Apple officially confirmed that the all-mighty “Made for Professional” iMac Pro is being discontinued. For now, you can purchase only the standard model “While supplies last”. Is Apple laying the groundwork for the new iMac Pro armed with Apple Silicon M1?

iMac Pro was Apple’s answer to professionals

The iMac Pro was announced in 2017 and was made for professionals who criticized Apple for stopping innovating for them. The iMac Pro was (and still is) aimed for heavy users, especially video editors, as estate back then by Apple: “iMac Pro is the fastest, most powerful Mac ever made, and delivers incredible compute power for real-time 3D rendering, immersive VR, intensive developer workflows, high megapixel photography, complex simulations, massive audio projects and real-time 4K and 8K video editing….Video editors can edit up to eight streams of 4K video, or edit 4.5K RED RAW video and 8K ProRes 4444 at full resolution in real-time without rendering”. Indeed, this beast was accepted and utilized by pros for a variety of content creation applications (editing, VFX, music production, color grading, and more). Then came the Mac Pro, which set new standards for the professional community…And after that, came the M1.

iMac Pro discontinued

Last week, Apple has confirmed that the iMac Pro is discontinued. You still can purchase the basic model, however, you no longer have the option to change the spec of the machine, so it’s the 3.0GHz, 10-core Xeon W model with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD or nothing. After checking with major dealers, even this model is no longer available. So what’s next?

M1-powered iMac Pro

For now, the only Macs that utilize Apple Silicon M1 are the Macbook Pro (13-inch model), Air, and the Mac mini. We know that Apple silicon-powered iMacs should be on the way as well. Also, there’re rumors that the iMac Pro will be redesign with its own silicon. The new models will slim down the thick black borders around the screen and do away with the sizable metal chin area in favor of a design similar to Apple’s Pro Display XDR monitor. That means these iMacs will have a flat back, moving away from the curved rear of the current iMac. Bloomberg stated that Apple is planning to launch two versions — codenamed J456 and J457 — to replace the existing 21.5-inch and 27-inch models later this year, and according to resources, the iMac redesign will be one of the biggest visual updates to any Apple product this year. So there you go – A complete redesigned iMac Pro M1.

Summary

If you read between the lines, it’s obvious that there’s a brand new lineup of iMac Pro M1 coming this year. The question is when. However, discontinuing a flagship model must be followed with another solid alternative, especially when aiming at the pro-market. Thus, iMac Pro M1 models are just around the corner.