Tim Cook reaffirms Apple's commitment to desktops, whatever that means

William Gayde

Posts: 382   +5

With all the buzz about MacBooks, iPhones, and AirPods, it's easy to forget what used to be Apple's core product line and what they were founded on. 2016 saw no major desktop releases from Apple, but CEO Tim Cook hasn't forgotten about them or so he's said. In an internal memo obtained by TechCrunch, Cook made it clear that great desktops would be part of Apple's roadmap in the future. Previous rumors centered on the belief that Apple would no longer pursue desktops because the mobile market was growing so quickly.

Cook reassured Apple employees that nobody should worry about the issue. He cited key benefits of desktops over portable devices like better performance, higher storage capacity, and a greater variety of I/O. That's definitely a welcomed change of pace over Apple's recent product launches. The desktop refresh cycle at Apple is much slower than with the iPhone and MacBook.

Given that the current 5K iMac is still performing well (uses a Core i5 Skylake on the base model), Apple wanted to focus elsewhere for the time being. On the other hand, hardcore Mac users certainly have valid reasons to complain with base iMacs still using standard disk drives and the Mac Pro not receiving any updates whatsoever in three years.

Alluding to the recent AirPods release, Tim Cook maintained that Apple will focus on bring together both their hardware and software teams. This is what gave them success in the past and also what Cook hopes will make Apple successful in the future. The latter part of the memo was a bit of a pep talk for employees. Cook touched on renewable energy and the company's culture in what amounts to a very traditional end of year memo.

There was no mention however of whether Apple will be focusing on the iMac or Mac Pro but regardless of your opinion on Apple, expect to see many new products in the coming months.

Permalink to story.

 
You heard it here first:
- Budget Gaming PC with integrated graphics: $3000
- Midrange Gaming PC with dedicated video(RX460/GTX1050): $4500
- Enthusiast Gaming PC with extremely powerful dedicated video(GTX1060/RX480): $7000
 
Apple needs to produce a mid-grade, gaming-capable desktop aimed squarely at prosumers and average gamers (the ones who go for max price-to-performance). It also needs to be priced to compete with major PC brands. Seriously, this is what they've always been missing, and there are FAR more Mac games on Steam now. Apple has never made serious inroads on the desktop due to high prices and lack of software - and the latter has become much less of an issue over the past decade. With Microsoft becoming totally anti-consumer the time is right to displace a big chunk of the Windows market. I'm sure that AMD would be all too happy to cut a great deal on Radeon chipsets (and CPUs as well!) if Apple got serious about the PC market. Apple doesn't *need* to make their crazy high margins on desktop machines if it gets a properly-functioning iTunes, complete with desktop software store, in front of more consumers.
 
You heard it here first:
- Budget Gaming PC with integrated graphics: $3000
- Midrange Gaming PC with dedicated video(RX460/GTX1050): $4500
- Enthusiast Gaming PC with extremely powerful dedicated video(GTX1060/RX480): $7000
I chuckled.
 
You heard it here first:
- Budget Gaming PC with integrated graphics: $3000
- Midrange Gaming PC with dedicated video(RX460/GTX1050): $4500
- Enthusiast Gaming PC with extremely powerful dedicated video(GTX1060/RX480): $7000

Hopefully those prices would include a big 4k monitor. But I know better :/

Apple would have 25% of the pre-built sales within two years if they offered exactly what you described but at the 700, 1200 and 2000 dollar points minus monitor, with displays ranging from $200 to $550. Like it or not the mobile revolution is slowing down. The desktop and living room are poised to be the new centers of innovation as VR and deeper gaming experiences are developed for the mass market. AppleTV has barely made a dent, and little wonder when you've got $350 XB1s and PSX4s (not to mention a $35 Chromecast and smart TVs with major streaming services built in). Apple could take a hint from Valve and provide game streaming from a new generation of Macs or cloud-based providers. Even PC games could be available if iTunes for Windows supported it.
 
Apple is dead on the desktop pc market. Their whole desktop line up is ridiculously priced for really old tech and their systems arent that much customizable. No way apple beats a pc with windows on it.In no area. not for gaming, video or audio or photo editing, and never for gaming.
 
Apple is dead on the desktop pc market. Their whole desktop line up is ridiculously priced for really old tech and their systems arent that much customizable. No way apple beats a pc with windows on it.In no area. not for gaming, video or audio or photo editing, and never for gaming.

Apple is still the defacto choice for editing of all types and that won't change the way Microsoft is going. With Windows 10's forced updates, ads, and general lack of control Apple will remain the choice of professional editors. I could walk into 10 different high schools in my area and every video editing classroom would be filled with Macs.
 
