Apple officially discontinues the Mac Pro: Ending the era of tower workstations.
Apple has just discontinued the Mac Pro line and removed the product from its official website, ending the journey of its most powerful computer. This decision solidifies the position of the Mac Studio as the ultimate alternative in the Apple Silicon era.
Apple's most powerful desktop computer, the Mac Pro, has officially been discontinued. According to data from 9to5Mac, Apple has removed the product from its online store and confirmed there are no plans to develop successor versions in the future. This marks a significant shift in the company's strategy for the professional user segment.
The shift to Mac Studio and Apple Silicon.
The most recent Mac Pro model was updated in 2023 with the M2 Ultra chip; however, the tower chassis design has remained unchanged since 2019. With a starting price of up to $6,999 (approximately 184 million VND), this device is gradually becoming less accessible and less popular compared to the company's newer solutions.
Instead, Apple is focusing its resources on the Mac Studio – a compact device with comparable power thanks to the Apple Silicon architecture. Currently, the Mac Studio serves as the most high-end desktop computer in the ecosystem, using the M3 Ultra chip and is expected to be upgraded to the M5 Ultra later this year.
Looking back at the ups and downs of Apple's workstation line.
Over the past 13 years, the Mac Pro has only undergone three major upgrades, each accompanied by controversial technical changes:
- 2013 version:The cylindrical design (often referred to as a trash can) focuses on central heat dissipation but fails due to limited GPU upgrade capabilities and inefficient cooling.
- 2019 version:Returning to a traditional modular tower design with eight PCIe slots allows for flexible hardware expansion.
- 2023 version:Switching to the M2 Ultra chip while retaining the 2019 version's appearance, even though the new chip architecture no longer supports discrete graphics cards.
The discontinuation of the Mac Pro shows Apple's priority on maximizing performance in a minimalist design. While professionals needing PCIe expandability may be disappointed, the power of its own Silicon chips allows the Mac Studio to handle most of today's most demanding tasks without the need for a bulky chassis.
Currently, professional users can choose alternative models such as the Mac Studio, Mac mini, or iMac depending on their performance needs and budget.
