Thoughts on Mac Pros at WWDC
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Today I reread the transcript of that closed door Mac roundtable event of 2017 where we were promised new Mac Pros.
As I read it one of the things that frustrated me most is how Apple acknowledged and was almost proud of how “pros” have moved on to the portable line and even the iMacs without once considering that this purchasing behavior might be influenced by their own neglect of the Mac Pro line.
Craig Federighi: That is a pretty incredible evolution that we’ve seen over the last decade. The original iMac, you never would’ve thought as remotely touching pro uses. And now you look at today’s 5k iMac, top configs, it’s incredibly powerful, and a huge fraction of what would’ve traditionally required the Mac Pros of old and are being well addressed by iMac.
Later…
Phil Schiller: As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.
That quote was in 2017 and oh how I remember us in the community jumping to conclusions that he must mean we’ll see new Mac Pros in 2018 – but alas they never materialized.
For a meeting who’s goal was to clear things up, they sure did leave us speculating.
Anyways, that event was over two years ago now. It’s time for Apple to show its cards. I’m not saying we need an order form or even a ship date but come June 3rd at WWDC, we need to see what Apple’s plan is. Its time.
Oh, and if the rumors are true, and we end up with some 40-50% margin’d proprietary stack of Mac minis, consider my faith in the Mac Pro completely lost.
If WWDC comes and goes without any news, I’ll live with my assumptions and make my own hardware plans.
Oh and this is funny…
Phil Schiller: Obviously, as you know, we just did a very major update to the MacBook Pro line. That’s going very well. Customers absolutely love it, we’ve had a lot of customers buying them.
Oh, poor 2017 Phil – he doesn’t know yet. In time this line of products, specifically its keyboards will become known as the worst products in Apple history, by even its most devote fans.