Apple's Cinema Display strategy

[GregW]

I have to admit to being a little curious about what Apple is up to with this new display. It's being marketed as a companion product to the new Macbooks and acording to: http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html it only lists the following Macs as compatible:

'Compatible with MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro systems with Mini DisplayPort?

It makes me wonder what the strategy is. According to Apple. "The new LED Cinema Display is the most advanced display that Apple has ever made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

If it has a decent gamut the A 24" LED display could be very good, perhaps even rival the popular NEC 2690WUXI and 2490WUXI models. Based on my experience of a glossy LED I'd be quite interested. USD 900 would be a good price if it were comparable to the NEC's.

I don't see Apple launching a genuinely professional line. Their displays were normally pretty good at launch but never in the 'pro' category.

Are they going to add a Mini DisplayPort to future Mac Pro's or launch a new line of displays with DVI, HD and Mini DisplayPort. Something else perhaps?

[NikosR]

I have to admit to being a little curious about what Apple is up to with this new display. It's being marketed as a companion product to the new Macbooks and acording to: http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html it only lists the following Macs as compatible:

'Compatible with MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro systems with Mini DisplayPort?

It makes me wonder what the strategy is. According to Apple. "The new LED Cinema Display is the most advanced display that Apple has ever made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

If it has a decent gamut the A 24" LED display could be very good, perhaps even rival the popular NEC 2690WUXI and 2490WUXI models. Based on my experience of a glossy LED I'd be quite interested. USD 900 would be a good price if it were comparable to the NEC's.

I don't see Apple launching a genuinely professional line. Their displays were normally pretty good at launch but never in the 'pro' category.

Are they going to add a Mini DisplayPort to future Mac Pro's or launch a new line of displays with DVI, HD and Mini DisplayPort. Something else perhaps?

I believe there is an optional mini-DVI to full-DVI adapter available. At least I think there is. Now whether this will make the LED display compatible with older Macs, I wouldn't know.
EDIT: I guess not since this adapter is used to connect a full-DVI display to a mini-DVI computer and not vice versa?

BTW I HATE glossy displays.

[Wayne Fox]

I have to admit to being a little curious about what Apple is up to with this new display. It's being marketed as a companion product to the new Macbooks and acording to: http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html it only lists the following Macs as compatible:

'Compatible with MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro systems with Mini DisplayPort?

It makes me wonder what the strategy is. According to Apple. "The new LED Cinema Display is the most advanced display that Apple has ever made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

If it has a decent gamut the A 24" LED display could be very good, perhaps even rival the popular NEC 2690WUXI and 2490WUXI models. Based on my experience of a glossy LED I'd be quite interested. USD 900 would be a good price if it were comparable to the NEC's.

I don't see Apple launching a genuinely professional line. Their displays were normally pretty good at launch but never in the 'pro' category.

Are they going to add a Mini DisplayPort to future Mac Pro's or launch a new line of displays with DVI, HD and Mini DisplayPort. Something else perhaps?

Some good questions.  I think the target audience for this display is someone that wants to quickly turn a laptop into a desktop.  Built in iSight, speakers ... perfect for that.

Apple may not see the high end display market as large enough to be particularly appealing.  There shold be a refresh of all the cinema displays by next year... they have openly stated that by 2009 all of their displays will use LED backlighting (for environmental reasons).  I think this would improve the color quality of the line, but certainly not put it on par with high end displays that are currently available.  Apple may be content letting Eizo and others focus on these displays, since they'll probably sell more of the new 24" displays in a week than Eizo does in a year.

Personally I'm probably going to switch to the new 15" MacBook Pro and put the new 24" display on my desk at work.  I spend most of the time there answering emails, researching databases, writing documentation, etc. (I"m guessing that is what 99% of the MacBook owners out there actually do.  Photographers represent a pretty small segment of the market). The new screen will be more than adequate for occasional image editing.

As far as the new port, I know you can buy an adaptor for the port on the new MacBooks so it will drive a current DVI display.  Seems likely a similar adaptor could make it work for current DVI ports.  The new port is not an Apple invention and is seems like a nice standard that may gain favor for all computer makers.  It fits in their desire to simplify and downsize, and is pretty impressive since it can actually carry the signal to drive a full 30" display as well as audio.  I guess whether it goes into a MacPro depends on graphic card makers ... I'm not sure how much momentum it has.

[GregW]

I managed to answer one of my questions after looking at the transcript form the launch.

According to Steve Jobs all new macs will use the DisplayPort interface. He just didn't say when. I honestly hadn't heard of it before but the DisplayPort specification looks very good indeed.