Apple's latest ad campaigns give an idea of what it is trying to achieve and who it is trying to talk to. Check out these behind-the-scenes videos that show how Apple shot these iMac Pro ads to help it re-align its focus on the creative.
Of course, this shooting process involves high-speed processing and data transfers. After Effects was also used, but being an Apple ad, Final Cut Pro was also a main focus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie9oftXkoJs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0GomryiATc
The strategy and approach is to showcase studios that are using these machines to produce great art and media. And although we're supposed to see a release of the Mac Pro soon, this machine should do the trick for any studio, video editing company, or multi media powerhouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAV4VqZTfHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzvc3q9CtQ4
It's not like most of us are going to be able to afford these machines, but it's surely inspiring to see the artists working on them, using tools that would push the fan on the Mac I use to a decibel that can be heard from the room next door. And one of the main messages I'm taking with me, ironically, is that throughout the ads and behind-the-scenes videos, it's about the work and the concept, and not the gear.
Somebody break into Fort Know and help a guy out. Thanks Apple by showiing me what I can’t afford. WOW what a super machine
They don't sell Thunderbolt anymore. I'd hardly call the mini obsolete, although it could use a refresh. The Air needs to go and the Pro needs to be reimagined, hopefully as a modular design.
They keep around obsolete Mac Minis and Airs to target the sub $1000 price point. They would much rather you buy one of the other machines so don't want to make the cheap ones too attractive. However, if you show up at an Apple store with a very limited budget they want to give you an option with an Apple logo before you decide to buy a windows machine instead.
No idea why they keep the Pro around now that the iMac Pro is out. I can't imagine buying one at this point. Though, I'm not the target market for either.
The MP is still a very capable and nicely designed machine, it handles photography just fine. Unfortunate is just their pricing policy in that they never discount products unless there’s a successor. Apparently, the iMac Pro doesn’t count. I got one on eBay for cheaper and it’s an amazing machine but I’d never pay full prize for the current specs.
Any port used on a mac will be made obsolete in the next generation.
There is. A friend of mine is an Apple fanboy. He has a bag full of connecting cables that all went obsolete.
Funny thing is: the newer MaBooks just grow a huge hemorrhage with a bunch of adapter cables attached !
And every adapter bought is money in the bank for Apple. Apple thinks form should go before function. I don't agree. I am poor and they are filthy rich so probably I am wrong.
Nah you're right. Apple just figured out how to make oodles of cash scheming people into buying adapters. It has to work better than it looks otherwise it's a pretty brick.
Apple's FCPX doesn't crash nearly as much as Adobe. All of their products frequently crash. Premier is unreliable.
Still, I can do all that at much lower cost. When going the PC route you have so many levels of performance to choose from. You can tailor you machine to fit your needs AND budget.
Not so with Apple; "Here is what we have, take it or leave it". So it's either an under performing obsolete machine or a small mortgage for the iMac Pro.
Well, I built my PC machine that runs as fast as any Mac for half the price. Yes, I've messed with them. PS and LR run about the same between the two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE58q8OHvdI
You really do not think that Apple products are way more expensive than PC counterpart? Even Apple admits it.
I built my PC just over a year ago (January 2017) for just under $1,700 USD. If I bought somewhat equivalent Mac (can't be exactly the same due to Apple lack of choices) it would have cost me almost double, around $3,000 USD.
Before building my PC I looked around for weeks checking different components and equivalent machines I could buy, including an Apple, as suggested by my wife who really loves Apple. Dell was the closest. However, I really wanted to build it myself (first time doing it) and no regrets, I love what I put together and I loved the process of doing it.
As I said, an Apple counterpart would have cost about 80% more.
You do not have to believe me that I did an EXTENSIVE market research. That's fine.
My PC:
Intel i7 (8770k)
32 GB RAM
1TB M2 Sumsung
1TB 850 SSD Samsung
GeForce 650
The 5k monitor is a great example. You see, I son't need a 5k screen, very few own one (very few own 4k) and prints are never going to achieve the same vibrancy anyway. So here is something you have to buy when buying the mew iMac Pro.
I saved lots of cash there.
