Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Apple has officially discontinued the Mac Pro tower computer after 18 years, with Macworld confirming its removal from Apple.com.
- The company views the Mac Studio as the superior replacement for professional workstation performance and high-end computing tasks.
- The final Mac Pro received its last update in 2023 with an M2 Ultra chip, though refurbished units remain available through Apple’s store.
While Apple is celebrating its upcoming 50th anniversary and looks forward to another 50 years, there’s one major product that has come to an end. The Mac Pro, as confirmed by Apple with Macworld, has been discontinued by the company. The Mac Pro section of Apple.com has been removed from the website, though Mac Pros are still available through Apple’s Certified Refurbished store.
It’s a quiet end for a product that was last updated in 2023 with an M2 Ultra chip. But it wasn’t a surprise; Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported last November that Apple had “largely written off” the Mac Pro, believing that the Mac Studio is a better product. Why it took so long to finally pull the plug isn’t clear, but Apple hadn’t done any updates to the hardware since the M2 Ultra upgrade nearly three years ago.
Apple has been rumored to have an update to the Mac Studio in the works, with an announcement likely between now and WWDC26. Apple positions the Mac Studio as the machine for production environments that demand workstation performance, and seemingly feels confident that the Mac Studio can fill the Mac Pro’s shoes.
The discontinuation of the Mac Pro leaves Apple without a modular tower computer, but it’s been moving away from those types of machines for a while. In response to those who think an expandable tower is a gaping hole in the Mac lineup, Apple often counters with confidence that its silicon can make up for the need for expansion cards, and Thunderbolt can handle storage needs just as well.
Apple introduced the Mac Pro in 2006, the same time Apple completed its transition from Motorola chips to Intel. It had two 64-bit, Intel Xeon 5100 (Woodcrest) processors, four hard drive bays, eight RAM slots, and started at $2,499.
