Credit: Apple Apple delivered some slightly disappointing news to professional users in an interview with TechCrunch this week. Speaking with the tech publication, Senior director of Mac Hardware Product Marketing Tom Boger revealed that the next version of the Mac Pro is not coming in 2018.
It will be a 2019 product.
The current Mac Pro—colloquially referred to as the trash can Mac Pro because of its form factor—was released all the way back in 2013, and even Apple admitted that the design was a mistake. In April of 2017, Apple executive Craig Federighi told BuzzFeed News that the company had "designed ourselves into a bit of a corner" with the circular form-factor, and Phil Schiller promised users that Apple was "completely rethinking the Mac Pro" for the next generation.
Since then, we haven't heard much, and professional users not content with the all-in-one form-factor of the powerful new iMac Pro were holding out purchasing it in the hopes that the next Mac Pro was right around the corner. It sounds like Apple knows this, and decided to be un-characteristically candid with the professional community through this TechCrunch interview:
"We want to be transparent and communicate openly with our pro community, so we want them to know that the Mac Pro is a 2019 product," says Boger. "We know that there’s a lot of customers today that are making purchase decisions on the iMac Pro and whether or not they should wait for the Mac Pro. "
Professional creatives who are married to the Apple ecosystem—particularly high-end video producers—still have a choice to make: purchase an iMac Pro now, or wait a year (or more) for the next generation Mac Pro? But at least now they won't have to worry that a new Mac Pro will come out a few days or weeks after they pull the trigger on their iMac purchase.
To find out more about Apple's Mac Pro plans—including some interesting tidbits about the company's secretive "Pro Workflow Team"—head over to TechCrunch to read the full interview.
. dpreview.com2018-4-7 17:19
