Apple has announced that it will no longer ship its Mac Pro to European countries, effective this March. Emblazoned with the slogan, "It's the fastest Mac ever," the tower has nevertheless languished from negligence by its parent company in favor of alternative products such as Apple's mobile phone and tablet.
Aside from what original Apple Macintosh development team member Andy Hertzfeldt bemoaned as a "tiny, inconsequential processor click bump" incorporated last year, the Mac Pro has not been updated in any significant fashion since 2010.
Such diffidence on the part of Apple has notoriously instigated a galvanized ire in diehard Mac Pro fans who have rallied together in a Facebook petition that - since having been launched last May - has received nearly 20,000 Likes.
Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to the stentorian lambasting with a cryptic if not vague Facebook message posted this past June: "[D]on't worry as we're working on something really great for later next year."
"Due to evolving regulatory requirements," Apple explained in an email to ZDNet, "[we] will stop selling Mac Pro in EU, EU candidate and EFTA countries on March 1, 2013. After that date, resellers can sell existing inventory but Apple will no longer ship Mac Pro in those countries."
Said "regulator requirement" is Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition, which will be implemented March 1st. Hence Apple's cut-off date.
Though the amendment is about as vague as Cook's earlier implication of something big in the works, the meaning for already enraged Mac Pro fanatics is that the shipment cessation can be directly attributed to Apple's dwindling alacrity in its product. If Apple were willing to update the Mac Pro hardware to the amendment's standards, shipment could (perhaps) continue.
Speaking of the "really great" thing Cook has alluded to - as confirmed by the New York Times, Macworld, and Forbes - The Next Web's Nick Summers opines that, "One of the reasons why Apple might be content to discontinue the Mac Pro is because it has a new model on the horizon which will, in fact, meet the electronic safety requirements for Europe."
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