Final up to date
The unique Mac Professional was launched in August 2006 — and it is nonetheless remembered as a excessive level in Apple historical past. AppleInsider celebrates the previous favourite workhorse — and its fairly different sequels.
The most recent Mac Professional, launched in 2023, was the ultimate Mac to make the transition from Intel processors to Apple Silicon. Nevertheless it was when Apple made its earlier large transition, the transfer from PowerPC to Intel, that the unique Mac Professional first got here out.
However simply as with Apple Silicon, the transition to a brand new processor took longer for what would grow to be the Mac Professional than customers might have hoped.
Intel promised unimaginable pace
Two years earlier than the Mac Professional launch, on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs formally revealed that the long-standing rumor was true, Apple was switching to Intel processors for the Mac. That yr he detailed the corporate’s roadmap.
“Starting next year, we will begin introducing Macs with Intel processors in them,” he mentioned at WWDC 2005. “So when we meet again this time next year, our plan is to be shipping Macs with Intel processors by then.”
“And when we meet here again two years from now, our plan is that the transition will be mostly complete,” he continued. “And we think it will be complete by the end of 2007. So this is a two-year transition.”
That is as clear as Apple ever will get, and if Jobs’s rationalization of the transition sounds acquainted, it ought to. Tim Prepare dinner adopted precisely the identical playbook when asserting the transfer to Apple Silicon.
The massive information was that each Mac within the vary was to have an Intel processor, and that was clearly good, however Jobs was particularly promising sooner and extra highly effective machines. And the place the place energy was needed most was what would grow to be the Mac Professional.
We did not know that title in the beginning of the Intel transition, however we did know its type as there was already a top-of-the-line PowerPC mannequin known as the Energy Mac G5 that got here in the identical chassis.
And one of many causes Jobs gave for transferring from PowerPC to Intel was explicitly to do with that machine and its improvement. Standing in entrance of a slide displaying a PowerMac G5 with the phrases “3.0GHz?” Jobs had rather a lot to say.
“I stood up here two years ago and I promised you this,” mentioned Jobs, pointing on the display. “And we haven’t been able to deliver that to you yet.”
“As we look ahead, we can envision some amazing products we want to build for you,” he continued, “and we don’t know how to build them with the future PowerPC roadmap.”
The Energy Mac G5 was widespread as a result of it was essentially the most highly effective Mac of its time, nevertheless it takes one thing extra indefinable than efficiency to create a success and this machine merely by no means had the sheer love that the Mac Professional would get.
So though there have been loads of hopes and expectations, it wasn’t till 1:08 PM japanese time on Monday, August 7, 2006, that the Mac Professional was launched and began on the street to turning into a beloved traditional.
“In the first two quarters [of 2006], we transitioned almost all of our product over to Intel. Except for one, and that is the Power Mac,” Jobs declared then. “Well, today the Power Mac is going to fade into history.”
Maybe that does not appear as shocking right now when it took a technology of Apple Silicon Macs earlier than they shed the chassis of their predecessors. However again in 2006, the sight of the identical giant aluminum casing, the identical handles for carrying it, and the identical ease of entry to the insides, it was a shock.
It was sufficient of a shock that Schiller was fast to defend it.
“We have the best enclosure in the business, this is a beautiful enclosure design,” he mentioned. “On the outside, it has all the benefits as before. Inside, it’s entirely new.”
Efficiency promise
This primary Mac Professional did attain Jobs’s promised 3.0GHz efficiency, and it did so with Intel’s Xeon processor.
“This is the Mac that so many of our highest-end customers have dreamed of,” mentioned Schiller. “For our highest-end customers, a feature they’ve really wanted: they’re 64-bit.”
“So this new Intel Xeon chip is an amazing processor to put into our products, but in every Mac Pro we’re going to put two of them,” he continued. “All Mac Pros, quad Xeon performance. These are screaming-fast machines.”
It appears as if each new Mac is the quickest Mac Apple has ever made, however this one gave an enormous leap with a claimed doubling of efficiency over the Energy Mac G5. Maybe not till the introduction of Apple Silicon was there such a major increase in pace.
This Mac Professional additionally boosted what that efficiency was per watt of energy. Usually that is a priority if you’re constructing notebooks and also you’re balancing the wants of labor and battery life, however Schiller identified that it additionally had nice advantages with this desktop.
“Performance per watt means we need less cooling systems inside the box too. Which means we can do more with the space we have,” he mentioned. “So we’ve doubled the number of drives inside the Mac Pro to now four hard drives of up to 2TB of internal storage.”
There was additionally now a second optical drive, plus house to attach extra exterior gadgets each in the back of the machine — and now the entrance, too.
The entrance added a second USB 2.0 port and Firewire 800, whereas the again’s most important change was a double-wide graphics slot permitting for the largest and strongest GPUs to be put in with out sacrificing an adjoining slot.
