ApplePoor

I ordered 8TB of storage in my Studio Ultra. I doubt Apple will be installing more than that into a future Studio. But I was also able to put in 8TB on my 2019 Intel 16" MBPro laptop and a 8TB SSD configuration was an option on on both the 14" & 16" M1 MBPro laptops.

I would expect a new Mac Pro would offer much higher total SSD storage but the price would be astounding.

The M2 allows for 24GB of ram vs 16MB on the M1. Thus the thoughts would be instead of 16, 32, 64 and 128 GB of memory as the M1 chips got bigger and doubled, one could reasonably forsee 24, 48, 96, and 192 GB of of ram stepping up the processor sizes and doubling the chip count.. More will be revealed before year end.

If Apple concedes the Mac Pro business to others, then where is the need for perhaps the Mac Studio?

The current M1 Studio version totally lacks the ability to swap components. As initially configured it will always be.

The port configuration on my ordered M1 Studio Ultra (128GB Ram and 8TB SSD) has six Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports. one 10Gbs ethernet port, a HDMI port, a SD card slot and an audio out port. It is slated to arrive at the local Apple Store  on 11 October.

The port configuration of my 2013 Mac Pro (128GB Ram and 2TB SSD) six core Intel processor and 500 series video cards has 4 USB-A ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, two 1Gbs ethernet ports, a HDMI port and microphone in and earphone/speakers out audio ports. I was able to upgrade both the RAM and SSD to where it is now. In theory, if parts could still be sourced, the video cards and CPU could still be up graded as well. It is running the current Monterey operating system (although this is the last MacOS upgrade for it). That is nearly a nine year run since I got it new in late 2013.

I sincerely doubt that this new Mac Studio will have the ability to run the latest MacOS in nine years even it is still operational.

Our two 2019 16" Intel MBPros were built in December of 2019 and were still being sold way into the summer of 2021. They have to have parts for seven years for the units sold in California. The mechanics should be good until 2026. The MacOS could drop support much sooner. However, my 2018 Intel Mac mini (64GB Ram and 2TB SSD) is still being sold now in August of 2022. Possibly this fall there may be  M2 versions as the top mini model. But support in the Mac OS would need to continue through the extended warranties in effect for units sold this year. Also anyone paying top dollar for the Intel MacPro will require this support as well.

The mini is a relatively simple fix as the M1 mini exists now. A M2 chip with 24GB of ram and perhaps more SSD choices above the 2TB current limit would all fit into the current M1 mini chassis.

I believe Apple can not wait to get rid of the last two Intel computers. 

The bigger issue for maturing hardware is the possibility that MacOS may require "hardware" not found in my 2019 16" Intel laptop. A lot of the end of life equipment lack the video capability for the newer operating systems.

Having a 2021 14" MBPro Max and a 2019 16" Intel MBPro allows me to really appreciate how quiet the new generation is. The 16" runs the fans at full tilt even on startup and lots of the time even with very light loads.  I have yet to hear the fans in the 14".

So the 16" is my legacy system (despite no USB-A ports) for some older equipment that I have to phase out gradually. 

Drivers are an issue now.

As the "A" series have powered all the iPhones and are the basis of the "M" series, I doubt the "A" series will go away soon. The operating systems seem to be the element to differentiate the various product lines. Perhaps the ultimate plan is to just have one series of chip for all products and tune the operating systems to only use specific features desired on each product line.