#wwdc2019: Mac Pro

In many ways, a “You asked for pro machines? Here’s your 🤬 pro machine!” silent statement (make your comparisons with that explicit “can’t innovate anymore my…” of yore), Apple now offers a true successor of the Power Mac / Mac Pro that erases all the mistakes made with the Trashcan introduced in 2013 and let languish until yesterday.

First, let me say I couldn’t have been more wrong about 👏 every 👏 single 👏 prediction 👏:

Starting at 4.499 $
ARM only, base model 16 cores
32GB ram - 1 TB storage
Apple-only GPU
Small tower
Ships in early 2020

I don’t mind, though, because the real product is something to behold.

I like the look of the case, even though the Cheese-grater was even cooler in my opinion (because it was more square), but what matters is that it is big, it will cool its components, and it is very much expandable and upgradeable.

It also costs like a car, and the base configuration (8 core Xeon, 256 Gb M.2 drive) is a bit underwhelming.

I disagree with the idea that pro desktops need to start at 5.000 $ (iMac Pro) or more (look, at least, at 8.000 $ for a better-speced Mac Pro in the real world) and are mostly used for producing video; my impression is also that the Apple tax is increasing steeply on some wrong use-cases assumptions, and that there is still space for a middle way between the Mac Mini and the new Pro.

Having said that, if you need something like this, you need it and it’s great they still make computers that push the limits… just a couple of years ago, it wasn’t really the case. Hoping for a true pro machine from Apple, not a powered-up iMac, was more about the statement it would give us about their actual commitment to the future of the Mac than anything else, so complaining about the price is actually beside the point: let it cost what it needs to cost for them to keep innovating, and just admire it without buying (at that price, not really a choice ;)… it’s basically a halo car, and the things they’ll learn here will improve other Macs in the future.