The most divisive Mac design ever produced by Apple is still stirring up discussion

Apple is a corporation that is famed for its product design talents, yet during the past decade, the company has released a surprising amount of products that are considered to be failures. The company’s “it just works” concept has been put to the test in recent years, but perhaps never more so than in 2013. This was the case with products such as a mouse that could only be charged by inverting it, as well as a Pencil that required a dongle in order to be charged.

The ‘trashcan’ Mac Pro was so divisive that Apple issued an apology a few years later, one that was somewhat out of character for the company. In the apology, Apple admitted that the Mac Pro’s inability to be upgraded was a major shortcoming that prompted an overhaul of the Mac product line as a whole. However, on the occasion of its 9th anniversary, are customers warming up to the Mac Pro 2013?

MacRumors recently marked the 9th birthday of the contentious design, commemorating how the “trashcan” “was a gadget that was unable to adapt to shifting hardware trends” due to its lack of internal slots for upgrades. This was done in honour of the design’s controversial nature. And even Apple didn’t appear to know what to do with it, as seen by the fact that the device languished without an upgrade for more than six years, up until the point where it was completely redesigned.

However, it appears that a lot of people have changed their minds on the 2013 model. Fans are realising, with the benefit of hindsight, that in spite of the limits imposed by the hardware, it was still a very great design. “The “trash can” design criticism has always been beyond my comprehension. One person tweets (opens in new tab) that “This remains Apple’s most iconic Mac Pro design,” while another user adds, “I love this iconic thing from the day that I bought it.” After all these years, it maintains its formidable presence despite its extreme silence.”\

However, many people have also pointed out that the introduction of the Mac Studio this year has helped put things into a little bit more perspective, asking whether or not it was the product that Apple was trying to produce back in 2013. That is, a desktop computer that is extremely powerful, but which, in terms of power, falls somewhere between the iMac and the Mac Pro? Following the tweet of one user, “Before there was a Mac Studio, there was this one. It was a huge mistake to pitch it as a substitute for the Mac Pro when it offered significantly fewer possibilities for expansion than the Mac Pro did. I suppose they have realised their error, but if they kept this design in the new Studio, it wouldn’t bother me at all.”

Nostalgia is undeniably a potent emotion; when the underlying technology has been rendered obsolete for a significant amount of time, it is much simpler to value an iconic design. However, in contrast to the obsolete Mac Pro, we have a sneaking suspicion that some of today’s Apple products may not experience the same reconsideration in nine years.