So the brand new Mac Professional was “screaming fast,” and it got here with larger growth however nonetheless the identical enviably straightforward manner of doing that growth. The enclosure allow you to merely open the entire facet after which simply snap in new laborious drives with none cabling or fiddling in any respect.
This Mac Professional was deeply customizable, it got here with 1GB of RAM however might tackle 32GB of RAM, and Schiller introduced that it was delivery proper now.
On August 7, 2006, you would purchase one for $2,499. In 2023’s cash, that is roughly $3,894, or simply about half the price of a gift day Mac Professional.
Not standing nonetheless
This unique Mac Professional — model 1,1 — stayed on sale till a pace bump in April 2007. Then model 2,1 lasted till the next January when the three,1 version upped the efficiency with a sooner quad-core Intel Xeon 5400 processor. You may additionally improve this one to have two such processors plus as much as 32GB RAM.
One other important replace was in July 2010 when, in addition to transferring to Intel’s Xeon 5600-series processors, you would now have as much as 64GB RAM and 8TB storage.
This version lasted as Apple’s flagship mannequin till arguably that flag was faltering. It was two years earlier than the Mac Professional noticed one other replace and the July 2012 launch now got here with two 6-core 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon Westmere-EP processors.
On the surface, it nonetheless appeared precisely the identical, which was fantastic, however by now the insides had been now trying previous, too. It was being up to date, however the inside was not bettering radically, and so Apple’s skilled customers started complaining.
It appeared then as if Apple was shedding curiosity in its skilled customers. It appeared as if Apple would possibly even have misplaced its famed capacity to provide modern new Macs.
The troublesome second album
It is laborious to high successful, even in expertise the place gadgets are growing quick. With the cheesegrater Mac Professional then a number of years previous, Apple might — and wanted to — revamp it completely to take good thing about newer expertise.
That is precisely what Apple did, and initially, it appeared that this revamped new Mac Professional was exceptional. It did not keep that manner, however at WWDC 2013, when Apple gave a sneak peek, all of us applauded Phil Schiller’s line, “Can’t innovate, my ass.”
Nevertheless, in contrast to with the cheesegrater Mac Professional, he could not do that specific kind of reveal that was a staple of Apple launches. He could not simply casually say that the brand new Mac Professional was delivery right now.
As an alternative, Schiller revealed that it could be delivery later that yr — and it did, however simply barely, on December 19, 2013. That was over six months later than the announcement.
This 2013 Mac Professional was the primary in nearly a decade that did not are available in the identical “beautiful enclosure” that had lasted for the reason that Energy Mac G5 in June 2004.
It was a brand new enclosure and it positively nonetheless appeared lovely, plus it was nothing in need of startling to see its diminutive type subsequent to its predecessor. The 2013 Mac Professional was 9.9 inches tall the place the cheesegrater mannequin was simply over double that at 20.1 inches.
The cheesegrater mannequin was additionally 8.1 inches extensive by 18.7 inches deep whereas the brand new mannequin was spherical with a diameter of 6.6 inches. So regardless of the share variations, the impact was that the 2013 Mac Professional appeared like a tiny trash basket as compared.
It was small and it was spectacular — and sadly it was flawed.
Whereas skilled customers had instantly been important of its lack of expandability and modularity, over time it grew to become clear that there was a basic weak point.
That very spectacular new design broke down underneath load due to its “thermal corner.” There was a restrict to how briskly it might run as a result of its air flow was insufficient.
This grew to become obvious however at launch, the primary opinions had been all very optimistic, whilst they did complain concerning the 2013 Mac Professional’s lack of choices for upgrades.
With these efficiency bottlenecks, although, the 2013 Mac Professional was not the actual successor to the 2006 Mac Professional that individuals had needed. Though it actually did look nice.
The 2013 Mac Professional price from $2,999 at launch ($4,045 right now), and in hindsight, it was a failure – however solely in hindsight. If it did not grow to be absolutely the favourite that the 2006 Mac Professional had been, it nonetheless had its followers — no air flow pun supposed — and video modifying suites got here to depend on it.
Apple took its eye off the ball
We’ll by no means actually know the way Apple noticed the Mac Professional within the the rest of the Intel days, nevertheless it was by no means going to grow to be the insane finest vendor that, say, the iPhone is. And really quickly after launch, there have been even indicators that Apple had fairly forgotten the 2013 Mac Professional.
As an illustration, it noticed no replace in any respect in 2014.
It wasn’t truly till 2017 that Apple did something about that cylindrical Mac Professional — after which it was to announce its dying.
Apple would truly proceed to inventory that very same, equivalent Mac Professional up into 2019, nevertheless it was an more and more powerful promote because it had the identical issues it all the time had, and now it wasn’t getting older effectively. Plus Apple had taken the then virtually unheard step of publicly promising {that a} radically improved Mac Professional was coming.
As a stopgap, Apple additionally introduced out the iMac Professional in 2017. For a lot of customers, the iMac Professional went efficiently toe to toe with the 2013 Mac Professional, simply as right now the Mac Studio and Mac Professional are evenly matched.
