These two powerful Mac model updates are still MIA. Should you care?

While the classic definition of “missing in action” is derived from a military situation, “missing and cannot be confirmed as captured or killed following military action,” Webster’s dictionary also describes “missing in action” as “often used figuratively for someone or something is particularly or unexpectedly missing, absent or inactive.”

And that, the “noticeably or unexpectedly absent, absent” part brings us to Tim Cook.

In June 2020, Apple announced the transition to Apple Silicon processors, saying that “the first system will ship by the end of the year and begin a two-year transition.” Every Mac model has switched to Apple Silicon except for Mac Pro and the 27 inch iMac. If you believe Apple’s schedule, the two-year period would have expired last June. But even if we were generous and allowed until the end of the calendar year, the two Macs missing in action should be available by the end of this December at the latest.

Also: Mac Studio vs. Mac Pro and Mac Mini: How to choose

Based on reports from Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s Apple forecaster extraordinaire, there won’t be any new Macs this year. This includes not only our MIA Mac Pro and 27-inch iMac, but also Apple Silicon’s anticipated M2 upgrades MacBook Pros and the Mac mini.

For the record, “mini” is the only postpositive proper adjective Apple uses without capitalizing the word. Apple capitalizes “Pro”, “Max”, “Ultra” and even “Air”. But poor “mini” is left alone without an initial, probably because it’s small and cute. I’m telling you, stay with ZDNET. These are the deep thoughts we have at 5am that we want to share with you.

In any case, don’t expect an Apple Silicon Mac Pro or 27-inch iMac in 2022.

How distressing is this absence?

To answer that, let’s roll our calendars back to mid-2018. In a panel discussion, Jason Perlow, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Oliver Breidenbach, CEO of Boinx Software, and I looked at the future of Macs for professionals at the time. This was a major issue since the Mac Pro hadn’t had an update in five years and the Mac mini had an upgrade four years earlier, but it was awful. And even the leading MacBook Pros were riveted with the dreadful “butterfly” keyboard and lack of ports.

As our discussion showed, we were genuinely concerned that serious professionals would not be able to find the performance they needed to get the job done in an Apple product line that was clearly becoming obsolete.

Things got better later in the year. Keep in mind that Apple still only shipped Intel Macs. Apple then introduced a much more powerful Mac mini Years to ignore it. A year later, Apple upgraded the Mac Pro to a very powerful but incredibly expensive model. And a year later, in 2020, Apple replaced the butterfly keyboard with what they now called the Magic keyboard (it was presumably Magic because it didn’t constantly annoy its users).

Also: Migrating to M1 Macs: How I Upgrade My Small Fleet of Older Apple Desktops and Laptops

So if this were still 2018, like the situation in 2018, the lack of a new Mac launch would have been serious indeed. Back then, creative professionals and power users who relied on Macs had no room to grow. There has been much debate as to whether it is time for Mac users to make the switch to Windows PCs.

Keep in mind that professionals view computers differently than ordinary users. For professionals, their choice of computer often depends on which applications run on which platform, and switching can be a huge hassle, especially when many specialized workflows are tied to a particular platform. While someone who just surfs the web or uses Microsoft Office could easily switch from Mac to Windows, someone who’s created petabytes of video in Final Cut Pro (which only runs on Macs) has a much more difficult problem.

In 2018, Apple still hadn’t articulated its future plans (it was no doubt working on the Apple Silicon transition), making planning decisions difficult for Mac-using professionals. Apple hadn’t even adjusted processor specs for many of its Macs, leading to relatively well-founded speculation that Apple was phasing out its interest in Macs.

Also: Apple Silicon, Rosetta, M1, M2, SoC: Why these terms are important for every computer buyer

Now let’s fast forward to today. Apple’s support for the Mac platform is nothing short of spectacular right now. Apple Silicon’s M1 and M2 lines are incredible performers. Almost everyone who has bought an M1 or M2-based Mac has noticed significant performance leaps over the previous Intel-based platform. Pro users are no longer existentially concerned that Apple is abandoning the Macintosh platform.

So how difficult is it to live in late 2022 without an M1 or M2 Mac Pro and a 27-inch iMac based on the same technology? Let’s look at them in turn.

New MacPro

What defines a Mac Pro? Basically, it’s supposed to be the Mac that delivers all the performance that the most power-hungry professional Mac user needs. It aims to offer everything the Mac experience offers, without compromise.

