Why the Apple MAC PRO has been so criminally neglected as of late
The reason Apple DGAF about the Mac Pro is because it doesn't sell. It doesn't sell because a large amount of actual Pro's who would be the target market for this product can't agree with the direction it has taken, in being un-upgradeable in key ways. If something goes wrong, you will have downtime with this, can't walk into a store and buy an SSD to stick in it etc (if you don't happen to live near OWC). Yet because it doesn't sell, Apple will not put any attention to it, instead focusing on the avenues that do sell, such as ultraportables and iphones.
The problem is, the key demographic Apple is ignoring completely by taking these stances, is the same key demographic that kept Apple afloat during the trouble years. It is by catering to this key demographic with actual pro products in the past (Previous Mac Pro which one could put hard drives in, video cards in, etc. with a modicum of ease) that Apple managed to stay open for business. Yet today that Apple is the juggernaut it is, it just will ignore cries from this key demographic about their products, which now fail to meet the standards of these pro's.
This meets the definition of catch 22. Apple does not care for the Mac Pro because it does not sell well; The Mac Pro does not sell well because Apple does not care enough to put in features people who would buy it would actually use, such as video cards internal, possibility for multiple internal hard disks, standard gumstick ssds (M2), etc.; The Mac Pro continues not to sell well, and hence Apple does not care to put resources to it.
The only way for Apple to reverse course is when the mass market (that doesn't give two ***** about the product, just that it's shiny and expensive) goes en masse to another company for some superior product in the eye-candy/bling department. This is starting to happen with a vast barrage of assault from the Android side of the river. If one key company releases one key product, shiny enough, expensive enough, and covet-worthy enough, the mass market will jump ship to get the next it-product.
If something makes an actual ding in Apple's current cash cow (iphone) or stars (rinkydink notebook line), then and only then Apple will turn back to its diehards. But it may then be too late.
Same can be spoken for the macbook pro line of desktops. It's gone from repairable and customizable to being an appliance. But hey, customers vote with their wallets, good thing that apparently most customers are no smarter than bricks.
