The much-awaited new Mac Pro will go on sale starting Thursday, December 19, through Apple's online store, retail stores and select authorized resellers. The price tag for the potent cylindrical computer starts at $2,999 for a quad-core setup and $3,999 for a six-core configuration with further customization options. The rollout of the most powerful Mac to date also continues the push of Apple for its made-in-the-USA products.
The Mac Pro line popular to moviemakers and graphic designers, now sports a black, cylindrical casing that somehow makes it look like a space age trash can. At 9.9 inches tall, 6.6 inches in diameter, and 11 pounds in weight, the computer's architecture centers on performance featuring the latest Intel Xeon processor working hand-in-hand with two AMD FirePro workstation-class graphics processing unit. It comes with at least a 256GB PCIe-based flash storage that is said to be 2.4 times faster than SATA-based SSD.
"The Mac Pro is available with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each, 12GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $2,999," Apple said in a press statement. The $3,999 model comes "..with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of VRAM each, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage."
Customization can give technopiles with an eight-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, up to 6GB VRAM for the AMD FirePro GPUs, as much as 1TB storage, and a memory of up to 64GB.
The new Apple Mac Pro can support 36 high-performance computer peripherals such as several 4K displays.
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, the sales of the updated Mac Pro will just barely make up one percent of the 2014 sales of the company. Munster predicts that Apple will sell 1.1. million Mac Pros next year but the company will still be highly dependent on iPhones and iPads that are expected to hit the 300 million-mark to drive itrs revenue and profit. About 70 percent of Apple's annual income of $170.1 billion comes from the sale of its mobile devices that are manufactured in China.
Aside from Apple, other tech companies such as Google and Lenovo are also trying to manufacture and assemble their devices in the United States. Earlier statements of chief executive Tim Cook revealed that the company is pouring $100 million to domesticate the production of Apple Mac models.
