Wow, that was fast – just hours after its radical new pro desktop, the Mac Pro, went on sale this morning, shipping estimates on the Online Apple Store have slipped to as far back as February 2014. Apple’s new pro desktop is being assembled in Austin, Texas, where its cylindrically-shapped enclosure is also being manufactured.
Apple originally quoted shipping estimates of “by December 30” for stock configurations, but now all stock and build-to-order configurations show a new estimate of February 2014…
This tells us that Apple either underestimated demand or was unable to ramp up production due to its sophisticated manufacturing process.
Of course, there’s likely huge pent-up demand among creative pros who were patiently waiting for years for this update. There are also reports of shortages of Intel’s latest Xeon chips so this could be a factor as well.
We have begun manufacturing the Mac Pro in Austin. It’s the most powerful Mac ever. Orders start tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Jrd1Gic3Ya
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 18, 2013
If you’re in the market for a dream desktop, your only chance is to check with your local Apple Authorized Resellers who may have stock of the machine.
The new Mac Pro includes the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, up to 64GB of RAM, up to 1TB of PCI Express solid state storage, Thunderbolt 2 and USB 3.0 I/O and AMD FirePro graphics chips with up to 6GB of VRAM.
It’s available in the entry-level $2,999 configuration and the souped up $3,999 model, though maxing out your system with upgrades can bring the price north of $20,000.
Even the entry-level machine is capable of driving three external displays, each at 4K resolution of 3840 pixels-by-2160.
Earlier this morning, Apple pushed a flurry of companion updates to its pro apps – Final Cut Pro, Compressor, Motion, Logic Pro X and Main Stage – that bring optimized performance for the Mac Pro’s hardware, 4K content, 4K monitoring support via Thunderbolt 2 and HDMI on select Mac computers and many other additions and performance enhancements.