Apple’s new Mac Pro – the company’s first desktop upgrade in six years – will cost more than $57,000 (Dh209,372.4), enough to buy the base model of a Mercedes C200, a BMW X5 or a Nissan Patrol.
Announced in June at Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose, the latest Mac Pro went on sale on Apple’s website on Tuesday. The base price starts at $5,999 but increases with add-ons.
Adding 1.5TB of memory for instance, with 32 GB graphics cards, a 28-core 2.5 GHz Intel processor and 4TB of storage will take up the cost to $50,200. One of the most expensive products from Apple to date, the Mac Pro comes with a Magic Mouse 2, Magic Keyboard, and a charging cable but without a monitor.
Users need to shell out an extra $7,000, if they want to buy Apple’s new monitor designed specifically for the Mac Pro - the Pro Display XDR. That brings the total cost to a whopping $57,200.
Apple justifies the high price saying the machine is geared for “hard-core professionals ... Mac Pro is designed for pros who need the ultimate in CPU performance,” the company said in a statement. “From production rendering to playing hundreds of virtual instruments to simulating an iOS app on multiple devices at once, it’s exceedingly capable”.
In the new Mac Pro, which is built in Texas, Apple abandoned an earlier cylindrical design for a tower shape that comes with a handle on the top and plenty of holes to keep the device cool. It even has optional $400 wheels for easily moving the machine around an office
Industry analysts say the higher price will not deter people looking for fast computers and the new Mac Pro can add to Apple's revenue which was impacted by a dip in iPhone sales over the past few months.
"Well, it (Mac Pro) might cost $50,000 but starts at a much more affordable price of less than $6,000… it is purely targeted towards the professional users and makes sense in that market," Abbas Ali, managing editor of TechRadar Middle East, told The National.
The base model of Mac Pro will cost Dh22,999, almost Dh10,000 more than its predecessor.
"It's a shame that Apple is bundling the new machine with just 256GB of storage. It should have started with at least 1TB storage,” Mr Ali said.
Starting with 256GB, the Mac Pro is configurable to a 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage to deliver the fastest possible performance.
Sales of Macs increased almost 2.1 per cent yearly in the fiscal year end of September 28, whereas iPhones sales dropped by more than 13 per cent. The company generated almost $25.7bn in revenues from the sale of Macs during the period.
Owing to its huge memory, the Mac Pro can serve as a multi-core workstation that usually requires unending storage capacity and superfast processors, said Apple.
Featuring six channels of superfast error-correcting code (ECC) memory and 12 physical memory slots, Mac Pro allows users to pile up to 1.5TB of memory. It would be boon for professionals working on large projects, analysing huge data sets or running multiple pro applications.
ECC data storage adds an extra layer of security as it can detect and correct most of the internal data corruption. It is useful where data corruption cannot be afforded under any situations - such as for scientific or financial computing.
The new Mac Pro has also taken security to new heights as it is the most secure machine Apple has ever built, the Cupertino-based company claimed.
There is a secure enclave co-processor that provides the option of encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities. So users can worry less about protecting their work and intellectual property.
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A new one for the collection? Meet Dubai's Apple product collector
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Jimmy Grewal sits in front of the incredibly rare Apple I, the first personal computer sold by Apple in 1976. Cody Combs / The National -
Apple's first attempt at a laptop, the Macintosh Portable, from 1989. It weighed 7 kilograms, but its battery lasted from 6 to 12 hours. Cody Combs / The National -
Left to right: Apple I, Apple II, Apple Lisa, Macintosh 512k. Cody Combs / The National -
A closeup of one of the first Macintosh models. Cody Combs / The National -
This Apple II (serial #92) has no vents on the casing, making it very rare, unlike the Apple II on the left. Grewal says only approximately a dozen of these ventless Apple IIs remain in existence. Cody Combs / The National -
This Apple II was purchased by the American School of Dubai in 1978. Cody Combs / The National -
This sticker, complete with typo, shows just how old this Apple II is. Cody Combs / The National -
The original 128k Macintosh sits on the top left of this portion of Grewal's Apple Collection. Also pictured just below is the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. Cody Combs / The National -
Grewal's collection is still growing, prompting him to move computers to different locatins to make room. Cody Combs / The National -
Some of Apple's first attempts at "tower" Macintosh computers, like the Macintohs Quadra, are also in Grewal's collection. Cody Combs / The National -
No detail was too small for Grewal in presenting his the Apple products. These cabinets were colour matched to correspond with the original rainbow Apple logo. Cody Combs / The National -
Grewal's collection of Apple laptops, ranging from the Apple Duo to the Apple PowerBooks continues to grow. Cody Combs / The National -
This unusually large Apple product is a rare Apple Network Server. These ran a Unix-based operating system. Cody Combs / The National -
The first Apple LaserWriter, manufactured in 1985, is one of several Apple printers in Grewal's collection. Cody Combs / The National -
This Apple Scribe printer utilized special thermal paper. The quality was poor and the printing was slow, but the thermal paper was an innovative idea at the time. Cody Combs / The National -
Also in Grewal's collection is an Apple Interactive Television Box from 1994. It was never released. Cody Combs / The National -
It's not technically an Apple product, but this NeXT Cube was the computer created by Steve Jobs' company, "Next", after he was fired from Apple in 1985. It's shaped almost perfectly like a cube, was very powerful, but sold poorly. Cody Combs / The National -
In Grewal's other office, Apple product cases are used to prop up a coffee table, and various Apple artefacts and photos are displayed on the wall. Cody Combs / The National -
This is a rarely used early rendition of the Apple logo. It's signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and the often forgotten co-founder Ron Wayne. Cody Combs / The National -
Inside this original Macintosh 128k, you can see the molded signatures from the original Macintosh team, including the signature of Steve Jobs. Cody Combs / The National -
An Apple Dot Matrix Printer, first introduced in 1982. Cody Combs / The National -
This rare Apple I was the first product shipped by Apple in 1976. This particular Apple I in Grewal's Dubai collection still works. Cody Combs / The National -
This is an original Apple Lisa in Grewal's Dubai collection. It was the first Apple computer to have a graphical user interface. Grewal says approximately 20 of the original Lisa computers remain in the world. Cody Combs / The National
