The Imac Pro: A Missed Opportunity for Innovation

I have to admit that I was pretty underwhelmed with Apple's latest announcement at WWDC - the Imac Pro. Don't get me wrong, it's still a professional machine and all that jazz, but it feels like they just slapped some fancy graphics on an existing Imac and called it a day.

The main reason I'm disappointed is that there's no innovation in design. Especially when compared to Microsoft's Surface Studio, which blows my mind. The Surface Studio may not be perfect, but at least it has that sleek, futuristic look that really sets it apart from the competition. And let's be real, who doesn't want a device that can transform into a drawing surface?

I've been watching videos of Roberta Blake's Surface Studio experience and I just can't help but feel like Apple is missing out on an opportunity to innovate. If they could just copy Microsoft's design and make it their own, I'd be all for it. But since they're too busy being safe and boring, we're stuck with the Imac Pro.

Now, I know what you're thinking - "But why are you complaining about the Imac Pro when it has a 5k display?" Well, let me tell you, as someone who loves large displays, it's just weird that the Imac Pro tops out at 27 inches. Where's the 30-inch model? I know, I know, inches don't always matter, but for those of us who love big screens, it feels like a missed opportunity.

One thing that does excite me is the possibility of the Mac Pro. Apple has learned from their mistakes with the late 2013 Mac Pro and I have a feeling that the next one will be user-upgradeable with swappable GPUs or SSDs. That's what the Imac Pro could have been if it didn't come with a screen, but we'll just have to wait and see.

The Imac Pro is still a great device for professionals who need a reliable machine for work, but it feels like they're holding us back with their lack of innovation. I know Apple likes to play it safe, but sometimes that means missing out on the really big opportunities.

On a more personal note, I'm super excited about my upcoming iPad Pro 10.5 inch arriving next Tuesday. It's not just because it's compatible with my Apple Pencil, although that is a major plus. But also because it feels like Apple is finally listening to our requests for a more portable and creative device. Fingers crossed that the Imac Pro will be better than I think it'll be.

