When Will a new iMac and Mac Pro Arrive?
If a new iMac is coming, it ought to be announced by mid-April, which would still make it one of the longest “droughts” for an iMac update in a long time. Otherwise, think June or August. The bad news is the rumor of using AMD graphics chips, which 80% of pros do NOT want.
Tim Cook’s assurances of “great new desktops” don’t assure any pro users I know of, but MPG thinks there ought to at least be a new iMac soon, and, hoping against years of disappointment, a new Mac Pro, but perhaps one to be put off for up to another six months. But... never rule out good luck.
And maybe Apple would even diverge from its anti-functional approach with the MacMini towards a design that works more like an Intel NUC, which would be far more elegant than the current marginalized design that serves mainly to kill interest in the MacMini.
With desktop CPU performance at a standstill and software quality often a bottleneck , the areas for progress on performance come down to hoping for improving the support areas around the CPU:
- Thunderbolt / USB-C support.
- 8K display support (iMac 8K, special support on Mac Pro).
- Optional 2nd internal SSD.
- Two or three 16X PCIe slots (Mac Pro), although users might get by with Thunderbolt 3 on multiple busses.
- 8 memory slots instead of 4 (Mac Pro)
- 2 internal hard drives (Mac Pro).
- Up to 18 CPU cores (Mac Pro).
- Mild processor speed bump.
In other words, features that make actual computing work go a lot faster and/or be more productive and/or make for a lower cost of entry while affording future capability.
MPG does not expect that Tim Cook’s idea of what constitutes a “great desktop” has much to do with the list above, all past indications suggestions that “great” means thinner with fewer ports and less functionality. But at least Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C would be a nice bump forward.
* Such as Apple Mail being incompetently implemented and rife with bugs.
See also:
- Desired Features for a New Mac Pro
- Will the next Apple Mac Pro (if any) be the Final Straw that Puts the Nail in the 'Pro' Coffin?
- Desktop CPU Performance at a Standstill?
- Computers not Faster in a Meaningful Way, GPU is Half-Baked Tech, Too Many Software Developers Suck
- Intel “Baby Canyon” NUCs with Kaby Lake and Thunderbolt 3 and Lots More