Will Apple really discontinue the Mac Pro?

[Stuartfox]

And will that mean the beginning of the end for DP ?

[Matcher]

[buzzsmith]

I hope not, but...

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/31/app ... -pro-line/

Buzzy

[Kubi]

The point seems to be that Thunderbolt w external chassis-type expansion units can take care of expandability, and that modern processors are more than capable to have laptops outperform towers by then.

With all that in mind I don't think it'll be much of a change if it did happen - use your tower til it dies, then switch to laptop when it's time to upgrade.

I for one wouldn't mind having my main studio CPU be a laptop (love the idea of taking it with me at a moment's notice), as long as I can have plenty of storage, audio interfaces etc. hooked up via a buss that's faster than FW or USB. Which seems like that's exactly what'll be the case.

[crescentoon55]

There are only a few companies offering pcie expandable thunderbolt units... One is magma which costs about 1000.00 for 3 slots. By the time you buy everything, you might be spending as much as on a new mac pro without the speed you need. That's, of course, if Apple continues the mac pro line. If not, the better bang for the buck might be to buy a used or new mac pro while you can...

[FutureLegends]

Worrying but not very surprising. Or maybe it was. I sort of expected Apple to ditch PCI (good riddance!) but continue with the MacPro in some form. I still hope that the rumours that circulated a few months ago about a rack mountable MacPro will turn out to be true...

[bayswater]

It makes sense from Apple's perspective. They presumably want to move to Thunderbolt support, and they've never been slow to dump support for older technologies, expecting people to simply buy newer versions of peripherals they already have. How long will it be before they can put the top end processors and a couple of thunderbolt ports in a MINI?

[Michael Canavan]

Sorry, but this seems like the dumbest rumor to come out in years.
The current top Mac Pro is a 12 core machine, the current imac is 4 core, so is the laptop.
Small form factors will never have the power of a tower, whether Apple make a lot of money off them or not, the towers cement Apples place as one of the fastest computers you can buy at any cost. I don't think they want a return to Power PC days where Dell rigs for 3/4 the price could stomp them in pure CPU muscle.

[bayswater]

I disagree. There is a realistic prospect over the next few years that smaller Macs without traditional expansion slots will serve the vast majority of situations, and product rationalization is something Apple is pretty ruthless about.

I heard the same argument about how mainframes would always be vastly superior to micro computers. May be technically true, but it didn't matter.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

[HCMarkus]

The enterprise-grade Sandy Bridge processors the next Mac Pro will use have been delayed by Intel, but are currently expected Q1 2012. My favorite theory on this is the one that suggests the rumor is intended to spur sales of the current Mac Pros to make room for the next model.

Absent a time reference, the question is one that must be answered with a yes. Of course, SOMEDAY the Mac Pro will be discontinued. I suspect that when this day arrives, Apple will simultaneously announce the replacement "Mac Pro Plus" or something like that. At the very least, Apple will license a third party to make a Mac Pro-type box to avoid simply abandoning this market to the Hackintosh.

MLC, your graphic is so perfect.

[macguy]

If you want the muscle then the MP's are the only way to go... hacks are great but just as everything evolves, someone knows how to blur the fine lines between what a Mac really is!
I think if you are looking at a screen, then a Mac is OSX and these days, with Chameleon doing very well and EFI becoming as prevalent as it is on PC MOBO's, then really, a Mac is really the OS when you get down to the real guts of it.
Xeons are workhorses compared to the i7's so for workhorses... the MP's win out IMHO.
They will have to run Logic X and FCX on something so....

[mikehalloran]

The next discontinued Mac Pro is being tested with 16-core processors... so, probably not yet.

OWC has been saying for a while that reasonably priced TB peripherals are all waiting for Intel to release the low priced chips they have been promising - and no one should expect them before 2nd Q. 2012. I see no reason to doubt them on this.

[Stuartfox]

The only thing that worries me is Apples recent track record, especially considering FinalCut X. They don't seem to mind stripping features that a loyal core of professionals rely on and simply saying thats that.

If there is truly a modular solution available in 5 years time then great. I did think that the removable processor / memory trays introduced in the 2008 MP's would pave the way for processor upgrades. Not happened yet.

And there's the business aspect - Apple have a record of not spreading themselves thinly but trying to back the single winning horse as it were. Surely now that means investing maximum resources into iOS devices and MacBooks.

In any case, I will watch with interest as I'll be due a MP update sometime next year. Hope I can use one for a little longer.

[dixiechicken]

DC here!

Yes I'm sure they will - unfortunately.

Apple is in the business to make a profit - they will switch to toasters if that is what it takes. The board of directors has a legal resposibility to generate profits for the shareholders - thats a fact.

Ever since the first iMac models hit the market Apple has been gearing towards consumer products. ( and quite successfully too - right )

Macs are never gonna make in the corparate world - they cant even be connected onto the Active Directory and create a computer account in the domain. So Macs in the corparate AD-domain can not be administered by group policies - that is a huge no no for any admin.

If the Mac Pro line does not generate enough profit for Apple,
they will kill it sooner or later.

Unless perhaps - this very moove will generate enough ruckus among users that an -
Apotheker-HP - situation will be created.

Just a matter of time - if not enough profit rolls in.

Cheers: Dixiechicken!