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> It is unclear whether the spread-sheeting-loving, consensus-oriented, even-keeled Cook can successfully reshape the cult-like culture that Jobs built. Though

> It is unclear whether the spread-sheeting-loving, consensus-oriented, even-keeled Cook can successfully reshape the cult-like culture that Jobs built. Though Cook has deftly managed the iPhone and iPad product lines, which continue to deliver enormous profits, Apple has yet to launch a major new product under Cook; talk of watches and televisions remains just that. It bothers me everybody ignores the already announced Mac Pro. It's more niche than an iPhone or iPad but an important one for many Mac users, and the specs and design really push innovation forward on a market that is almost dead (desktops).

mmanfrin 13y ago
I wouldn't really say it pushed innovation forward. It's a mac with heavy specs. The only thing innovative about it is the enclosure -- which, while novel, isn't terribly noteworthy.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
  I have to disagree. There's a couple of things that drive innovation, like the storage on PCI-Ex bus, and the fact they cram 12 Xeon cores and 2 high-end GPUs in a can and still manage to air cool it. The fact there's a good amount of high-end specs in a totally new form factor is what makes it interesting for me.
  - jmduke 13y ago
    You can make the argument that Apple's biggest triumphs haven't been hardware innovations but commercial and usability ones. People aren't necessarily concerned that Tim Cook can't make a better desktop, but that he can't concieve products that leapfrog entire markets and industries like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad did.
    - r00fus 13y ago
      Some of the biggest innovations that Apple made, IMHO, were pricing related. The push to mandate unlimited data with every iPhone (and make that data plan $20 with 200 SMS) was critical to the iPhone's success - for me, coming from the Palm platform, it was simply amazing, while one the road, to go to the App Store, download an app, and in seconds be using it. Wouldn't be possible for most if they had to have a conversation with AT&T for 30m to add a data plan prior to doing the above. Also, the innovation with the iPad to allow you to sign up for the 3G anytime pre-paid was incredible.
  - seabrookmx 13y ago
    PCIe storage has been available for PCs for quite some time. 12 Xeon cores on air.. do you think servers liquid cool these chips? Of course they cool them with air, that's how they're designed to be cooled. I am impressed they crammed it all into a package that's only 10inches tall - but this is completely at the expense of modularity and expandability. You can't easily throw a new hard drive or GPU in this new configuration.
- snowwrestler 13y ago
  Yes, and the iPod was just a Nomad with less space. (The problem with talking about innovation is that the goalposts are so easily moved.)
e1ven 13y ago
The Mac Pro is a significant redesign, but not a new product line. Apple has often (in recent years) been in a position where significant portions of their revenue are from product categories which did not exist 2 years ago. There is a fear that they will not continue to invent/expand into new categories.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
  I don't know. MP3 players, smartphones and tablets already existed for a while by the time Apple announced it's products. But the products were so successful that they are now credited as having (re)invented the market. I don't see why this can't happen, for instance, with workstations, this market has been stagnant for a while.
  - MaysonL 13y ago
    Looking at the MacBook Air, and retina MBP, and their success, Apple seems to have done a fair job of reinventing the laptop market. Quite possibly, the desktop will follow.
    - zeckalpha 13y ago
      MBA was a better netbook. Retina is just catching up to where displays should be had they not stopped improving this century. These are incremental, not reinventing. These are successes, but they shouldn't be held up as reinventing when they aren't.
- adamio 13y ago
  Apple didn't necessarily invent new categories, they offered revolutionary products in existing categories. Even back from the start. Mac (obseletes CLI) iMac, iPod, iPhone
  - throwit1979 13y ago
    As I do ~ 40% of my work from Terminal.app, I'm not sure how the introduction of the Mac obsoleted the CLI.
Osmium 13y ago
Not only that, but the press seems to have a very myopic view on "innovation." It doesn't happen overnight. It was 6 years between the iPod and the iPhone, another 3 before the iPad, and they're still arguably refining both. If Apple still hasn't released something interesting in another 3 years, maybe (maybe) then it'll be worth agonising over. And I couldn't agree more about the Mac Pro by the way.
- quaunaut 13y ago
  Except every year there for quite awhile, there were innovations on the iPhone and iPad. There haven't been, for two years running.
  - siglesias 13y ago
    Really? Let's look at diffs. iPhone -> iPhone 3G: Addition of 3G, GPS. enclosure became plastic. iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS: Video camera iPhone 3G -> iPhone 4: Retina, significantly improved camera, new enclosure, addition of front facing camera iPhone 4 -> iPhone 4S: Siri, better camera iPhone 4S -> iPhone 5: New screen form factor, significantly improved enclosure, lightning connector, LTE iPad -> iPad 2: thinner and lighter, cameras iPad 2 -> iPad 3: LTE, Retina iPad 3 -> iPad 4: lightning connector I don't see any significant decline in diff quality over time. edited for correctness
    - smackfu 13y ago
      4S doesn't have LTE, and Siri is very debatable as requiring the new hardware, so that one was a pretty weak update.
      - siglesias 13y ago
        As it is, 4S was developed under Jobs.
        quaunaut 13y ago
        No, it really wasn't. Did he have some idea the 4S was the direction it would take? Sure. But for God's sake, that phone was released a week and a half after he died. He hadn't been at work very much for a year before that.
clarky07 13y ago
The reason people ignore the Mac Pro is because it doesn't move the needle revenue/profit wise. At this point, all of Mac barely moves the needle. The Mac Pro is a tiny niche product that is cool and very much needed, just for a very small subset of people.

mmanfrin 13y ago

I wouldn't really say it pushed innovation forward. It's a mac with heavy specs. The only thing innovative about it is the enclosure -- which, while novel, isn't terribly noteworthy.

