Architosh to publish its Mac Workstation Survey Study in January 2015

Architosh will be publishing its Mac Workstation professional survey study for Pro users in January 2015. While we noted back in mid December (this month) that the survey report was underway the survey itself was left open to continue to pick-up further data for future purposes, feedback, and possible discovery of individuals and firms worth talking to in the future.

As noted earlier in our report, the survey is squarely aimed at understanding the needs of Mac-based professionals, or Mac Pros, as some in the industry refer to them.

The data collected in the survey conducted the past fall is remarkable in its detail as an overwhelming number of participants added optional comments and opted into the interview phase.

The survey, which takes just 5 minutes to complete, was aimed primarily at markets such as: Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Industrial and Product Design, 3D Visualization and Film and Broadcast industries, and Science and Medicine.

Publication of Results

Graphic results are provided at the end of taking the survey and these in themselves are quite interesting. Of particular note, participants may be surprised at the diversity of answers to several questions where many in the market assume a more dominant set of use patterns.

As we clarified back in September, we will publish a summary of the report data with analysis, quotes and conclusions. It is this report that will be published within the first month of 2015. For participants who opted into being interviewed—whether we interviewed them or not—if these folks provided a working email address, they will receive a deeper level PDF-based report on the entire study. That report will also be available, to all others, under our Publications section of our website menu.

Kinds of Questions the Study will Answer

The types of questions the report will answer will include both general high-level issues and more detailed questions pertaining to specific use-case situations. For example, if a user is working in the Architecture market and is working for a firm that is fully deployed on a specific BIM application (say, ArchiCAD), the survey study will answer questions such as, which Mac hardware should I purchase for this workflow?

01 – New Mac Pro 2013 by Apple. The survey study will help guide users to the correct Mac models for their specific industries and the things they do. Importantly, it will help define who the new Mac Pro is actually for. 

The survey study will also answer questions about who needs multiple CPUs, GPUs and other specialized hardware considerations. We have collected an array of excellent real-life case scenarios from users participating in the survey that explain why their hardware configurations need to be the way they are. In many cases, users who took the survey, were often experts in their specific field or market and had detailed knowledge to share with the study. However, for the majority of users who participated in the study—especially in the fields of Architecture—they often operated with incorrect assumptions. We look forward, therefore, to correcting these commonly held misunderstandings.

Importantly, the study does not answer the question of recommendation for every type of workflow. Instead, readers will gain a structured way of thinking about how to answer that question for their specific workflow. Bear in mind, that the nuances of workflow are nearly infinite. Users string together an infinite combination of software tools to get their jobs done.

Related and Resource Articles

The following articles backfill the discussion central to this news post. Readers are welcome to post questions below in the comments field or email directly to Architosh. See the Contact Us link in the footer below.

• Architosh launches Mac Workstation professional survey study for Mac Pro Users
• Is the new Retina iMac the “iMac Pro” the market seems to be screaming for?  [some survey data is revealed here]
• The Mac Pro: So what’s a D300, D500 and D700 anyway? We have answers
• Notes on the New Mac Pro—Details We Now Know