This is true, it's a hard comparison / wish because it's actually a different motherboard. But if Apple wants something, they can typically figure out how to get it.
Based on my years working in media, there is a much larger market for a well priced mid-range Mac Pro than the "you're only a pro if you can afford it" level workstation.
A lot of posters here are saying that the software is available on Windows so it is an alternative. But, the automation story is much better on the Mac. There are a lot of professionals who will demand a Mac. Companies are not going to skimp on hardware to save a couple of grand. They will grit their teethe and by an iMac Pro or a Mac Pro.
The submission is about “Apple listening” while that’s one guy’s opinion, Apple told the press that they have an entire internal team of real professional media creators they worked with while designing the Mac Pro. Does anyone really think that Apple spent the last two years designing the Mac Pro without getting feedback of potential customers and didn’t design it to get the market they wanted? The same could be said about the iMac Pro.
Sure it’s nice to have other developers, but between web developers who prefer the Mac and could care less about a modular Mac and iOS developers who must buy a Mac, if Apple loses the other few - so be it in Apples eyes. The entire desktop market is a small niche (as opposed to laptops). If Apple developer the perfect mid range expandable Mac it wouldn’t make a meaningful difference to their revenue or ecosystem.
They said that about the trash can, and it couldn't do any of the things they marketed it towards. Unless Apple called Michael Bay for his advice and they're trying to render the next bumble bee unfolding from their home studio. Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked about the expandability of the Mac Pro. But they priced out their largest audience.
An 8-Core E5 with a $200 GPU at $6k skips over the largest part of the Mac Pro market?
Back in 2006 an Avid editing station came out to something crazy, like $50k if I recall but far more than I could afford, but you could go buy a Mac Pro and Final Cut for $3200 and start editing a movie or tv show without any of the industry standard tools that nobody could afford. And that machine could grow with you for years. I was still using the 2006 Mac Pro in 2015 until we just had to retire them for ports like USB 3.0 to save time.
Granted, you can do complex edits on a MacBook Pro now. Things have changed a ton. I'm just failing to understand why Apple Priced out the majority of people who owned the Mac Pro tower.
Based on my years working in media, there is a much larger market for a well priced mid-range Mac Pro than the "you're only a pro if you can afford it" level workstation.