Apple’s discontinued Mac Pro plans reportedly included a new model from Intel.

In March, Apple announced that it would end sales of the Mac Pro and acknowledged that it had no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware.

new report from bloomberg Today we’ll provide more background on Apple’s Mac Pro strategy, along with some surprising information about what Apple has been working on.

Inside Apple’s discontinued Mac Pro plans

In his latest book, power on In the newsletter, Mark Gurman explains that discontinuing the Mac Pro “wasn’t necessarily the plan” within Apple. Gurman reiterates a point previously reported. Apple’s original idea was to put a so-called “Extreme” chip on top of an “Ultra” chip.

“We hear that Apple was developing both the M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips before ending the project due to cost and demand concerns,” the report explains.

Regarding the specific Mac Pro hardware in development, Garman said Apple had two models (codenamed J170 and J190) that were never released.

Perhaps the most interesting information in this report is that one of them was provided by Intel.

As for new Mac Pro hardware, there were two additional models developed by Apple that never saw the light of day: the J170 and J190. The former was Intel Corp.’s new Mac Pro for specific applications (yes, even when Apple was making its own silicon). The latter is the M3 Ultra version that was scheduled to launch alongside the M3 Ultra Mac Studio in early 2025. Looking to the future, we don’t expect Apple to bring back the Mac Pro anytime soon (if ever). Meanwhile, a new Mac Studio with the M5 Ultra chip is expected to arrive as early as this fall.

Apple ultimately discontinued the Mac Pro in March, removing it from its website and directing buyers to Mac Studio instead. The writing was on the wall for a while, but it was still a sad end to an era for fans of Mac Pro hardware.

What do you think about Apple’s decision to discontinue the Mac Pro lineup instead of moving forward with the development of “Extreme” chips in the Apple Silicon era? Let us know in the comments section.

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