Apple’s transition to Apple silicon is complete, now that the Mac Pro has finally been unveiled. But the reality is, Apple met its deadline last year when it rolled out the Mac Studio–a computer that, for a lot of customers, filled the role of the Mac Pro as a Mac with the most processing muscle. In terms of mass market appeal, Apple was able to provide, within two years, Macs with its silicon for just about every use case.
The Mac Pro is a computer that very few customers will actually consider buying. Apple could have probably dropped the Mac Pro from the lineup after the Mac Studio arrived and few would have complained. But after the 2013 trash can Mac Pro debacle, Apple is uniquely aware that the needs of those few are extremely important. It’s not just that they need powerful CPUs and GPUs, PCIe slots for expansion cards, and support for multiple, high-resolution displays. It’s that they want a Mac to do PC things.
That’s why Apple’s brought back the Mac Pro tower design in 2019–and in fact, is still using the same case for the M2 Ultra model. While it might be disappointing to us common folks that the new Mac Pro has the same design as the Intel model, it didn’t really need to change. And most importantly, the new Mac Pro can literally slide into the same spot as the old Mac Pro, whether it’s on a desk or a server rack.