Last year, Apple upstaged Bill Gates' CES keynote by announcing the iPhone. This year, they pulled a surprise rabbit out of their turtleneck a week before MacWorld with the introduction of the new Mac Pro:

The fastest Mac ever, the new Mac Pro has eight processor cores and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of its predecessor.* It combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2 GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage, offering the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists. The standard 8-core configuration starts at just $2,799.
* Based on estimated results comparing a preproduction 2.8 GHz 8-core Mac Pro with a 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro running professional applications like Maya, modo and Logic Pro.

  This is definitely a Pro machine, great for rendering new Shrek movies or something. Most families simply don't need something this powerful, but I bet it never gets beachballs.