Apple officially stopped updating the Mac Pro product line in March this year, marking the complete withdrawal of this desktop model that was once favored by professional users from the stage of history. However, according to foreign media reports citing Bloomberg, in Apple’s internal long-term planning, the Mac Pro should have had a more brilliant future.
In the early days of switching to Apple Silicon self-developed chips, Apple had an ambitious blueprint. At that time, Apple's vision was to position the Mac Studio as the main workstation equipped with Ultra-level chips, and position the Mac Pro at a higher level, equipping it with a more powerful processor than the Ultra series of chips. Although Apple has never publicly named this series of processors, there are signs in 2022 that Apple has developed a chip code-named "M2 Extreme" for Mac Pro, which is designed to provide twice the computing and graphics processing core of the Ultra chip of the same period. According to reports, relevant research and development work even extended to the M3 version, but in the end due to high research and development costs and concerns about market demand prospects, Apple decided to shelve the plan.
In addition to the processor, the report also revealed the complexity of hardware iterations faced by the Mac Pro. In product planning, Apple has considered two different new models: the model code-named "J170" was originally planned to use Intel processors, aiming to solve the rigid need for high-performance peripheral compatibility in some specific industries by supporting PCI-E graphics expansion and other methods; while the other model code-named "J190" is based on Apple Silicon and was originally scheduled to be launched simultaneously with the Mac Studio equipped with the M3 Ultra chip in 2025.
As Apple finally decided to bid farewell to this product line, these planned high-performance models also became history. Currently, the responsibility of the high-performance desktop market has been completely transferred to the Mac Studio series. According to previous industry forecasts, the Mac Studio equipped with the M5 Ultra chip is expected to be released before the end of 2026, and the subsequent M7 Ultra version is also in Apple's long-term research and development plan.