[diabllicseagull]

I'm not a big fan of reducing computing as a whole to just inference. Apple has done quite a bit besides that and it deserves credit. Mac Pro disappearing from the product line is a testament to it, that their compact solutions can cover all needs, not just local inference, to a degree that an expandable tower is not required at all.

[kllrnohj]

Their compact solution doesn't cover all needs, they just decided that they didn't care about some of those needs. The Intel Mac Pro was the last Apple offering with high end GPU capabilities. That's now a market segment they just aren't supporting at all. They didn't figure out how to do it compactly, they just abandoned it wholesale.

Similarly if your use case depends on a whole lot of fast storage (eg, the 4x NVME to PCI-E x16 bifurcation boards), well that's also now something Apple just doesn't support. They didn't figure out something else. They didn't do super innovative engineering for it. They just walked away from those markets completely, which they're allowed to do of course. It's just not exactly inspiring or "deserves credit" worthy.

[Melatonic]

You could argue they abandoned that market long before (around the era of the mac pro trashcan). Along with the pro software.

[kllrnohj]

They can abandon it multiple times ;)

When they introduced the cheese grater Mac Pro the new high end GPUs were a showcase feature of it. Complete with the bespoke "Duo" variants and the special power connector doohickey (MPX iirc?). So I'd consider that an attempt to re-enter that market at least.

[embedding-shape]

> Mac Pro disappearing from the product line is a testament to it

Apple removing/adding something to their product line matters nothing, for all we know, they have a new version ready to be launched next month, or whatever. Unless you work at Apple and/or have any internal knowledge, this is all just guessing, not a "testament" to anything.

[NetMageSCW]

Did you read the article?

“Apple has also confirmed to 9to5Mac that it has no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware.”

[embedding-shape]

I did indeed! Did you read the article? Did you like it? Have you also read the HN guidelines by any chance?

None the less, what Apple says or doesn't say doesn't really matter. If their plan for a new Mac Pro is secret, they'll answer exactly that when someone asks them about it. Doesn't mean we won't see new Mac Pro hardware this summer. Plenty of cases in the past where they play coy and then suddenly, "whoops, we just had to keep it a secret, never mind".