If Apple Unveils a Radically Different Mac Pro at the WWDC, Will Anyone Actually Want It?

nofilmschool by Joe Marine

By the time some of you read this, we may already know whether we are getting a new Mac Pro at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Put aside for a moment if it even makes sense to keep investing in Apple on the pro end. A new Mac Pro, in whatever form it takes, is going to fill a specific need for specific people, whether you think people are crazy for being loyal to Apple or not. The Mac Pro has been a workhorse in the creative industries for some time now, but the lack of updates has sent many people in many different directions. There has been some information floating around that points towards a very different design with limited expandability. If Apple decides to go in that direction, however, will any professionals — the market Apple would target with this computer — actually want one?

Lou Borella, an editor and post-production professional, began a Facebook page last year asking Apple for an update regarding the Mac Pro (and they did get one from CEO Tim Cook). While the response left out a lot of the details, Apple did say they were planning something for later in 2013. Only a few days away from the WWDC, Lou posted some information he’d been given from a credible source:

- It will be heavily reliant on Thunderbolt.
- There will be no internal expandability.
- It will have support for Dual GPU’s with three monitor support right out of the box.
- No FW800 or Optical drive
- It will be released in the fall
- It will be a completely new design

Two days later, he mentioned that the Mac Pro Product Manager had a conversation with video professional Andrew Baird, saying that the new machine was going to be “something really different.” read more...