So Apple held a little event with Reporters to talk about it’s plans for the MacPro and Pros in general. TechCrunch has a long article on the event.
Finally Apple is saying that there is a pro future with Apple. That they realize they did wrong with the MacPro Trash can, as it was not easily upgradeable, even for them to release an upgraded model (which they finally released at the event along with a price cut, though this should have come out in 2014). They basically admit that they bet it all on dual processor gpus, which has not proved to be what people want (they didn’t mention that they were custom designed connectors that can’t be replaced, or that NVIDIA is moving away from dual GPU’s). And they made a Machine based around thermal constraints, but couldn’t upgrade it because of that afterwards.
They say they have started working on a new modular system that will include a Pro Display, to release not in 2017, which could mean years. They don’t say anything about user upradeable though, just more easily upgradable by Apple, which is good, but not great. I want to be able to use any PC graphics card, like I can in my old MacPro, and have addition PCI slots as well as Thunderbolt 3, USB 3 and the like, and I wouldn’t mind a Firewire 800 port, though I doubt it. Honestly I want an old MacPro tower with new Tech, not Apple once again trying to prove it’s inovation like it did with the trashcan release.
In the interim they have said there are going to make more Pro iMacs. No idea what that means. More cores? Real desktop graphics? NVIDIA instead of AMD!? I doubt it. User upgradeable? Doubt it? Have to get an Origin Omni for that.
I love Mac, and would love to stay Mac. The question is does Apple really understand what Video Pros want? They sure haven’t since around 2010. Still if I can make my 2009 MacPro last until the new MacPro is released, I can see if I can stay Mac.
I would love to stay Mac, and this gives me sone glimmer of hope, but I still worry as if they were so interested in the Pro user they should be much farther along than not in 2017. Must be a very recent decision. I bet with so many Pros moving to Windows they got scared, though not scared enough to add pen support to laptops!