AUGUST 2019 MACWORLD 15Apple discontinued its Thunderbolt Display in 2016.give you the performance of a $40,
reference monitor at a fraction of the price.
However, most people outside of the
film and television industries don’t need a
display that amazing. Many would be
happy with a good option, like a
standalone equivalent of the 5K display
found in modern iMacs, to hook up to their
Mac minis, MacBooks, or even iPads. The
Pro Display XDR may be amazing, but
many folks need displays that are just
good enough.
There’s certainly a market for these
types of displays. In fact, Apple even used
to sell them. The Apple Cinema Display
line and its successor, the Thunderboltsurprising. Especially when it seems as
though the market in question is
desperately in need of a solution that
would be right up Apple’s alley.
Earlier this month, during the
company’s annual Worldwide Developers
Conference keynote, I noticed a few
places where it seemed as though Apple
was missing out on an opportunity. Some
of these might be cases where the
company has decided it doesn’t want to
be in a specific business, and some might
merely be a case of a future product not
being ready yet—from the outside, there’s
really no way to tell. But here are three
cases in which it seems like an Apple
product or service might be a
welcome alternative to what
exists, if not something that
fills a gap no one else seems
to be addressing.
A DISPLAY FOR THE
REST OF US
We can all agree that Apple’s
$5,000 ($6,000, if you want to
actually have it on your desk)
Pro Display XDR is a heck of a
piece of hardware. The
display technology itself is light
years beyond anything else that a
consumer electronics company
is creating. As Apple pointed
out, it’s a product intended to