Ever tried to upgrade Solid State drive for Mac? It's like double the price than PC. How about RAM? Same thing.
Most of the time you can't even upgrade, or at least not on your own.
Countless graphic studios, advertizing agencies and photography studios have been migrating to using PC's for the past years. This blog we are communicating on runs by such studio. I am sure they did a very careful ROI research. Cost and lack of easy upgrade are main factors.
Yes, if I went and bought every single component that the new iMac has it will be expensive (still much cheaper than the iMac) but if I don't need it why should I buy it?
We obviously not going to agree.
The flexibility I have in upgrading is priceless. There are so many components to choose from. I can buy whatevet I need at my budget I don't need Apple to tell me what I meed.
I agree with you that Apple keeps its value however, in my opinion, it is more because of a perception than justified reality.
For example, my wife has a two year old MacBook that cost around $1,300 CDN. I would never buy it from her at the theoretical price of let's say 50% because I can get a much faster laptop for a bit more.
It's pretty and silver but do not deliver. Not for my needs anyway (I know, I tried).
As for the technicality of RAM and SSD speed, I am no tech guy but I really doubt they reach that speed (RAM or SSD)
And my doubts are justified. I urge you to watch this comparison done by the guy from PhotoshopCafe: https://goo.gl/sqr8Zi
Now it's true that the Alienware did not have a screen but I can get one hell of a 4K for less than $1,000.
It seems the lowly $1,600 Alienware without an SSD pretty much was the winner when it comes to Photoshop work.
Also consider this, in order to upgrade the RAM in the iMac Pro you have to practically tear it open, no panels to do so.
Secondly, to upgrade you need to throw the ones you have in AND buy four new ones. Compares to my PC, I can buy two memory chip and when upgrade buy two larger ones.
Not to mention that cracking it open voids the warranty.
Sorry, not for me. Like the guy from PhotoshopCafe asks: In light of those results, is Apple gauging us?"
My answer is yes and they have been doing it for years.
As I said, we will never agree :-) But I will read this last comment more carefully later on tonight.
Apple has always been making profit CREATIVELY.
The company makes $2B profit on the phone charging cable every year, that's pure genius.
As much as I hate Apple, you're right. That is one really good money making idea.
No, I would sell it the next day :-). Honestly, I did it with an iPad Air 2 I won at Christmas party. I got a second hand Nikon 180mm f/2.8 with that money.
No I would not accept it. I hate iDevices. I have owned an ipad and an iPhone as well as 3 different mac computers. I hated all of those devices. I wanted to like apple but their products are just over priced and under powered machines that take control from the user. Now if I spent 4k I could get a mac that ran like I want it to but for about $700-$800 I can get the same performance I'm looking for in a PC. Android also lets me do what ever the heck I want with my device. I hate Apple. That will never change. However I do recognize a need for it in today's society. If you want a computer that works 100% straight out of the box and that does everything for you no problems/minimal hassle. Get a mac. If you like to control every aspect of your computational experience get a windows PC. Although windows has taken more control away from the user with the release of windows 10. >:(
Dunno how it's been deubunked because I've already done it 5 times.
Charts and things don't matter as much as you think they do. Real world usage is what matters. I built a windows machine for a pair of video professionals that was technically slower than than the high end i mac they were using for about $650. real world usage the windows machine was waaaay faster.They said so them selves. The only reasons they went back to mac was because the people they work with all use macs so there were HDD formatting compatibility issues and they were too used to final cut pro. The point of the story is the $650 machine was faster than the $2500 iMac. You can also upgrade windows machines much easier and for WAY less. I just maxed out my lenovo laptops memory at 16gigs and put in a 500gb ssd for about $230. it's blazing fast now. It is my primary editing machine. Total I paid about $430 for this setup.
Bob, you keep insisting that Mac's will cost the same as an equivalent PC and you must be the only person I know who thinks so.
Even die hard Mac users know Mac's are way more expensive than am EQUIVALENT PC.
The Mac pro 15" goes for $3,600 CDN, the Dell ALIENWARE 17" GAMING LAPTOP is around $2,000 CDN. And if you want the better monitor you add $450 CDN
Please go and look at the specs and let me know what exactly the Mac gives me for the extra $1,200.
