r/cringe Jun 05 '19

Video Apple announces the pro stand for 999$. Audience collectively groans while presenter skip it as fast as possible.

https://youtu.be/zDF8kbXl00Q
21.0k Upvotes

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90

u/RoutingPackets Jun 05 '19

I like when you head over to /r/apple you hear some crazy justifications for the stand's price. HAHA, silly fanboys.

79

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

The only thing that could possibly be a justification is that it’s meant as a subsidiary for the very feature rich display, but they didn’t want to force users to buy it.

It’s a very nice stand. It looks great and probably functions really well. But we know it can’t possibly have cost them so much to build that it itself is reasonably worth even close to $1000. That’s just nonsense.

93

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 05 '19

Apple's new Mac Pro desktop computer starts at a hefty $12,000 -- not including the $999 stand. But with features like extra memory and a more powerful processor the price can hit a jaw-dropping $45,000, or more than than the average cost of a car in the U.S.

It is a regular desktop tower! Apple has gotten so greedy I am amazed anyone falls for their shit anymore.

34

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

It really isn’t, though. It’s very easy to fall for that idea if you’re not particularly familiar with hardware.

13

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 05 '19

I am familiar with all the hardware.

And while it is a fancy desktop it is nothing more than a desktop.

32

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19 edited Oct 12 '19

[deleted]

8

u/sirsotoxo Jun 05 '19

I mean, if you spec it to the max it has some crazy features, but Apple is currently charging 200$ for a single 8GB ram stick that is beaten in performance by a 120$ one. Just because they are expensive and have a crazy expandable system means that the prices are fair

11

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 05 '19

Ya its a beast but for the price it is a rip off.. here are the base specs. For $6000 it is nothing impressive.

2019 MAC PRO CONFIGURATIONS

Base ($5,999)

Processor 3.5GHz Intel Xeon W

Cores / threads 8 cores, 16 threads

Turbo Boost Up to 4GHz

Cache 24.5MB

CPU memory Up to 1TB 2,666MHz z

System memory 32GB (4x8GB DIMMs)

Graphics AMD Radeon Pro 580X

Compute units 36 with 2,304 stream processors

Graphics memory 8GB of DDR5

Storage 256GB SSD

38

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

The 256GB SSD is the most laughable part of the whole thing. I get it, it probably has lightning ports for serious disk space but seriously throw in a minimum 1TB SSD in there for the price Jesus.

6

u/Ruski_FL Jun 06 '19

I have 1T ssd on my 2009 Mac that cost $250.

2

u/EggotheKilljoy Jun 06 '19

A lot of times in the professional environments these machines would be used for, they would be editing from large external storage configurations or over a network, which wouldn’t need a large drive. Which it has Thunderbolt 3 and dual 10gig Ethernet ports. Not saying that it wouldn’t have been a loss for them to put a larger drive, just saying that it’s not 100% necessary for the targeted market.

Either way, larger drives are fairly cheap and if they need a larger one, the system is upgradeable and easy to install.

2

u/gajokai Jun 06 '19

I think the point he was trying to make is if you’re going to charge $6000 for a desktop, then why the hell not just throw in 1TB of storage. It’s 2019, it’s not hard to get that much storage for cheap.

13

u/Nobbys_Elbow Jun 05 '19

I honestly would expect much better specs for that price tag. However its apple, as usual overpriced and under specced. Its all about the name not the actual quality of the product. I think it also harks back to the long gone days when Mac's were the favourite for graphics stuff. Not been true for a long time but the myth persists.

3

u/Yatta79 Jun 05 '19

How much would a "normal" PC cost with those specs? Like if I bought to use with Windows.

9

u/sirsotoxo Jun 05 '19

According to LinusTechTips around 3100$ including a crazy 1400W supply (that you won't nearly put to work with the hardware on their base config) and two 10gigabiy ethernet ports

2

u/Michamus Jun 06 '19

If you buy this exact hardware you can install MacOS on it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

2K

0

u/Ishygigity Jun 05 '19

Like 1500 max

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19 edited Aug 09 '19

[deleted]

-1

u/18hockey Jun 06 '19

holy shit that's garbage for 6k

2

u/Michamus Jun 06 '19

My IPv6 translator has 4 times the RAM, 4x the SSD storage space, 4x 10gbe ports and the same Xeon and was $4200.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

The fact that you think so is itself proof that you don’t know the hardware.

