Apple's committed to 'great desktops,' Tim Cook tells employees
The CEO says desktops are "very strategic" for Apple, according to internal messages obtained by Techcrunch.
Remember the Mac Pro from 2013? Some wonder if Apple does.
Tim Cook is apparently trying to dispel the feeling that Apple has abandoned the desktop.
Though the company released an overhauled MacBook Pro laptop in October, it's been years since much of its Mac lineup of desktops has been updated. That has led to pessimism among the Mac faithful that Apple has forsaken the desktop.
Not true, Cook told employees through postings to an internal message board.
"Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we're committed to desktops," Cook wrote in a posting obtained by Techcrunch. "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."
While Apple detailed its new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar at an event in October, its lack of news about any other new hardware products didn't go unnoticed.
After all, the last iMac update came in late 2015, while the Mac Mini was last updated in October 2014. The Mac Pro, Apple's powerhouse canister Mac desktop computer, made its debut three years ago but hasn't been updated since.
Despite that, Cook explained that he sees the desktop as being "very strategic" for the company.
"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," he wrote. "So there are many different reasons why desktops are really important, and in some cases critical, to people."
In a separate posting to Apple's internal message board, Cook answered a question about why he met last week with President-elect Donald Trump, in the company of other tech executives. The goal, he said, was to be part of the conversation on issues such as jobs, tax policies, privacy and the environment.
"Personally, I've never found being on the sideline a successful place to be," Cook wrote. "The way that you influence these issues is to be in the arena."
Apple representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
First published December 19 at 5:37 p.m. PT.
Updated December 20 at 8:10 a.m. PT: Added reference to Cook's memo on meeting with Donald Trump.