There is no point trying to have discussion with bob. he is
a
fanatical mac user. you can't reason with those types. if they like paying more for
less all you can do is let them.
True, he is a die hard Apple user :-)
I hate Apple, but I kind of like their products. I think they have very good products but Apple seem only interested to squeeze every last penny out of their clients. And seeing that Apple fanboys are among the least critical bunch on this planet, they get away with it. Good for them.
They make so much money, they could probably buy half of Africa.
Apple has really good marketing, their products look great, and are super easy to use and understand. That's why people love them. To windows users Macs look like fisher price toys but at the same time windows looks like duplo blocks to linux users.
I disagree. Two of my friend have an 27inc Imac and they had are really,really hard time understanding how it works. Easy and straightforward. I don't think so. Of course it is if you are used to a system. Even after 3 years, they still don't quite understand how it really works.
Windows is also very easy for me,because I have used windows pcs since their birth.
Everything depends on what you are used to.
I, a hardcore windows user, had to set everything up for them. It took a while because some things are a bit different but all in all a the Mac Os is kind of similar to a pc. Once you are used to it, it is easy. But certainly not easier than a Windows pc. That is a myth.
The thing Imacs have going for them is a far better hardware/software integration. That is not that hard to understand. There are millions of windows hardware configurations that have to work together and only a small number of Imac configurations. That is the biggest advantage to an Imac. Not the software itself. I guess you probably haven't used a high-end windows pc in years.
Well, I am glad you are so happy with Macs. But I think that no matter what people will say about macs, you will rather die before admitting your favourite system is less than perfect. That is why I call you a fanboy. It is not meant as an insult. It is just a fact.
Try expanding or modifying an Imac, like a different videocard, more memory (in some models, easy, in others very hard), change the harddrive for a faster and larger one. That is how easy a Mac is.
Try playing a the newest games on a Mac. On practically all models (except for the very expensive Imac Pro), this can't be bought or can't be played.
As I said, I like Imacs. But they are not perfect. They have flaws, just like windows machines, only different flaws.
I am sorry but you seem to promote Apple to the hilt. As fare as being critical, in this discussion at least you seem to be totally uncritical towards Apple and seem to do your best to tell everybody that Apples are superior to ...everything. Where is your critical note in this discussion?
So, what is there not to like?
The notion that MAC is intuitive is old and proven wrong long time ago. If you are used to a system than you know it.
When I first had my wife's MacBook (That I bought her as a gift) in my hands I almost threw it against the wall in frustration. It was not intuitive, not by a mile.
Still, one would say that as a Windows user I need to learn the new environment. Yes, that is true but don't tell me it's intuitive and just work. It is not.
So, what is there not to like
Apple really hasn't figured out how to innovate with the absence of Steve Jobs and everyone else has caught up and/or surpassed them. Other companies do this too, but with Apple I think you feel it more because their equipment is so locked down. Microsoft making their own hardware really took the edge away from Apple in the Desktop OS department. I don't know what it is about Solid State Drives that suddenly fixed Windows, but they did. Must be something about the file system. When I'm using High Sierra now, there's really no functional advantage I can see.
Did anyone notice in the Buck film how it says "Additional equipment used for final render of some sequences"? Are they basically saying you can like this but you won't be able to really do the job on this extremely expensive iMac Pro?
I think its more that rendering high-end final CG is a job for render farms, not any single workstation. (At least if you want results reasonably quickly)
That is the case on most product videos. If you see a video shot on an Iphone or Samsung, they don't mention the professional gimbals, top producers and videographers, and a ton of lights and other equipments they used.
When Windows PC in a powerful machine = meh...
When Apple makes a powerful machine = OMG! Apple is so good! They're so into innovation! Woohoo! (insert other fanboy cheering here)
I like the disclaimer at the bottom of the last video. "Other equipment was used to render the hard parts of this video". I just sold my mac pro. It was all but pathetic with anything that requires serious processing.