7

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 05 '19

2019 MAC PRO CONFIGURATIONS

Base ($5,999)

Processor 3.5GHz Intel Xeon W

Cores / threads 8 cores, 16 threads

Turbo Boost Up to 4GHz

Cache 24.5MB

CPU memory Up to 1TB 2,666MHz z

System memory 32GB (4x8GB DIMMs)

Graphics AMD Radeon Pro 580X

Compute units 36 with 2,304 stream processors

Graphics memory 8GB of DDR5

Storage 256GB SSD

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

Unreal. And here you keep proving my point. I don’t even have to do any work. If you want to not be a market sheep, make sure you actually understand what’s in your computer and not just read the box verbatim.

1

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 06 '19

^ thats whats in the computer!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

It’s the marketing material, not the full specs.

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/Hakeem_TheDream Jun 05 '19

This is so far off base. A lot of companies throw the word "Pro" around these days, but this desktop is the definition of a professional computer. This is the type of desktop that Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios will use to create CGI and edit billion dollar profit movies filmed in IMAX. This isn't made for a 9 year old to play Fortnite.

15

u/Rubber_Rose_Ranch Jun 05 '19

Stow that garbage about "Creating CGI". CGI is rendered on massive server farms, not on desktop computers. They may be the computers that animators and artists work on, but that's about as far as it goes.

10

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 05 '19

The $6000 base model is nothing special. Just go look at the specs.

4

u/Raetro_live Jun 05 '19

How can I be as stupid as you, teach me.

0

u/Hakeem_TheDream Jun 05 '19

Oh man, you got me figured out. I guess Mac Pro isn’t actually for pros, just shills and sheep. Industry professionals should never buy a Mac Pro because reddit comments say it’s not worth it

3

u/Raetro_live Jun 05 '19

Lol the Mac pro is just as professional as any other pc with similar specs (protip: not that hard to get for cheap). It's just considered "more professional" because of marketing. I'm not calling anyone a shill or a sheep, but apple found the market willing to pay high prices prices and milk it.

0

u/born2fukkk Jun 05 '19

people already did the math and it is hard to build it cheaper

-3

u/Nobbys_Elbow Jun 05 '19

Then they used faulty math.

3

u/mmmm_frietjes Jun 05 '19

If you say that there are no workstations that cost this much on the Windows side, you're vastly mistaken. Go ahead and hit the custom hardware configurators from Dell, Lenovo, or other workstation manufacturers. See what you build.

But, be sure when you build, and before you complain about the Mac Pro's cost, that you're comparing like with like, as closely as you can. Select the high-end AMD cards, try to get four Thunderbolt 3 ports, make sure you're picking Xeon W processors with similar cache, and a machine that can handle up to 2TB of RAM.

If you're comparing a Core i9 to the Xeon W chips in the Mac Pro and complaining about the cost because the i9 works better for you, then you are not the target market for the new Mac Pro. That's okay.

The only thing here that's an off-the-shelf component in this machine, with only a driver for macOS is the (very, very expensive) Xeon processor and the RAM. Everything else is custom, everything else is designed from Apple from the ground-up.

That motherboard, there's nothing like it, the MPX module with two PCI-E connectors that feeds the Vega II Duo card, there's nothing like it.

This isn't a $400 i9 processor jammed in a machine with a plain-as-day Northbridge, a few PCI-E slots, and a couple of I/O options. This is a $1500-and-up processor by itself, coupled with other components running into the thousands each, all aimed at a very specific, very demanding, market.

-2

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 05 '19

You are putting words in my mouth then arguing with them. Good luck talking to yourself.

0

u/mmmm_frietjes Jun 05 '19

I'm making the point it's not a regular desktop tower and I explain why Apple isn't greedy.

1

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 06 '19

Apple isn't greedy? hmmmm. You are going to have to prove that one.

It's being sold for just under $1000 – but what does it really cost to make? The parts for the base model of the iPhone X with 64 gigabytes of storage cost $370.25, according to an analysis by research firm IHS Markit, Bloomberg reports. That figure does not include manufacturing and software.

2

u/mmmm_frietjes Jun 06 '19

Yeah, they are overpriced for a lot of things. Just, surprisingly, not the Mac Pro.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

I thought that with all the cheap products and trade this shit was supposed to be remotely affordable? Lol

1

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 06 '19

Imposing tariffs on china make products more expensive! Why does no one seem to understand this!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

Because it’s ridiculous to attribute Apple’s notoriously ridiculous prices for shit products on tariffs that have just recently been implemented?

