
When the Mac mini goes pro, will the pros get Mac minis? - inostia
https://www.macworld.com/article/3300182/macs/when-the-mac-mini-gets-pro-will-the-pros-get-mac-minis.html
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ksec
It is a funny situation, Apple wants most of the people to move to iPad, and
leave the Mac for pro uses. That is a perfectly fine strategy excepts its
execution has been rather poor by Apple's standard.

The iPad aren't anywhere near ready for business uses. And the Mac aren't
being loved by the Pros.

In the old days Apple would have continue to do small improvement to the Mac
and milk the hell out of it, until iPad overtakes it.

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wodenokoto
> It is a funny situation, Apple wants most of the people to move to iPad, and
> leave the Mac for pro uses. That is a perfectly fine strategy excepts its
> execution has been rather poor by Apple's standard.

I agree with you on this, but not on the rest of your analysis.

> The iPad aren't anywhere near ready for business uses.

Didn't you just say that it was the mac that was for pro users? Business users
are the largest professional segment, by far.

I think this is where most pundits mess up. A pro computer is not a rendering
farm or a rack for software compilation. And rarely do you need to run several
virtual machines locally in order to code in an IDE.

A pro use case is someone who works on a machine all day. Compared to an
"amateur" machine, it has to stand up to more wear and tear and it can afford
to be "nicer" to use, because it is cheap compared to the monthly wages of the
professional user. Business class doesn't fly faster, it is just "nicer" to
sit in.

Apple's pro features have traditionally been heavily skewed towards usability.
10 years ago, "pro" was aluminium body and backlit keyboard. But now that
these features are common-place they are struggling to differentiate their pro
line-up.

But with that being said, I think Apple could use a little bit of Ballmers
"developers, developers, developers", as they don't offer anything for larger
businesses to use for rendering and compiling. Instead we have large app
developers cutting screens off MacBooks and racking them ...

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ksec
>Business users are the largest professional segment, by far.

I disagree. Most business segments, by large majorities are ERP, CRM,
PowerPoints, Word Processing and Emails. Some spreadsheets and other fairly
light computational requirements. And trust many of these people may very well
work longer on the computer than what most "Pros" do. Staring long at the
computer doesn't make it pro usage. Very little in the business segment are in
the Pro category.

But business are very reluctant to changes.

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wilsonnb3
Those people _are_ pros.

Anyone who uses a computer for their profession is a pro user, regardless of
whether they're making power points, sending emails, or developing software.

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ksec
So all these "pros" will have to get a "pro" machine for Apple?

Macbook Pro, iMac Pro, iPad Pro?

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Doctor_Fegg
Weird to cite “adventurous hackers who want to figure out how to fit a Mac
mini into their car“ as a target market, but not app or web development.

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tonyedgecombe
My guess is there won't be separate Mac mini and Mac Pro lines but rather
something that covers both use cases.

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robbyt
I agree, they hinted at a "modular Mac pro coming in 2019" and what's more
modular than a little macmini with an external GPU, external storage, and lots
of USB-c ports.

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StudyAnimal
It’s basically for doing iOS app development. The other options are either too
weak or not cost effective. Higher end models are usually too expensive.

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robbyt
I have a solution for Apple: that surely no one has thought of: spin off the
Mac into it's own company. They can keep their shareholders happy with
wonderful sales of the iPhone, and the pro users who rely on these computers
will have access to real pro gear.

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stephenr
A good chunk of the appeal is the ecosystem.

Your solution works for shortsighted shareholders who don’t use the products
and basically no one else.

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jrrrr
The ecosystem integration is valuable for personal computers, but I don't
think it matters so much for professional use.

Think it'd ever make sense to spin _that_ off? Just the pro market?

I guess then they wouldn't control the means to producing iOS apps, so
probably not.

Imagine a world in which ApplePro exists independently and isn't compromised
by AppleConsumer's priorities. Would we have waited so long for a MBP update?
Would the pro desktop ever be permitted to go years without an update? Would
thin & light still be prioritized over repairability and upgradability? Would
we have a touchbar?

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gammatrigono
Will the Mac Mini Pro also be designed with insufficiently derated capacitors,
shitty ribbon cables that short out, crappy thermal dissipation structures,
and a shitty no-fix warranty just like every other post-2010 Apple product?

