
Predicting the next Mac desktops - shawndumas
http://www.marco.org/2012/06/22/predicting-mac-desktops
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martingordon
FWIW, Marco said on Twitter he already received credible-sounding emails
claiming that both predictions are wrong:
<http://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/216244550207942656>

EDIT: He clarified further saying no retina iMacs and Ivy Bridge instead of
Haswell Xeons: <http://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/216249589949399041>

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jpxxx
I don't see Retina as priority for the desktop line at the moment. Sales of
standalone iMacs and Thunderbolt Displays are a rounding error on their income
streams and ordering 27" panels would soak up a lot of HiDPI panel output that
would be much more valuable in portables.

The yield rates on giant panels right now would probably be atrocious, driving
up costs. And Apple clearly doesn't need Professional Imprimatur to make money
anymore.

But in a year or two, 200DPI will be table stakes for anything with a display.

~~~
pat2man
One reason for creating retina 27" displays would be for content generation.
Developing and designing applications and other digital content for retina
iPads and new retina MacBooks means that the designers need even more real
estate.

~~~
jpxxx
No don't get me wrong, I would strangle for 200+ DPI across 27". And it does
seem inevitable. I thin it's just asking too much of the supply right now,
especially when there's an entire MacBook and MacBook Pro line to update, not
forgetting the legacy Windows market too.

~~~
martingordon
I don't think the Airs will get retina for a while – until a case redesign or
the retina display gets thinner. Take a look at this shot from the Ars review
of the 15": [http://cdn.arstechnica.net//wp-
content/uploads/2012/06/rMBP_...](http://cdn.arstechnica.net//wp-
content/uploads/2012/06/rMBP_thick_v_Air.jpg)

The thickness of the two notebooks are the same, but the MBP has a much
thicker display and thinner body. That's fine for the "spine" of the notebook,
but I don't think the Air's thin end can get any thinner.

I think next in line for a retina display is the 13" Pro and that Apple might
keep a non-retina vs retina distinction between the Airs and the Pro for a
little while.

~~~
jpxxx
Good eye! I think you're totally right. This might force a new Air body which
makes it more of a project than it would otherwise be.

If the Air wasn't selling it might be a priority, but these things appear to
be blowing off the shelf.

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protomyth
It's an interesting theory, but technically the thunderbolt port carries the
display signal separately from the data signal (which speed he quotes).

Display Port 1.2 Spec allows 17.28 Gbit/s of bandwidth and 1.0-1.1 allowed
8.64 Gbit/s. It looks like the current thunderbolt is based on 1.1.

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WiseWeasel
I still don't see what's preventing them from shipping Core i7 Ivy Bridge Mac
Pros now.

I wonder if the near future of the Mac Pro might be headless, providing
storage, CPU and maybe GPU horsepower and advanced legacy I/O for an iOS
device, which serves as the principal UI.

~~~
wmf
Mac Pros use Xeons, not i7s. But yeah, the big question is why they aren't
using the Xeon E5 that's available now.

~~~
WiseWeasel
I'd probably take an i7 Ivy Bridge over the Xeon Sandy Bridge, especially if
it meant a lower price point. I don't really make good use of all those cores
in any case, though the L3 cache penalty would probably be felt.

~~~
wmf
Now you're into the xMac discussion. Everybody says they want an xMac, but
Apple doesn't want to sell one.

~~~
WiseWeasel
Hmm, maybe you're right. The xMac is traditionally assumed to be a gaming
device, with prosumer CPU and beefy GPU. This is likely a battle Apple can't
win, as I can build a nice gaming rig for a relatively low price, and I'm
going to want to run Windows on there in any case.

Maybe what I really want from Apple is an iServer, which is a Mac Mini with
lots of HD bays and legacy I/O. Or maybe I'm in too small of a market, and I
should just consider a Mac Mini and a Thunderbolt breakout expansion box.

It seems to me like using iOS apps to access your iServer's resources is the
direction we're headed.

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computerslol
I would have been really entertained if this link returned a 404.

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manfredz
Maybe Apple is designing a new chip for the Mac desktops? A6?

~~~
wmf
That's not feasible. Even so, if the A6 is not ready yet, why not release an
E5 stopgap? Supposedly Apple has a "plan B" for every situation, so they
should have _something_.

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medusa666
In addition to the good points you make, I've heard that top people within
Apple are increasingly assigned to the iPhone and iPad, and there just aren't
enough (human) resources left over to design new desktops (to Apple's high
standards).

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excuse-me
Not bashing Apple but how much revolutionary design goes into a Mac desktop?

The CPU, chipset and graphics card are all off-the-shelf. The motherboard is
Apple but isn't anything special. The cases are nicely built but so are high
end HP workstation (since they are actually designed by BMW consulting)

It wouldn't tie up 1000s of Jonathon Ive's little helpers to stick a new Xeon
and more memory slots in the existing models (and throw in Thunderbolt and
USB3)

~~~
hollerith
Agreed.

In fact, one of Apple's Chinese suppliers could probably do most of the design
work involved in providing a product to customers who (e.g., because the
customer is a large organization that cannot afford the cost and the publicity
of losing a software-infringement lawsuit) cannot use Hackintoshes, but want
to run OS X on hardware vaguely competitive with current beefy Windows and
Linux tower computers.

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nerdfiles
May help: <http://mactracker.ca/>