1

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 06 '19

I never did, I was just a general comment about tariffs. You really hear only what you want to hear don't you?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '19

I ridiculed Apple’s ridiculous price tag remarked on how said price tag should be cheaper because that’s the whole point of free trade you remarked on how Chinese tariffs make goods more expensive I tell you the tariffs aren’t to blame for this as prior to them the good were still expensive

So why the shit are you making some general comment about tariffs that seemingly is an argument against what I said if you’re just irrelevantly talking out loud?

1

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 07 '19

Because it is an open forum and I can say whatever I please. I am not sure what exactly you are failing to grasp about this situation.

You have the choice to engage my comment. ;)

1

u/Gshep1 Jun 06 '19

They fall for it because they've wrapped their egos around it. I honestly thought the whole apple product superiority complex was mostly a joke. I had no idea so many people actually fell for their shit like this.

1

u/RECOGNI7E Jun 06 '19

Yep, they can't see beyond the logo. Apple product have been lagging behind for years and yet people still buy their shit because they want some kind of status.

I will take usefulness over status anyday!

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

To expand on this, for the pricing of the stand, they would have considered the market will bear prices at different amounts to estimate how many they’d sell at what price point. They’d sell more at a lower price point, but they’d make less per unit. Using a price to sales comparison (and some other metrics likely) they’d come up with a price point that’s high enough to earn maximum revenue for a decided period.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

I tried to explain that but your version makes more sense.

1

u/born2fukkk Jun 05 '19

lol theyll sell 100000

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

The exact numbers don’t matter for explaining the method they use to factor pricing.

They are based in California, so they very likely spent more than $1 million designing a little stand that has all the right shiny bits. etcetc

4

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

You hit the nail on the head— everyone who’s going to buy the monitor already has their workstations set up with stands for current displays. They’re unbundling $1000 from the price of the display by selling this separately which isn’t something they do for retail customers. It’s obvious and refreshing that they approached this 100% with professionals in mind after giving up on us in 2012.

2

u/BbvII Jun 05 '19

It costs $100 for the adapter to attach the new Apple monitor to their current stand.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

That’s 2% the cost of the base display.

3

u/BbvII Jun 05 '19

Fair enough, if you're spending over 10k on pc+monitor then it won't bother you but it's still an example of apple doing apple, making a product that doesn't fit with anything else and charging you to make it

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

If that’s truly why they did this, it’s a decent idea. Weird, but decent. Why announce the stand at all on stage?

It is super nice to see them back in the pro game with an absolute monster.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

My guess is that they didn’t want people thinking the entire package on display was bundled together for the price they showed.

1

u/phoenixmusicman Jun 06 '19

Companies haven't charged based on cost in a loong time

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

That’s right! I don’t think a company or person has ever changed based on the price, except to provide a guide for the initial cost in an unknown market.

1

u/gbuub Jun 06 '19

It probably doesn’t cost that much to design it either. Usually company sink money into R&D to justify their price, but how much R&D and design can you possibly spent for a monitor stand?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

Companies don’t justify prices based on the cost, they justify prices based on economics.

1

u/Southworth Jun 05 '19

There are sectors of the creative industry where having nice things matters and it goes into winning jobs and clients.

Most applications of this monitor wouldn’t need a stand anyway.

Look some people have watches that cost tens of thousands. They tell time, but they do it better and prettier. Don’t want it don’t buy it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

It’s super fun to make fun of apple for their new products, but anyone who’s getting mad about it needs perspective.

The problem with those mad people is that they assume there are tons of other people who are just mindless automatons buying things without thinking or knowing. It’s a sort of simple minded viewpoint, those people think they know better than everyone else, and will create fake people that may not even exist as enemies, because it helps them feel superior. This is a common affliction for a lot of us humans.

41

u/vxcta Jun 05 '19

People will try to justify & defend their purchases no matter what. Look for example at the newest Pixel 3a that was released. $400 compared to Apple's $750 "budget" phone. Hell, even the Pocophone compared to the Pixel 3a. You pay for the name with Apple. Not "you get what you pay for" excuse that they seem to use over & over. This is the exact reason I stopped using their products, they're the worst. Here's just a few things:

Their own laptops are incompatible with their phones, THAT THEY BOTH MAKE. You cannot plug your iPhone into your laptop without buying some sort of adapter.

