Apple’s CEO, in a posting to an employee message board that was leaked to TechCrunch:
The desktop is very strategic for us. It’s unique compared to the notebook because you can pack a lot more performance in a desktop — the largest screens, the most memory and storage, a greater variety of I/O, and fastest performance. So there are many different reasons why desktops are really important, and in some cases critical, to people.
The current generation iMac is the best desktop we have ever made and its beautiful Retina 5K display is the best desktop display in the world.
Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops. If there’s any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that.
He didn’t mention the Mac mini or Mac Pro. I’m sure he’s aware how long in the tooth they are, and praising them at this point would have been seen as a little ridiculous. I’m not going to sit here and read into these tea leaves and say that the Mac Pro is dead, but on the other hand…
Happy 3rd birthday, current Mac Pro specs! pic.twitter.com/ikZwH80kD2
— Joel Bernstein (@CastIrony) December 19, 2016
I take Cook at his word that Apple knows desktops are important to its customers. I hope that there are great desktop Macs in the spring, but I really don’t think the company should go longer than that without an update to at least the iMac.
Apple made a bad call in skipping two Xeon generations in the Mac Pro. I would like to think that if Apple had known Intel’s dates would slip as they have, we would have seen a new Mac Pro before now.
Maybe the iMac is hung up with Intel issues, too. Maybe the one guy working on the Mac mini retired.
All that aside, the clock is ticking, and has been for a while. These future Macs may be great, but a lot of people are tired of waiting.