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While the classic definition of “missing in action” is derived from a military situation, “missing and unable to be confirmed as captured or killed as a result of military action”, Webster’s Dictionary also describes “missing in action ” as meaning “often used figuratively for someone or something noticeably or unexpectedly missing, absent, or inactive.”
And that, the “notably or unexpectedly missing, absent” part brings us to Tim Cook.
In June 2020, Apple announced its transition to Apple Silicon processors, stating that “the first system will ship by the end of the year, beginning a two-year transition”. All Mac models switched to Apple Silicon except for the Mac Pro and the 27 inch iMac. According to Apple’s calendar, the two-year period would have expired last June. But even though we’ve been generous and allowed through the end of the calendar year, the two missing Macs in action should be available by the end of December at the latest.
Also: Mac Studio vs. Mac Pro and Mac Mini: How to Choose
According to information from Bloomberg’s Apple tipster extraordinaire Mark Gurman, no new Macs will be introduced this year. This includes not only our MIA Mac Pro and our 27-inch iMac, but the expected Apple Silicon M2 upgrades to Macbook Pro and the mac mini.
For the record, “mini” is the only postpositive proper adjective that Apple uses without capitalizing the word. Apple capitalizes “Pro”, “Max”, “Ultra” and even “Air”. But the poor “mini” is left to fend for itself without an initial capital letter, probably because it’s small and cute. I tell you, stick with ZDNET. These are the deep thoughts we have at 5am that we feel compelled to share with you.
Either way, don’t count on an Apple Silicon Mac Pro or 27-inch iMac in 2022.
How disturbing is this absence?
To answer that, let’s take our timelines back to mid-2018. In a panel discussion, Jason Perlow, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Boinx Software CEO Oliver Breidenbach, and I looked at the future of Macs for professionals. It was an important topic because the Mac Pro hadn’t had an update for five years and the Mac mini had had an update four years earlier, but it was terrible. And even the line-leading MacBook Pros were shackled with the terrible “butterfly” keyboard and scarcity of ports.
As our discussion showed, we were genuinely concerned that serious professionals wouldn’t be able to find the power they needed to keep doing their jobs from an Apple product line that was clearly teetering toward obsolescence. .
Things got better later in the year. Remember that Apple still only shipped Intel Macs. Apple introduced a much more capable Mac mini after years to ignore it. A year later, Apple upgraded the Mac Pro to a very powerful but incredibly expensive model. And a year after that, in 2020, Apple replaced the butterfly keyboard with what they now called the Magic keyboard (it was Magic, presumably, because it didn’t constantly piss off its users).
Also: Migrating to M1 Macs: How I upgrade my small fleet of older Apple desktops and laptops
So if it was still 2018, like it was in 2018, the lack of a new Mac introduction would have been really bad. Back then, creative professionals and power users who relied on Macs had no room to grow. There’s been a lot of talk about whether it’s time for Mac users to switch to Windows PCs.
Keep in mind that pros look at computers differently than regular users. For professionals, their choice of computer often depends on which applications are running on which platform, and switching can be a considerable effort, especially when a large number of specialized workflows are tied to a given platform. So while someone who just surfs the web or uses Microsoft Office can easily switch from Mac to Windows, someone who’s created petabytes of video in Final Cut Pro (which only works on Mac) has a much more difficult problem.
In 2018, Apple hadn’t articulated its future plans (it was no doubt working on the Apple Silicon transition), which made planning decisions difficult for Mac-using professionals. Apple hadn’t even changed the processor specs for many of its Macs, leading to relatively well-founded speculation that Apple was winding down its interest in Macs.
Also: Apple Silicon, Rosetta, M1, M2, SoC: why these terms matter to every computer buyer
Now, let’s quickly move on to today. Apple’s support of the Mac platform is now nothing short of spectacular. Apple Silicon’s M1 and M2 lines are incredibly capable. Almost everyone who has purchased an M1 or M2 based Mac has seen substantial performance gains over the previous Intel platform. Pro users are no longer existentially concerned about Apple abandoning the Macintosh platform.
So, at the end of 2022, is it hard to live without a Mac Pro M1 or M2, and a 27-inch iMac based on the same technology? Let’s look at each in turn.
New Mac Pro
What defines a Mac Pro? Basically, it’s supposed to be the Mac that delivers all the power the most power-hungry professional Mac user needs. It’s meant to be everything the Mac experience offers, without compromise.
