Apple has announced that they are working on a new, “completely rethought” Mac Pro with a modular design
While Apple doesn’t usually discuss future products, today the company has announced that they are working on a new, “completely rethought” Mac Pro with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs. – Apple is also updating the existing Mac Pro today – and will be making new Apple Displays to go with next year’s model, along with new pro-focused iMacs.
“We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so we can keep it fresh with regular improvements,” said Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller “And we’re committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers.”
Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller via Daring Fireball:
With regards to the Mac Pro, 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 doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do. – In the interim, we know there are a number of customers who continue to buy our [current Mac Pros]. To be clear, our current Mac Pro has met the needs of some of our customers, and we know clearly not all of our customers. None of this is black and white, it’s a wide variety of customers. Some… it’s the kind of system they wanted; others, it was not. – In the meantime, we’re going to update the configs to make it faster and better for their dollar. This is not a new model, not a new design, we’re just going to update the configs. We’re doing that this week. We can give you the specifics on that. – The CPUs, we’re moving them down the line. The GPUs, down the line, to get more performance per dollar for customers who DO need to continue to buy them on the interim until we get to a newly architected system.
The unexpected announcement comes after years of concern from professional users, many of whom have believed that Apple could be abandoning the pro market. In its meeting with journalists, Apple revealed that most professional users rely on the MacBook Pro or iMac, while the Mac Pro accounts for just a single digit percentage market share.