Mac Pro finally receiving much-needed upgrade
Graphic designers, film editors and computer users who need as much power as possible can rejoice.
A series of events and reports today point to Apple finally refreshing its highest-end computing system, the Mac Pro. Apple pulled its Mac Pro stock from its retail store earlier Tuesday and 9to5 Mac tracked down new retail part numbers that are expected to hit stores next week.
The new Mac Pro is expected to be priced around the same as its current models. It’s also expected to come in three different configurations, with the third version shipping with OS X Server.
The Mac Pro and the Mac Mini are the only Apple OS X computers that still require a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Actually, the Mac Pro is part of a dying breed of computing, being that it’s a huge, hulking piece of metal that is packed with plenty of bells and whistles. The current Mac Pro hasn’t been out-performed by its iMac counterpart, but it’s come pretty close.
Apple even admitted at one point that it would evaluate the necessity of having the Mac Pro in it’s lineup, as less demand continued for the tower.
According to multiple rumors, the new Mac Pro will use Intel’s new Xeon E5 chip, a version of its Sandy Bridge technology, which is already starting to pop up in some Dell computers, says MacRumors.
How will Apple execute this though? Is there a market out there for professionals to satisfy the cost and time in manufacturing these powerful machines? Could they create a special Apple Pro Store and offer the machine at a premium price?
Next week Apple is expected to announce a completely redesigned MacBook Pro and updated MacBook Air. Other reports out this week even pointed to the possibility of an iMac refresh. It wasn’t until the stocking news today that anything related to the Mac Pro would be announced.
Personally, I’m not the type of person that will be shopping for this massive machine. But you can certainly count on me going on Apple’s online store and seeing how expensive I can price one out at. I think my record is around $20,000 on the current model.
I can’t wait until Monday.
June 10th, 2012
Yikes that’s a lot for a computer. An old friend has a Mac Pro from 2008 and it is still as fast as it was on the day he bought it. My grandparents had a PC for a year, and already it was slowing down. I guess you really get what you pay for on these computers.