Apple is dead on the desktop pc market. Their whole desktop line up is ridiculously priced for really old tech and their systems arent that much customizable. No way apple beats a pc with windows on it.In no area. not for gaming, video or audio or photo editing, and never for gaming.

Apple is still the defacto choice for editing of all types and that won't change the way Microsoft is going. With Windows 10's forced updates, ads, and general lack of control Apple will remain the choice of professional editors. I could walk into 10 different high schools in my area and every video editing classroom would be filled with Macs.

yeah macs still have a pretty tight grip on the creative industry and web development industry.
 
You heard it here first:
- Budget Gaming PC with integrated graphics: $3000
- Midrange Gaming PC with dedicated video(RX460/GTX1050): $4500
- Enthusiast Gaming PC with extremely powerful dedicated video(GTX1060/RX480): $7000

Hopefully those prices would include a big 4k monitor. But I know better :/
oh no no no.

The default monitor is a 768p TN panel. The 1600x900 TN panel upgrade is another $1200, and the 1080p IPS is $2300. But for only $4400, you can get a 4k30 IPS monitor! It even includes a free USB hub built in (usb 2.0 speed. 3.0 speed $450 extra)
 
Apple is dead on the desktop pc market. Their whole desktop line up is ridiculously priced for really old tech and their systems arent that much customizable. No way apple beats a pc with windows on it.In no area. not for gaming, video or audio or photo editing, and never for gaming.

Apple is still the defacto choice for editing of all types and that won't change the way Microsoft is going. With Windows 10's forced updates, ads, and general lack of control Apple will remain the choice of professional editors. I could walk into 10 different high schools in my area and every video editing classroom would be filled with Macs.

No, they aren't. Time is money, and Macs are far slower than anything modern on the market - even before Ryzen hits. None of the big studios use them anymore and most never did. Nobody renders on a Mac anymore because they're abysmally slow, have no Nvidia cards (no iRay/CUDA), and you can't upgrade them. Your comment is just more sales pitching.

You may find some Macs in the audio world, where number-crunching isn't as critical, but in video/CGI they've been dead for years. FinalCut Pro has been completely displaced by Nuke. It's a mere toy in comparison. Maya runs on a Mac, sure, but Max doesn't. Rhino doesn't. CATIA doesn't. SolidWorks doesn't.

So you may see a few small studios (South Park, for example) using Macs for the "creative professionals" to work on, but the rendering is still done on Windows and LINUX stations. And South Park is a great metaphor for what the Mac has always been, in the CGI world: a comedy cartoon.
 
No, they aren't. Time is money, and Macs are far slower than anything modern on the market - even before Ryzen hits. None of the big studios use them anymore and most never did. Nobody renders on a Mac anymore because they're abysmally slow, have no Nvidia cards (no iRay/CUDA), and you can't upgrade them. Your comment is just more sales pitching.

You may find some Macs in the audio world, where number-crunching isn't as critical, but in video/CGI they've been dead for years. FinalCut Pro has been completely displaced by Nuke. It's a mere toy in comparison. Maya runs on a Mac, sure, but Max doesn't. Rhino doesn't. CATIA doesn't. SolidWorks doesn't.

So you may see a few small studios (South Park, for example) using Macs for the "creative professionals" to work on, but the rendering is still done on Windows and LINUX stations. And South Park is a great metaphor for what the Mac has always been, in the CGI world: a comedy cartoon.

You do realize that AMD cards can emulate CUDA with little performance loss right? AMD have been building up their GPUOpen for some time now.
 
You do realize that AMD cards can emulate CUDA with little performance loss right? AMD have been building up their GPUOpen for some time now.

Sure, we can emulate all kinds of fun stuff. But the Nvidia cards are still faster, support for mental ray, iRay, and CUDA goes to them (AMD can't answer those questions), and since that's your only argument here it seems like a paltry grasping at straws.

Anything else, bud? Or are you just in love with your trashcan?
 
Sure, we can emulate all kinds of fun stuff. But the Nvidia cards are still faster, support for mental ray, iRay, and CUDA goes to them (AMD can't answer those questions), and since that's your only argument here it seems like a paltry grasping at straws.

Anything else, bud? Or are you just in love with your trashcan?

ahahha! I'm not going to argue with someone who obviously has their own version of reality. It doesn't matter that Macs are slower, they are still used for lots of professional work. Please, let's see a link to back up any of your conjecture.
 
ahahha! I'm not going to argue with someone who obviously has their own version of reality. It doesn't matter that Macs are slower, they are still used for lots of professional work. Please, let's see a link to back up any of your conjecture.

