Don’t get me wrong.  I love the idea of the Mac Pro.  But the execution of it in 2016 is just ridiculous.

Pro implies a few things.  One, you’ll update it reasonably often, since professionals can easily justify the cost of high end hardware.   When you are a professional, failing to stay current can actually be more expensive than just shelling out for the best.  Two, the product itself must be extremely fast, flexible, and expandable.  Professionals, by definition, aren’t mainstream.  They need the best, regardless of how complicated or ugly it might be.  They spend enough time with the products doing their jobs to be able to tolerate a bit of the bleeding edge.

The current Mac Pro is sexy, but impractical.  How bad is it, exactly?  Well, it turns out there’s an entire cottage industry of people devoted to the old “classic” Mac Pro in the large PC like tower format that we all know and love.  They use it because that form factor can actually accept all kinds of cards and expansions … Especially video cards.  Whereas the Mac Pro was re-invented, re-introduced and then promptly abandoned.  It’s running on two and a half years since the 2013 Mac Pro was announced and there isn’t a new one in sight.  You just can’t treat professional customers like that.

Quite frankly, Apple seems to have a problem with the word “Pro” lately.  If you are going to call something Pro, then make sure you update it.  Here’s the suggestion: stop focusing on drip-feeding improvements to your professional customers.  Just give us the best products you can as soon as they are available, and consider expandability a core feature of any “Pro” product.