[JohnBooty]

As a long-time Mac owner (just bought a refurb one from Apple) I agree with the parent poster... their "pro" stuff is just too expensive.

I don't mind paying a bit of a Mac tax on my hardware. Honestly, I feel that up to perhaps 30-40% is fine. Macs have generally high build quality, contain some bespoke hardware, and I find they have a lower cost of ownership than Windows.

(Also, traditionally, Macbook Pros often priced pretty similarly to high end Windows laptops like Thinkpads anyway)

But, even as somebody that writes software for a living, it's tough to pay astronomical prices for "pro" hardware.

I'd love a nice beefy i7 or i9 Mac with a 512GB SSD on my desktop. On the Windows side I could get one for around $800: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N...

I understand why those pro models cost so much; they use Intel's Xeon chipsets (ECC RAM, etc) and bundle very pricey GPUs. Thing is, those features simply aren't that useful for a lot of "pro" buyers like most software developers. Even most design apps don't make much use of the GPU IIRC.

On the Mac side of things, I'd be looking at paying a minimum of $3K (Mac Pro) $5K (iMac Pro) or $2K (iMac) for something comparable. Now obviously, the iMacs include a monitor (duh) but I already own nice monitors.

Now, what will Apple charge for this "Mac Mini Pro?"

If it's a few hundred bucks more than a high-spec Intel NUC that sells for $1K, fine. I'll pay it. If it's $2K, they can go take a hike.

[malloryerik]

Beyond a clean look on a desk, what's the advantage of having the computer and the monitor in the same device? It seems a bit barbaric to me, like sacrificially killing and burying the slave when their master dies but in a (shallow) sense worse because with iMac the master must also die when the slave does, by which I mean that if either computer or monitor craps out, you get to trash them both. What happens when it falls off of the desk or is dropped when moving or hit by a baseball or your clumsy girlfriend/boyfriend/kid/coworker/neighbor or falls during the earthquake and on and on? You've automatically doubled your sorrows? Yes this is true of laptops but why import the weakness to desktops?

[JohnBooty]

Surely there are many purchases in your life where you trade some money for convenience!

1. Failure rates on computer hardware (particularly things that sit on a desk, and aren't banged around in a laptop) are pretty low these days. The odds of an all-in-one Mac reaching the end of its useful lifespan without a major failure are, I'd think, overwhelmingly good.

2. Look at all the monitor choices out there. HD? Full HD? QXVGA? WXVASDCJndDF? TN? IPS? I mean, it's kind of alphabet soup.

3. Look at all the cable and connector options. DP, HDMI revisions, etc. Again, easy for you and me, but not something everybody wants to figure out.

4. Obviously it happens, but I don't know too many people that have managed to physically destroy a TV or non-laptop computer by accidentally smashing it. Odds of it happening are pretty low.

Now, I'd like to purchase my monitor separately, thanksverymuch. And I think there are enough buyers like you and I to make it worth Apple's while. But, I totally get the need/desire for models that are as integrated as possible.

[malloryerik]

Yeah, I can see the convenience, and in fact I've used iMacs and enjoyed them. They're dead simple to set up, they look great, and importantly for the company they keep the Apple logo on the desk instead of under it while keeping the screen manufacturer's logo away.

I think it's when I see the iMac Pro that I start to really balk.

The irony is that Apple's design is pretty much a descendent of Bauhaus' and Braun's form-follows-function design -- and yet at least at the pro level they often appear to be sacrificing function for form.

I'm still a Mac user, though...

[JohnBooty]

Yeah the iMac Pro is one of the most ridiculous products I've seen in ages, from any company in any market.

I don't mind some "Apple tax", like a few hundred bucks, but the iMac Pro is literally like 3x the cost of its competition.

(Though I'm sure Apple would tell us that there's no direct competitor. That's true, in a way -- I don't know of anybody else selling a Xeon machine with an integrated monitor -- but for the more typical use case of "I just want a really powerful desktop and I don't need/want a Xeon-based system" there are equivalent Windows machines for far under $2K)