Will The Trash Can Mac Pro Become a Collector’s Item?
By 2000, Apple had a series of successful launches under its belt as it avoided what seemed to be certain bankruptcy when Steve Jobs came on board in 1997. The company cut back on various unsuccessful distractions to its failing computer lineup with software like OpenDoc and hardware like cameras and the Newton being discontinued. They then focused the wide array of computers that had been simplified first by Gil Amelio into nine options: three laptops and six desktops, into a simpler set of quadrants: consumer desktop and laptops iMac and iBook, and professional desktop and laptops Power Mac and PowerBook. The iMac and iBook received praise for their unique designs that strayed from the indistinguishable beige boxes from its competition, and the Power Mac and PowerBook’s fast PowerPC architecture beat its best Intel competition in price and performance. The company quickly grew financially, and fast became a hot brand.
Of course, when a business gets a string of successes, you sort of loosen the restrictions you’ve set and try new things. The former quadrant of computers expanded a little. The iMac gained colors, and some of those colors were special editions with better performance. Same with the iBook. The PowerBook gained a titanium design, and the formerly beige Power Mac got an iMac-esque design upgrade with a nice swing-down door giving easy access to the internals. But the product line would receive an expansion in the form of another desktop. In the later years, that product line expansion would be given to a consumer desktop in the form of the comparatively cheap Mac mini, but this was for professionals. The Power Mac G4 Cube was released in 2000 as an alternative to the Power Mac G4 tower.
It was fast, it looked beautiful, but it was expensive. It cost $1,799, $200 more than a base Power Mac G4 tower, but came with a faster 450 MHz processor that would’ve cost $2,499 in the tower. The major difference was the lack of upgradability. It famously had a handle on the bottom to pull the hardware from the case for the user to access the hard drive, RAM, and disc drive, but it was more difficult to upgrade the processor and graphics card and there were no expansion slots, three things that could allow a person or business to justify the high cost for longevity. The G4 Cube was undoubtedly a work of art, but it was not a sales success. As such it was discontinued after a year. Its legacy lived on as the original Mac mini design fit within the footprint of the G4 Cube. As Apple had sold the G4 Cube along with the tower, users could choose to ignore it, and the tower continued to sell in high numbers to justify regular upgrades from Apple in the form of better and faster internals and new designs. But that hasn’t stopped the G4 Cube from being a sought-after collector’s item. Its rare status and unique design make it a must-have for Mac collectors and keep it commanding higher prices than its siblings on eBay.
Then in 2013, Apple decided to create a spiritual successor to the G4 Cube. The Mac Pro with its aluminum cheese-grater design dating back ten years to 2003 as the Power Mac G5 was aging, and Apple intended to fight a belief that it had abandoned the professional market as it had heavily invested in consumer-grade Macs, iPhone, and iPad. The 2013 Mac Pro and its new design was unveiled at an Apple event by Phil Schiller, uttering an infamous remark “can’t innovate anymore, my ass!” The tower was transformed into a black aluminum cylinder meant to sit on the top of your desk and look beautiful doing so. The top housed the silent exhaust for its fanless design, and the rear had a backlit array for the ports. The case had a slider for the locking mechanism and when unlocked, the aluminum case slid upward, revealing the hardware inside and allowing the user to upgrade the RAM and storage.
It was a beautiful design, if a little trash-can-looking (don’t worry, people called the G4 Cube a tissue box at the time). But it had several problems. First, it didn’t solve the problem that Mac Pro customers were looking for. As I mentioned above with the G4 tower, professional customers want upgradability. Yes, RAM and storage upgrades are important, but graphics cards, processors, and expansion cards go even further towards longevity. Especially the customers who need expansion cards to use specialty hardware. You can’t expect Thunderbolt and USB ports to solve that problem. The second issue was the Mac Pro tower was discontinued. There was no other tower option for professionals. All that was left was the iMac, which eventually received an iMac Pro model for those who needed a better processor and graphics card, but again, no expandability. And third, its thermal design was made with the processor and dual graphics card setup at the time in mind. The future of Intel wasn’t so thermal friendly and Apple’s bet on dual graphics cards didn’t pan out. We saw the effects in the last Intel Macs, like Apple’s transition to Intel from the very temperature hot PowerPC, which caused Apple to start the transition to their own Apple Silicon. While the Intel MacBooks after 2013 continued to see updates although at a slower pace and despite thermal issues causing slowdowns in favor of battery life, the Mac Pro saw zero updates. It wasn’t until 2,182 days since the trash can Mac released that in 2019, Apple updated the machine and returned to a tower design for the Mac Pro with expandability in mind and giving professionals what they’ve been asking for. Although at an outrageous price and again not receiving a single update since its release but that’s an issue for another day.
The question I have is will the trash can Mac Pro become a collector’s item like the G4 Cube has? At this point, the modern relevance as a useable Mac is waning as it cannot run the latest macOS natively (which is absurd as this machine was sold as recently as three years ago, but again anyone insane enough to buy a Mac Pro in 2019 deserves it), so its eBay value is dropping and can be found in the range of $300 easily. Does it have further value to drop from there, or is this the floor? And if so, will we see it rise in value as the G4 Cube?
The problem with the Mac Pro over the G4 Cube was how it affected professionals. In the case of the G4 Cube, because it was another option for customers to choose, they could simply ignore it. In the case of the trash can Mac Pro, it had a very negative effect as it removed an option that worked well and forced professionals into something that wasn’t upgradable and wouldn’t fit into their existing workflows. For those who were around during that time, it probably won’t have the same affection that the G4 Cube would’ve had.
But does this matter in the end? The 2013 Mac Pro is still an attractive computer years after its release. The emotions and workflow of professionals at the time are valid, but with some time and the strong future of Apple Silicon, I feel it can be forgiven. Personally, I’d like to know the answer as I wanted it on my desk back in 2013, and I wouldn’t mind one on my desk now. Maybe throw Linux on there as a cylindrical Plex server. I was four years old when the G4 Cube was released so I have no connection to it aside from an Apple appreciation. But I remember the 2013 Mac Pro very well, and honestly aside from Apple’s neglect of the product, I think it’s pretty cool.
