So if you were one of the many professionals (or enthusiasts) that were disappointed by the almost non-existent Mac Pro update, and a little jealous of the attention that the Macbook Pro received, there may be some hope after all. This should be taken with a grain of salt, but it seems that people are getting emails from a certain Mr. Cook who just happens to be the CEO of Apple. In these emails, Tim Cook describes Apple's philosophy and its dedication to professional users -- not relying on sales to dictate where particular product lines are headed (though that seems slightly hard to believe). There was also a New York Times article from David Pogue and a Forbes article confirming those same words, that new iMacs and Mac Pros are coming. The only real question is when?
Here is the full email from Tim Cook that appeared on the Facebook Mac Pro page, thanks to user Andy Kaczé for pointing this out (fake or not it is interesting to read):
Stephen,
Pro customers like you are very important to Apple.
As you probably know, we’ve been continuing to update Final Cut Pro X with revolutionary pro features like industry leading multi-cam support and we just updated Aperture with incredible new image adjustment features.
Although the Mac Pro has been selling to a smaller audience (as you noted) , financial projections have never been the filter for determining our product pipeline. So stay tuned. We are planning a new Mac Pro for later next year.
I’d recommend you also give the new MacBook Pro a look. It is truly jaw dropping.
Best,
Tim
So it seems like the new Mac Pros are coming. This is confirmed by the New York Times, and Forbes, not just a Facebook comment that may or may not be truthful. Unfortunately, if your system is starting to show its age, and you are beginning to invest in USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt, you may have to wait until sometime in 2013 to get these updates on an official system. That may not be the news many wanted to hear, but Apple may not be abandoning the professionals like we originally thought. Unfortunately for Apple, many pros and post houses don't have time to wait around and see what Apple is planning to come out with. They've got big projects with speed concerns and to wait around with 3 year-old systems just doesn't make sense from a productivity standpoint.
Why didn't Apple give a real update to its Mac Pro? There are a few possible reasons. They could be waiting for the Ivy Bridge Xeon processors, which have not yet been released. Another possible reason, which may actually be more likely, is that they want to transition their entire line to 4K ready and capable. There's no question that higher-end productions are moving to 4K, and TVs will move to 4K sooner rather than later. It's certainly possible that they are going to wait until all of the higher-end product lines match up and are "Retina" 4K capable. The iMac will surely get a Retina update at some point, and it's possible we will see a 5K display if they continue the trend of quadrupling screen resolution.
Their Cinema Display is also beginning to show its age when it comes to actual cinema productions. There are at least three cameras (Alexa, RED, and F65), that can all shoot motion picture quality images right now that exceed the resolution of the current monitors. Still photography resolution surpassed monitor resolution a long time ago, but working with video is an entirely different animal. If Apple is really dedicated to professionals, and they are aiming for the future rather than the present, higher resolutions must be in the works. While the productions that really need those resolutions are limited at this point, we all know that technology is moving there. It seems that Apple would rather release another minor update to show they still have "faith" in the line, while they work behind-the-scenes to make their entire workflow 4K-ready.
Sometime in 2013 we will know for sure. Are any of you going to wait for new releases next year or move on to PCs or Hackintoshes? If Apple moves their iMacs, Mac Pros, and Cinema Displays to 4K and above, will you buy one? Let us know in the comments below.
[via New York Times & Forbes & Mac Pro Facebook Page]