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
I have to disagree. There's a couple of things that drive innovation, like the storage on PCI-Ex bus, and the fact they cram 12 Xeon cores and 2 high-end GPUs in a can and still manage to air cool it. The fact there's a good amount of high-end specs in a totally new form factor is what makes it interesting for me.
- jmduke 13y ago
  You can make the argument that Apple's biggest triumphs haven't been hardware innovations but commercial and usability ones. People aren't necessarily concerned that Tim Cook can't make a better desktop, but that he can't concieve products that leapfrog entire markets and industries like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad did.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    Some of the biggest innovations that Apple made, IMHO, were pricing related. The push to mandate unlimited data with every iPhone (and make that data plan $20 with 200 SMS) was critical to the iPhone's success - for me, coming from the Palm platform, it was simply amazing, while one the road, to go to the App Store, download an app, and in seconds be using it. Wouldn't be possible for most if they had to have a conversation with AT&T for 30m to add a data plan prior to doing the above. Also, the innovation with the iPad to allow you to sign up for the 3G anytime pre-paid was incredible.
- seabrookmx 13y ago
  PCIe storage has been available for PCs for quite some time. 12 Xeon cores on air.. do you think servers liquid cool these chips? Of course they cool them with air, that's how they're designed to be cooled. I am impressed they crammed it all into a package that's only 10inches tall - but this is completely at the expense of modularity and expandability. You can't easily throw a new hard drive or GPU in this new configuration.
snowwrestler 13y ago
Yes, and the iPod was just a Nomad with less space. (The problem with talking about innovation is that the goalposts are so easily moved.)

e1ven 13y ago

The Mac Pro is a significant redesign, but not a new product line. Apple has often (in recent years) been in a position where significant portions of their revenue are from product categories which did not exist 2 years ago. There is a fear that they will not continue to invent/expand into new categories.

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
I don't know. MP3 players, smartphones and tablets already existed for a while by the time Apple announced it's products. But the products were so successful that they are now credited as having (re)invented the market. I don't see why this can't happen, for instance, with workstations, this market has been stagnant for a while.
- MaysonL 13y ago
  Looking at the MacBook Air, and retina MBP, and their success, Apple seems to have done a fair job of reinventing the laptop market. Quite possibly, the desktop will follow.
  - zeckalpha 13y ago
    MBA was a better netbook. Retina is just catching up to where displays should be had they not stopped improving this century. These are incremental, not reinventing. These are successes, but they shouldn't be held up as reinventing when they aren't.
adamio 13y ago
Apple didn't necessarily invent new categories, they offered revolutionary products in existing categories. Even back from the start. Mac (obseletes CLI) iMac, iPod, iPhone
- throwit1979 13y ago
  As I do ~ 40% of my work from Terminal.app, I'm not sure how the introduction of the Mac obsoleted the CLI.

Osmium 13y ago

Not only that, but the press seems to have a very myopic view on "innovation." It doesn't happen overnight. It was 6 years between the iPod and the iPhone, another 3 before the iPad, and they're still arguably refining both. If Apple still hasn't released something interesting in another 3 years, maybe (maybe) then it'll be worth agonising over. And I couldn't agree more about the Mac Pro by the way.

quaunaut 13y ago
Except every year there for quite awhile, there were innovations on the iPhone and iPad. There haven't been, for two years running.
- siglesias 13y ago
  Really? Let's look at diffs. iPhone -> iPhone 3G: Addition of 3G, GPS. enclosure became plastic. iPhone 3G -> iPhone 3GS: Video camera iPhone 3G -> iPhone 4: Retina, significantly improved camera, new enclosure, addition of front facing camera iPhone 4 -> iPhone 4S: Siri, better camera iPhone 4S -> iPhone 5: New screen form factor, significantly improved enclosure, lightning connector, LTE iPad -> iPad 2: thinner and lighter, cameras iPad 2 -> iPad 3: LTE, Retina iPad 3 -> iPad 4: lightning connector I don't see any significant decline in diff quality over time. edited for correctness
  - smackfu 13y ago
    4S doesn't have LTE, and Siri is very debatable as requiring the new hardware, so that one was a pretty weak update.
    - siglesias 13y ago
      As it is, 4S was developed under Jobs.
      - quaunaut 13y ago
        No, it really wasn't. Did he have some idea the 4S was the direction it would take? Sure. But for God's sake, that phone was released a week and a half after he died. He hadn't been at work very much for a year before that.

clarky07 13y ago

The reason people ignore the Mac Pro is because it doesn't move the needle revenue/profit wise. At this point, all of Mac barely moves the needle. The Mac Pro is a tiny niche product that is cool and very much needed, just for a very small subset of people.