The Mac Pro Lives On: Stock Starts Dwindling Ahead Of Refresh At WWDC Next Week

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Mac Pro

With the MacBook Pro, Air and iMac lineups all expected to see a refresh at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference next week, it looks like the seemingly-abanonded Mac Pro will also be updated. Apple has begun pulling Mac Pro stock from its retail stores and online shipping estimates are also starting to slip. This type of activity is typical right before a new version of an Apple product is announced, as Apple clears out its old inventory to make room for the new.

The Mac Pro saw its last refresh in July of 2010, and many have begun to lose faith that Apple will continue to support its ‘pro’ users as the company transitions to being more consumer-oriented. It would seem that we can all be hopeful for the future of the Mac Pro, as the machine is about to see its first refresh in nearly two years.

According to MacRumors:

A quick survey of roughly 100 U.S. Apple retail stores for availability of the entry-level stock Mac Pro model shows that nearly all of them are indeed out of stock for in-store pickup, although we did find four California stores and one Texas store with machines available for immediate pickup.

Projected availability dates for orders placed online today vary significantly, with some stores citing availability on June 8 or 9 while others would not be able to offer a Mac Pro for pickup until June 12 or 13.

Separately, 9to5Mac is saying that Apple will definitely release multiple new versions of the Mac Pro at WWDC. Pricing is said to be similar to the current models, and there will reportedly be three new configurations: two standard variants and one for OS X server. Intel’s new Xeon E5 chips would be perfect to power the new Pros.

Apple will likely bring Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 to the new Mac Pro, and it’s likely that the company will continue to release spec upgrades for the machine as time progresses. The unnatural gap period between the last Mac Pro refresh and this upcoming one left many concerned, but it looks like the Mac Pro will not be going away anytime soon.

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