Video pros react to the Mac Pro: GPU and storage concerns

Digital Arts UK by Karen Haslam

In the run up to WWDC there was a lot of speculations as to how a new Mac Pro from Apple might shape up. We even rounded up lots of opinions about the future of the Mac Pro in this article. We expected that any move away from extendibility would be greeted with exasperation by the pro Mac user, after all, this was what the Mac Pro offered than no other Mac did.

On the night Apple revealed that it was pursuing Thunderbolt 2 as its answer to expandability, and despite the fact that the new Mac Pro would be bereft of PCI Express expansion ports, a quick look at Twitter suggested that people were endeared to the new design.

We were a lone voice that evening as we tweeted: "Something about the Mac Pro reminds me of the Cube. I wish it didn't."

Was the initial reaction to the Mac Pro actually Apple fans rather than the traditional Mac Pro power users? Even now, a whole week later, most of the opinions seem to be loving rather than hating the Mac Pro. Our suspicion is that the pro Mac user, the traditional audience for the Mac Pro is keeping stum while the die hard Mac fans are chomping at the bit, desperate to get their hands on this impressive new Mac that may well fall outside of their price range. We also wonder whether there any Mac power users left – has Apple neglected the industry for too long?

What the professional Mac Pro users think

We have also studied the thoughts of bloggers in the video editing fields and been in touch with Lou Borella, the editor who set up the MacPro Facebook page last year after Apple's minor update to the pro Mac.

Borella observed that the initial reaction is positive, but that a storm maybe brewing: "I think the comments have been more positive and optimistic than negative. It's not an overwhelming number but I think Apple's first look is being met with more open minds than anger. That could change very quickly in either direction when the pricing and final specs are announced however." read more...