The new Mac Pro is an opportunity for Apple to create a PC

"I can not innovate anymore, my ass," proclaimed Apple's executive, Phil Schiller, during the presentation of the remodeled Mac Pro in 2013. It was supposed to be "the future of the office professional ", but that was certainly not the case. Four years later, Apple was forced to admit that the Mac Pro was in disarray after some of its most loyal customers claimed that the company had lost touch with its business users and that it really got lost . If Apple is ready to unveil its new Mac Pro Monday at WWDC, nothing says brave courage or innovation, it should be time to prove that the company has listened to those who felt under-served and rejected.

Apple does not need to impress us with another innovative design, it has to go back to the basics. Apple now has the opportunity to show that it can create a really awesome PC.

Although the problematic design of Apple's MacBook keyboard has been a source of frustration recently, it's the debacle of Mac Pro that has had a lasting impact on Apple's business problems. A community of developers and creatives has long trusted Apple to manufacture powerful, high-quality hardware that meets their needs, but the trash-like Mac Pro, which debuted as a trash in 2013, has not been so effective. "I think we have positioned ourselves in a thermal corner, if you will," admitted Craig Federighi, Apple's CEO, two years ago.

Apple's Mac Pro was pretty, but it was a classic case of form on function. It was tiny and powerful, but it also meant that it was difficult to upgrade its components. Apple even had trouble updating its Mac Pro. "Being able to use larger single GPUs required a different system architecture and a higher thermal capacity than the one designed for this system," Federighi said. Apple had limited the Mac Pro at a time when users wanted scalability and scalability. These same customers had the habit of sawing the handles of their Mac Pro "Cheese Rasp" in order to slide them into racks and spend hours rendering tasks on these machines. Now, they have to wait years to receive upgrades, or choose between a Windows PC or an iMac all-in-one.

Fortunately, it seems that Apple has understood the message and lets guess what can be expected from the Mac Pro. Apple has promised a new Mac Pro for 2019, an "inherently modular" system. This should be a music to listen to business users and a sign that Apple could return in part to the design of the tower. Apple has spent years developing this new Mac Pro, probably with a unique Apple touch to make it scalable over time.

If Apple really listened, we should see some basics such as support for 18-core Xeon processors, large amounts of RAM, and good amounts of storage. But the key will be how Mac Pro owners will be able to upgrade them over time, especially the ability to freely add SSD storage stacks for video installations and increase RAM at the maximum of 256 GB available on the iMac Pro.

GPU support will also be essential. Apple has long favored AMD's Radeon graphics cards, and any switch to Nvidia's top graphics cards will be complicated. MacOS Mojave requires a graphics card that supports Metal, the Apple API for hardware-accelerated graphics. Apple has progressively removed OpenGL support in macOS and the company fully controls drivers for Macs. This has led to problems with Nvidia and macOS cards, and a negative reaction from the professional community asking Apple to properly support Nvidia GPUs. Red Digital Cinema president Jarred Land even tried to reason with a random Apple employee at the end of last year as part of a public call for help.

"We need Nvidia's help," Land told an Apple employee at an 8K film editing conference. "It's really important … it's not good for the community to be on one platform, so think about it, please."

This GPU support is not only necessary for video work, however. Anyone who works with 3D objects and programs will be fully aware of how Nvidia has created a market for 3D rendering applications that only work with its CUDA compatible cards for GPU acceleration. This means that applications like Redshift, Octane, Thea Render, etc., will only work on Nvidia cards.

James Bareham / The Verge

A lack of true support for Nvidia would mean that cards like RTX 2080 or Nvidia's latest Quadro line would simply not work on the new Mac Pro, which would undoubtedly impose more professional workflows on Windows. At the very least, Apple's new Mac Pro needs to support the largest graphics cards and provide clear access to PCI Express slots to upgrade the graphics processor and add I / O functionality in the future. External GPU support is a good start, but it's not the same as stacking multiple GPUs in your own computer.

Apple will also have to gently balance the price of this Mac Pro. The iMac Pro already supports many professional workflows, but it offers very low scalability for its base price of $ 4,999. Potential Mac Pro users will not need to pay $ 4,999 for a similar machine that will be obsolete in a few years. The old Mac Pro debuted at $ 2,999, but business users will quickly calculate the upgrade costs this time around.

According to rumors, Apple would present the Mac Pro Monday, but it is entirely possible that the company will choose to wait for a dedicated Mac event. The only promise we have so far is its arrival in 2019, and Apple can not afford that promise turns into another AirPower moment.

Anyway, the reputation of Apple is based on the Mac Pro and the choices of Cupertino. The professional community has made it clear what they want to see, and now it's up to Apple to do it or face a tough future without its most loyal champions.