For the past few months, most of the leaks and rumors have been pointing to Apple’s iMac Pro
coming at their Spring event in just a couple of months, but unfortunately,
we just got some HORRIBLE news from Ross Young who is one of the most reliable sources out there..
So what I’m gonna do in this video is analyze Ross’s disappointing leak and give you guys 3
different scenarios for what can actually happen with this year’s iMac Pro launch,
as well as a potential consumer-friendly 27” iMac
at a lower price which might actually get released sooner than the iMac Pro.
But before I get into all of that, we’ve gotta go through these recent
leaks so you can fully understand the situation with Apple’s upcoming iMac Pro.
Last year, the reliable DylanDKT was the first source to mention that Apple’s iMac
would be getting delayed until 2022.
And then after that, Ross Young actually came out and claimed
that the new iMac Pro would come with a 27” display size in the 1st quarter of 2022,
which would likely mean a Spring Event at the end of March, which I’ve already made a full video on.
But then, out of nowhere, DylanDKT came out with a huge leak claiming that the new iMac Pro could
come with a mysterious 12-core chip built for high-performance, but the downside was that
he was hearing that there were some production issues that might lead to it getting delayed,
potentially as late as September in the worst-case scenario.
And just this morning, Ross Young finally confirmed
that the iMac Pro is NOT coming at Apple’s spring event, being delayed until this Summer,
with a potential launch in either August or September, which actually matches what Dylan said.
Unfortunately, Dylan has recently announced that he is retiring from the Apple leak scene,
so we won’t be able to get any further updates from him,
but I think I trust Ross in terms of the iMac Pro delay leak.
So if it’s true that the iMac Pro isn’t coming until Summer or even later,
then what does that mean for the regular 27” high-end iMac?
Because as we know, the current Intel iMac starts at $1799,
and the old iMac Pro used to start at $5,000.
So if there is only gonna be one high-end iMac Pro coming
out later this year with a high starting price of around $4,000 or higher, then there would
be a huge price gap between the 24” iMac for $1300 and this new expensive iMac Pro.
And because of this, I think Apple absolutely needs to have a 27” iMac
at a starting price of around $1,800 or $2,000, no matter what.
So what I’m gonna do in this video is try to make sense of all of the
different ways we could still have a consumer-friendly lower-priced 27” iMac
while also getting an additional very high-end iMac Pro, and in my opinion,
there are 3 main scenarios for how Apple can make this happen, so let’s go through all of them!
For the first scenario, I can see Apple completely renaming
the larger 27” iMac as the iMac Pro so that it’s more simple and easy to understand and
differentiate between the smaller 24” iMac for consumers and the larger iMac Pro for pros.
So they would essentially reveal just a single iMac Pro later on this Summer,
and it would start at around $2,000
and come with essentially the same M1 Pro chip as you get on the 16” MacBook Pro.
But then for the upgrade options, you’ll of course get to choose the M1 Max, and then most likely
a new higher-end chip like either the M1 Max Duo like we’ve been talking about for a while,
which would include Apple taking two M1 Max dies and combining them together using
the secret die-to-die interconnect that they conveniently left out of their marketing images.
Or on the other hand, it could actually be the new
mysterious 12-core chip that Dylan leaked last week.
And those upgrades would get very expensive,
probably around $4,000 to $5,000 before even going crazy on upgrading the RAM and storage.
So in this scenario, instead of the past when Apple had both a 27” iMac
and a 27” iMac Pro, they could both be built into
one machine, just with a very wide range of prices, and this could actually make sense.
The reason for that is because Mark Gurman believes there’s a good chance that Apple
could reveal the Apple Silicon Mac Pro at this year’s WWDC in June, just so that they can say
they finished the 2-year transition on time, and this idea makes sense because WWDC was actually
when they revealed the previous Mac Pro, and they just delayed the launch until December.
Now in my mind, this could actually make a ton of sense because the Mac Pro is expected
to come with both the M1 Max Duo chip and the M1 Max Quadro, so I can see them revealing
those chips and then announcing that the new iMac Pro will come with up to the 20-core M1
Max Duo chip, but if you want the 40-core Quadro, you’ve gotta go with the Mac Pro.
