Open Letter to Apple executives:
I’ve been waiting almost ten years for Apple to produce a Mac workstation that doesn’t suffer from irrationally compact design & thermal issues. It was with great excitement that I watched the announcement of the 2019 Mac Pro & Pro display... only to be left with Apple’s middle finger in my face when the pricing was announced. The BASE model pricing starts in crazyland.
Sorry, Tim, but I’m not part of your wealthy 1% segment. I don’t run a big business or work for Pixar. There’s no way I’ll ever own this new machine. The apologists on Apple forums say “if you can’t afford it, then it’s not for you”. Well, then: where IS the workstation for the rest of us??
Apple’s other Macs are unacceptable for constant heavy workloads (don’t even get me started on the ridiculous “iMac Pro”), and many of us cannot justify spending money repeatedly on disposable computers (not to mention the environmental impact of such a business model).
The Mac Pro used to start at $2500. Then it started at $3000. Your latest Mac Pro has jumped up to a starting price that’s TWICE the prior amount, for a BASE model. This is a ludicrous business decision, considering there is no other pricing/feature tier for this new equipment. These products are clearly aimed only at the 1%. They should be priced to sell more machines in a wider prosumer/workstation market; not priced insanely high to make up for lower sales in the most narrow of all possible workstation markets.
In the past, I was willing to save longer and spend more just to buy Apple’s superior products, but the current product offerings are now egregiously expensive across the board (from iPhone to Mac). I’ve already had a Macbook Pro die due to bad thermal design. I cannot afford to buy a new disposable Mac every three years. I’ve been saving tax rebates since 2010, planning to buy a longer-lived Mac tower/workstation for music & digital art (hoping to find a way to make an income on art, as I struggle in poverty, on disability). I don’t even have HALF of what I’d need to buy your $12,000 workstation at its BASE configuration.
I abandoned your competitors back in 2009 because Apple’s products were clearly superior. With the current piles of iOS bugs, planned-obsolescence, and pathological obsession with thin design, Apple’s products are now merely “less bad”. I hate PCs & Windows (a lifetime as a tech person shows that they make me miserable), so I guess my only option now is to just stop using computers entirely after my [stop-gap, second-hand] iMac dies.
Apple kicked the computer industry’s lazy ass from 2007 to 2012, making excellent products and reliable software for almost everyone. That Apple seems long gone. Today’s Apple has become a caricature of itself, justifying all the “luxury products for rich people” memes thrown at the company.