In all honesty, I do love saying "I love my Mac Pro" because I use it every day, but I just have a feeling about the next Mac Pro being something special. Maybe they're listening to our feedback and will finally create a device that's truly unique. A guy can dream, right?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enred arnold says hello david do you think the imac pro should have a touch display and or apple pencil support is this a deal breaker then we have similar questions from casino med tom martin and i toured just why can't people have simple names and they say how do you feel about the new imac pro are you disappointed the imac pro doesn't have a touch screen and finally do you think that if it's a big deal for you the lack of upgrade ability on the imac pro grammar check buddy grammar check but uh yeah regardless great questions we also have a question from anthony monigoni for some reason it's grayed out anthony i'm just assuming you're going to ask me whether or not i'm buying the imac pro carter owen also says how do you feel about the imac pro taco bell becky what up what are your thoughts on the imac pro and mr sean hey david i'm assuming you will be ordering the imac soon that is incorrect sir unfortunately allow me to explain ah the imac pro it's quite a beast i'll give it that it's definitely quite a beast so where do i begin well first of all let me begin by saying this hello guys how are you david defranco here from defrancouniversity.com forum and that's exactly where all of today's questions came from because i basically said in my wwdc 2017 recap video if you want a shout out just ask the question what do i think about the imac pro and well you're pretty much guaranteed a shadow and that's exactly what just happened okay so my recap video i enjoyed making that to an extent i mean i just i just wasn't myself that day i was sick i still am sick today hence why i'm just not completely feeling it but i do want to get this done today because i feel it's a very important topic the imac pro all right here we go here we go guys i have no notes in front of me i'm just gonna talk about my honest feelings in regards to the imac pro what i like about it and what i dislike about it now first of all what i like about it this thing is an absolute beast i'm actually surprised apple even officially unveiled the imac pro this early in the game i mean what it's not coming out until december they could have easily easily had another event maybe around october you know after all the iphone madness is over with but no they did it this week the imac pro is officially unveiled i mean yes it may not be releasing until december but i think this is probably maybe possibly apple's way of saying guys we still care about the professional market and you know what i've been saying that since the beginning okay so you can't blame apple for mostly focusing on ios in recent years it's what makes them money i mean without the iphone and the ipad apple would be a dramatically different company today but just because they put so much time and attention into things like the ipad that doesn't mean they don't care about the mac i never doubted that for one bit i mean yeah the mac pro went years within an update and there's really no excuse for that believe me i'm not defending apple in that regard i'm just saying apple has a lot on their plate so i can't even imagine what goes on behind the scenes when trying to balance ios with mac os watch os tv os there's a lot to do with apple hq so yeah i mean the fact that they even gave us news on the imac pro this early in the game i give them props for that i do i may sound like a fan boy but hey that's just me being me i love apple so yeah i am really glad they announced the imac pro this early in the game and just it just looks like an absolute beast of a computer it's basically a mac pro on steroids with a built-in display and that's exactly why it starts at five thousand dollars that is a lot of money guys five thousand dollars that's a lot of money for a starting point of any computer and yes i fully realize five thousand dollars is probably a deal compared to the windows side of things but don't forget when you're building a windows computer you're getting windows you're not getting that mac os experience and i can't expect windows users to understand why i make such a big deal out of that but guys i used to be a windows user and i can say with 100 confidence mac os is so much more reliable than windows the software side of things just has a more premium vibe going on yes you can't really game on a mac which yes you can if anyone tells you otherwise they're dumb uh but yeah i don't i don't own a mac to play video games i own a mac to create content which is what i'm doing right now so um anyway getting back on track five thousand dollars yeah a lot of money and that's way way way out of my budget so yeah price point that kind of sucks but that doesn't even matter to me right now because my biggest disappointment with the imac pro is the fact that it's just that it's an imac souped up with some killer specs there's nothing pro about it besides specs i mean there's no real reason to get the imac pro when apple just updated the regular imac right now and as far as i'm concerned that can handle things like vr just fine they make that very clear with mac os high sierra the new imax specs all that together can create a high quality high frame rate media rich experience no matter what you're doing whether it's vr video editing uh photography photoshop whatever the new imacs regardless of the imac pro are insane on their own so don't let the whole imac pro thing distract you there's no reason why you cannot get some real professional work done on a regular imac the main reason i'm so disappointed uh with the fact that the imac pro is just an imac with prospects is that i don't i don't see any innovation in the design especially when compared to the surface studio from microsoft the surface studio while i have yet to use one blows my mind i was just watching videos today um from roberto blake what up roberta how are you he's a great content creator actually i'll link him right below check him out cool guy and i was watching his video about the surface studio and i just happened to get there i don't know how in the sidebar or whatever and i was watching and i'm like damn why can't apple do something like this why can't they just completely copy microsoft and yes there's nothing wrong with apple copying microsoft microsoft copying apple google copying samsung samsung copying apple apple copying samsung that's what this