The Mac Studio isn’t meant for data centers anyway? It’s a small and silent desktop form factor — in every respect the opposite of a design you’d want to put in a rack.
A long time ago Apple had a rackmount server called Xserve, but there’s no sign that they’re interested in updating that for the AI age.
Don't forget CI/CD farms for iOS builds, although I think it's much more cost effective to just make Minis or Studios work, despite their nonstandard formfactor
I genuinely forgot the Mac Pro still exists. It’s been so long since I even saw one.
And I’ve had every previous Mac tower design since 1999: G4, G5, the excellent dual Xeon, the horrible black trash can… But Apple Silicon delivers so much punch in the Studio form factor, the old school Pro has become very niche.
Edit - looks like the new M3 Ultra is only available in Mac Studio anyway? So the existence of the Pro is moot here.
The Mac Studio hit a sweet spot in 2023 that the trash can Mac Pro couldn't ten years earlier. It's mostly thanks to the high integration of Apple Silicon and improved device availability and speed of Thunderbolt.
The 2013 Mac Pro was stuck forever with its original choice of Intel CPU and AMD GPU. And it was unfortunately prone to overheating due to these same components.
Apple recently announced they’re building a new plant in Texas to produce servers. Yes, they need servers for their Private Compute Cloud used by Apple Intelligence, but it doesn’t only need to be for that.
As part of its new U.S. investments, Apple will work with manufacturing partners to begin production of servers in Houston later this year. A 250,000-square-foot server manufacturing facility, slated to open in 2026, will create thousands of jobs.
A long time ago Apple had a rackmount server called Xserve, but there’s no sign that they’re interested in updating that for the AI age.