If I needed to guess, I’d say Apple bought fewer than 1,000 Mac Execs final 12 months. Between the lengthy look ahead to Apple silicon, the arrival of the Mac Studio, and the dearth of significant upgrades, Apple’s most costly Mac probably solely bought to probably the most determined or unaware Apple patrons.

That wasn’t speculated to be the case. When John Ternus teased the Apple silicon Mac Professional for “one other day” at Apple’s Peek Efficiency occasion final March, he appeared to offer a nod and a wink to probably the most fanciful rumors of a machine considerably larger than the just-announced Mac Studio and its huge M1 Extremely chip. Quick-forward 10 months, and we’re nonetheless ready for the Apple silicon Mac Professional to reach.

The most secure guess could be the brand new Mac Professional arriving at WWDC, the place the previous three fashions made their debut in 2006, 2013, and 2019. Apple likes to make a giant splash with its Mac Professional, and the WWDC keynote is the right place to do it, with a captive viewers of customers prepared and keen to spend $5,999 on a Mac “designed for execs who want the final in CPU efficiency.”

Nonetheless, whereas there’s little doubt that the brand new Mac Professional will once more take its rightful place on the high of the Mac pyramid, the velocity positive factors may not be anyplace close to as spectacular as earlier fashions. When the M1 Extremely introduced a whopping 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU to the Mac Studio, rumors started swirling of an “Excessive” chip with an insane 48 CPU cores and 152 graphics cores, greater than twice as highly effective because the upper-end Mac Studio. It might be the final word show of Apple silicon’s power and usher in a brand new Mac Professional era that has few if any friends. Now, a report by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims that Apple has canceled the workstation-class “Excessive” chip and can accept a barely souped-up Extremely processor as an alternative.

That’s nonetheless quick, thoughts you, however the distinction between it and the Mac Studio–even when it stays with an M1 chip for one more 12 months–received’t be as giant as we hoped. So if the Mac Professional isn’t the quickest Mac you should purchase now and the brand new mannequin received’t be considerably quicker when it launches later this 12 months, why does it even exist?

Identification disaster

In keeping with Gurman’s report, the Mac Professional will characteristic an M2 Extremely processor with a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU, the identical case design as the present mannequin, and “slots” for storage, graphics, media, and networking playing cards however not reminiscence. (It’s not fully clear how graphics enlargement would work with Apple’s system-on-chip, however Gurman had beforehand reported that the Mac Professional would have “simple expandability for added reminiscence,” so it’s attainable his supply is improper on the help for graphics playing cards.) Growth is clearly vital for the Mac Professional, however with the 40Gb/s velocity of Thunderbolt, inside upgrades aren’t as vital anymore. And the dearth of aftermarket RAM upgrades means Apple doesn’t make any Macs with user-upgradable reminiscence.

However the bigger query is, what’s the id of the Mac Professional? Over the previous decade or so, the Mac Professional has persistently been Apple’s most progressive and highly effective desktop machine, from the fascinating but irritating cylinder to the present mannequin’s state-of-the-art thermal structure and $699 wheels. Because the Apple silicon transition has rolled on, nonetheless, the Mac Professional has change into much less and fewer related and worthy of its value, and it’s in determined want of a rejuvenation, one which we assumed was on the best way.

Willis Lai/Foundry

But when the brand new mannequin is just a bit quicker than the Mac Studio and a bit extra expandable than, say, the MacBook Professional, it’s probably not a Mac Professional is it? Over the course of the Apple silicon transition, Apple has already killed the iMac Professional and the 27-inch iMac with out a lot as a farewell, and the Mac Professional appears to suit the identical logic: a vestige of an older period that doesn’t dwell as much as its personal legacy. After the 24-inch iMac and MacBook Professional received spectacular redesigns to accompany their new chips, I assumed the primary Apple silicon Mac Professional could be one thing radical and revolutionary, needing years of growth and a correct introduction to cap the transition.

In spite of everything, that’s what the Mac Professional ought to be. If it’s not, once more I ask, is it actually a Mac Professional?

I had beforehand mused that the Mac Studio was a stop-gap machine meant to fill the house between Mac Professional updates, however now I’m not so certain. I assumed the Apple silicon Mac Professional could be nothing in need of a breakthrough, with a brand new class of processor, a radically new type issue, and a brand new id that put it again on the map. Apple had a possibility to blow our minds with the design and velocity of the Mac Professional and take its MPX modules to the subsequent stage, but when it doesn’t, possibly the Mac Studio is all the professional Mac we want.

Assuming the value of the Apple silicon Mac Professional stays at $5,999 and is just about 30 % quicker than a maxed-out Mac Studio, it’s exhausting to see why anybody would spend one other $1,000 for a bigger case and inside enlargement. Apple already sells the Mac Studio with “breakthrough efficiency, a variety of connectivity for peripherals, and a modular system to create the right setup,” so if the Mac Professional doesn’t carry an enormous leap in efficiency, design, and expandability, who do each have to exist?

We’d not ever get that reply. Based mostly on the Mac Professional’s replace cadence, the mannequin that Apple launched this 12 months will probably nonetheless be round in three years. If Apple has a tough time justifying its existence now, how is it going to look in 2026? If the rumors are right and Apple wished the Mac Professional to be one thing a lot larger than it’s going to be, possibly it’s greatest to easily take away it from the lineup reasonably than maintain its title and nothing else.