>And I won't move to Mac, because of the missing link in Apple's product lineup. I'd move over in a heartbeat, if they had a midrange tower, beefier than an Mini, less expensive than a Pro, and sans monitor (iMac)
There's been some rumours of such a model, although not too frequently, although it's unknown to what price point it'd set.
I imagine they will release a Mac Mini (Pro) at some point with the same M1 Pro/Max internals at the new MacBook Pro, except inside a desktop computer. There's no doubt that it'd be beefier, but it might lack some of the Mac Pro features such as internal expandability (although it's still a question mark as to how internal expandability will work when the Mac Pro becomes an ARM machine).
It looks like the bigger iMacs will get optional bigger CPUs. I haven't heard about the Mini, but it has space and thermals to spare after ditching x86 space heaters, so an M1 Pro or M1 Max would still fit neatly.
As for the MacPro, my guess is Apple will keep the chip count to one, but add more performance cores while moving some accelerators outside the CPU package. Video encoders/decoders aren't as bandwidth-hungry as GPUs.
There's been some rumours of such a model, although not too frequently, although it's unknown to what price point it'd set.
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/01/fan-favorite-power-mac-...
I imagine they will release a Mac Mini (Pro) at some point with the same M1 Pro/Max internals at the new MacBook Pro, except inside a desktop computer. There's no doubt that it'd be beefier, but it might lack some of the Mac Pro features such as internal expandability (although it's still a question mark as to how internal expandability will work when the Mac Pro becomes an ARM machine).