Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/15/apple-rac-rack-mounted-mac-pr.html
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$54k???
What is this, Silicon Graphics?
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MadTV ahead of the curve as usual:
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I miss MadTV
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That’s a lot of mony for a cheese grater.
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I see a space ship!
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I’m trying to figure out who their target market is. If you need a rack mount server my guess is that you know there are cheaper, better alternatives out there.
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Perhaps these are the same people who bought Gwyenth Paltrow’s candle?
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If just the the small stand for their new calibrated monitor is $1,000, what would an entire iRack cost? 
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Apparently the pricing isn’t out of line with MSRP for equivalent competing products. But competitors offer volume and contract pricing that makes their work stations significantly cheaper, and there’s serious enterprise level support to go with that. Apple apparently doesn’t do that sort of thing anymore.
And they have certainly priced themselves out of the small business and freelance areas where the last worth a damn power macs had a huge following. That set’s loudly shouting about how much cheaper it is to build a comparable or better AMD system at the moment.
So I don’t get it. If it’s for big corporate, professional settings they need enterprise support and systems that bring the cost down for those customers. If its for general creatives it needs to be cheaper up front. Institutional settings probably can’t afford it on either grounds.
And I just don’t see anyone who needs a rack mount saying “but I want a pretty rack mount”.
Whole thing seems half thought out.
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Some smaller businesses out there do have a specific love for Apple products. Particularly if they’re into production work some are inclined to believe that their hardware and software is infallible so the cost is justified. Had an ex-gf whose boss was very adamant about buying the best Apple work stations about 10 years ago and to me it seemed like a huge waste of money but hey… not my business or money.
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Including some that just buy them just for the looks and “prestige”.
A small hair salon near me had two separate large sized flat screen iMacs for managing appointments at the reception desk. A ridiculous outlay for something you could do on the very cheapest of computers - they only had 2 or 3 chairs to manage. But the salon looked nice. (And has since gone out of business for some reason… 
)
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IRIX! I know this!
(Seriously, I used to screw around with that 3D shell on SGI workstations back in the day)
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I used to fix computers for a living, and eventually I’d give small biz clients like hair salons the advice to just get a Mac. Otherwise they’d have to fix constant issues with their much cheaper computers to the point that they weren’t cheap at all anymore. I know it’s a cliche but software really does matter, and something that looks a bit like an iMac but runs Win10 or any flavor of Linux is going to be an absolute nightmare for your average hair salon type business. And when they’d get a Mac I’d never hear from them again, which was always my intention.
Likewise, I challenge someone to make decent 4k video using anything other than a Mac. I’m guessing their results would suffer but maybe I’m wrong.
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“This Mac smells like my butt.”
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I think that is a legit recommendation. But they didn’t just get macs. They got the largest iMacs available. To book appointments. For a couple of chairs. 
Don’t underestimate the power of Prestige in corporate buying habits. I’ve worked in several offices where they would demand to have apple products because it makes them look suitably high end to clients who will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on projects.
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Ha good point. Some of the iMac line does get a bit ornate.
