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sad days. Also what a way to go. Just silently dropped on a Wednesday. A legacy dies while the 50 years celebrations are in full swing.
It is like silently pushing out grandpa of the car on the way to the party…

How much stuff is in the inventory pipeline of the 3rd party retailers?

Can Apple get RAM for the Mac Pro? All the other M2 era stuff has been dropped also. It is not likely some of the parts are in oversupply at this point. When XServe 'retired out' Apple gave folks about 3-6 months to order last round. It may be the case they don't have the parts to sell for multiple months. ( have been winding down orders all along. In part, M2 Ultra was being sold to eek out more units while Studio went to M3 Ultra. It was already in extended life. )

Apple beat the drums in Dec 2025 to push the M3 Ultra Studios. The top end of those has disappeared. The M5 Max is out now and ... Studios may be slowing also. While Mac Pro units numbers not large , there may be small bump in Studios because no other option in that "Ultra" class. So again where is Apple/3rd party Studio inventory dregs they want to flush out.

WWDC dates announced. So this saves the 'broken analog clock is right twice a day' crowd of campaigning for huge Mac Pro announcement at WWDC meme bubble. It happens every year. Pop it now before it has chance to build. Folks have time to figure out what they are going to do going forward.

The original Mac 50 years ago was not a 'box with slots'.
 
I'm sad about it as well but realistically how should they have gone about this? A tribute video on their homepage? Let's be real here.

Historically, Apple have given windows for folks to get their order in before a change. (some corporate buying cycles take more than a month to finish the approvals on). 2013 Mac Pro 'sneak peak' in June but didn't supersede 2012 model until December. (well at leat not in EU) . 2012 model barred from EU sales in 2013, but 'warning flares' sent up before then. Mac Pro 2019 'sneak peak' six months before MP 2013 end. (and some like MacStadium were doing pallet buys of MP 2013 on last day).

Xserve ... multiple months 'heads up' window before being dropped.

I suspect Mac Pro was such a low run rate and a 'know to Apple niche market' that it doesn't matter as much. User base was likely collapsing anyway. RAM/NAND shortages doesn't help with handling unexpected short term , last gasp bubbles in demand.

Apple might have wanted the Mac Studio to be out by down and had long preplanned to wind down the Mac Pro at this point. But Studio will take longer and just can't extend the cut off date.
 
After trashcan I was hoping for Apple to make a nice machine learning development machine with an upgradable Nvidia GPU as I imagine many others.

I do know if Mac studio is even close to what you can get with the latest Nvidia + AMD/Intel CPU for dev and training.
 
They were not totally silent. There was a 'eventually we'll do something' in 4 years (April 2017). And a price cut.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/04/apple-updates-mac-pro-and-more/

Almost 4 year gap between 2019 and 2023 Mac Pro too.




The Mac Studio is better postioned to be a replacement than the iMac Pro was in 2017. Goofily they still have much of the 'painted into a corner' , self-imposed problems. Over reliance on Thunderbolt . One, and only one, internal drive. But at least the $3,000 screen is detached now. 🙂

Nah they went silent. It was the beginning of the end for the Mac Pro.
 
MacBook Pro is next.

MacBook Studio is the redesign.

The writing on the wall was killing the Pro Display XDR for the Studio Display XDR. Now the Mac Pro for the Mac Studio.

Makes you wonder about the iPhone Pro and AirPods Pro. I think those might make more sense to transition to the Ultra line, like the Apple Watch Ultra. Basically just saying “This is the best one.” Studio makes more sense for creatives, but is kinda off for everyone else. The folding iPhone may complicate that, unless it has its own separate name. They also need to rename the iPhone 18e to iPhone 18 Neo next year. Neo is strong branding for them at the base. Do the same with the iPad.

As for the Mac Studio, I’d like to see a couple changes:
  • Updated design that is a bit more premium than “big Mac mini” while including space black
  • Yearly refreshes
Also they really need to clean up their chip naming conventions like this:
  • M6
  • M6 Plus
  • M6 Elite
  • M6 Ultra
This establishes a more clear hierarchy, moving away from the Pro naming as Apple seems to be doing, and eliminates the confusion of “Max”sounding like “Macs” phonetically. Plus is clearly above base. Elite is clearly above Plus but doesn’t have the finality of Ultra. I don’t know how a company with so many smart people can’t figure this out. Apple: I do consulting, you can afford me, DM me. I’ve got a lot more.
You're reaching bro. MacBook Pro is a huge seller for Apple.
 
As someone who has worked on thousands of Mac Pro's down the years for a refurbishing company since 2009, this is a sad day. The Mac Pro at its peak around 2015-2019 with the various upgrades and expansions to the 5,1 models was a best seller and extremely popular with customers around the world. It's a shame how it has ended, the downfall did begin with the 6,1 in 2013 and it never really recovered.
 
I do know of a local film studio that used these as they needed the PCIe for video/audio and storage.
So not completely useless, they do also use studios and thunderbolt but in some situations that’s not sufficient.
 
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The end of an era. I've used pro models from Apple in my design office for almost 20 years. Always have been good computers. This last generation was just not good enough. The big problem started with the "trashcan" model. It's sad that Apple let's down their core audience from decades ago. When all products lacked in sales, the pro models kept the company alive. It's sad.
 