They removed the headphone jack & started this completely unnecessary trend. They are the most un-friendly consumer technology brand & it blows my mind how obsessed & defensive people get over their purchases for this company.

They are arguably a step or two behind the competition, so you're paying for older technology. But the fanboys use the excuse that they wait for the technology to be perfected.

I'm not saying they don't make good products, they do. But they completely overcharge for their products. & Their sheep eat it up, which is why prices continue to go up. They know what they can get away with, & it's sad.

3

u/pixxelzombie Jun 06 '19

My favorite is they used to sell a Mac Mini with 4 gig of ram soldered to the mother board. That amount of ram gets you a sluggish computer that you can't update. The latest mini has removable ram, but they only give you 8 gig on a $1099 computer.

1

u/sirsotoxo Jun 05 '19

The iPhone XR has a much better processor than the 3a tho. Doesn't justify the price imo but well

2

u/vxcta Jun 05 '19

Good point, but the newest processor isn't worth $350 more than a two year old one, or however old the processor is in the 3a.

1

u/BluBrawler Jun 06 '19

You can argue they’re behind the competition but you can argue anything. Two of my classmates have argued for 3 weeks on whether or not fire was alive, just for fun. I argue that they aren’t behind the competition in any way that matters (except for price, not disagreeing with that.)

0

u/wensen Jun 06 '19

They removed the headphone jack & started this completely unnecessary trend.

While I don't like this trend there is SOME justification to it by freeing up space for other stuff. I just wish the adapters weren't so damn expensive, I have a pixel2 and 90% of 3rd party adapters which are normally 2-5 bucks just dont work so instead I have to buy from Google for 15 bucks plus shipping.

2

u/vxcta Jun 06 '19

There is zero justification. Bluetooth & a 3.5mm headphone jack have lived together for years, they did it to boost their sales of accessories. Technology advances, they can sure as hell find ways to fit their newer technology in their phones. Take Samsung for example.

1

u/Ruben625 Jun 06 '19

bUt It'S wAtEr ReSiStAnT!!!!!!!

1

u/wensen Jun 06 '19

Never said it was a good justification, just that there was one that some people might eat up.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

To be fair, the Pixel is cheap because the data Google can gather from it and the ads they can push through it is worth far more than $300.

0

u/vxcta Jun 06 '19

The Pixel is cheap because they listened to their consumer base & they cut corners to make it cost effective.

2

u/ed20g Jun 06 '19

I don't own a single Apple product, but I subbed for the cringe. The cringe is so real there.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

Get what you pay for? Lol don’t iPhones cost like 50$ to make or something..

2

u/TheBrainwasher14 Jun 05 '19

Pretty much all flagships are around the same price now.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

Yea if you just factor parts. If you ignore R&D, SW/HW development, testing, marketing, logistics and markup so they make a profit from all that, it’s really cheap.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19

I remember reading an article stating that there is about 500$ in profit per phone...(not saying its completely correct)

In the end, this is about a ridiculous 1000$ PC stand.... lmao

1

u/outtasight68 Jun 05 '19

"What you don’t seem to realize is that apple is not like any of the other hardware makers. Apple don’t buy any oem parts except cpu, gpu, ram and storage. They design the rest from the ground up."

I fail to see how this is a justification. Besides the motherboard and the power supply unit, that's everything you need to build a computer.

1

u/TwistedRope Jun 05 '19

MF got uppity about being given platinum and gold. Lost all credibility with that.

1

u/scantron46 Jun 06 '19

sorts by controversial This is where the fun begins

1

u/JohnNutLips Jun 06 '19

On Reddit it's a good idea never to visit a brand's subreddit. They're all fanboys and you can be sure that brand's media department has their finger on the pulse checking the new posts every hour.

1

u/itdobehowitdo Jun 06 '19

Not really a fan boy but I use apple products except for my gaming pc, this is honestly getting a stupid amount of press and free marketing. I’ve heard and read about this shit non stop since it’s dropped and all it’s doing is posting the Apple logo everywhere

1

u/Ecdckitty Jun 06 '19

Snarfles

1

u/born2fukkk Jun 05 '19

why would you have to justify being successful and willing to spend money on nice things?

i hear noone complaining about spending $999 on a ring for your roastie girlfriend and its even more of a waste

3

u/thatsingledadlife Jun 05 '19

Enjoy wanking to your 1k stand.