Apple Kills the Thunderbolt Display - Will the Mac Pro Be Next?

On June 23rd, Apple announced that the aging, obsolete, overpriced Thunderbolt Display is being discontinued. No replacement display was announced, and customers have been directed to 3rd party products. What does this mean for the Mac Pro?

Apple's intentions remain hard to read. Of course, it was a natural thing for Apple to discontinue the aging 27-inch Thunderbolt display. As our Bryan Chaffin noted in: "Apple Discontinues Thunderbolt Display, Directs Customers to Unspecified 3rd Party Displays."

If Apple didn't intend to replace the Thunderbolt Display, it should have discontinued it years ago.

This was a seeming abuse of the loyal customers. The only rational explanation for the fact that this display lingered on was that Apple was preparing a stand-alone 4K or 5K display for use with its current Mac Pro (and future generations). However, to kill it and then direct customers to 3rd party displays at this point smacks of severe lack of planning. And it naturally brings the fate of the Mac Pro into question because it's overdue for a refresh as well.

Short Term Questions

This event also makes me wonder about Apple's retail store plans. Apple has several options:

  1. Leave the existing Thunderbolt displays attached to the Mac Pros. If a customer wants to buy that display (well, one or two) would Apple say: “No, they’re not for sale anymore.” That's a bad image to present and a poor option.
  2. In time, connect a 3rd party display to the Mac Pros and Mac minis. They've already recommended that customers do that. Plus, Apple has no problem using Sony HDTVs with the Apple TVs on display at its own fleet of Apple Stores. Salespeople could just say, "These are fine Macs, but we're not in the display business anymore.
  3. Discontinue the Mac Pro and Mac mini altogether and sweep the problem under the rug of mobility and consumer focus. There would, of course, be outrage.

This brings me to the Particle Debris article of the week by Anthony Frausto-Robledo who is the publisher (and EIC) of the legendary Architosh website. "If Jobs Failed Twice, Why Would Ive & Team Succeed? RIP new Mac Pro." Anthony has long focused on the needs of technical professionals, especially architects. I first got to know him when I was promoting CAD solutions at Apple a decade ago.

The title above isn't as bad as it sounds. Anthony holds out some hope that Apple won't make an inglorious departure from a market that confers professional respect in all of Apple's other products (in my words). He cites two options.

1. Apple will quietly exit the professional computer markets such as film and broadcast, architecture and engineering, 3d animation and special effects, photography and graphics, science and medicine, and audio and music production, et cetera, or…

2. Apple will re-introduce a new type of professional Mac in a brand new architecture.

The Positive Prospects

The introduction of a new, modern file system, APFS, the imminent arrival of Thunderbolt 3, and the arrival of high-end Skylake processors reminds us that Apple often works behind the scenes in secret until exciting new products are fully baked.

Plus, Apple came under scrutiny by technical professionals for the lack of expandability of the 2013 Mac Pro, which was likely begun in 2012. I've been contacted by some professionals who are steadfastly clinging to upgraded 2008 and 2009 Mac Pros. Today, however, Apple has at its disposal better technology to address those concerns. The original black cylinder may just have to grow a bit, but remain just as beautiful.

Finally, Apple knows that many developers like having powerful "trucks," as Steve Jobs called them. These are desktop machines that have the power they need for rapid development. On the other hand, the Mac Pro doesn't sell in high numbers, and Apple could argue that a fast 5K iMac fills the bill for developers.

The Negative Prospects

Some might argue that this trend away from technical professionals has had previous signs and portents.

  1. Apple.com/science quietly died.
  2. Xserve RAID was killed
  3. Xserve was killed
  4. Apple fiddled with Final Cut Pro in a way that made many video professionals livid, and they left the fold.
  5. Apple stopped developing the Aperture app, driving technical professionals into the arms of Adobe Lightroom.

Since the article at Architosh above appeared, Anthony has reflected further and sent me this note.

Apple seems to have lost interest in serving its Mac professionals. But if in truth the company has not, then the removal of this machine from market could mean the company has enticing and exciting new options for its professional users in the near future. One very real possibility, and something we wrote about at Architosh not terribly long ago, is that it has found a way to take its iMac line into the professional space. We all know this is possible because HP has already done it with their all-in-one workstation.

