Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Apple Financial
Mac Pro sales waiting on Adobe
During Wednesday's Financial Results conference call, some insights came to light regarding the sales of Apple's Mac Pro. Were potential purchasers waiting on the release of Leopard before buying, in what they call a "Leopard related pause"? Apple said no. It wasn't a factor now and it didn't happen when Tiger was about to be released either. So why have Mac Pro sales have been under-performing? Apple thinks there is a major factor keeping people from hopping onto the Mac Pro bandwagon: Adobe.
The lack of an Intel-happy Creative Suite, whose release is due during the 2nd quarter of the year (calendar year, that is), will probably open up a new stream of Mac Pro sales that have been delayed because of software incompatibility. I personally cannot begin to count the amount of money I have sent towards both Adobe and Microsoft for their software, particularly for Photoshop, Word, and Excel. And I can't imagine a time where we ever see Apple software displace these software essentials. So for me, having Intel-friendly Adobe and Microsoft Universal Binaries is totally a precondition before laying out the cash for a major Mac upgrade.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark 2000 said 12:51AM on 1-19-2007
I'm more concerned about Macromedia stuff which is practically unusable under Rossetta its so slow (2.33 Core 2 Duo, BTW). At least Photoshop works.
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John Hopper said 1:14AM on 1-19-2007
Yup, My co. was ready to get 2 new Mac Pros... but I recommended against until CS3 is out. We can't run at half (1/4?) speed for months until they get their act together....
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Mark D. said 1:16AM on 1-19-2007
Mark 2000:
Running Flash 8 in Parallels further shows the terrible performance through Rosetta. I was really disappointed that the Flash 9 beta wasn't a UB, either. At least the Photoshop one finally make one Adobe tool usable and fast.
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frido said 1:48AM on 1-19-2007
I sold my Dual 2,3 Ghz G5 in December, and it was really noticable how many ad agencies inquired about the ad I posted online. I think they really are holding back on MacPro purchases and buy used G5s instead.
Bye, Frido.
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Mark 2000 said 2:32AM on 1-19-2007
Mark D. Are you referring to the Actionscript 3 preview or is there a beta out there I don't know about?
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HS said 2:43AM on 1-19-2007
The price of RAM for the Mac Pro vs the Powermac is enough to keep me from getting one. I got 4gb now, if I was to keep that level on a mac pro it's too expensive..
Will that ram become cheaper, or is it some high-tech stuff that will stay expensive?
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div said 3:23AM on 1-19-2007
Leopard pause. Hah!
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Thomas Ngo said 4:23AM on 1-19-2007
Mac Pro? Try MacBook Pro as well. Also, a revamp in the design of Apple's professional line of notebooks is overdue. We want LED backlights and better battery life in addition to Adobe's Universal Binary software.
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Mr Higgs said 7:58AM on 1-19-2007
I know I, as well as my coworkers are waiting for Adobe to bring the CS series to the Intel. That didn't stop me from buying a new laptop but for now I went with just a low end MacBook... Once Adobe releases their macromedia series and CS3 and hopefully After Effects I know of at least 10 people here that will buy a new MacPro just for their home use. If Leopard is out by then, even better.
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Lack said 8:14AM on 1-19-2007
I'm waiting for 2x quad core more then Adobe (since I'm not a graphic guy).
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John P. said 8:24AM on 1-19-2007
Were running a mix, some MBP's, some G5's, and some G4 Al's, In the end, the MBP are ok - Illustrator CS2 crashed way too often (I stick with Ill CS), Photoshop CS2 is OK as long as you are not doing any heavy lifting. Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8 performance - not bad. Of course, my previous machine was a MDD G4.
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ursula2k said 9:27AM on 1-19-2007
We just bought a MacPro because of some SATA RAID compatibility problems we had with our old G5. Basically it was either to upgrade or return the ($3k) RAID.
We are running the Photoshop Beta and for photo editing is quite stable but as soon as I try to do any layer work it crashes and I have to load PS2. It is so painfully slow I want to cry.
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bobster said 9:46AM on 1-19-2007
I am actually waiting for the chance that MBPs might be upgraded in due course in order to be more "leopardish", technologically spoken...
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Brian Ashe said 10:40AM on 1-19-2007
Wow, I'm the only exception. :-) I really want a 2.66 GHz Mac Pro* but $2500 is a little on the high side for me. (So is $2300 with my company discount or $2200 rfb. I really want it in the $1800-$2000 range.) So I'm waiting until they bump the Pros and the slower ones get cheaper--either sold as discontinued (Core Duo MBPs went from $2000 to $1300 overnight when the Core 2's came out!) or retained as a new low-end model. (The introduction of the Mac Pro marks the first time in YEARS that Apple didn't have a $1500-$2000 base model tower available.) I also want to have Leopard included (it'll serve as a home file server so Time Machine is essential) and iLife 07.
* From 2.0 to 2.66 GHz = 13% more cost and 30% more speed. Going from 2.66 to 3.0 is the exact opposite--13% faster for 30% more money. The 2.66 is DEFINITELY the sweet spot.
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Jeff Fletcher said 7:32PM on 1-19-2007
Personally, I'm looking forward to the day Apple software displaces Adobes. Right now I'm either using Windows to run CS or limping along with Rosetta. Considering the money I've laid out over the years to Adobe, I definitely feel a change is in order.
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vivavegas said 11:47PM on 1-19-2007
Running Photoshop on Intel is the one reason Im still using a Powermac G5. (running cs2 on a macbook pro is terrible, bridge keeps crashing). As soon as CS3 with universal support is out, im picking up a new Macpro.
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Jeffbbs said 2:42AM on 1-20-2007
I agree that CS2 runs like bad garbage on the intel macs, and I hope that an intel cs3 fixes that. But I also hope that cs3 fixes the terribleness that is CS2 regardless of intel mac or no. CS was great. CS2 is horrible even on a nonintel mac. Intel mac with cs2 is like a nightmare from beyond the grave.
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pixelslut said 1:25PM on 1-20-2007
I acn attest to this adobe pause. We have an older PB Titanium and an older iMac. We were loking to upgrade to a MBP and a MP... but I am making us wait until CS3 and FW9 come out. because ive heard the performance horror stories. However.. adobe is missing out too. We are still running CS 1.3. And I made the decision when the intel move was announced that we would not be purchasing any new version of software that was not o be made universal in a free upgrade or modestly priced .x release. And o there you have it...
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frogbat said 7:53AM on 8-10-2007
we just moved our little studio from pcs to 3 macs - 1 powermac and to imacs. The transition went ok with the designers finding themselves in the new environment very comfortable after one day. Only problem is that though the sw under rosetta runs faster than what we were used to under the pcs... the stability is piss poor. Especially CS 2 apps such as illustrator and indesign. The macromedia apps run way better in terms of stability though I was disappointed with the Fireworks 9 beta - not nearly as complete as the the PShop cs3 beta which I've switched one o fthe macs to.
re the ram - i too hope that iit'll get cheaper. I'm also hoping for flash based hdds to get really cheap really soon - will help alleviate some of the bottle neck esp if used as a scratch disk for pshop.
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