Hi guys,

Just fell on this this morning: basically it is a Facebook group requesting a straight answer from Apple on the Mac Pro's future, 2,495 members as I am writing.

The more, the merrier;)

and let's hope we get a straight answer.

Thats cool but more important is Apple on it and is seeing it?

I believe if enough people join the group this will get visibility. Lots of companies monitor what is going on on Social media platforms such as Fb and Twitter and try to make sure it does not get out of control. You never know what the snowball effect might be.

Also some of the people there write repeated emails to Apple Support.

We can only hope...

True that then the other question would be does Apple care?

I guess that if they don't care, we'll have the beginning of an answer...

Apple will do what they decide to do, based on how well products sell in the market, not by what some minority demands. I'm sorry, that's the facts of life. If Apple has data showing that an upgraded tower will not sell enough to be worth while, they won't sell them. Just like the XServe. A petition will have zero impact. It's not about caring or not caring, it's about what sells and doesn't sell, period.

Yes and no. It's not only about economics, it is also about brand positionning; does Apple only want to be a manufacturer of igadgdets? I'm fine if that is the case, but I want to know.

Since I started using final cut pro, I have had 1 powermac G4, 1 powermac G5, 1 macpro, 2 macbookpros, 3 ipods and 1 ipad. I would never have puchased all these if I had not started with the G4 and Final Cut Pro; and I am pretty certain I am not the only one in this case, and not only in the video production world.

It is also about loyalty. Maybe Apple has a in the cloud editing solution, may be new towers but I have had a budget for renewal available for almost a year now and need to move on. If the solution is "buy an iMac", well no thanks. Not for the daily work.

Of course this group will not influence Apple's strategy, but I believe, because what their gear means to us, they owe us an answer.

I don't think Apple will drop there Pro line, why would they after holding on two major pro Apps that they only produce for Mac.
Yeah you might be right Apple might not be making much money with Mac Pro at this moment. But reason is there hand if you don't update you won't sale. You think Ford would be around if they never updated the models? Nope.

Besides in a 64bit world why would a smart computer manufacture locked them self in by producing simple computers that don't benefit from this? We will see if they are smart.

We might not see the same case but I think we will see a upgradable system.

Like Toyota is going to ask you first before they develop a new product? Manufactures do not "owe" consumers anything. You buy their stuff or you don't, simple as that.

That said, why do you need a tower? I work on a 2008 Mac Pro, and it is doing a great job, I have no need to upgrade at this point. I also have a MBP for training on the road in the rare times I need it. I'd love to not have a tower, only one Mac laptop.

I spent two weeks editing with FCP X on a brand new 17" full blown MBP with a LaCie 2TB T'bolt drive. It outperformed my tower immensely.

There have not been any new server grade CPU's to upgrade the Mac Pro with in a couple of years now. Intel just released their new CPUs, which includes a server grade CPU, and many mobile grade CPUs. We will see what happens. But the server grade and mobile grade CPUs don't differ as much as they used to in the past.

Thus, iMacs and MPBs will be as powerful as a tower with T'bot, more advanced CPUs, more advanced GPUs. The "tower" is an aging technology format that is not all that special any longer.

So why do you need a "tower" if you can get a MBP or iMac cheaper that's just as powerful?

Most professional editors I know use MBPs and iMacs, very few have actual towers any longer. If I can get a MBP later this summer with a good enough GPU, pair it up with a T'bolt RAID, and I'll never go back to a tower.

Apple doesn't "owe" anyone anything, no manufacture does. We are all aware of how Apple does business, we buy their stuff or we don't.

You don' understand it is not Toyota is going to ask they won't sale nothing if they don't updated there models to keep up with the competition.

I don't know man I find the iMac 16GB (32GB) and Macbook Pro 8GB pretty damn limited and it gets to its knees quick with Apple Motion anything that need power to run.
Hook up a second Monitor you slice your RAM in half no second card there...

Yeah you might be right your 2008 Mac Pro might be out perform by your Macbook Pro.
But what are the guts in your Mac Pro. As I mention in a other thread our Mac Pro out perform our iMacs in Rendering and are snappier...

But hey maybe you are right, maybe Apple really doesn't care about the Pro industry and they stick to Sandbox systems.
I guess Windows market will get it's share right. There are allot of Apps on both platforms.

One thing you forget about the macpro as well is the fact that you can upgrade its hatdware. Forget this with mbps and imacs which get updated by apple 3 times a year...and are obsolete very quickly. Quite frankly I have a macpro 2008 and a mbp bought at the same period, and a high end mbp it was. I cannot use the mbp for video editing anymore, it is just too freaking slow...while the macpro still can be used although I would need more horspower and thunderbolt... You will tell me it is comparing apples (no pun intended) and oranges... Yes, exactly, that's what it is

Interresting blog entry Does the MacPro Have A Future? /url] from Larry Jordan.

Especially:

Uhm, has Intel delivered the new chipset yet? Before that happens Apple won't deliver a new Pro.

HP, Boxx and Dell have the same issues with their workstations.

There latest workstation CPU is ready have they delivered don't know.

We need a new expensive Mac Pro tower why?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=364190930311273

New CPUs shipping soon.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/31/intel-launches-dual-core-and-ultra-low-voltage-ivy-bridge-processors/

BenB wrote:
Great all we need is more room for bottleneck and unpracticality!

Here some more conspiracy on the Mac Pro
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/05/31/reliable_source_says_no_chance_apple_will_ax_mac_pro.html

"Great all we need is more room for bottleneck and unpracticality!"

Where do you get bottleneck and "impracticality" from?

Well PCI vs Thunderbolt and having a bunch of boxes on my desk to power two cards and IO is not very practicality compared having it in one powerful box underneath the table.

I teach, consult on-site, edit on-site, so a laptop is necessary. Having one 17" MBP with one T'bolt cable would be great. I can put a PCIe box, a RAID, monitors on that one cable. The physical devices are small, and all together would physically take up less space than one massive tower, generate less heat, too. And I'd have the best RAID throughput short of fibre.

So it's not "a bunch of boxes on my desk", it's two, on the floor where a tower would sit, taking up less space, generating much less heat. My MP generates tons and tons of heat, and that is an major issue in our studio. Getting to the back of the tower is a royal PITA, so a small PCIe box would be much, much more practical. And I'd only have to buy one computer, not two.

Now, where is the bottleneck?

Speed.

You are right if you want to editing but we the facility I work at we do much more not just editing. Macbook Pro are just not fast enough, maybe a Windows laptop... the Thunderbolt Raids are cool we have few Promises hanging around for local backup but I don't want to miss the connection to our server room which we are peaking to a PB try backing that up lol

The Mac Pros eat our Macbook Pros in Rendering for breakfast.

If you are having heat issues from Mac Pro should bring back the guy who design your studio... no issues here and we have in our largest room 18 Mac Pro just chilling.