With Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference for 2019 rapidly approaching, speculation is building on what Tim Cook and his team will reveal to the hungry geekerati.
While tweaked apps, updates to iOS and macOS, and new cross-platform tools are to be expected, there may be some crumbs for developers looking for a new deskbound computer. Is the Mac Pro ready for an update? Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg:
While the developer conference is software-focused, the company often sprinkles new hardware announcements in at the event. For this year, Apple has been considering debuting a revamped Mac Pro desktop computer. It’s also readying a new external monitor, codenamed J290, with high-dynamic-range support (so colors look much better)
This time last year Apple briefed a select number of journalists that it was working on a completely rethought Mac Pro, but that it would not in that calendar year. Well, it’s been nearly thirteen months since that briefing, and a launch at WWDC (but not necessarily a retail release) would be welcomed by many of the geekerati, even if the Mac Pro is a machine with a limited audience.
It would also draw attention to the long gap between a 2019 Mac Pro and the previous release in December 2013 - which also leads to questions regarding the updates for the popular MacBook and MacBook Pro machines.
Tim Cook has already noted the delays in last week’s quarterly earnings call:
Next I’d like to talk about the Mac. Revenue was 5.5 billion compared to 5.8 billion a year ago, with the decline driven primarily by processor constraints on certain popular models.
…but the question of new hardware remains. With the iPhone expected to offer little more than incremental improvements, a new MacPro at the top end will give Apple an air of progress, but the workhorse devices are falling behind the strong challenge from a raft of radical designs running Windows 10.
Can Tim Cook change this narrative at WWDC, or will the new Mac Pro simply amplify the void in the MacBook portfolio?
Now read more about the competition, and Microsoft’s update to the Surface Book 2…