Apple did not say it could be such a protracted wait from the 2017 information to the 2019 reveal, however the one factor the corporate was clear about was that the brand new Mac Professional wouldn’t come out in 2017.
Solely, such was the eagerness for the brand new machine that numerous articles selected to interpret that as which means it could positively be out in 2018. It actually was a case of wishful disregarding of an unusually plain Apple assertion.
Promised and even simply rumored new Apple gadgets all the time get consideration, however the Mac Professional viewers has all the time been a passionate one. It is doubtlessly a a lot smaller viewers than for every other Mac, nevertheless it’s additionally the viewers the place though price is an element, it is from being the one consideration.
As an alternative, that is an viewers the place the advantages of a very highly effective Mac Professional will repay. Even a excessive buy value will quickly be your best option economically, with the considerably sooner workflows and considerably sooner turning round of computationally-heavy duties {that a} Mac Professional brings.
Whether or not Apple actually forgot this skilled viewers or not, it positively discovered from the 2013 Mac Professional that this viewers isn’t cost-conscious however benefit-hungry.
There are limits to how a lot customers will spend, although, and when it introduced out the 2019 Mac Professional, Apple was pushing it.
Mac Professional 2019
At launch on December 10, 2019, the 2019 Mac Professional began at $5,999 and went manner, manner up. A maxed-out model would price you $53,000 — ($65,000 right now) and that was with no show.
The target market wasn’t fatally involved concerning the value — once more, they weren’t ecstatic about it, however of their use case it was a worthwhile funding. However nearly everybody mocked how Apple would additionally promote you a set of Mac Professional wheels for $699.
Nonetheless, it appeared on the time that was actually the right Mac Professional. Maybe it might even have taken over the mantle of the beloved favourite like the unique Mac Professional from 2006, nevertheless it did not.
For six months and 12 days later in June 2020, Apple introduced the transition to Apple Silicon. As soon as once more, the promise was of vastly improved efficiency, even when no particulars had been revealed.
Then we began to get particulars they usually had been just about all that Apple claimed. It wasn’t fairly the identical as when the 2017 iMac Professional might typically beat the then-current Mac Professional, however the first Apple Silicon was just a bit Mac mini and it was a startling leap ahead.
Apple Silicon was clearly working, it was radically bettering efficiency, and it was doing it at a far decrease price than a 2019 Intel Mac Professional.
It was sufficient that you’d have needed to have a really, superb use case — or have another person paying the cash — to make shopping for the 2019 Mac Professional the precise alternative.
You may’t postpone your work whereas ready for Apple, so there have been nonetheless folks for whom it was a smart if costly purchase. However gross sales should certainly have dropped, particularly when it was sure the Mac Professional could be the top of Apple Silicon, and when it was possible it was coming quickly.
Finishing the transition to Apple Silicon
It appears churlish to level this out when Apple has efficiently pulled off an astounding advanced transition from Intel to Apple Silicon, nevertheless it did not make its personal deadline. Tim Prepare dinner mentioned it could take two years, and each Mac did make that transition — besides the Mac Professional.
As an alternative, it took three years for the announcement of a brand new Mac Professional.
And this was a unique Mac Professional in additional methods than its processor. The place the unique 2006 mannequin took a while to grow to be a traditional, it is deeply unlikely that the 2023 version will.
It is a fantastic Mac, it’s formally the top quality, however within the three years it took to transition to Apple Silicon, each different Mac acquired there first — and that features a brand-new one. The Mac Studio got here out in 2022 as the primary solely new Mac in years, after which it was up to date in 2023, proper alongside the launch of the Mac Professional.
The Mac Studio is like an extruded Mac mini in that it has the identical base and only a taller chassis. Nobody expects the Mac Studio to be very expandable, so the truth that it comes with many ports — and that they’re well-positioned to be simply accessible — is a bonus.
Whereas the Apple Silicon Mac Professional might boast modularity, might are available in a chassis that permits for growth playing cards, however there are extreme limits on what these playing cards will be.
And the killer truth that may certainly cease the brand new Mac Professional turning into beloved is that it does not outperform the brand new Mac Studio.
Again to the longer term
That unique 2006 Mac Professional was the precise mixture of energy, options, and upgradeability. The 2013 model ditched the upgradeable facet, after which the 2019 model introduced it again.
The Apple Silicon Mac Professional comes someplace within the center for modularity and expandability.
It does additionally are available in at a far lower cost than earlier than, although. The place it was fairly easy to purchase a 2019 Mac Professional configuration that price over $50,000, a maxed-out 2024 Apple Silicon Mac Professional is round $12,350.
So it could possibly be widespread with its supposed viewers because it does characterize rather more efficiency at a vastly lower cost. It is simply that the Mac Studio matches that efficiency and is considerably cheaper.
It is potential, then, that the unique cheesegrater Mac Professional could also be an instance of catching lightning in a bottle.