MP All Models The 'Mac Pro' rebrand that almost happened before they killed the tower

[Amethyst]

I’ve been hearing some behind-the-scenes details regarding the recent discontinuation of the Mac Pro tower and the future of the desktop lineup. Before Apple officially pulled the plug on the tower last week, there was a massive internal debate within the marketing team.

Here’s what went down:

• Before the final decision to kill the tower, marketing heavily pushed to rename the Mac Studio lineup to "Mac Pro." There were two proposals: renaming the entire lineup (Max/Ultra) or, more likely, rebranding only the Ultra model as the "Mac Pro" to simplify the professional tier.


• To differentiate the rebranded "Mac Pro" (Studio form factor), Apple internal teams experimented with a Space Gray/Space Black finish, reminiscent of the iMac Pro era, to signal a "Pro-only" aesthetic.


• This branding chaos extended to the displays as well. Initially, the upcoming Mini-LED model was slated to be the new "Pro Display XDR," while the standard 60Hz model would remain the "Studio Display." * The Final Pivot (Why they stayed with "Studio"): Ultimately, Apple decided to stick with the "Studio" branding for now. Two reasons:
1. The "Mac Studio" brand has gained significant traction and positive sentiment among creators since its 2022 launch (shoutout to those who saw it coming!).
2. They believe the "Studio Display XDR" name carries a more modern, integrated identity than sticking to the old "Pro Display" moniker.


• Despite the branding internal back-and-forth, the hardware roadmap remains solid. Expect the M5 Max and M5 Ultra Mac Studio to be announce at WWDC this June. It likely, they will keep the "Studio" name, but the performance (especially ultra variant) is skyrocket.

 

[JesterJJZ]

Honestly, if Apple came out with their own Thunderbolt PCIE box to match and stack to the Mac Studio, it would solve a lot of issues for most Mac Pro users. Yeah, Sonnet makes these, but one from Apple that also matched the Studio design would probably be preferred. Especially if they priced it at $999 or less.

 

[underthere]

Dang that’s crazy thanks for sharing. I like silver but I feel like if they made a space grey one people would go nuts for it

 

[Mac3Duser]

Perhaps it would have been wise to have a slightly higher (a cube ?) Mac Studio, with integrated NVMe ports, PCIe LP expansion cards for GPGPU computing or 25GbE, (or additional storages) available only in the M5 Ultra configuration, and rename it "Mac Pro".

 

[kevcube]

Honestly, if Apple came out with their own Thunderbolt PCIE box to match and stack to the Mac Studio, it would solve a lot of issues for most Mac Pro users. Yeah, Sonnet makes these, but one from Apple that also matched the Studio design would probably be preferred. Especially if they priced it at $999 or less.

laughing only because ... $999 or less 🤣

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

A Space Black (MBP style) SD-XDR and Mac Studio would have looked phenomenal.

Fingers crossed they reconsider them for the future.

 

[JesterJJZ]

laughing only because ... $999 or less 🤣

Well if anyone could manage that it's Apple...if they wanted to.

Sonnet's 3 slot box is $1200. At scale, Apple could manage something similar at a similar price...again, if they wanted to.

 

[maflynn]

A Space Black (MBP style) SD-XDR and Mac Studio would have looked phenomenal.

Fingers crossed they reconsider them for the future.

Apple's habit seems to be for "professional" products, mostly silver, for consumer products more vibrant color options.

Personally a space black Studio would look awesome, along with a white apple logo.

 

[theluggage]

Apple's habit seems to be for "professional" products, mostly silver, for consumer products more vibrant color options.

I suspect it's partly economies of scale & logistics - say a distributor sells 100 MacBook Neos for every Studio they can easily keep a good stock of each of 4 different base model Neo colours in stock - for a Studio, that's more than they'd probably want to stock.

Then, for desktops, it means producing & distributing matching keyboards, mice, displays etc. which are sold separately (last I looked you could only get the multi-colour options for the iMac by ordering them as spare parts). We'd be talking multiple colour options for the Studio Display, too.

That said, I'm sure Apple could stretch to at least offering black & silver options for desktops...

 

[0423MAC]

Perhaps it would have been wise to have a slightly higher (a cube ?) Mac Studio, with integrated NVMe ports, PCIe LP expansion cards for GPGPU computing or 25GbE, (or additional storages) available only in the M5 Ultra configuration, and rename it "Mac Pro".

As much as that would make the inner nerd in me happy the reality is that Apple has been moving away from that for years and I don't ever see it coming back.

Luckily the ports on these machines are getting fast enough that it should be enough to satisfy most pro users. It's been 6 years and still no eGPU support so that already kills off a large use-case some would have for super high res video editing, AI tasks or even gaming.

The Intel era had its fair share of problems, especially on laptops, but having the option to boot between the latest macOS and Windows 7/10/Linux was magical.

 

[zephonic]

Well if anyone could manage that it's Apple...if they wanted to.

Sonnet's 3 slot box is $1200. At scale, Apple could manage something similar at a similar price...again, if they wanted to.

Don't you know Apple? If Sonnettech sells it for $1200, Apple's would be $2000 but much better looking.

Not that they ever would, of course.