I assume the newer Mac Pro. That was a real flop. Back in the day, the old aluminum ones were rock solid. Although, I still and will continue to use use apple, OS are really irrelevant in today's world unless you need a specific software that is OS specific. For the cost of a Mac Mini, you could build a blazing fast, decked to the core PC that is upgradable.
Dale my view :)
I thought so to till I switched to PC this year and I used to use PCs a lot for some other work but am a OS X guy even more so now
the file finder sucks beyond belief
its a bit like getting one of those really bad sore throats and realizing how many times you use your throat in a day just how much you use your finder/explorer
things like in PS saving a file you can only see 1 file type ?
previews NOPE 3rd party for PC sucks in comparison
column view does not exist ? so stupid lack of choices in PC its HORRID to use
no good native tagging system sure you can do a star after like 5 clicks and 3 windows then go up and change the view and add to see that view and then have to repeat over and over and just stars no customization etc..
and so many more
so yes when in the program things are about the same but files in and out of the program are not even close and managing not even close etc..
again sad we are stuck between bad and worse these days
Windows Explorer is getting overhauled in one of the Redstone builds this year, as to previewing files use Seer:
http://1218.io/
Columns exist in Windows Explorer, and have done since Win 7? For tagging/rating images why use OS tools when Bridge/CaptureOne are far better tools for the job? Alternatively use ACDSee for ranking/tagging/preview.
Technically previewing files is a security risk for the OS hence why you don't have anything OS level.
I use seer its very very sub par to OS X sadly
no column view in finder and having a column for date and type etc.. is not the same thing once you use OS X :) OS X has what windows users like to call column since the beginning to :)
a true column view once you use it you will realize how awesome it is and how horrid explorer is :)
tagging ? show me how to rate a PDF in windows :) how about custom tags with single right click for those PDF or text docs or other file types even folders and so on cause windows cant do any of that sadly seeing thumbs of PSD or PSB again win cant do any of that ? pretty sad really
so why not make it in the explorer native to the OS :)
C1 does not manage other documents ? I have been using it since it came out
bridge is horrid clunky and again does not support certain file types properly ? and why have to go to other programs to manage browse find
speaking of find :) once again major fail on win
redstone :) tabs do not do anything to make it better and fix all the above and about time since OS X has tabs already :)
again I am using win so I want it to be good but its not sadly
only a security risk in win ya mean :) once again a huge downfall
color management sucks beyond belief no OS wide color management on win so who knows what you are going app toapp to get and again so so so so so much more
again serious no bull I want it to work but when you work in both a lot you realize how bad one or the other is and the downsides
OS X IMHO has gotten worse but its no where close to how bad win is though
ditto
20 sec mark ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT USED
OK so what was that gear :) reckon that was more powerful hardware of some kind :)
either way the new iMacs are not what I would want sure the rich youtube stars using red cameras for there youtube channel love them promote them and the little lemmings go me to me to
adobe sucks these days so does apple compared with the past things are going backwards in reliability
I switched to PC and it sucks to enough stupid little things that are bad but apple has those to ?
kinda stuck between suck or suck worse for most of us :)
for PS and LR a iMac is plenty fast as the small gains are not in develop mode where you need it but small gain import export when you can be doing other things anyway ?
C1 on a high end PC rocks but again stupid windows and horrid wacom support drivers issues and such rather have apple stability and smoother tablet use over faster :)
nice ad funny they had to use other gear to complete it which is the state of apple today a huge phone company not a pc company anymore
I reckon you have been around for a long time things are not as smooth as they were
but maybe car analogy since I like those :)
a bit like saying the latest Porsche has some things we do not like and are not as good :) what we have to remember is what the small things are not as good as previous but over all superior to others and the previous and better experience than say 10 years ago ? hope that makes sense what I mean
to me the slip ups and what they let through Steve never would have allowed to happen basically :) which I think shows how awesome he was as a person with attention to detail etc..
could be but they did say for the render and macs are great but they do not hold a candle to rendering specific setups :) so pretty sure its hardware and it is funny just like when nikon uses part of a image shot by canon or whatever that was or the images of the fuji cameras were shot on a nikon and so on ;) more a funny then a bad on them :)
Better than both by Spike Lee:
https://youtu.be/305ryPvU6A8