Ondrej Holzman Good news for all professional users: Mac Pro is not dead. Apple has announced that it is working hard on a new model with which it wants to satisfy the most demanding customers who have been waiting for a new Mac Pro since 2013. Unfortunately, we will not see it this year.
When Apple introduced the current Mac Pro in 2013, which it hasn't updated since then, and Phil Schiller uttered the legendary line "Can't innovate any more, my ass" (loosely translated as "That we can't innovate any more? Exactly!"), he probably did not expect how he would talk about the revolutionary desktop computer with his colleagues a few years later.
"We're completely redoing the Mac Pro," Apple's marketing chief told a handful of reporters invited to Apple's labs where the computers are being developed. The situation called for it - professional users who need the most power to get their work done have become increasingly nervous about the aging Mac Pro internals and Apple's other moves in this area.
“Since the Mac Pro is a modular system, we are also working on a professional display. We have a team that is now working hard on it," said Schiller, revealing several important facts. The current transfer of external display production to LG is not final, and it will be much easier to change equipment in the next Mac Pro.
An unconventional and open admission of error
That Apple no longer wanted to stir up uncertainty regarding its focus on professional users and the respective computers is also proven by the fact that we will not see anything mentioned above this year. Schiller admitted that Apple needs more than this year to complete the new Mac Pro, but the Californian needed to share its project.
Along with Schiller, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and John Ternus, Vice President of Hardware Engineering also met with the press and were unexpectedly open about the Mac Pro. "We drove ourselves into a bit of a heat corner with our own design," admitted Federighi.
In 2013, the Mac Pro represented the machine of the future with its cylindrical shape, but as it soon turned out, Apple's bet on the unique shape was wrong. Apple engineers put a dual GPU design in the guts, but in the end, instead of several smaller graphics processors side by side, a solution with one large GPU prevailed. And Mac Pro will not accept such a solution.
“We wanted to do something bold and different. But what we didn't realize enough at the time was that as we created a design tailored to our vision, we could be stuck in this circular shape in the future," admitted Federighi. The problem is mainly in the heat, when the current Mac Pro is not built to be able to dissipate a sufficient amount of heat in the case of one larger GPU.
Modular Mac Pro outlives
"It served its purpose well. It just didn't have the necessary flexibility, which we already know we need today," added Federighi's John Ternus, who is now working with his colleagues on a completely new design, which probably shouldn't resemble the current one from 2013 too much. Apple wants to take the path of modularity, i.e. the possibility of easy replacement of components for newer and thus simpler updates - for the company and probably also for the end customer.
“We've done something bold that we thought would be great, only to find out that it's great for some people and not for others. So we realized that we had to take a different path and look for another answer," Schiller admitted, but he and his colleagues did not reveal more details about the new Mac, which the engineers will still be working on for many months.
The most important thing now is to find out that Apple designs a computer that will not have a problem regularly deploying the latest and most powerful components in order to satisfy the most demanding users. New displays are supposed to be related to this, but we won't see them this year either. But Apple obviously does not want to rely on LG indefinitely and keeps the best for its own brand.
As for the Mac Pro, since we won't see a new model this year, Apple has decided to at least slightly improve the current version. The cheaper model (95 crowns) will now offer a six-core Xeon CPU instead of four, and will get a dual G990 GPU instead of a dual AMD G300 GPU. The more expensive model (500 crowns) will offer eight cores instead of six and a dual D125 GPU instead of a dual D990 GPU. Nothing else, including the ports, changes, so no more USB-C or Thunderbolt 500.
There will also be iMacs for professionals
However, many "professional" users could also be approached by another novelty that Apple has already prepared for this year. Phil Schiller also revealed that his company is preparing new iMacs and that their updates will focus on the needs of more demanding users.
"We have big plans for the iMac," said Schiller. "We will start offering iMac configurations tailored for 'pro' users." What this will mean in practice, however, Schiller has traditionally not revealed, nor whether this means the arrival of an "iMac Pro" or that some machines will simply be a bit more powerful. However, he made one thing clear: it definitely does not mean a touchscreen iMac.
Apple considers 30 percent of Mac users to be "professionals": 15% use at least one "pro" application a day, another 15% min. once a week.
— Jablíčkář.cz (@Jablickar) April 4, 2017
Anyway, this is all good news for the most demanding users who use Macs for a living, whether they do graphics, video, music or develop applications and need the most performance possible. Apple now wanted to prove that it still cares about this segment, and users should not worry about software in addition to professional iron. Phil Schiller assured that Apple is also working on their applications, such as Final Cut Pro 10 or Logic 10.
The only thing that wasn't talked about at Apple headquarters was the Mac mini. Then, when asked by journalists, Schiller refused to answer, saying that this is not a computer for professionals, which should be discussed above all. All he said was that the Mac mini is an important product and remains on the menu.
The ugly cominoid tuberoid also called the Mac Pro is a prime example of innovation at any cost and in the wrong place…
Well, it's more like they made a great box, but stuffed something different into it than what it's built for... It's like they made an F1 castle and put an engine from a tractor in it. It would also be a great castle, but as a whole it would not be the same.
jn, the macpro should actually have been a mac mini :D
That's just history repeating itself... Think of the PowerMac G4 Cube, for example, Apple sometimes tends to make beautiful things, where appearance trumps functionality.
I think the main reason for Cube was that she was simply ahead of her time. The PPC G4 platform simply did not have the technology for something similar. Neither the performance nor the ability to "cool" it... ;)
Because Jobs insisted on passive cooling, it could not be cooled :-) but the machine was beautiful!
well, the box wasn't that great. At least for professionals. Each one had a trigger for external converters, each with its own source, extension cords, cables, impossibility of putting it in the rack without cargo boxes, a problem with the temperature and with the on/off button at the back, the cables breaking off... simply beautiful in terms of design, but otherwise extremely dysfunctional and impractical. If it weren't for MacOS, I simply wouldn't buy it professionally. If something better comes out, you'll see that it will be the cheapest second-hand computers in terms of price / performance :D
so no 18 core xeons and 4x1080 tickas on the stack?
interesting PRO
"Pro" must be understood in the sense of Apple... According to Apple, a "professional" user definitely does not correspond to the common idea of a professional in any field... ;)
I'm a little afraid that the effort to make the iMac more "pro" will not result in a thinner body and the release of a wireless keyboard with a touchbar. Of course, together with the unification of ports to USB-C only.
That they would wake up in Apple? ? If so, great joy! ??
Who knows, maybe we are witnessing a "revolution" of technicians over designers at Apple :-D
Refurbished PC workstations with comparable components cost around 700 euros. Those who are not linked to macOS have no reason to buy it. Still, Mac Pros are technologically quite outdated.
As for iMacs, they could put the new AMD Ryzen processors and new 5×0 graphics in them. Or even Vega, but I'm expecting too much.
Apple was unable to convince people that the iPad was enough for them to work, and the development of the macOS device was delayed. It's a shame for a company like Apple.
They couldn't put Ryzen in them... Just... They couldn't... Because... But that's useless to explain in this case... :D :D :D
You learn to translate first and then read it yourself to see if it makes sense at all. Expressions such as heat corner are therefore a nice extra nonsense that they won't even know in the Blue Oyster X((
Evidently I'll find it here with google translator, it's not even worth correcting.