Thoughts on the 2019 Mac Pro pricing

If the morning DJs on Orlando’s Sunny FM 105.9 are any indication, the pundits are already blowing up about Apple’s newly announced Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR. So I’d like to set a few things straight.

NO, the computer does not start at $12,000 as some news sites are claiming. Such news is incorrectly insinuating that, in addition to the computer (priced at $6,000), you also must buy the Pro Display XDR monitor for an additional $5,000 and the $1,000 stand.

There’s absolutely nothing stating you must use Apple’s new monitor along with the new Mac Pro. Essentially the only people who need to are those working on massively high-end 4K and 8K HDR video as part of projects that likely have budgets starting in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, even if you go with the monitor, you can always just use the $100 VESA mount instead of the pricey stand.

Another thing to factor is that Apple does not necessarily stand alone in premium pricing for such high-end equipment. There’s really nothing on the market that compares to the Pro Display XDR. The closest comparison Apple could make was a professional reference monitor from Sony that doesn’t even match the Pro Display XDR specs, and the Sony reference monitor lists at $43,000! Apple also stated that a Windows box with a similar configuration of CPU, memory, graphics card, and SSD storage was $8,253.

You’ll notice that Apple hasn’t put out commercials for this product to the general public. I’d venture a guess that they never will. Another mistake that media is making is that the Mac Pro is a product meant for a typical consumer.

It. Is. Not.

The iMac or a Mac Mini are still the machines priced for the average consumer, and I promise you they’re both very capable machines.

Simply put, a Mac Pro is no more intended as a typical home computer than a semi truck is intended as a typical personal vehicle.