Slashdot Mirror
Apple Transitions Hardware Leadership
redletterdave writes "Apple will begin transitioning the leadership role within its hardware engineering department, now that Bob Mansfield, who led the engineering of many of Apple's most successful products since 2005, has decided to retire. Apple was quick to name Dan Riccio — currently the VP of hardware engineering for the iPad — as Mansfield's successor, mentioning that Riccio will learn the new role over several months. During that time, the hardware engineering team will continue to report to Mansfield."
These days, are HDD slots really necessary? Most users don't upgrade their hard drives. USB 2 works pretty well, FireWire 800 is fantastic, and Thuderbolt is supposed to wipe with the floor with FW800. I'm sure the next iMac will have USB 3.
External drives work fine for a desktop. It's not like years ago when if you didn't have SCSI the performance was terrible.
I seriously doubt Apple would do that for the iMac. On the laptops you do it for space reasons, but on a 23" or 27" computer you have plenty of space to spare.
The point of the mini is that it's a tiny quite computer on the cheap (compared to full sized Apple models, not low end PCs). Why does it need to be bigger? And you're not supposed to need to open the case. What percentage of normal computer buyers do you think ever open their computer? At this point, laptops sell the best and can't be opened. They just have a slot or two that can be accessed through a panel. I'll agree that upgrading the older minis was terrible (I don't know if it's improved, I doubt it), but Apple markets and treats their computers like sealed appliances, and most people don't seem to care.
For $1200 the base iMac is a great computer. The graphics are fine for 95% of users. You can easily expand the storage with all the ports mentioned above. A fair number of people upgrade the RAM or hard drive in their computers, but almost no one buys expansion cards. The most common reason seems to be to get some new port (like USB 2 when that came out, or USB 3 now) and you can do that with Thunderbolt.
Apple has all the large market bases covered, and then some. The DIY Mac may appeal to /.ers, but I seriously doubt they'd sell. I can tell you users love the integrated easy to use appliance like setup of the current iMacs. I use one for development every day at work, and it's fantastic. Most people (both for person or work reasons) buy laptops anyway.
What kind of user would switch to the Mac for that? People who want to play games? Because the game selection on OS X isn't that great, and usually runs months behind Windows, if the games every come. When the latest graphics card comes out, there wouldn't even be drivers. No one is going to use it as a server, Apple clearly isn't interested in that (and I don't blame them, it's not a big market, and you can just use a Mac Pro if you really want one).
So your market is DIY people, who aren't hardcore gamers, who don't want a server, but do want a desktop. That's a tiny fraction of people. The Mac Pro is probably a rounding error in Apple's computer sales, and it has a decently sized market of professionals. But with Thunderbolt, some of the reasons for using a Pro (such as high speed interconnect to a RAID for video editing) can now be covered by the iMac.
Face it, the Mac Pro is what you want, you just don't want to pay the price. I don't blame you, it's not targeted at individuals and the price reflects that (by a good margin). But really, Apple has been ignoring the requests for the Mac Pro Mini for most of a decade, and it doesn't seem to have hurt their business at all. It's clearly not necessary.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
In a world where a single natural disaster can and unfortunately sometimes does cause devastation over vast areas, as it seems anyone near Washington DC is all too aware tonight, your comment is far too close to the truth to be funny.
A tiny number of big manufacturers are now responsible for actually making the hardware for almost every major computer and mobile device manufacturer in the world. I'm not sure whether we are down to single figures yet, but if not, we're close. There is a reason you could hardly find a new hard disk to buy not so long ago unless it was part of an entire new computer. It's because there literally weren't enough stocks of those devices to satisfy market demand, after major natural disasters brought production to a halt at too many of those few key facilities for an extended period.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.