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Basically Apple Silicon killed the Mac Pro.

Without free RAM configurability and upgradability.
Without free CPU configurability and upgradability.
Without free GPU configurability and upgradability.
Without lots of useful PCI expansion slots.
Without lots and lots of internal HDD space.
There really was no point in a Mac Pro anymore...

With the introduction of Apple Silicon Apple should have figured out a way to offer the Mac Studio with and without a larger chassis that would allow for some internal PCI and HDD storage - for pro users to avoid noisy and ugly external boxes, cable spaghetti and external power bricks.

I am still surprised Apple never introduced a Mac Studio with a Mac Studio Extension chassis option for limited internal PCI cards (no GPUs) and lots of HDD storage.
They probably thought that PCI slots are no longer needed and that physical HDDs will all be replaced by SSDs soon - and then AI killed their plans and SSDs never really came down in price nor increased in capacity much.
 
Too bad that Apple will never sell AS components. Then interested users could simply build the machine they want in the form and configuration that they want.
 
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This is a very sad day overall. I've loved them all and wanted to own them, from the Power Mac G4 to the 2019 Mac Pro and owned and used the 2010 the most, which was my best Mac purchase in history.

From what we know from MacRumors, Apple couldn't:
• Get the extra RAM part to work at decent speed
• Produce an Extreme chip that scaled properly for several versions (think Ultra v1 issues x2)

I believe, this is what caused them to release a dud of a Mac Pro upgrade, just for the transition. If they could have shipped the extra RAM and Extreme chip that was meant for it, it would have worked. Even if it was more expensive. But an Ultra only, just like the Studio, with no user upgradable RAM, just killed it.

I think the above could be overcome with some time but Apple didn't have the desire to, sadly.
 
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If Nvidia GPUs were still compatible with Mac and MacOS, the Mac Pro would've been VERY popular.
True but Nvidia was terrible to Apple and look how they are treating gamers now etc. They are really showing their true colours. I don't think that it would have worked out well for Apple in the end and Apple knows more than we do about their tactics.
 
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People have claimed to see an Ultra identifier for release in 2026, however MacRumors (after a Gurman article a little while back began hedging and rather than saying M5 Ultra, now say M5 or M4 Ultra. Going with M4 Ultra would be exceptionally disappointing.

There will never be a M4 Ultra because the interconnects didn't scale, hence the reason there Mac Studio got the M4 Max and M3 Ultra. This isn't the case with the M5 Ultra so the the next Mac Studio will have a M5 Ultra.

MacBook Pro is next.

MacBook Studio is the redesign.

The writing on the wall was killing the Pro Display XDR for the Studio Display XDR. Now the Mac Pro for the Mac Studio.

Makes you wonder about the iPhone Pro and AirPods Pro. I think those might make more sense to transition to the Ultra line, like the Apple Watch Ultra. Basically just saying “This is the best one.” Studio makes more sense for creatives, but is kinda off for everyone else. The folding iPhone may complicate that, unless it has its own separate name. They also need to rename the iPhone 18e to iPhone 18 Neo next year. Neo is strong branding for them at the base. Do the same with the iPad.

As for the Mac Studio, I’d like to see a couple changes:
  • Updated design that is a bit more premium than “big Mac mini” while including space black
  • Yearly refreshes
Also they really need to clean up their chip naming conventions like this:
  • M6
  • M6 Plus
  • M6 Elite
  • M6 Ultra
This establishes a more clear hierarchy, moving away from the Pro naming as Apple seems to be doing, and eliminates the confusion of “Max”sounding like “Macs” phonetically. Plus is clearly above base. Elite is clearly above Plus but doesn’t have the finality of Ultra. I don’t know how a company with so many smart people can’t figure this out. Apple: I do consulting, you can afford me, DM me. I’ve got a lot more.

This whole post is utter nonsense and hysteria.
 
My Apple journey began with the Macintosh Quadra in '92, so this does hit home a bit. End of an era. But that's more a lament on the passing of time than anything else. I don't disagree that the writing was on the wall for the Mac Pro as soon as the Studio came out. Tech - and life - moves on.
 
Switched from PC to Mac in 2005.
Knew everything about x86 lineup. Asked a Mac friend to help me specify the right/ equivalent Apple desktop.
I still remember his words: "For your use cases a MacMini will do". I disliked the word "mini' and went for the cheese grater PowerPC G5DP2.0. What a monster. Only FinalCut Compressor was able to max out cpu performance.
Replaced the 2005 cheese grater with the 2013 trash can. Not because the cheese grater didn't have enough muscle, but because of SW/OS (planned) obsolescence 😡.
When the trash can got stuck in the same SW/OS obsolescence funnel, i did what my friend advised me in 2005.
I'm very happy with my MacMini M2pro.
Moral of my story: you don't need a Pro product to be a Pro. Don't be led by marketing and fomo requirements. Good is often good enough.
 
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I believe, this is what caused them to release a dud of a Mac Pro upgrade
The extreme chip to be sure, but I think the tower desktop form factor was the kiss of death. Apple designed their chips in such a way that made a tower form factor irrelevant. You cannot upgrade the ram, or gpu, there's limited options for PCI expansion. The drive bays seem largely superfluous at this point
 
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