[Chris Kenny] "Basically, I'm not arguing that there won't be future applications that want 10, 100 or 1000 times as much CPU power as today's apps, which is the implication of the other quotes you mention. I think there will be such apps, sooner or later. But as mainstream hardware gets faster, the benefits of spending lots of extra money for higher-performance marginally mainstream hardware (like the Mac Pro) recede. And eventually that marginally mainstream hardware is no longer mainstream at all. Apple makes mainstream hardware. When the Mac Pro crosses this line, Apple will stop making it."
Chris, I agree with you that cheaper computers are becoming increasingly powerful. It has been ever thus.
My point in bringing up those quotes was that it's alarming when a computer manufacturer that ostensibly supplies professionals stops pushing the envelope. Expectations rise at the same rate as capabilities. There are not just future apps that will someday need this power; there's a whole class of current creative apps that are limited by today's CPU constraints.
Really, you have no argument here from me and I apologize for starting one. Apple will most likely not feel the need to have a dual-socket workstation, though other computer manufacturers interested in niche markets will.
I think you are explaining Apple's motivations and likely future direction very well, and I think that many of us who have benefited from a mainstream company like Apple dabbling in our niche have to decide if we'll be better off moving toward the mainstream or further into our niches.
Walter Soyka
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