The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Mac Pro finally to get a reboot
‘We’re sorry for what happened,’ company exec says of last model
Good news, creative professionals: Apple is, at long last, going to update the Mac Pro.
The bad news? You won’t see a completely new model until next year.
That’s the report out of Cupertino, where company executives met with a handful of reporters to give them the inside scoop on what’s going on with Apple’s professional desktop computer. The company introduced that model in late 2013 — and hasn’t updated it since.
“We’re sorry for what happened with the Mac Pro,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide marketing, according to Axios. “It’s important to do something great. That will take longer than this year to do.”
While a new Mac Pro model won’t hit Apple stores until next year, the company on Tuesday was expected to upgrade the existing version, offering higher-powered central and graphics processors. Later this year, it plans to roll out new iMacs that also are targeted at professional users, Axios reported.
In an unusual move, Apple officials were forthcoming in acknowledging the problem with the device. The reason the computer has gotten so long in the tooth was that its design was flawed, Apple officials told the reporters. The computer’s cylindrical design, which helped it stand out from its predecessors and market rivals, constrained Apple’s ability to upgrade it. For example, the device shipped with two underpowered graphics processors because a single high-powered one would have generated too much heat.
“We wanted to do something bold and different. In retrospect, it didn’t well suit some of the people we were trying to reach,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, told reporters.
Apple apparently didn’t give details on what the new Mac Pro will look like but did imply it will have an all-new design. The announcement comes as Apple fans have become increasingly agitated about the company’s delays in updating its older products.
While a new Mac Pro is in the works, and Apple plans to keep investing in its traditional computer products, it does not plan to introduce any touchscreen Macs, according to Axios. Apple helped popularize touchscreens with the iPhone and sells millions of touch-screen iPads each year. Meanwhile, a growing proportion of Windows computers have touch-sensitive screens.
But Apple has resisted including the technology in its Mac line. The closest it’s come is to replace the traditional function keys on its latest MacBook Pro models with a touch-sensitive bar.