The new, modular Mac Pro is officially official. The design is something that many people are talking about (along with the price of that standalone 6K monitor), and for good reason. That some are calling an expensive-looking cheese grater is certainly eye-catching, and apparently it took Apple a lot longer than they expected to approve of the looks.
Axios has a brief rundown of what Apple executives spoke about with a gaggle of reporters at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company unveiled the new Mac Pro. Apple spoke about the Mac Pro and its new design years ago, at a previous WWDC, and how the company planned to scrap the design and go in a different direction. Turns out that shift wasn’t as easy as the company thought it would be:
1. That new Mac Pro was already a product with goals and a timeline when we met two years ago, though its design changed some and it took somewhat longer than Apple was anticipating.
But what about that cheese grater look? It’s certainly a point of contention for a lot of people (as are those bars and feet), with some folks fond of the design and others not so much (but what’s new there, right?). But this is Apple we’re talking about, so even a design like this is made with love on the company’s part:
2. Those cut-outs on the new computer’s front — which some think are super cool and others think make it look like a cheese grater — are made by machining out spheres from the aluminum chassis of the Mac Pro.
- They are functional, allowing far more air flow than would typically be possible from a front-facing grate.
- And that design was kicking around in Apple’s design labs for some time, before even the new Mac Pro was on the roadmap.
The new 32-inch 6K monitor is an expensive beast, and the stand is a separate $1,000 purchase on its own, but this is one area that Apple wanted to shine. The new monitor has been “front and center” for the company, and it’s meant to be a beacon of the powerhouse that is the Mac Pro.
3. Redesigning its display was front and center to Apple, which put a lot of time and energy into this.
- The display is designed to rival so-called reference monitors that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
- Apple set up a room where we could see a number of high-end displays side by side. (Apple’s looked quite nice, but I’m not qualified to judge monitors at these levels.)
There shouldn’t really be any doubt that the new Mac Pro is meant to be a major focal point for Apple, and that it went all-out in trying to launch a product that its intended customer base will actually want to use. That display alone is ridiculous (not including the price tag), and for anyone that actually wants to fork over the money to use the new Mac Pro (and that 6K display), it should be plenty of computer for whatever task they want to throw at it.
Basically, the takeaway here is “better late than never”, right?