Do Apple still care about pro-audio users?

Dagon

I read this article recently and it got me thinking:
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/03/apple-hard-at-work-on-next-version-of-logic-pro/

Thanks to the recommendation of Paul Brewer on this forum, I purchased my Macbook pro audio workstation along with the Apogee Duet and Logic pro nearly five years ago. It was the ultimate solution for me, and it still does exactly what I want, without ever crashing! But in about a year or two I'll probably upgrade.

So the options are;
a) Stick with Apple and go for a Mac pro (or a very high spec Macbook pro) with the latest Logic version, along with an Apogee Symphony or...
b) Look into some of the Windows possibilities. There is a bit of a buzz around Windows recently on a lot of the DIY production audio forums due to many new independent and open source projects cropping up, and access to many free tools, etc. that don't seem to make it to mac (mostly developed by non-pro bedroom sound gurus - check the Sneap forum to see what I mean).

I'd much prefer to stick with Apple as my MBP has been solid as a rock since I've bought it, and I love working with Logic. Let's hope Apple keep supporting it eh?

fitz

They've been slow getting the next version of Logic out, but I'm fine with 9 tbh.
A can't see them axing Logic Pro from their product line either.
I can't see myself moving away from Mac, I'm too fond of Logic to have to switch DAW.

Neurojazz

There are rumors of a new pro (about time they updated that)

Stay clear of the 3rd party 'hackintoshes' unless you enjoy high maintenance systems and have some sort of love of headaches

With the addition of the thunderbolt protocol there seem to be many cool audio gadgets turning up (like the UAD apollo) - all good for Macs audio future.

If going to go pro it is worth checking the performance gains closely between single core and dual core setups.

On average the gain seems to be 20% actual speed gain for a dual core system (xeons etc) - and not really worth the expenditure. There are currently hexacore and octacore chips which can give you 16 threads in 64bit OS that support HT. So you might think 2*hexacores would give you over 80gig of potential processing power - but alas nope.

TroutMask

Hopefully Apple will continue to like us. I've been to some of their seminars and not only do they seem invested in us - they were also quite knowledgable about the issues - quite streetwise, in fact. I reckon the jury's out on T-bolt - hopefully it will become a standard protocol. I've gone off Logic in a big way and use Nuendo and Harrison MixBus now.

studiorat

The lack of an optical drive in the imacs is a pain IMO. People are still looking for cd's and dvd's

TroutMask

Heh - I'm about to rip the DVD out of my MBP and put in a 2nd hard disk