After a flurry of new releases this past month, the one Mac that Apple has continued to neglect is the Mac Pro. The last credible date we received was for early August, though CNet's Brian Tong now acknowledges that the information didn't pan out.
For many, an August release would actually have been the surprise, as Intel has yet to ship Mac Pro-suitable Sandy Bridge processors. There had been some hope that Apple would receive these processors early from Intel, but clearly not quite this early.
Still, Apple's Mac Pro is presently the only Mac without the new Thunderbolt port that Apple and Intel introduced earlier this year. Apple's Mac Pro has had relatively infrequent updates over the past few years with the last update taking place over a year ago.
Apple has certainly placed an emphasis on their notebook line, reflecting the ongoing trends towards mobile computing. Apple's notebook sales have steadily become a larger percentage of their total Mac sales.
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Our last check with resellers reported no change in Mac Pro stock availability that might have suggested an imminent update.
As for Intel, the Sandy Bridge-E processor that is expected to be used in the Mac Pro had been rumored to be released even as late as 2012, but the latest leaks have pinpointed a Q4 2011 release. Donanimhaber posts the following release timetable from Intel:
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The yellow box denotes the Sandy Bridge-E class of processors that we are waiting for with Xeon versions likely shipping at the same time. According to this slide, the Mac Pro suitable processors will first launch in Q4 2011. Apple's new Mac Pro is likely to follow.
Top Rated Comments
I hope Apple doesn't abandon their Pro desktops. I'm still pissed about what they did to FCP.
Now I just want an external Thunderbolt expansion chassis for my Air!
Yes. And pro products.
Apple’s “pro demise” has been predicted constantly for as long as I’ve been using Macs. It’s a side effect of making things easy to use I guess: it makes people expect that Apple doesn’t care about the people who like things difficult :p But in fact they do care about pros (like myself) and offer us a quite a lot.
The Mac Pro is overdue for a change—not a removal.
The Mac Pro is Apple's machine with the LONGEST useful life of them all! I'm still using my 2006 Mac Pro, and it STILL feels fast even today! Anyone with the 2010 Mac Pro should still be cruising with a blisteringly fast system and not need to upgrade anytime soon.
Meanwhile, my former 2006 Macbook Pro (I sold it) was quite slow and very limited, especially by its maximum RAM capacity.
Mac Pros are investments, meant to be used for several years. Unless you're absurdly rich and must always have the latest gear, this should be common sense.
I'll probably be buying a new Mac Pro at the next refresh (five years into the ownership of my current one). How many other computers can you get five productive years out of before they start feeling slow? I'm a bit annoyed that I'll be forced to move to OS X Lion, but I'm sure they'll get some of its issues resolved by then.
Pros make software for iOS and OS X. You can make yet another twitter client on your Mac Mini, but it won't do if you're developing a huge 3D action game for future hardware.
Pros push the technology, which can be later adapted for regular users. There wouldn't be iMovie without Final Cut. There wouldn't be so many Final Cut users if the best hardware Apple could offer, was iMac.
In the end of the day pros are extremely influential opinion-makers. Being a satisfied and experienced Mac user and a "geek friend" of my friends, intentionally or not I introduced at the very least five new users to the Mac platform, and helped them learn it and tackle the difficulties. I'm sure this is not an uncommon situation, but you won't find statistics anywhere on how it impacts the sales.
Instead people count the amount of pro users and multiply it by the price of hardware they often use. Think wider!