Irrelevant. Everyone has their own version of reality, and I'd really like to hope you can come up with a more creative or original straw man response than that. In any industry, time is money. Devs and managers in the studios don't have time to wait around for now-ancient hardware to putter along with rendering. And what about fluid sims and dynamic simulations, both CPU-bound and GPU? Speed and stability are paramount in these industries, and the Mac has had nothing but headaches in Maya since day one, much less other software tools such as Nuke or Photoshop. The cornerstone apps of this industry, and Apple has dropped the ball completely. No upgrades in 3 years?

Need a link? Not in the know on a topic you decided to argue about? Get educated.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/

Enjoy, and don't take this too personally. If you're not in the field, how could you know?
 
Irrelevant. Everyone has their own version of reality, and I'd really like to hope you can come up with a more creative or original straw man response than that. In any industry, time is money. Devs and managers in the studios don't have time to wait around for now-ancient hardware to putter along with rendering. And what about fluid sims and dynamic simulations, both CPU-bound and GPU? Speed and stability are paramount in these industries, and the Mac has had nothing but headaches in Maya since day one, much less other software tools such as Nuke or Photoshop. The cornerstone apps of this industry, and Apple has dropped the ball completely. No upgrades in 3 years?

Need a link? Not in the know on a topic you decided to argue about? Get educated.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/

Enjoy, and don't take this too personally. If you're not in the field, how could you know?

LOL, dude says gets educated and links a forum. 10/10 worst troll. You seem to be focusing on 3D rendering when I never even mentioned it once. I said "professional editors". I need to get educated? You need to learn to read mate.
 
LOL, dude says gets educated and links a forum. 10/10 worst troll. You seem to be focusing on 3D rendering when I never even mentioned it once. I said "professional editors". I need to get educated? You need to learn to read mate.

So you're not familiar with the largest, premier CGI and editing community online, ever? You know, the one where all the professionals hang out, from Pixar, Dreamworks, ILM, and every other major studio in the world? You weren't even aware of CGtalk?

Well that explains why you don't know anything about computers, then, or what folks in the industry actually use. Hey, thanks for being cool about being so wrong, anyway. I think we all appreciate your grace in capitulation.
 
So you're not familiar with the largest, premier CGI and editing community online, ever? You know, the one where all the professionals hang out, from Pixar, Dreamworks, ILM, and every other major studio in the world? You weren't even aware of CGtalk?

Well that explains why you don't know anything about computers, then, or what folks in the industry actually use. Hey, thanks for being cool about being so wrong, anyway. I think we all appreciate your grace in capitulation.

LOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOL

You know someone is grasping at straws when they go completely off topic, again. Once again, I never one mentioned CGI / 3D rendering. You keep trying to take it there to prove your strawman argument.

But thanks for the awesome laugh. The old "I can't provide any source but will mock you because you didn't answer my strawman question" is always funny.
 
LOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOL

You know someone is grasping at straws when they go completely off topic, again. Once again, I never one mentioned CGI / 3D rendering. You keep trying to take it there to prove your strawman argument.

But thanks for the awesome laugh. The old "I can't provide any source but will mock you because you didn't answer my strawman question" is always funny.

Well, you sure showed us. All of us, at PIxar and Sony and Industrial L & M and Autodesk and Adobe. With that many "LOLs", obviously you must be right even though you couldn't form an argument or frame a comeback at all. Good work, bud. We're all pulling for you through these tough times - keep the struggle alive!
 
Well, you sure showed us. All of us, at PIxar and Sony and Industrial L & M and Autodesk and Adobe. With that many "LOLs", obviously you must be right even though you couldn't form an argument or frame a comeback at all. Good work, bud. We're all pulling for you through these tough times - keep the struggle alive!

HahahahaHahahahaHahahahaHahahahaHahahaha

You made my day. I haven't heard something so ironic in a long time. Hey, at least you care enough to checkup and post only seconds after me. This must be a hot thread for you.
 
HahahahaHahahahaHahahahaHahahahaHahahaha

You made my day. I haven't heard something so ironic in a long time. Hey, at least you care enough to checkup and post only seconds after me. This must be a hot thread for you.

Sounds good, bud. Let us know when you come up with an actual rebuttal. It's gonna take at least 10 times as long on your Mac, so we understand and will wait accordingly. You do get extra points however for repeated online fake-laughter, which is of course the hallmark of any good polemics. +1 to Uselessness. Gold foil .
 
HahahahaHahahahaHahahahaHahahahaHahahaha

You made my day. I haven't heard something so ironic in a long time. Hey, at least you care enough to checkup and post only seconds after me. This must be a hot thread for you.

And since you needed a mainstream picture-friendly garbage link (which you will instantly attempt to discredit since your cognitive dissonance is too strong), here you go.

macOS is becoming legacy software
by Vlad Savov@vladsavov Dec 21, 2016, 10:01am EST

http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/21/14037686/apple-macbook-macos-focus-mobile-features-ios
 
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