In a meeting with several reporters such as BuzzFeed, Daring Fireball, TechCrunch and Mashable, Apple has reaffirmed its commitment to the Mac Pro.
The company has unveiled plans for Mac’s professional range, which includes both Mac Pro and iMac. Although, for the moment, we must wait.
The good news
As it can be read in Daring Fireball, Apple is “working hard” to design a new Mac Pro completely from scratch. It’s not a rumor. It is a reality.
The design would follow a modular scheme, with CPUs and GPUs top of the range that can be replaced in the future by the user. Apple has also confirmed to be working on screens own for this machine, under the Apple brand and not a third party.
The Cupertino company has also said it is working to launch new iMac “this year.” With special emphasis on models designed for broad professional sectors.
The announcement is especially relevant since many users have been waiting for hardware upgrades of the most powerful models for several years. Without going any further, the Mac Pro recently beat the 1,200 days without receiving a significant update.
Not so good
Despite the good news, we’re going to have to wait to see that completely redesigned Mac Pro and the new iMac. In the case of the iMac, its release date is assured for this year. We can deduce that it could be this WWDC or already in an event in October.
But the case of the Mac Pro, we will have to wait for next year. Not good news, but at least we have official confirmation that Apple is working to meet the needs of its most professional customers.
To ease the situation a little, Apple has made a mini-update of components in the current generation of Mac Pro.
It remains as follows:
- The model with 4 cores Xeon CPU happens to have 6 and of the double graphic card AMD D300 to GPU D500.
- The model with 6 cores Xeon CPU happens to have 8 and of the double D500 happens to double D700.
The prices are still to be published, but in the American Apple Store are 2,999 and 3,999 dollars, respectively and before taxes. This is not a big update, but at least there is something “real” to substantiate the promises of Apple.
Although knowing that novelties and a new design are approaching, those who can afford to wait will prefer to do so.
“Damage control”
Apple has acknowledged before this group of journalists and communicators that its intention was to appease the most professional users of the company. Specifically, Phil Schiller has said about the doubts of this type of users and Apple’s commitment to the Mac:
“It is a reasonable question and is the reason we are here today, to answer this question about any other. We are committed to the Mac, we have people with great talent in the Mac, both hardware, and software, we have great products planned for the future and there as far as our horizon, the Mac is a vital component of the products delivered by Apple, Including our professional users.“
This interview can be read as Apple wants to recover the interest and attention of the most demanding users. Let them see that there are new developments regarding the Mac Pro and iMac, but they will have to wait to receive them.
With it, the company has broken an unwritten rule about not talking about products that can not be delivered imminently.
Apple has decided to communicate to this sector its plans, without giving concrete data beyond the small update of the current line of Mac Pro.
According to John Gruber, something must have gone very bad in the design of the current Mac Pro and Apple has taken in React with the appropriate speed. In any case, that’s good news. The Mac Pro lives.
