Is Apple still frustrating professionals, or is the Mac Pro a genius way to win them back?

RedShark by Miguel Ferros

As the dust settles on another Apple World Wide Developer Conference the bulk of those that give a damn are dreaming of a lovely new interface for iOS whilst others are chatting excitedly about using the new MacBook Air for an entire long-haul flight without having to buy an airline power adapter. But what of the long-suffering TV or Film professional, so long the stalwart of the Apple ecosystem? Does the new MacPro finally give them real hope of a future that doesn’t leave them dragging hopelessly behind their PC-based counterparts in power, flexibility and, in effect, competitiveness

FCP X Roller Coaster

Ever since the mishandling of the introduction of FCP X and the concurrent demise, resurrection, demise of Final Cut Studio it has felt like Apple has lost the love for our industry. Even though FCP X has seen great improvements from the difficult launch of the iMovie look-alike (which actually, apparently, shared very little code with its less-ambitious relative), the lack of a refresh for the MacPro has led many to believe that a future built on Apple was not a viable one at all. Now, finally, the announcement is made, the specs (or lack of) pawed over and the reaction is filtering in. Does anybody believe anything has changed?

Vague

Let’s first look at the actual announcement and try and read between the lines. Experience will tell us that these types of announcements are deliberately vague, balanced to enthuse customers and, more pertinently, investors, whilst allowing plenty of wiggle room for adjusting specs prior to shipping.

In short, it is not always wise to expect the best. For example, many commentators have reported that the new chipset is based on Intel’s Haswell micro architecture whereas there has been no public statement by Apple to support this. Indeed, the Haswell chips should give a times-four increase in performance over the current processor but Apple is only claiming a times-two improvement. Would they pass up a chance to stoke the market if they were committed to Haswell? read more...