With the recent launch of the iMac Pro, Apple reasserted themselves as the king of workstations for creative professionals. With applications from image editing to advanced virtual reality editing, Apple’s latest computer gives users sky-high performance with a sky-high price tag. Surprisingly, we’ve already seen an iMac Pro price reduction — available online now from Best Buy.

A Rare Sale

An iMac Pro price reduction so soon after release is almost unprecedented, considering how rarely Apple products go on sale. As one of the largest technology companies worldwide, Apple has seen great success producing premium devices that are as much a status symbol as they are a functional tool. While their most popular devices are no doubt the iPhone line, their laptops and computers also have a reputation for smooth operation and ease of use for users ranging from college students to creative professionals and researchers. Apple devices sell fast and they sell well, and there almost never discounts from the manufacturer themselves.

The iMac Pro price reduction isn’t from Apple, but from Best Buy. The base model of this monster of a computer retails for $5000, but is currently available for just $4749.99 on the electronics retailer’s website. That price may still seem a little outrageous for a base model, and it’s definitely still out of reach for most of us, but even just buying the computer without any additional add-ons offers supreme power that make the iMac Pro price reduction a noteworthy sale. The model online from Best Buy is a 3.2GhZ/32GB/1TB setup and the listed price includes shipping.

Unparalleled Power

Apple has long had a reputation as the go-to device for creative professionals. From photographers and video editors to artists and graphic designers, the combination of a clean interface and excellent software had given it a clear advantage over competitor Microsoft. However, Microsoft has set their sights on creatives, running a series of ads that boast the power of computers like their Surface PCs and showing them in action doing tasks similar to that that would be handled on one of Apple’s computers. Apple is no longer able to rest on their laurels if they’d like to remain the top dog in this incredibly profitable industry.

The company’s answer to this competition was to release an absolute powerhouse of a machine. Featuring an 8 core CPU, 8GB dedicated GPU, and a huge amount of both RAM and storage, the computer will handle pretty much anything you throw at it with ease.

Even with an iMac Pro price reduction, the cost of the device is more than a little outrageous. However, the computer is intended as a workstation rather than a device for basic web browsing and Facebook. There’s no reason to pay the high iMac Pro price if you’re an average user, but for those who push their computers to the limits, Apple’s newest offering is ready and waiting to bring unprecedented power to your tasks.

A New Direction

Apple has always been producing some capable computers, but the services and utility they offer are no longer particularly unique. While the company is still ahead of the pack in certain areas, such as with the innovative Face ID technology on the iPhone X, there continue to be a number of successful options from competitors that stand to threaten to technology company’s dominance across multiple areas of technology.

Just a few years ago, iTunes was the go-to place to buy and store cheap music. However, as internet connections got faster, streaming has become the main way in which most people listen to their favorite tunes. Apple Music is far behind competitors like Spotify despite their best efforts to carve out a piece of the streaming market, and they’ll be fighting an uphill battle to become the main name in music once again.

The situation with their computers is no doubt a little unique, as the MacOS is far different — and for many, preferable — to the Windows operating system. But as we’ve mentioned above, Microsoft is honing in on a market that almost exclusively utilized Apple devices. The company may still be able to drive major sales based just on their name, but continuing to offer something new such as the power of their latest workstation is a necessity to keep their reputation as king of creatives. The iMac Pro price was outrageous at launch and a $250 reduction isn’t exactly huge when you consider that the price is almost $5000 to begin with, but it may help sway those on the edge towards purchasing the latest and greatest Apple has to offer.

There are Windows PCs that offer similar power, and perhaps at a more affordable price, but Apple has always seen great sales with their combination of power, usability, and design. For professionals in the market for a powerful computer with the utility of MacOS, this iMac Pro price reduction may make it time to take the plunge and get your hands on this beast of a workstation.