It seemed as if Apple had all but abandoned its Mac Pro and other desktop products, but that isn’t the case anymore. Company executives sat down with some tech journalists to outline their plans for the Mac desktop line.
“Rethinking the Mac Pro”
Mashable and a handful of others were invited to the private meeting at Apple’s headquarters where Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide marketing, said they’re “completely rethinking the Mac Pro.” Company executives didn’t offer up any prototypes or even sketches of what the Mac Pro or other desktop products might look like, but they did offer some general commentary and, for fans of Apple’s desktop devices, renewed hope that they haven’t been killed. Rumors that the company was killing off the Mac stretch back at least two years.
In addition to Schiller, software engineering VP Craig Federighi, and hardware engineering VP John Termus were also in attendance at the private meeting. As Mashable notes, the small meeting was quite un-Apple-like because of how low-key it was — and the fact that it involved the company’s plans for months down the road from now.
Apple tries to fix what’s wrong
It’s been almost four years since the company showed off the odd-looking Mac Pro, which is shaped like a cylinder and quite unlike any other desktop PC. Apparently, it was so different that many longtime users of Apple’s desktops really didn’t like it, so now, executives are planning something entirely different.
They told reporters at the meeting that one big problem with the previous model was that it was attempting a one-size-fits-all approach, even though users of the desktop line tend to be very diverse. Termus said they felt they had designed themselves “into a bit of a thermal corner.” In the four years since the cylinder Mac Pro was revealed, many users were opting to switch to an iMac, which caused them to move the Mac Pro to the backburner. Eventually, they realized that they had neglected the Pro part of the market.
No touchscreen on the next Mac Pro
Although they shared very few details, they did reveal that the new Pro model won’t have a touch screen like Microsoft’s Surface Studio PC has. As recently as December, we heard that Microsoft was selling quite a lot of Surface Studio units, with global shipments expected to surpass 15,000 or even 30,000 between the December and March quarters, according to DigiTimes. That may not sound like much, but the PC market hasn’t exactly been skyrocketing of late. Perhaps it was this success that spurred Apple into action in an attempt to regain any market share it may have lost.
The company also said that the entry-level Mac Pro will feature a six-core Xeon processor, while the high-end model will have an eight-core processor. Both will feature spec bumps on their graphics cards and other basic features. Before the totally redesigned models are available, the company will be selling the same models that are currently available but with a general bump in specs
The new Pro isn’t expected to arrive until next year, although the updated iMac model could be available later this year.
