The big news out this morning from Apple’s unprecedented sit-down with the press this week is the company’s plans to tear down and rethink the Mac Pro. But a few other hardware nuggets arose from that meeting, as well. Namely, the fact that the company is planning new iMacs more aggressively focused on pro users, along with a standalone display designed for use specifically with the Mac Pro.
There’s not much in the way of details for either, but as part of the company’s newfound transparency on the subject, it was more than happy to discuss — at the very least — how the products are set to slot into its overall strategy. Interestingly, both will be targeted at pro users, albeit from different angles.
The company acknowledged during the meeting that the iMac is increasingly being used by pro users — likely some combination of the all-in-one’s increased capabilities and the fact that the Mac Pro hasn’t received a fundamental upgrade in more than three years. As such, the new iMac will be getting a spec increase designed to make it even more attractive to pros, as the company works to rethink the Mac for 2018.
The system most likely won’t be getting a touchscreen, however, in spite of competition from the likes of the Surface Studio and other Windows all-in-ones, as Apple insists on keeping its iOS and MacOS lines separate. For now, at least. The company is, of course, encouraging pro users to embrace both its computers and products like the iPad Pro.
“Because we think in many tasks, that’s actually the best solution. So all of our customers should feel free to buy multiple products,” SVP Craig Federighi said jokingly during the talk.“We encourage that.”
Apple also will be developing its own display to go alongside the new Mac Pro set to arrive next year. That marks a change from the company’s decision to work with LG last year for a 5K monitor designed specifically for the new MacBook Pros. Of course, that partnership ran into some issues when it was discovered that the screen had series performance issues when placed near a router.
It’s a bug the company would no doubt like to distance itself from, which may be part of the reason it’s looking to build the new Mac Pro and its modular components from the ground up, this time out.
“As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a Pro display as well,” Phil Schiller said during the conversation. “Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.”
Meantime, you can get the existing Mac Pro module with a spec upgrade this week, if you can’t wait.