My best guess: starting at $3999
The iMacPro starts at $4999, and the Cinema Display was typically $999.
I'd agree with that as a
minimum price point for a Mac Pro with broadly the same specs as the iMac Pro.
From a marketing point of view I doubt they'd want it to scavenge iMac Pro sales by making a MP + 5k less than an iMP with comparable specs. However, I would not be surprised to see the base model priced
above the base iMP - but with better specs.
They don't need to ask RED to join their 7,1 hardware project. As long as the 7,1 has standard PCIe slot, RED's hardware can fit inside the 7,1 properly.
...as long as the 7,1 has a Thunderbolt 3 port, RED's hardware can fit inside an external PCIe enclosure. Some would even argue that was an
improvement, since you could now, potentially, hot-swap your expensive A/V hardware between machines. Does any of REDs hardware need more than 4 PCIe lanes?
Apple's "new investment into their Mac Pro hardware program" need not mean any more than the fact that there
is going to be an iMac Pro and a new Mac Pro. Remember, 6 months ago, speculation was mounting that the Mac Pro line had been abandoned, Apple didn't even seem in any hurry to update the iMac, Tim Cook was asking why anybody would need anything more than an iPad and, for you Pros, here's an emoji bar on the MacBook Pro (but not 64GB RAM because that would mean we'd have to make it 2mm thicker - the horror!)
We seemed then to be heading for a world where Apple didn't make anything more powerful than an i7 iMac with a mobile GPU - which is kinda borderline for the sort of people who would be interested in RED hardware. That's really all that has changed - nobody has promised any internal PCIe slots and the iMac Pro clearly shows Apple's preference for sealed units.