Traditionally, professional Mac users buying their pro desktop computers needed a monitor and would, generally speaking, buy Apple's Cinema Displays. A good size percentage however would buy third-party monitors for a variety of reasons. Taking the Thunderbolt display off the market now likely confirms the reports that the sales of the Mac Pro are too low to generate adequate sales of the Thunderbolt Display. All of this continues to generate the anxiety producing question: what does Apple intended to do to support its loyal professional Mac users?

Right now, if I had to bet serious money, I would say that relatively poor sales of the Mac Pro combined with Apple's obsession with moving forward in new directions means that the Mac Pro is dead. (However, I still hold out hope for a glorious new 2016 model.)

One way to think about Apple in the future is this very good article by Neil Cybart at Above Avalon..WWDC Clues Hint at Apple's Post-iPhone Era

The perspective of that article doesn't speak much to Apple's historical emphasis on halo Macs, government, science, engineering and technical professionals. Instead, it paints a much different (and compelling) picture of Apple's intentions.

In any case, when Apple has a hardware event this fall and introduces new MacBook Pros but no new Mac Pro, the handwriting will be on the wall.

Now we wait.

Next page: The Tech News Debris for the Week of June 20th. Has Apple gone too far this time?

Page 2 - The Tech News Debris for the Week of June 20th

Has Apple Gone Too Far This Time?

 

Well founded rumors are that the next iPhone won't have a 3.5 mm analog audio jack. See: "Apple Should just Confirm the iPhone 7 Headphone Jack is Gone."

There are two stark and contrasting camps about Apple's (supposed) abandonment of this port. In one camp, we have those who claim that this is Apple. Prepare to move relentlessly forward. Changes are made to enable new technologies. And they'll point to howls of outrage when Apple dropped the 3.5-inch floppy from the 1998 iMac. One reference I saw was a friendly reminder from May, 1998, of how we've been through this before." Back To The Future At Apple."

But then that change didn't require music lovers to carry around a dongle for their expensive, wired headphones.

The other camp says, "Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid." Nilay Patel opines that nothing good can come from taking away this universally accepted and utilized audio port. He lists six really good reasons why Apple is wrong to do this, and they're really well thought out..

Tell me what you think.

Moving on....

There are two ways to think about popular programming languages. There is the professional arena of business and government/military with its need for server-based web and database driven solutions. That's where we see Java, Javscript, C/C++, Python, PHP and so on. The second is Android and iOS apps where the code is more isolated and developed in house or by indie developers. That's where Java on Android and Objective-C and now Swift for iOS tend to be isolated.

With that in mind, if you've been thinking about which computer languages to study, here are two good resources. "The 9 most popular computer languages..." and this Google search I was alerted to..

Those who think that macOS will go away someday will feel better after reading the Above Avalon article on page 1. This will help too, as Macworld's Dan Moren explains: "With Sierra, Apple lets the Mac be the Mac."

Here's another feather in the cap of Microsoft. The company is being even more aggressive than Sony in supporting 4K Blu-ray. "Blu-ray: Microsoft Turns the Tables On Sony." WooHoo....

If you've been wondering why it's been taking so long for your favorite merchant to implement chipped credit cards and (perhaps) Apple Pay, help is on the way. "MasterCard unveils simpler EMV process,"

Despite the above, (or perhaps because of it) the foot dragging by many merchants over Apple Pay seems to be providing an opportunity for Samsung and its Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology. This is not NFC, but rather a technique that uses an electromagnetic field to trick the card reader into thinking that a conventional magnetic strip has been swiped. As I understand it, it's not as secure as the NFC method which is encrypted end-to-end. But such is the nature of business and technology. Read more at "Samsung takes fight to Apple with mobile wallet strategy."

Finally, have you found the recent changes to iTunes confusing. Kirk McElhearn clears up a lot with a Q&A at Macworld. "Ask the iTunes Guy: Changes in iTunes 12.4." Frankly, I don't know what the Mac community would do without Kirk's insights and help with iTunes.

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Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro's observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn't make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holidays.