstay products like the iMac. All while they continue to (somewhat unjustifiably) raise prices. The new Mac Pro is the coolest piece of tech they’ve built in a while, and it’s completely unsuited for 99.9% of users. What’s the point in mass-marketing it? It felt like watching a marketing video to buy an airplane or something.

mcphage 7y ago
> What’s the point in mass-marketing it? It felt like watching a marketing video to buy an airplane or something. It's because sites like this have been complaining for years that Apple has left the Pro market behind. This was their response to that. And now this site is switching to complaining that Apple's definition of "Pro" is too "Pro" for us.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  > switching to complaining that Apple's definition of "Pro" is too "Pro" for us. If by too Pro you mean someone using an 8 core CPU with 32 GB of RAM ... The higher end models might be great, with some genuine innovation in the GPU interface that to some will justify high prices. But I don't know who the target demographic for a $6k PC with those specs is supposed to be.
  - onebyteman 7y ago
    It’s the rich people who can afford not thinking more than twice to make the purchase. If that excludes almost everyone, thats fine. Apple is making a statement that they are still the premium of the premium

Traster 7y ago

I think if you don't call it out as a separately sold product at a high price people would feel misled.

nabla9 7y ago

Its' $1000 monitor stand with magnetic connector (no screws) that replaces Vesa. It makes it easier to move expensive monitors around regularly. It's sold for professionals who use it with $5000 Apple Pro Display XDR. It's 6K monitor with 1,000 nits brightness (1,600 nits peak). Typically reference monitor of that caliber sells for $30,000 - $40,000. (check the price for Sony BVM-HX310 31" 4K HDR) They could have added $1000 for the monitor price and given the stand with the monitor. Then those who can afford $5000 but not $6000 would have suffered in silence. Internet is reactionary outrage machine.

exxybebbi 7y ago

The stand is a very calculated way to dampen the price tag on the computer. It's psychological warfare.