Apple’s decision to discontinue the Mac Pro in March reportedly ended a long internal debate over the future of its most powerful desktop lineup.
The move comes as the company has removed the Mac Pro from its website to drive professional users toward the Mac Studio, while confirming there are no plans to introduce new Mac Pro hardware.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman writes in his 'Power On' newsletter, however, that the end of the Mac Pro line 'wasn't always the plan.' Apple had considered several hardware and chip options before deciding to give up on it.
The biggest aspect of Apple's fallen Mac Pro vision was said to be the creation of higher-end Apple Silicon CPUs. Apple developed both M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips before dropping them, Gurman said.
The chips were supposed to be above the ‘Ultra’ tier and would be designed to make the Mac Pro outperform the Mac Studio. However, the projects were said to be aborted because of their high development costs and low demand for the more costly workstation-type machines.
Apple also reportedly worked on two Mac Pro models that were never released. These machines were internally codenamed J170 and J190.
The J170 model was the more surprising project as it was said to be a new Mac Pro powered by Intel chips, despite Apple's strong push toward its own Apple Silicon chips.
According to the report, this version, which was targeted for particular professional applications, remained based on the x86 architecture and the standard PCIe workflow.
The second one, J190, was anticipated to be available at the same time as the M3 Ultra Mac Studio in early 2025 and feature an M3 Ultra chip. The debut never happened, and Apple discontinued the Mac Pro line altogether.
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Mac Pro’s decline was not only due to performance. It was originally popular for its expandability, such as high-end graphics cards, audio cards and other PCIe equipment. Apple Silicon, however, adopts a system-on-chip design with unified memory that facilitates upgrades to the system by using standard modules.
In the Mac Pro, Apple seems to have realized that it was no longer important to keep that machine around to meet the needs of enough users. Gurman said he doesn't think that the Mac Pro is likely to return, ‘if ever.’