The Apple Silicon era started with the unveiling of the M1 in 2020, and while the company continued to introduce redesigns of its current Macs, there were always speculations concerning the arrival of the iMac Pro. Given that the workstation has yet to receive a refresh seven years after the Intel-based one launched, it is difficult to imagine that we will witness an unveiling at any time.
Given the low price points that Apple has reached with its newest Macs, the iMac Pro with a custom chipset would likely have been ignored, given that it would be ridiculously expensive
Deviating from its previous Mac Pro releases, the iMac Pro unveiling offered a new experience that included that crisp 27-inch 5K Retina Display, along with a unibody aluminum chassis that screamed ‘premium.’ Unlike the other iMac models at the time, the iMac Pro was not powered by desktop-class Intel processors but workstation-class Xeon ones in the 8-core, 10-core, 14-core, and 18-core configurations. Additionally, buyers with deep pockets could configure their machines with AMD Vega graphics, ECC RAM, and more, all for a grand total of $4,999.
Assuming an Apple Silicon iMac Pro launch happens, with the workstation possibly flaunting an M4 Ultra, would it make sense at the same $4,999? Most certainly not, because it is not just about owning the best, but at what price you can get these products. Apple’s name can no longer be synonymous with a company that offers hardware at inflated prices, with a prime example being the M4 Mac mini. At $579 on Amazon, this compact but exceptionally powerful computer sports 16GB of unified and 256GB at a price that nearly everyone can entertain.
Here is the best part; the 512GB storage model is not all that expensive either at $744. When comparing the PC market, there is nothing of the sort that can compete with the M4 Mac mini, and its price will ensure that this product sells in droves. Apple applied the same pricing tactic to the M4 MacBook Pro, with its 16GB unified RAM and 512GB storage available for $1,449 on Amazon. If the 7-year-old iMac Pro would compete with the M4, it would get absolutely hammered in a variety of tests.
For the sake of argument, if an iMac Pro were to be updated to sport an M4 Ultra, there are too many options to make this a viable launch. Also, bear in mind that with the M4 Pro and M4 Max already available to be configured with Apple’s latest MacBook Pro models, that just leaves the M4 Ultra. So far, we have not heard of the company introducing any iMac Pro that will feature its workstation-class chipset, meaning that the SoC is likely reserved for Mac Studio and Mac Pro refreshes, which we should expect in the middle of 2025.
However, let us not discount the iMac Pro immediately, because Apple is said to be developing a 32-inch ‘All in One’ computer that features similar internals. While the old report mentions that the launch might not happen before 2025, we could see the product getting delayed further until it makes sense for Apple from a profitability point of view.