Definitely a bit perturbed that if I order my custom config today it will not ship until February!!! The whole December availability thing was a tad misleading Apple.

I’ll go back to my theory (speculation). This machine was NEVER meant to me mentioned in 2013. Apple must have started to feel the pressure from the Pro community and rushed their availability estimates. They definitely played the PR messaging game with us. The fact that they even announced the Thursday availability on the preceding Wednesday shows how the pressure for info was causing them to scramble.

To say this was ambitious is an understatement.

Waiting for Intel.

Waiting for the US assembly plant to come online.

All new proprietary hardware.

Pressure to say something, ANYTHING about the state of professional Apple hardware.

They knew they wouldn’t have all their ducks in the right order. I’m thinking that Apple played with the announcement dates to keep the Pro user base at bay while they struggled behind the scenes to make this a reality. If they announced early in December then the BTO orders would have shipped 8 weeks later. That is unprecedented for Apple (except for the delays on the iMac last year.) They pushed the availability date until the last possible minute (today) to keep the actual shipping date within six weeks. Its the only explanation. Except for Christmas day this is the weirdest possible date to order a workstation class computer. I’d bet my right pinky that January 19th was the original target with a two week shipping delay. (I need my left pinky for all those 9th chord stretches)

What can I say? I’m happy its finally here. I’m happy that Apple put this much effort into a new machine for the Pro user base. I’m also happy that, on the surface at least, it looks like pressure from the Professional community has caused Apple to alter their plans. It proves that Apple doesn’t want to just be a consumer electronics company. It proves that they know we exist and that we are a powerful group. It proves this despite the number and profitability of the iOS devices.

I just hope they keep part of their focus squarely on the Professional user. Hopefully the updates to the Pro hardware and software will return to their usual frequency. I believe it will. I don’t believe that Apple will be this neglectful again. I’m not sure if the communication will get any better but if the updates return to their regular schedules then we will not feel the need to complain.

Since February is the TRUE release date for my new Mac Pro this will give me some time to do some more research on the available Thuderbolt drives. I’ve reached out to both to OWC and Promise Tech for more information. Let me know what other companies I should contact. I’ll also ask for some promo codes for our page. Having 22,000 professional members has its advantages.

More later,
Lou Borella

Now about that Aperture update …

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