CNET
While the classic definition for “missing in action” is derived from a military situation, “Missing and unable to be confirmed as captured or killed following military action,” Webster’s dictionary also describes “missing in action” as meaning, “Often used figuratively for someone or something notably or unexpectedly missing, absent, or inactive.”
And that, the “notably or unexpectedly missing, absent” part, brings us to Tim Cook.
Pro users in need of Mac power were once left hanging, wondering if staying on the Mac platform was career suicide.
In June of 2020, Apple announced its transition to Apple Silicon processors, saying the “first system ships by year’s end, beginning a two-year transition.” Every Mac model has transitioned to Apple Silicon, except for the Mac Pro and the 27-inch iMac. If Apple’s timeline is to be believed, the two year period would have expired last June. But even if we were generous and allowed until the end of the calendar year, the two missing in action Macs should be available no later than the end of this December.
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Based on reporting by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s Apple prognosticator extraordinaire, there will be no new Macs introduced this year. That not only includes our MIA Mac Pro and 27-inch iMac, but the expected M2 Apple Silicon upgrades to MacBook Pros and the Mac mini.
For the record, “mini” is the only postpositive proper adjective that Apple uses without capitalizing the word. Apple capitalizes “Pro,” “Max,” “Ultra,” and even “Air.” But poor “mini” is left on its own without an initial capital letter, probably because it’s small and cute. I’m telling you, stick with ZDNET. These are the deep thoughts we have at 5am that we feel compelled to share with you.
In any case, don’t count on an Apple Silicon Mac Pro or 27-inch iMac in 2022.
How troubling is this absence?
To answer this, let’s roll back our calendars to mid-2018. In a roundtable discussion, Jason Perlow, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Boinx Software CEO Oliver Breidenbach, and I looked at the then future of Macs for professionals. This was an important topic because the Mac Pro hadn’t had an update in five years, and the Mac mini had had an upgrade four years earlier, but it was terrible. And even the line-leading MacBook Pros were shackled with the terrible “butterfly” keyboard and a paucity of ports.
As our discussion showed, we were genuinely concerned that serious professionals wouldn’t be able to find the horsepower they needed to keep doing their jobs from an Apple product line that was clearly teetering on obsolescence.
Things did get better later in the year. Remember that Apple was still shipping Intel Macs only. Apple introduced a much more capable Mac mini after years of ignoring it. A year later, Apple upgraded the Mac Pro to a very powerful but incredibly painfully expensive model. And a year after that, in 2020, Apple replaced the butterfly keyboard with what they now called the Magic keyboard (it was Magic, presumably, because it didn’t constantly piss off its users).
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