Apple leak reveals disappointing Mac Pro cancellation | Jobs Vox

In the same weekend that Apple will answer the wishes of many MacBook Air fans, there are also reports that the potential of the Mac Pro will be reduced, with the cancellation of one of the most powerful variants.

While the MacBook Air’s larger screen will be welcomed by many at the lower end of Apple’s macOS laptop portfolio, the solutions that made good news for geekerai aren’t so rosy at the top end of the portfolio. Mark Gurman reports:

“The company has likely dropped the top-end configuration, which could disappoint Apple’s most demanding users—photographers, editors, and programmers who appreciate this kind of computing power. The company made the decision due to the complexity and cost of manufacturing the processor. It’s essentially four M2 Max chips that are fused together.”

Apple’s previous focus was using performance as a key differentiator across the portfolio. With the weakest Intel chips powering the cheapest MacBook Air laptops topping the ridiculous power found in the Mac Pro was a simple approach that was almost forced onto macOS machines by the demands of the x86 platform.

In this context, the Mac Pro, at the top of the portfolio, was clearly sold on the power available, and rightly so… just as the MacBook Air was sold on the balance of power with portability.

Now the Mac platform finds itself completely in a new world, where the advantages of Apple Silicon have changed the nature of the portfolio. The MacBook Air is still the king of MacOS portability, but now it has power. There are far fewer compromises in ARM-based chipsets than Intel-based ones.

And that puts the Mac Pro in an awkward spot. It’s being marketed as the most powerful, most capable and most flexible Mac you can buy. I have no doubt that in raw terms, the Mac Pro will be “the best Mac Apple can make,” but that statement is open to interpretation.

We already knew the Mac Pro was overdue. Now we know that Apple has reduced the final performance that many have been waiting for.

Now read more about Apple’s plans for a larger MacBook Air…