Apple has finally discontinued the Mac Pro desktop after years of fitful effort
Ars Technica • • general
Key Points:
- Apple has officially discontinued the Mac Pro tower, with the latest M2 Ultra model from mid-2023 being the final iteration and no plans for future versions.
- The Mac Pro's decline began in the mid-2010s, notably with the controversial 2013 "trash can" design that limited upgradeability and flexibility, leading to a rare public admission of design mistakes by Apple in 2017.
- A redesigned Mac Pro tower was introduced in 2019 to restore upgradeability and versatility, but high prices and the imminent shift to Apple Silicon Macs limited its market impact.
- The transition to Apple Silicon, with its unified memory architecture and integrated GPUs, ultimately made the traditional expandable Mac Pro obsolete, as these chips do not support upgrades or external graphics cards.
- The Mac Pro’s discontinuation leaves the Mac Studio and Mac mini as Apple's professional desktop offerings, marking the end of an era for the company’s flagship professional tower computer.
