When Boring Becomes Electric

The New Mac Pro and the Luxury Stand

They actually showed this contraption off. The crowd was not too happy.

                When a base computer costs $ 5,999.00 and a monitor $ 5,999, we are looking at stratospheric pricing.  In the highest echelons of machines, this could be the norm.   However, there is no world where a stand for a monitor costing $ 999.00 is.

The new Imac Professional Coming Soon.  This is it, front view.

                The long awaited and much anticipated new Mac Professional made a memorable debut.  It was for an outrageously expensive monitor stand, and an appearance that looked inspired by a cheese grater that drew the most attention.  Incidentally, the pricing also made something of a splash.

Could a common kitchen device be the style inspiration?  Many on the web say, yes.

                 Apple has been heralded for their design aesthetic for years.  Yet, there was no way to escape the fact this computer resembled a common kitchen device.  Then again, the last Mac Pro looked like a sleek trash can, or a decapitate “droid” from Star Wars. 

The design was elegant, but expansion a nightmare with this Mac Pro.

                It is difficult for me to say if the new mac is worth its base price, or if  its full featured one that costs as much as a car is either.  I have heard the figure $ 35,000 rolled around for one with all the bells and whistles. What is not difficult to say is that Apple certainly showed a side of itself that is neither innovative, or appreciated by the devoted Apple followers who wasted no time going on twitter expressing outrage. 

                Clearly Apple can set prices high.  They have for years. The argument for such pricing has been ease of use, great design and overall value in terms of quality.  With Apple you are not just buying a computer, you are buying into a company philosophy, and an entire community. 

                Their linguistically awkward catch phrase of years past, “Think Different,” signified that buying a Mac is setting yourself apart from others.  You were in some way special, and part of something special.  Now it is hard to look at look at the company and not think “The Emperor has no clothes.”   Or worse,” I am going to get screwed if I buy this stuff.”

There were critics, but it was expandable, had  DVD drive bays and not too shabby to view.

                Given where we are politically, economically and well nearly every thing else, a nearly one-thousand-dollar monitor stand represents price gouging at its most obvious.  No matter how you look at it, there is no way you can justify the price of the thing, unless Pablo Picasso signed it.

                What is worst, it shows a certain “tone deaf” quality that is just disturbing.  How could anyone put something like this out in the market and think it would not earn anything but a derisive response?   Even the most ardent Apple fans would have to admit this was a piss poor move. 

                Even if you can afford it, there is something inherently decadent, even vulgar, about paying this much for something as ordinary as a monitor stand.  The same amount of money can but you one of the wonders of both the 20^th and 21^st Centuries, the ubiquitous smartphone, easily more than one if you shop around.

The All in one Imac.  Arresting looks.

                Clearly with a pc costing this much, Apple is aiming for professionals with uber big budgets, the rich and corporations where price is not a concern, and some of this can be written off, including the stand.   The market here is not your average consumer. 

                Sadly, the one consumer group that is totally left out in the rain are the professionals who work with video, imagery and the like who truly need high power, but lack endless funds.  With the democratization of content creation, web bloggers and the like are now professionals.  The ranks of serous content creators has grown.  There is a need for power, but they also have limits on what to spend.  Now a whole group of Mac users who needed and wanted a tower system may have to shop someplace else.

Design that was playful. 

                Sure, Apple has their imacs and the like.  The problems is that they are not configurable, or easily so.   Should you buy and then need to upgrade, the options are limited.  

                I wonder whatever happened to the idea of true innovation?  Where is the idea of both great design, great systems and creating both the power and configurability that people want in a price that is within reason?   Where is the innovation in pricing, and for that matter the products themselves?

                Design aesthetics are subjective by nature.   Still, I cannot say I like the new Cheese grater Mac. I cannot call it hideous, but I cannot say I really like it either.  I have seen $ 700 computers that looked more appealing.  This machine, for lack of a better word, just looks boring.  It resembles the kind of machine made by a committee that had no real enthusiasm for design.  It lacks the cool sheen of minimalism, or the exuberance of a more baroque aesthetic.   

                Apple, a company known for design, has crafted here is the ultimate luxury status symbol power accessory that manages to be pricey and mundane simultaneously.

               

See Kurt von Behrmann's Visual Art