The iMac Pro had crossed its seventh-year anniversary in December last year, making it a monumental gap for any refresh. Of course, with the Apple Silicon transition officially commenced in 2020, many consumers would have hoped that the company’s all-screen workstation would be given the same treatment. Unfortunately, the company has other plans, with a new report stating that instead of working on an update, Apple has plans to introduce a bigger iMac, which would pretty much serve the same purpose, but it will carry a much smaller price.
A bigger iMac would not just sport more powerful internals than the seven-year-old iMac Pro but undoubtedly carry a smaller price
Even though Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has provided some vague information surrounding the larger iMac, it pretty much sums up the future of the iMac Pro. In his ‘Power On’ newsletter, Gurman states that ‘Apple will probably end up offering an iMac with a larger screen.’ This claim does not explicitly mention that an iMac Pro update is not being developed, but considering that the Intel-powered workstation featured a 27-inch display and a bigger iMac is being worked on, Apple could simply introduce it to the masses as the ‘new Pro’ replacement.
While some would love to see an iMac Pro, it needs to make economic sense for Apple. The starting price of the now-discontinued machine retailed for $4,999, whereas the M4 version of the iMac with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU paired with 16GB of unified RAM and a 512GB SSD can be yours for $1,549.99 thanks to a $150 discount on Amazon. In terms of performance comparison, the M4 iMac would absolutely hammer the iMac Pro while costing less, making it the obvious choice.
Even if Apple proceeds to provide the masses with a modern-day iMac Pro with an M-series silicon, at most, it would need an M4 Max or M4 Ultra to be placed in a higher-performance bracket and bring some differentiation from the rest of the lineup. Unfortunately, the M4 Max is already being utilized by the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, and it will likely be found inside the more compact Mac Studio update, with an option to configure the machine with an M4 Ultra.
It appears that Apple’s trajectory is now geared more towards a bigger market instead of the most affluent consumer, which is why the majority of its products are stamped with a somewhat affordable pricing structure. This approach could also be the reason why the Cupertino giant’s priority list does not include a Pro Display XDR successor.
