All-new Mac Pro with modular design, Apple-branded pro displays coming in 2018
Though they won't arrive this year, Apple has revealed that the Mac Pro will live on with an entirely new design that will be easier to update on a regular basis, and that Apple-branded professional displays are also in the product pipeline.
In a wildly uncharacteristic move, Apple disclosed future product plans to a group of journalists, including John Gruber of Daring Fireball, at its corporate headquarters. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said the company is "completely rethinking the Mac Pro."
"We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so we can keep it fresh with regular improvements," he said. "And we're committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers."
Along with it, a new "pro display" will be a part of the Mac Pro's modular design. Both the new Mac Pro and Apple-branded display are said to be in the works for 2018.
Apple's unexpected announcement comes after years of concern from professional users, many of whom have believed that Apple could be abandoning the pro market In its meeting with journalists, Apple revealed that most professional users rely on the MacBook Pro or iMac, while the Mac Pro accounts for just a single digit percentage market share.
Still, Apple on Tuesday issued a minor speed bump for the Mac Pro, giving it a six-core Xeon CPU configuration, and dual AMD G500 GPUs, for the base $2,999 model. The $3,999 model gains 8 cores and dual D800 graphics cards.
And new iMacs are also in the pipeline, slated for later this year, with configurations specifically for the pro market.
As for an Apple-branded pro display, that announcement would appear to be an about-face for the company, after it suggested last year that it was permanently exiting the standalone monitor business. It instead partnered with LG Display for a pair of new ultra-high-resolution displays that connect over USB-C and Thunderbolt 3.
But the high-end UltraFine 5K display shipped with a serious hardware flaw that caused picture and connection issues when near wireless devices like a simple router. New hardware with shielding to prevent such interference is now available on models in Apple stores, but the launch debacle was potentially problematic for the already-strained relationship between Apple and pro users.
As for the current Mac Pro, Tuesday's update does not add professional-grade features such as USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity out of the box, nor will it add support for LG's 4K and 5K UltraFine displays.
Apple software chief Craig Federighi admitted that the company's current design has backed itself into a "thermal corner."
"We designed a system with the kind of GPUs that at the time we thought we needed, and that we thought we could well serve with a two GPU architecture," Federighi said. "That that was the thermal limit we needed, or the thermal capacity we needed. But workloads didnt materialize to fit that as broadly as we hoped."
For now, Apple executives have told their internal development team to take whatever time is needed to make a truly great Mac Pro with modular design that will meet the requirements of professional users.
"One of the good things, hopefully, with Apple through the years," Schiller told Gruber, "has been a willingness to say when something isnt quite what we wanted it do be, didnt live up to expectations, to not be afraid to admit it and look for the next answer."
In a wildly uncharacteristic move, Apple disclosed future product plans to a group of journalists, including John Gruber of Daring Fireball, at its corporate headquarters. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said the company is "completely rethinking the Mac Pro."
"We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so we can keep it fresh with regular improvements," he said. "And we're committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers."
Along with it, a new "pro display" will be a part of the Mac Pro's modular design. Both the new Mac Pro and Apple-branded display are said to be in the works for 2018.
Apple's unexpected announcement comes after years of concern from professional users, many of whom have believed that Apple could be abandoning the pro market In its meeting with journalists, Apple revealed that most professional users rely on the MacBook Pro or iMac, while the Mac Pro accounts for just a single digit percentage market share.
Still, Apple on Tuesday issued a minor speed bump for the Mac Pro, giving it a six-core Xeon CPU configuration, and dual AMD G500 GPUs, for the base $2,999 model. The $3,999 model gains 8 cores and dual D800 graphics cards.
And new iMacs are also in the pipeline, slated for later this year, with configurations specifically for the pro market.
As for an Apple-branded pro display, that announcement would appear to be an about-face for the company, after it suggested last year that it was permanently exiting the standalone monitor business. It instead partnered with LG Display for a pair of new ultra-high-resolution displays that connect over USB-C and Thunderbolt 3.
But the high-end UltraFine 5K display shipped with a serious hardware flaw that caused picture and connection issues when near wireless devices like a simple router. New hardware with shielding to prevent such interference is now available on models in Apple stores, but the launch debacle was potentially problematic for the already-strained relationship between Apple and pro users.
As for the current Mac Pro, Tuesday's update does not add professional-grade features such as USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity out of the box, nor will it add support for LG's 4K and 5K UltraFine displays.
Apple software chief Craig Federighi admitted that the company's current design has backed itself into a "thermal corner."
"We designed a system with the kind of GPUs that at the time we thought we needed, and that we thought we could well serve with a two GPU architecture," Federighi said. "That that was the thermal limit we needed, or the thermal capacity we needed. But workloads didnt materialize to fit that as broadly as we hoped."
For now, Apple executives have told their internal development team to take whatever time is needed to make a truly great Mac Pro with modular design that will meet the requirements of professional users.
"One of the good things, hopefully, with Apple through the years," Schiller told Gruber, "has been a willingness to say when something isnt quite what we wanted it do be, didnt live up to expectations, to not be afraid to admit it and look for the next answer."
Comments
I'm very happy with this news. I'll take the minor speed bumps. However, I think they could have also dropped the prices of the current crop a little.
I wish they would breathe some life back into the mini while they're at it.
"These next-gen Mac Pros and pro displays “will not ship this year”. (I hope that means “next year”, but all Apple said was “not this year”.) In the meantime, Apple is today releasing meager speed-bump updates to the existing Mac Pros. The $2999 model goes from 4 Xeon CPU cores to 6, and from dual AMD G300 GPUs to dual G500 GPUs. The $3999 model goes from 6 CPU cores to 8, and from dual D500 GPUs to dual D800 GPUs. Nothing else is changing"
I can only hope that they are talking Fiscal Years, as in, will not ship this (Fiscal) year. Their Fiscal Year 2018 starts in October 2017.
A company as big and well heeled as Apple should be able to serve a select small market and waste gobs of money on crap like Animated Balloons on Text Messages and Facebook integration. Serving specialty markets is common in business all the time- you do not have to make a killing on every product line. The line should have been kept up to date all along and the Black Trashcan was a tragic mistake.
In Medicine, Hospitals and Clinics commonly offer necessary services that are break even at best because it is in the best interest of the customers. Mammography is a prime example- unless you do huge volume you will never make a dime providing the service, but it is done anyhow. Apple makes truckloads on iPhones and should be able to subsidize the high end pro market.
Why Apple didn't announce this a year ago when questions about its future first arose I have no idea. It would have saved so much frustration and angst among pro users.
Now we just have to wait and see whether Apple stands by their promise, and that it's not 3x the price of the competition.
Unless?????
It has finally dawned on Cupertino that Windows 10 is a total POS and that there has to be somewhere for the top end windows (i.e. non laptop) PC Market users to go. Could this be the start of a real effort to get those to move? Yes, I know that I'm dreaming but the ease of use made me move from Windows for my personal use almost 10 years ago.
As someone with a real Mac Pro Tower, who bought and used Final Cut Pro, Aperture and Logic I was and am not amused. It did not have to be this way.
Apple has more money than any other company on the earth and huge human resources to devote to multiple product lines simultaneously as it is not the starving company of 1997 trying to remain afloat. They should be able to keep the Mac current while wasting money and people on crap like Beats. And , if it comes down to Planet of the Apps or a new Mac Pro, tell Eddie Cue to have a nice day and find a new job.
Can't upgrade anymore, my ass!