Apple has dashed any hopes fans had of being able to buy accessories for the ultra-powerful iMac Pro separately, confirming that they could only be purchased with the system. On top of that, it’s confirmed that users will not be able to upgrade or replace the system’s memory, limiting consumers to whatever they had when they purchased the all-in-one PC.
Across most of its product ranges, Apple has traditionally maintained a circled wagon approach to its hardware. Apart from the odd outlier, its systems have not been upgradeable — that’s one of the advantages of building your own PC instead. But that doesn’t mean people weren’t disappointed at this latest news, as some had hoped that the iMac Pro would ape the 27-inch iMac that’s available now, which does have user-upgradeable memory.
The iMac Pro though, will not. Apple has said it will come with between 32GB and 128GB of ECC memory, but whichever options the consumer picks will be what they’re stuck with in the future.
The same goes for accessories. Although many expressed excitement at the new style and aesthetic of the iMac Pro’s space grey wireless keyboard and mouse, Apple has made it clear that they will not be purchasable separately. That means anyone who wants them will need to buy them with a $5,000 iMac Pro, which no one is likely to do for the accessories alone.
It’s certainly possible that those who do buy the system may look to offset its cost a little by selling those accessories on auction sites. That will be the only way for Apple fans unable to dish out such a cost to get their hands on the peripherals otherwise. Apple will certainly not be selling them itself (as per 9to5Mac).
The powerful iMac Pro is set to go on sale in December this year, packing an Intel Xeon processor, Gigabit Ethernet, and AMD Vega graphics under the hood. Its price will start at $5,000.
