So Apple, after much deliberation have released their latest stab in the dark at the MacPro. 

I say stab in the dark, because Apple just doesn’t know what to do with their once flagship Mac. 

Although you can’t fault them for trying, they just haven’t a clue what to do. 

Their effort seems to be shoehorning a Mac Studio chip into the existing case, removing the ability to add GPUs, and having fans that aren’t needed – that’s about it. 

It used to be so different. 

The last time I used a MacPro Tower was in 2015. 

The MacPro Tower was the staple of the agency I worked for. 

If you did serious design work, a modular, expandable tower was the obvious choice. 

The Cheesegrater Mac was one of Jony Ive‘s greatest achievements. 

It was produced to dissipate heat – the PowerPC chip was red hot and needed an efficient cooling system to keep it from overheating.  

The whole design was based around 5 cooling zones, with small, noiseless, dedicated and independent fans. 

Apple was so proud of it, they allowed you to take the side off and using a clear plastic cover, view the internals as you used it. 

But in the end the PowerPC was a dead end and Apple switched to Intel. 

But the Cheesegrater remained. 

The internals changed but that form factor prevailed. 

It prevailed because the computer industry ordained that was what a powerful computer looked like. 

It allowed modularity, and especially with the switch to Intel, enabled you to use standard PC parts (if you had the drivers of course). 

But it also allowed comparisons. 

So Apple got into the comparison conversation, instead of talking about why you should choose a Mac, they just allowed themselves to get caught up in macho posturing about how fast their computers were in comparison with Windows based PCs. 

Something they still do to this day. 

As I explained in my previous article this is a pointless dead end conversation, especially now with the switch to Apple Silicon. 

The PC will always be faster because it evolves all the time and their users are used to tinkering and upgrading. 

Apple found that for the most part, Mac users just didn’t do that.  

Sure, there were a few die-hard and niche cases where the users demanded modularity, but for the majority of users all-in-one Macs and laptops were preferred. 

Apple started to change that conversation and began the very long road of speeding up their all-in-one systems – the iMac. 

So in 2015, I gutted my studio of towers and replaced everything with slimline 27” iMacs, save a MacPro tower I used as a very reliable server. 

And all was good. 

The screens were amazing, the hardware was fast. 

But it was the footprint that took me by surprise. 

I’d gotten used to cables – cables everywhere. 

With the iMacs, there were just a couple of cables per workstation to worry about and that fact alone was worth the switch. 

Despite even my own previous protestations, I never upgraded them, I just got on with using them to create things. 

I’ve never looked back and I still work on an Intel 27” 5k iMac today, which I’m looking to replace with the fabled 30”+ M3 iMac. 

So to the present day. 

Apple have had roundtable discussions, rethinks, relaunches and endless dithering about what computer they can make for the high end creative market. 

What I realised is although I thought I was ‘high-end’, I actually wasn’t.

Even though I create complex designs, animation and a bit of video, I didn’t need a tower to do that, an iMac was fine. 

Apple realises this too but the market stubbornly isn’t having it.

There’s a high-end user that thinks they want a tower, and I can see their point of view. 

Apple keeps chipping away at this user, releasing products like the MacStudio, but they only seem to get half of the remaining users each time. 

With that equation, you’ll never get them all. There will always be some that demand that ultimate tower computer. 

But Apple isn’t going to make it. 

Especially now that they’ve moved to Apple Silicon, that modular, choose-your-own GPU, tower type of PC isn’t going to happen. 

So what should Apple do?

Well if they stick to their Apple Silicon approach, and they really want to give that high end what they really want (which is a good looking box with plenty of slots) then Apple would have to make their own GPUs and allow RAM upgrades. 

But those GPUs and RAM are integrally linked to the CPU, so they would have to have socketed systems where you can buy your good looking box, and later on buy a whole new CPU/GPU/SSD/RAM combo to ‘upgrade’ it. 

Which is ridiculous. I know – I’m just making a point. 

In all seriousness though what can Apple do?

Well I think they should just give up. 

Yes, just give it up Apple…

Just let the tower go. 

The MacPro Tower as a concept just doesn’t work for Apple anymore. 

Without a complete chip strategy volt-face, it’s not even possible. 

Apple need to concentrate on what differentiates them from the competition so they don’t get mired in dead end conversations that just don’t make sense for them, and the majority of their users and potential users don’t even care about. 

Apple Silicon should help here, it creates a USP, and separates Apple from the rest of the industry. 

But what really differentiates them is the macOS and its tight integration to the the rest of their ecosystem and hardware.

That old approach from Apple that they need reminding of:

If you want to make great hardware you have to make the software. You have to make the whole widget. 

Yes – that means letting another slice of the high end market fall to Windows, but they lost that market the moment they made the decision to create sealed off, non-upgradable systems based upon Apple Silicon.

We all just need to accept that and let it go.