Re: Is Smoke 2013 already futureless because of Arrogance and Apple?

I think it's probably more likely that Apple will do what they always do - innovate. It's clear that the towers are not a form factor that Apple really wants to continue, but there are a number of things they could be working on that could be a largely acceptable replacement. One possibility would be to replace the Mac Pro with..... an iMac Pro. An iMac with a great display (4K "retina" displays are already being talked about), and in the same form factor as the standard iMac, but with some differences. Perhaps access to a processor module that would be upgradeable. Perhaps an optical implementation of Thunderbolt with multiple ports and higher speeds, approaching that of current PCIe expanders. And perhaps partner with manufacturers like Promise, Atto, Blackmagic, AJA, and others to provide Thunderbolt based expansion solutions for external GPUs, video I/O, and the like. They could conceivably go the HP route and design an all-in-one-yet-still-upgradeable workstation. If HP could come up with a design like the Z1, imagine what Apple could do. Either way, I don't really think Apple is in love with the tower/card slot form factor. The question is what they will come up with to replace it.

Apple has a history of being very successful at creating new "standards" and having an awful lot of third party suppliers adopt them. 3 1/2 inch floppys, USB, Firewire, Firewire 800, Thunderbolt - all of these appeared on Apple's computers before anyone else started calling them "standards," and before the things they replaced had been retired. That didn't stop them from becoming the things that now define everyone's systems. Perhaps this is one of those times they redefine what a creative workstation is as well.