industry is about these companies copy each other all the time if it wasn't for copying these companies wouldn't grow and that's a fact anyway the imac pro in my eyes is a professional machine but it's lacking innovation it's lacking anything truly unique you can't use the apple pencil on it you can't use any kind of unique accessories on it besides like external gpus i believe which is actually which is actually a really really big deal from a professional standpoint but when i'm talking about unique accessories i'm talking about things like uh the apple pencil and smart keyboard and yes i don't see yourself putting a smart keyboard on the imac pro but that's just the thing i was hoping the imac pro would have some kind of unique interface like this that's the smart connector right there where it would have devices unique to the imac pro and nothing else i kind of wanted the imac pro to be its own creative um ecosystem if you will but still be compatible with things like the apple pencil but it's not happening right now and honestly i'm not really surprised apple is kind of a safe playing company when it comes to things like that so the fact that they kept the imac pro simple hey it is what it is will i be buying one now but i will say this two things real quick and then i'll let you guys go number one i am very very excited about my ipad pro 10.5 inch arriving next tuesday that's going to be a lot of fun especially because well it's obviously compatible with my apple pencil so that alone is going to spark my creativity quite a bit so i'm not completely let down by wwdc was actually a solid keynote like it was solid as hell just the imac pro is not what i wanted and number two this is probably the more important one in terms of um long term stuff the mac pro we cannot forget about the mac pro it's pretty safe to say that apple has learned their lesson with the late 2013 mac brow which by the way i love saying i love my mac pro i use it every day but i have a really good feeling about the next mac pro i think it's going to be user upgradable maybe like some swappable gpu of some sort of swappable ssds i don't know but i just have a good feeling in saying that the next mac pro is what the imac pro could have been without the screen if that even makes sense so i think the imac pro is here to hold over professional users until the true professional mac comes out in the future and that's another thing the imac pro as nice as it is is still just a 27 inch display 27 inches isn't that big guys look behind me that right there is a 31 inch 4k display and yeah i realize inches don't always matter because the imac is a 5k display but for someone like myself who enjoys large displays it just it's just weird it's very odd that the imac pro tops out at 27 inch i was hoping for at least a 30 inch model there you go those are my thoughts like i said no notes i'm sure i've repeated myself at least a few times here and by no means am i hating on the mac pro again it's an incredibly impressive looking computer it just feels like a beefed up imac so did i say mac pro or imac pro god i really hope i said the right thing okay i'm going to edit this video i'm going to hopefully get some rest as well and perhaps next week i'll be back to normal with my ipad pro unboxing on tuesday stay tuned for that thank you guys so much for watching thank you for your patience with me lately i promise things will be back to normal very soon i'll talk to you later peace youred arnold says hello david do you think the imac pro should have a touch display and or apple pencil support is this a deal breaker then we have similar questions from casino med tom martin and i toured just why can't people have simple names and they say how do you feel about the new imac pro are you disappointed the imac pro doesn't have a touch screen and finally do you think that if it's a big deal for you the lack of upgrade ability on the imac pro grammar check buddy grammar check but uh yeah regardless great questions we also have a question from anthony monigoni for some reason it's grayed out anthony i'm just assuming you're going to ask me whether or not i'm buying the imac pro carter owen also says how do you feel about the imac pro taco bell becky what up what are your thoughts on the imac pro and mr sean hey david i'm assuming you will be ordering the imac soon that is incorrect sir unfortunately allow me to explain ah the imac pro it's quite a beast i'll give it that it's definitely quite a beast so where do i begin well first of all let me begin by saying this hello guys how are you david defranco here from defrancouniversity.com forum and that's exactly where all of today's questions came from because i basically said in my wwdc 2017 recap video if you want a shout out just ask the question what do i think about the imac pro and well you're pretty much guaranteed a shadow and that's exactly what just happened okay so my recap video i enjoyed making that to an extent i mean i just i just wasn't myself that day i was sick i still am sick today hence why i'm just not completely feeling it but i do want to get this done today because i feel it's a very important topic the imac pro all right here we go here we go guys i have no notes in front of me i'm just gonna talk about my honest feelings in regards to the imac pro what i like about it and what i dislike about it now first of all what i like about it this thing is an absolute beast i'm actually surprised apple even officially unveiled the imac pro this early in the game i mean what it's not coming out until december they could have easily easily had another event maybe around october you know after all the iphone madness is over with but no they did it this week the imac pro is officially unveiled i mean yes it may not be releasing until december but i think this is probably maybe possibly apple's way of saying guys we still care about the professional market and you know what i've been saying that since the beginning okay so you can't blame apple for mostly focusing on ios in recent years it's what makes them money i mean without the iphone and the ipad apple would be a dramatically different company today but just because they put so much time and attention into things like the ipad that doesn't mean they don't care about the mac i never doubted that for one bit i mean yeah the mac pro went years within an update and there's really no excuse for that believe me i'm not defending apple in that regard i'm just saying apple has a lot on their plate so i can't even imagine what goes on behind the scenes when trying to balance ios with mac os watch os tv