Also: I’m presenting my design for an Apple Silicon-based Mac Pro

While the old “garbage can” Mac Pro of 2013 far outpaced that promise, the current Intel Mac Pro of 2019 still offers as much headroom at the top of the Mac lineup as most people probably need.

Yes, fully equipped it is insanely expensive. But, fully equipped, it supports 1.5 terabytes of RAM. The 8- to 28-core Cascade Lake Xeon-W processors are obsolete as the Comet Lake, Rocket Lake and Ice Lake processor generations have been released since Cascade Lake. But Cascade Lake is still no slouch. Neither do the graphics options. While the base AMD Radeon Pro W5500X isn’t half bad, upgrading to dual Radeon Pro W6800X Duo GPUs gives you plenty of momentum.

So, Mac users who are in dire need of performance can still turn to the 2019 Mac Pro and meet their needs. But the second option is even better: the Mac studio.

The Mac Studio is Apple’s extremely powerful new desktop Mac. It can be equipped with Apple’s amazingly powerful M1 Ultra chip with 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU and 32-core Neural Engine and up to 128MB RAM. Some early benchmarks even show that the much cheaper Mac Studio is 20% faster in multi-core performance and 56% faster in single-core performance than the Mac Pro.

The fact is, professional users who need Mac performance are no longer stuck wondering if staying on the Mac platform is career suicide. Instead, there are two very good options that these top-end users can take anywhere.

That said, it’s okay to wait for Apple to redesign a new no-compromise Mac Pro based on Apple Silicon.

Whether it’s time to allow for insane numbers of CPU and GPU cores, as some of the current rumors suggest, or my blueprint for a super-modular and scalable blade system, there’s enough power available now to give Apple the time give to get the new Mac Pro just right.

New 27 inch iMac

Once again we should ask: what makes this model special? What is the essential DNA of a 27-inch iMac?

The simple answer is of course the display. The 27-inch iMac has always had an exceptional display in Apple’s signature all-in-one computer. But the 27-inch iMac has supported configuration options that place it at or near the top of the performance curve (not counting the Mac Pro, of course).

The iMac Pro, released in 2017, pushed that performance curve even further, producing a professional all-in-one workstation that played in Mac Pro territory.

When it first came out, a 27-inch display was a nice piece of equipment, even something of a luxury. But with the availability of widescreen monitors like the 34-inch 5K 5120 x 2160 LG 34BK95U-W and even ultra-wide monitors like the 49-inch 5120 x 1440 DQHD monitor Samsung S95UAa 27-inch monitor on an iMac seems unnecessarily restrictive.

Personally, I rock the 38-inch LG 38UC99-W Monitor I bought it in 2018 with my tricked out Mac mini, and it’s a godsend for video editing. I know. You can add additional displays to iMacs. I added three additional monitors to my old 2013 27-inch iMac. While I couldn’t attach a 38-inch display to these old iMacs, current iMac models certainly support external widescreen displays.

So that begs the question: should Apple even release a 27-inch iMac? If it’s going to come out with a high-end all-in-one in 2023, shouldn’t it come with a larger display so users aren’t forced to hang up widescreen monitors to make up for the display shortcomings of the 27-inch iMac?

There has been almost no rumor mill about an Apple Silicon 27-inch iMac, save for the occasional speculation that Apple will simply discontinue the model in favor of a combo 27 inch studio display (there’s that 27 inch limit again!) or 32 inches Pro XDR display with a Mac Studio. The Mac Studio doesn’t take up much desktop space and, as mentioned above, is quite powerful.

As for the current needs of professional users, pairing a Mac Studio with one of Apple’s displays or one of the many widescreen displays on the market is a perfectly working (and I’d say better) solution than the iMac.

Sure. Apple may release an iMac with a larger screen than the 24-inch currently shipping, but until then there are other great replacements that will get the job done.

Final Thoughts

Here you go. Yes, it’s missing some Mac models in action based on Tim Cook’s promise of a two-year transition.

But since Apple has produced such a solid range of Apple Silicon products currently on the market and continues to ship an old Mac Pro that has what it takes, Power Pro users won’t be let down when they’re up these models are waiting.

Heck, even the MacBook Pro models currently on the market, especially those 16 inch device based on M1 Maxcan generate the level of performance that can satisfy even the most demanding professional users.

What do you think? Looking for a Mac Pro or a larger iMac? Let us know in the comments below.

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