And that would also make it a little bit easier in terms of the marketing of those chips
meant for the most demanding workloads out there.
But now, let’s move onto the second scenario, and this one is actually quite similar to the first,
but with a small little tweak.
What if instead of Apple just releasing one iMac Pro in the Summer with a wide-range of
chip options, there’s actually gonna be two separate products revealed
at different price points, a regular 27” iMac and then an iMac Pro, just like it was in the past.
So the 27” iMac would come with an M1 Pro chip, up to the same M1 Max configuration
available in the new MacBook Pros, and then if you wanted a more powerful chip,
you’d have to go with the iMac Pro with either that new 12-core chip or the M1 Max Duo.
And the reason it makes sense to split them up into two products
is because it’ll be more clear and easy for people to understand the price points,
with Apple giving a certain starting price for the iMac Pro.
And if you think about it, the previous iMac Pro was known to be very expensive,
starting at $5,000, so if Apple had them combined into one iMac Pro product costing
as low as $2,000, it would lose that high-end premium, professional feel.
And then on top of that, it would very difficult to know how much performance
a certain iMac Pro has by just looking at it!
For example, you’d have no idea if someone’s iMac Pro was the $2,000 base model or an expensive
$5,000+ model with an M1 Max Duo, and this could cause some confusion.
So this scenario would basically mean that later this Summer,
Apple would reveal both a 27” iMac and an iMac Pro.
But now, we have the third scenario which is by far, my favorite, so let’s get into it.
When Ross Young tweeted about the iMac Pro delay, I decided to ask him if there’s a
chance that there could be a regular 27” iMac launching this Spring and then an iMac Pro later,
and he replied, saying that he’s not sure because they’re only tracking the iMac Pro product.
So because of this, there’s still a good chance that we could get both products, not just one!
And if you think about it, this makes the most sense because it would allow Apple to fill the
price gap between the 24” iMac and the iMac Pro, with a regular consumer-focused 27” model
starting at around $2,000 which could be revealed at Apple’s Spring Event.
And if you’re doubtful of that happening,
it was recently revealed that the current nano-texture display option on the Intel iMac
now has a shipping date for the end of March, which is pretty odd unless a new 27” iMac
actually comes at Apple’s Spring Event, which I think will be happening in March.
And I really think this would make sense because they’d be able to have a much more
consumer-focused iMac which a larger display and up to an M1 Max chip, just like the MacBook Pros,
and of course, at a lower price which I think is very important to Apple.
And then later on in the Summer, potentially at WWDC,
Apple will reveal the new iMac Pro which comes with that new 12-core chip that DylanDKT leaked,
or straight up to that crazy 20-core M1 Max Duo.
And another way they could differentiate it is by giving the iMac Pro a better Mini-LED
display with 120hz ProMotion while the regular 27” iMac could just get the same old
5K LCD 60hz display as before to help keep costs down and make the iMac Pro seem superior.
But if you think about it, adding Mini-LED and 120hz ProMotion is gonna be a LOT more expensive
on a 27” display compared to a smaller 14 or 16” like on the MacBook Pros.
And if you don’t believe that Apple would release two 27” iMac models just a few months apart, Apple
actually did this in 2017, with both a regular 5K model and an iMac Pro around half a year later.
Now as far as the design, it would essentially have the same 27” display size with the same chin,
but the regular model could come in more consumer-friendly colors like the 24” iMac,
and maybe even white bezels just so that it matches the smaller
model in their marketing images like it always has in the past.
And then the 27” iMac Pro will probably have a slightly thicker design for a much
beefier cooling system like we currently have on the Intel iMac Pro, and then, of course,
black bezels and a space grey color which could remain exclusive to the iMac Pro model.
And I really hope that this third scenario is what Apple goes with because we’d get to see the
new 27” iMac as soon as the Spring without having to wait until potentially September.
Now if you totally disagree with me,
go ahead and comment your thoughts below, but if you enjoyed this video,
click that circle above to subscribe for more videos like this one, and definitely check
out one of those two videos right there. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one!