For any Mac users who have been patiently waiting for Apple to retire the relatively ancient trashcan Mac Pro, the good news is that a brand new Mac Pro is in the pipeline. The bad news is that it may not see the light of day for quite some time.
Citing sources purportedly familiar with Apple’s plans, Thom Holwerda of OS News writes that Apple’s about-face regarding the Mac Pro was a rather recent development. Interestingly enough, Holwerda relays that Apple only opted to throw some engineering resources at developing a brand new Mac Pro due to the tepid response the MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar elicited from creative professionals this past October.
As we’ve highlighted previously, many developers and other pro users were quick to label the Touch Bar as a gimmick while simultaneously blasting the MacBook Pro for being overpriced and under powered. A 16GB ceiling on RAM, for example, drew an especially harsh reaction from the Mac community.
Holwerda’s writes:
Well, after the announcement of the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, orders for refurbished “old” MacBook Pros supposedly went through the roof, and after the initial batch of reviews came out, they shot up even higher. This response to the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar took Apple completely by surprise. Combined with the problems surrounding the LG UltraFine 5K display and the constant negativity from professional Apple users, the company decided to double down on professional users.
That being the case, Holwerda speculates that a new Mac Pro won’t hit store shelves until late 2018 at the absolute earliest, with a good chance that it may not ship until 2019. This is certainly a plausible scenario given that a) Apple didn’t reveal a shipping window and b) Phil Schiller’s remarks to a group of journalists this week suggests that Apple’s Mac Pro team were instructed to come up with something great as opposed to churning out a new machine as quickly as possible.
“With regards to the Mac Pro,” Schiller said, “we are in the process of what we call ‘completely rethinking the Mac Pro’. We’re working on it. We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so that we can keep it fresh with regular improvements, and we’re committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers.”
As part of Apple’s reinvigorated commitment to pro users, the report adds that Apple is also considering expanding the number of available Retina MacBook Pro models for users who don’t want a machine with the company’s newfangled Touch Bar. In one rumored incarnation, Apple is said to be exploring a MacBook Pro design that would be capable of linking up with an iPad Pro to form a “Cintiq-like device.”
