When the Mac mini goes pro, will the pros get Mac minis? | Hacker News Reader

When the Mac mini goes pro, will the pros get Mac minis?

macworld.com

20 pointsinostia22 comments

It is a funny situation, Apple wants most of the people to move to iPad, and leave the Mac for pro uses. That is a perfectly fine strategy excepts its execution has been rather poor by Apple's standard.

The iPad aren't anywhere near ready for business uses. And the Mac aren't being loved by the Pros.

In the old days Apple would have continue to do small improvement to the Mac and milk the hell out of it, until iPad overtakes it.

> It is a funny situation, Apple wants most of the people to move to iPad, and leave the Mac for pro uses. That is a perfectly fine strategy excepts its execution has been rather poor by Apple's standard.

I agree with you on this, but not on the rest of your analysis.

> The iPad aren't anywhere near ready for business uses.

Didn't you just say that it was the mac that was for pro users? Business users are the largest professional segment, by far.

I think this is where most pundits mess up. A pro computer is not a rendering farm or a rack for software compilation. And rarely do you need to run several virtual machines locally in order to code in an IDE.

A pro use case is someone who works on a machine all day. Compared to an "amateur" machine, it has to stand up to more wear and tear and it can afford to be "nicer" to use, because it is cheap compared to the monthly wages of the professional user. Business class doesn't fly faster, it is just "nicer" to sit in.

Apple's pro features have traditionally been heavily skewed towards usability. 10 years ago, "pro" was aluminium body and backlit keyboard. But now that these features are common-place they are struggling to differentiate their pro line-up.

But with that being said, I think Apple could use a little bit of Ballmers "developers, developers, developers", as they don't offer anything for larger businesses to use for rendering and compiling. Instead we have large app developers cutting screens off MacBooks and racking them ...

There is this strange idea that Apple Pro users should all be UNIX devs launching swarms of VMs on laptops, as if this is the only kind of work deemed acceptable as professional work.

>Business users are the largest professional segment, by far.

I disagree. Most business segments, by large majorities are ERP, CRM, PowerPoints, Word Processing and Emails. Some spreadsheets and other fairly light computational requirements. And trust many of these people may very well work longer on the computer than what most "Pros" do. Staring long at the computer doesn't make it pro usage. Very little in the business segment are in the Pro category.

But business are very reluctant to changes.

Those people are pros.

Anyone who uses a computer for their profession is a pro user, regardless of whether they're making power points, sending emails, or developing software.

So all these "pros" will have to get a "pro" machine for Apple?

Macbook Pro, iMac Pro, iPad Pro?

> Staring long at the computer doesn't make it pro usage.

No. Being paid to stare at your computer, is what makes you are professional user.

Then, why they don't create a laptop for pros, little thicker, more battery, better thermals and maybe some more RAM.

And a proper keyboard, with real mechanical Function keys.

If they did that, nobody would bother looking at replacing their perfect laptop with next year's model. This kills Apple's profit model.

Why, their laptops have to suck or they aren't happy?

... it sure seems that way.

It does. But thinner.

Weird to cite “adventurous hackers who want to figure out how to fit a Mac mini into their car“ as a target market, but not app or web development.

My guess is there won't be separate Mac mini and Mac Pro lines but rather something that covers both use cases.

I agree, they hinted at a "modular Mac pro coming in 2019" and what's more modular than a little macmini with an external GPU, external storage, and lots of USB-c ports.

It’s basically for doing iOS app development. The other options are either too weak or not cost effective. Higher end models are usually too expensive.

I have a solution for Apple: that surely no one has thought of: spin off the Mac into it's own company. They can keep their shareholders happy with wonderful sales of the iPhone, and the pro users who rely on these computers will have access to real pro gear.

A good chunk of the appeal is the ecosystem.

Your solution works for shortsighted shareholders who don’t use the products and basically no one else.

The ecosystem integration is valuable for personal computers, but I don't think it matters so much for professional use.

Think it'd ever make sense to spin _that_ off? Just the pro market?

I guess then they wouldn't control the means to producing iOS apps, so probably not.

Imagine a world in which ApplePro exists independently and isn't compromised by AppleConsumer's priorities. Would we have waited so long for a MBP update? Would the pro desktop ever be permitted to go years without an update? Would thin & light still be prioritized over repairability and upgradability? Would we have a touchbar?

Except that smartphone is a declining business.

Will the Mac Mini Pro also be designed with insufficiently derated capacitors, shitty ribbon cables that short out, crappy thermal dissipation structures, and a shitty no-fix warranty just like every other post-2010 Apple product?

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