679 days
By my count, it took 679 days (give or take a day or two) from the original Apple-to-Intel announcement before all the pieces were in place to finally allow me to be able to use an Intel Mac—booted into OS X—100% of the time for everything. There's a certain segment that were able to make the shift much earlier, and I suspect there are still some who will consider Office 2008 the final end date for them, but for me (and a great many other folks), Adobe was the holdup. With various CS3 products now shipping and After Effects CS3 currently in public beta (and in a very usable form, I might add), everything that needs to be Intel-native now is. Sure, there is a utility or two that I have to run in Rosetta (including Office, which I only need occasionally to view a sent document or presentation), but for me, Intel Macs are ready to rock. And it only took 679 days! All I can say is that it's about freaking time.
This has been a painful transition, at least for me. My out-of-warranty G5 died about a year ago (Murphy's Law at work), and ever since, it's been a series of stopgap measures, with (believe it or not) my MacBook (non-Pro) doing more than its fair share of the day-to-day heavy lifting (extra parenthetical statement to underscore the absurd number of other parenthetical statements in this single sentence), albeit often booted into XP via Boot Camp. Now that it's perhaps time to break down and go with a Mac Pro, I'm kind of hesitant, because this little booger has really grown on me, despite its anemic integrated Intel graphics. I'm also curious to see what hardware offerings Apple has in store over the next few months, since the current line-up is aging faster than a nervous father on his daughter's prom night while Apple diverts resources and manpower to the iPhone, which I frankly couldn't care less about.
Anyway, kind of a rambling post. Oh, well. Isn't that what blogs are for?
Posted at 10:24AM Apr 18, 2007 by Kevin Schmitt in Mac and Apple | Comments[7]
I could be wrong but if Apple think they are going to have another I-pod on their hands I think they have surveyed the landscape very poorly. If the i-phone can delay their much anticipated new OS then I shudder to think how starved of resources their creative application divisions might be, or become... And even worse is that it may cut both ways... if the i-phone is a big hit then the shareholders will demand more of the same (more ipod more iphone more appletv) and there'll be less for the creative apps that dont make near so much money. Conversely if the i-phone bombs (as I suspect that it might) then the same result, so many eggs went into the i-phone basket and with it gone there'll be less to throw at their traditional products.
A big part of me wishes Apple would break into three separate companies or stand-alone divsions:
- Apple consumer electronics (making ipods, iphones, apple Tv, apple microwave ovens...)
- Apple software (making cross-platform creative apps, i-tunes and an OS than runs on any hardware - mac independent)
- Apple Hardware (making premium computers, wireless routers, monitors etc)
If they broke the company in three then each arm would be free to compete on its own terms, within its own budgets defined only by the market in which it operates. Rather than the current state where i-pod and i-phone, having nothing to do with video production, none the less have a direct impact on how those products can be developed and released.
Think it will ever happen? Not while Steve is at the helm. But if Steve left? Maybe...
Posted by Mike Jones on April 18, 2007 at 10:44 PM EDT #
Posted by Kevin Schmitt on April 19, 2007 at 11:24 AM EDT #
$2500 for a tower is a big chunk of change considering you can build a PC with more horsepower than what you'd get from the Apple store and still have some cash left over to buy an app or two.
Adobe has stepped up and has delivered the tools that Mac users need in the creative space, however, I don't think it is Adobe's "fault" because as Bruce Chizen said several years ago, the only release cycle Adobe follows is Adobe's. One interesting thing is why Adobe decided to re-enter the market with its video production tools when seemingly everyone who edits video on a Mac does it with Final Cut. When they left the market several years ago, then sr. mgr. Dave Trescot pondered why should Adobe spend the R&D on a product when Apple might decide to give it away for free? I think though that Premiere had already gotten beaten in the marketplace by fcp.
Apple also seemingly has an ever closed system at least in the video production world, as well as ardent supporters who believe the fruit company can do no wrong. But is that a good thing to have the proverbial black box? The company's NAB address was pretty much as all its press conferences are, with Apple folk strategically placed throughout the place to applause as if on cue.
Posted by John Virata on April 19, 2007 at 05:56 PM EDT #
But that marketin is very often misleading and deliberately inaccurate - witness the UK court who demanded Apple remove the slogan "worlds fastest desktop" form their advertising because it could not be substantiated or backed up in independent tests. Or "Worlds first 64bit processor" when AMD had the Opteron out 6 months prior to the G5. A moment hilariously captured in this now famous interview with Charlie white http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=18513
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DMN: Now, you're saying it's the first 64-bit desktop machine. But isn't there an Opteron dual-processor machine? It shipped on June 4th. BOXX Technologies shipped it. It has an Opteron 244 in it.
Rubinstein: Uh...
Akrout: It's not a desktop.
DMN: That's a desktop unit.
Akrout: It depends on what you call a desktop, now. These… From a full desktop per se, this is the first one. I don't know how you really distinguish the other one as a desktop.
DMN: Well, it's a dual processor desktop machine, just like that one.
Akrout: It's not 64, then.
DMN: Yes, it's a 64-bit machine with two Opteron chips in it. It started shipping June 4th.
Akrout: That we'll double check, but in my mind, it wasn't.
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I often feel very sorry for the software designers and engineers at Apple who toil away on very good products but then have their reputation and work tarnished in this absurd marketing bombast.
I'm a long time Mac user (among all manner of other systems) and as I've said before, many would see the deathly loyal fanboy base of Mac users as a great asset of the company. I actually see it as a great detriment and liability. When you have a bulk of users so blinkered and narrow in their perceptions of technology, craft and the industry that they blithely and enthusiastically cheer any and all announcements by Apple without question or warrant, you invariably have a user-base that is not 'demanding' of the products. if the user-base isnt demanding better and being critcial when something isn't good enough, then invariably the products get lazy. I think Apple products have gotten lazy and are not nearly as adventurous and forward thinking as they should be or could be.
Sadly, in regard to editing, show me an editor who adores FCP and 9 times out of 10 I'll show you an editor who hasn't used anything else in a long time... If more Mac users stepped out of macland more often I Dont think for a second that they would leave the Mac but, better yet, they would go back to Apple and get angry, get grumpy, get demanding for better and then I think we'd see the really bold products the mac community deserves.
Posted by Mike Jones on April 19, 2007 at 06:56 PM EDT #
Posted by John Virata on April 19, 2007 at 09:17 PM EDT #
Posted by Mike Jones on April 19, 2007 at 10:56 PM EDT #
I think what most people are missing is a Mac headless Desktop. We go from the iMac to the Mac Pro. Apple does not have a C2D desktop processor solution that allows for PCIe expansion; and,simply, does not compete in that space. At this point, i think the market is ready for a Mac desktop solution. It would work for business and consumer customers very well and probably will be a good fit for the business oriented leopard Server release.
Posted by Stingerster on April 22, 2007 at 10:16 PM EDT #