It's a week before CEO Steve Job takes the stage at Macworld, but Apple's release party is starting early. The company today put out word of two new machines, both of which it calls the "fastest ever."
The new Mac Pro packs two of Intel's Quad-Core Xeon processors running at up to 3.2 GHz; prices start at $2,799. The machine, says Apple marketing head Phil Schiller, is "the fastest Mac we've ever made."
Then there's the new Xserve, the server meant to sit in racks in huge server farms. The machines feature two Quad-Core Xeons -- up to 3.0 GHz -- which make them considerably faster than the previous model. Starting at a hair under $3,000.
And you guessed it: The new Xserve is the "most powerful Apple server ever," says the Apple press release.
Can we just say how sneakily brilliant this copy is? Apple's putting out standard processor upgrades, the same upgrades that the rest of the PC industry is releasing, and only because Intel, everyone's chip supplier, is making faster chips (because that's what chip makers do).
So of course your new Macs are faster than your old Macs -- all new computers are faster than the ones that came before, because that's how the business works. Put out a new Mac that's as slow as an abacus, that would be a story.
Apple is like the car dealer who throws in a spare tire with the purchase of your new car. But hey, you know what? Those dealers clean up. And why not? They're giving you a spare tire, for free!
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