Apple Deprioritises Mac Pro; Mac Studio Now Primary “Pro” Workstation
Apple has officially shifted its professional desktop strategy, effectively shelving the Mac Pro to focus engineering resources on the Mac Studio. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, the company has “largely written off” the Pro, cancelling near-term updates in favour of its more compact counterpart.
The report indicates that Apple has scrapped plans for a Mac Pro equipped with the M4 Ultra chip, meaning there is currently no refresh scheduled for the tower in 2026. Instead, the next-generation high-end silicon, the M5 Ultra, is currently in development exclusively for the Mac Studio. This development leaves the Pro, which was last updated in 2023 with the M2 Ultra, two generations behind Apple’s current silicon roadmap.
Internal sources indicate that Apple executives now view the Mac Studio as “both the present and future” of the professional lineup, a decision driven largely by the technical realities of Apple Silicon. The Unified Memory Architecture of the M-series chips prevents user-upgradable RAM and external GPU support, effectively eliminating the primary advantages of the Mac Pro’s large tower chassis.
From a value perspective, the Mac Studio, which starts at RM8,999, delivers nearly identical performance to the RM32,999 Mac Pro. The only functional difference remaining between the two machines is the Mac Pro’s PCIe expansion slots, a feature required by a shrinking niche of users. Sales data suggest that the vast majority of creative professionals have already migrated to the Mac Studio due to its smaller footprint and superior value proposition.
While the Mac Pro has not been officially discontinued, its status has effectively shifted to a legacy product. Professionals requiring the highest-end performance in 2026 should anticipate the arrival of an M5 Ultra Mac Studio rather than a new tower.
