Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) is happening right now in San Jose, California and, as you can imagine, the tech world is focused on this event as sharply as they can be on every aspect of this event, given it sets the stage for the next year of professional end computing and the Apple ecosystem.
While all kinds of new announcements are happening as I type this, there was one key piece of information I was waiting for – the announcement of a new Mac Pro.
For those who don’t know, let me set the stage – The Mac Pro is Apple’s top end workstation machine and from the Intel switch in 2006 to early 2013, the machine maintained the look of the previous G5 tower – affectionately known as the “Cheese Grater.” It was basically a high end PC running Xeon processors, ECC Memory, and PCIe expansion – server grade, top end equipment. The user base for the machine loved the expandable nature and versatility. It was the machine to have, and even when I was one of those people who didn’t generally like Apple, I was envious of the Mac Pro as a machine. Heck, I used to just watch Mac Pro videos all the time for fun, loving the design and what people did with their machines.
Then, came late 2013. The Mac Pro as it had last been revised was getting a little bit long in the tooth, and Apple had begun working on a new version of their workstation grade machine.
Enter the 2013 Mac Pro, a design which looked beautiful… and like a trash can. This was a “thermal core” design which, I have to say, I actually love, but it was limited. Apple made a mistake in what they thought the future of workstation work would be, and to make a somewhat long story short, the machine was limited on upgrade options and basically stayed the same from its launch until today, nearly 6 years later.
The worst thing? Apple continued to sell this machine at a premium this entire time — a machine that was limited by its own rather genius engineering to a point where it just couldn’t grow with the tech world of the past decade.
Enter today, and the announcement of a new Mac Pro, one which ironically looks like the old one shrunk down a bit. Honestly, I like the design, and from what I’ve seen of the specifications and expanadbility I’m pleased. I’ve only glanced at the information though — I’m waiting for the “dust to settle” as they say to really tear into it and form an opinion, but I like what I was able to see, tuning in a bit late to the stream. The price tag, however, is a little much, but honestly that doesn’t surprise me at this stage.
This does mean another price drop on the older machines, including the late 2013 “trashcan” models which are honestly fine machines as long as you accept them as they are — somewhat limited, much like how a laptop is, but still rather high end machines capable of most average and semi-demanding tasks. Hell, I’d be fine with one, and may damn well buy one in the next year!
More details to come.