Also: Presentation of my design for an Apple Silicon based Mac Pro
While the old 2013 “trash” Mac Pro fell far short of that promise, the current 2019 Intel Mac Pro still offers as much headroom at the top of the Mac lineup as most people probably need.
Yes, fully equipped, it’s incredibly expensive. But, fully equipped, it supports 1.5 terabytes of RAM. Cascade Lake Xeon-W processors with 8 to 28 cores are obsolete, as the generations of Comet Lake, Rocket Lake and Ice Lake processors have been launched since Cascade Lake. But Cascade Lake is still no exception. Neither are the graphics options. While the base AMD Radeon Pro W5500X isn’t half bad, the moment you step up to the dual Radeon Pro W6800X Duo GPUs you get a serious boost.
So, Mac users who are in dire need of performance can always turn to the 2019 Mac Pro and meet their needs. Even better, however, is the second option: MacStudio.
The Mac Studio is Apple’s extremely powerful new desktop Mac. It can be equipped with Apple’s incredibly powerful M1 Ultra chip with a 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU and 32-core Neural Engine and up to 128MB of RAM. Some early benchmarks even show the much cheaper Mac Studio to be 20% faster on multi-core performance and 56% faster on single-core performance than the Mac Pro.
The fact is, business users who need Mac power are no longer left hanging, wondering if staying on the Mac platform is business suicide. Instead, there are two very good options that can take these high-end users wherever they need to go.
That means it’s okay to expect Apple to redesign a new, uncompromising Apple Silicon-based Mac Pro.
Whether it’s time to allow an insane number of CPU and GPU cores, as some of the current rumors imply, or my design for a super modular, scalable blade system, there’s plenty of power available right now to give Apple time to get the new Mac Pro just right.
New 27-inch iMac
Again, we should ask ourselves: what defines this pattern? What is the essential DNA of a 27-inch iMac?
The simple answer, of course, is the display. The 27-inch iMac has always had an exceptional display in Apple’s signature all-in-one computer. But the 27-inch iMac has supported configuration options that put it at or near the top of the power curve (not counting the Mac Pro, of course).
The iMac Pro, launched in 2017, pushed that power curve even further, producing an all-in-one professional workstation that played in Mac Pro territory.
When it was released, a 27-inch screen was a nice piece of kit, even a luxury. But with the availability of widescreen monitors like the 34-inch 5K 5120 x 2160 LG 34BK95U-W and even ultrawidescreen monitors like the 49-inch, 5120 x 1440 DQHD Samsung S95UAa 27-inch screen on an iMac seems unnecessarily restrictive.
Personally, I rock the 38 inch LG 38UC99-W Monitor I bought with my deceived Mac mini in 2018, and it’s a godsend for video editing. I say. You can add additional displays to iMacs. I hooked three additional monitors to my older 2013 27-inch iMac. While I can’t hook a 38-inch screen to this older iMac, current iMac models certainly support widescreen external displays.
So, that begs the question: Should Apple even release a 27-inch iMac? If it’s going to release a high-end all-in-one in 2023, shouldn’t it come with a bigger screen so users don’t have to dangle widescreen monitors to compensate for flaws in 27-inch iMac display?
There has been almost no circulation of rumors of a 27-inch Apple Silicon iMac, aside from occasional speculation that Apple will simply drop the model in favor of the combination of the 27″ Studio Display (there is still this limit of 27 inches!) or 32 inches Pro XDR display with a Mac Studio. The Mac Studio doesn’t take up much desk space and, as we discussed above, it’s quite powerful.
When it comes to today’s business user needs, combining a Mac Studio with one of Apple’s displays or one of the many widescreen displays on the market is a perfectly functional (and I’d say better) solution than the iMac.
If on. Apple may release an iMac with a larger screen than the 24in it currently ships, but until it does, there are other excellent alternatives that will get the job done.
Final Thoughts
So this is it. Yes, some Mac models are missing based on Tim Cook’s promise of a two-year transition.
But since Apple has produced such a strong lineup of Apple Silicon products currently on the market, while continuing to ship a legacy Mac Pro that has what it takes, business users won’t be left behind waiting for these models.
Heck, even the MacBook Pro models currently on the market, especially the 16-inch M1 Max based unitcan produce the level of power that can satisfy even the most demanding professional level users.
What do you think? Are you expecting a larger Mac Pro or iMac? Let us know in the comments below.
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