os there's a lot to do with apple hq so yeah i mean the fact that they even gave us news on the imac pro this early in the game i give them props for that i do i may sound like a fan boy but hey that's just me being me i love apple so yeah i am really glad they announced the imac pro this early in the game and just it just looks like an absolute beast of a computer it's basically a mac pro on steroids with a built-in display and that's exactly why it starts at five thousand dollars that is a lot of money guys five thousand dollars that's a lot of money for a starting point of any computer and yes i fully realize five thousand dollars is probably a deal compared to the windows side of things but don't forget when you're building a windows computer you're getting windows you're not getting that mac os experience and i can't expect windows users to understand why i make such a big deal out of that but guys i used to be a windows user and i can say with 100 confidence mac os is so much more reliable than windows the software side of things just has a more premium vibe going on yes you can't really game on a mac which yes you can if anyone tells you otherwise they're dumb uh but yeah i don't i don't own a mac to play video games i own a mac to create content which is what i'm doing right now so um anyway getting back on track five thousand dollars yeah a lot of money and that's way way way out of my budget so yeah price point that kind of sucks but that doesn't even matter to me right now because my biggest disappointment with the imac pro is the fact that it's just that it's an imac souped up with some killer specs there's nothing pro about it besides specs i mean there's no real reason to get the imac pro when apple just updated the regular imac right now and as far as i'm concerned that can handle things like vr just fine they make that very clear with mac os high sierra the new imax specs all that together can create a high quality high frame rate media rich experience no matter what you're doing whether it's vr video editing uh photography photoshop whatever the new imacs regardless of the imac pro are insane on their own so don't let the whole imac pro thing distract you there's no reason why you cannot get some real professional work done on a regular imac the main reason i'm so disappointed uh with the fact that the imac pro is just an imac with prospects is that i don't i don't see any innovation in the design especially when compared to the surface studio from microsoft the surface studio while i have yet to use one blows my mind i was just watching videos today um from roberto blake what up roberta how are you he's a great content creator actually i'll link him right below check him out cool guy and i was watching his video about the surface studio and i just happened to get there i don't know how in the sidebar or whatever and i was watching and i'm like damn why can't apple do something like this why can't they just completely copy microsoft and yes there's nothing wrong with apple copying microsoft microsoft copying apple google copying samsung samsung copying apple apple copying samsung that's what this industry is about these companies copy each other all the time if it wasn't for copying these companies wouldn't grow and that's a fact anyway the imac pro in my eyes is a professional machine but it's lacking innovation it's lacking anything truly unique you can't use the apple pencil on it you can't use any kind of unique accessories on it besides like external gpus i believe which is actually which is actually a really really big deal from a professional standpoint but when i'm talking about unique accessories i'm talking about things like uh the apple pencil and smart keyboard and yes i don't see yourself putting a smart keyboard on the imac pro but that's just the thing i was hoping the imac pro would have some kind of unique interface like this that's the smart connector right there where it would have devices unique to the imac pro and nothing else i kind of wanted the imac pro to be its own creative um ecosystem if you will but still be compatible with things like the apple pencil but it's not happening right now and honestly i'm not really surprised apple is kind of a safe playing company when it comes to things like that so the fact that they kept the imac pro simple hey it is what it is will i be buying one now but i will say this two things real quick and then i'll let you guys go number one i am very very excited about my ipad pro 10.5 inch arriving next tuesday that's going to be a lot of fun especially because well it's obviously compatible with my apple pencil so that alone is going to spark my creativity quite a bit so i'm not completely let down by wwdc was actually a solid keynote like it was solid as hell just the imac pro is not what i wanted and number two this is probably the more important one in terms of um long term stuff the mac pro we cannot forget about the mac pro it's pretty safe to say that apple has learned their lesson with the late 2013 mac brow which by the way i love saying i love my mac pro i use it every day but i have a really good feeling about the next mac pro i think it's going to be user upgradable maybe like some swappable gpu of some sort of swappable ssds i don't know but i just have a good feeling in saying that the next mac pro is what the imac pro could have been without the screen if that even makes sense so i think the imac pro is here to hold over professional users until the true professional mac comes out in the future and that's another thing the imac pro as nice as it is is still just a 27 inch display 27 inches isn't that big guys look behind me that right there is a 31 inch 4k display and yeah i realize inches don't always matter because the imac is a 5k display but for someone like myself who enjoys large displays it just it's just weird it's very odd that the imac pro tops out at 27 inch i was hoping for at least a 30 inch model there you go those are my thoughts like i said no notes i'm sure i've repeated myself at least a few times here and by no means am i hating on the mac pro again it's an incredibly impressive looking computer it just feels like a beefed up imac so did i say mac pro or imac pro god i really hope i said the right thing okay i'm going to edit this video i'm going to hopefully get some rest as well and perhaps next week i'll be back to normal with my ipad pro unboxing on tuesday stay tuned for that thank you guys so much for watching thank you for your patience with me lately i promise things will be back to normal very soon i'll talk to you later peace you\n"