Image used with permission by copyright holderApple finally refreshed its MacBook Pro line in October after two years without an update, and it has so far benefited from brisk sales of the thinner, lighter, and Touch Bar-equipped machines. The healthy sales clip was likely due, at least in part, to some serious pent-up demand among Apple fans looking to upgrade older machines.

　　If it’s true that there’s been pent-up demand for refreshed MacBook Pros, then the pent-up demand for Apple desktop machines must be huge as well. It’s been some time since Apple did anything meaningful in desktops, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has let Apple employees know that change is coming, as TechCrunch reports.

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　　Cook made the statement on an Apple employee message board, and of course, such a thing is hardly likely to remain inside the company’s own walls. Apple employees are clearly concerned at some level about the future of Mac desktops, and the CEO wanted to make sure they know that the company hasn’t given up on the form factor.

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　　What seemed most important from Cook’s message is that Apple employees shouldn’t fret about Apple’s commitment to desktops, as he said, “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.”

　　Cook also clearly recognizes that Apple employees have a passion for going in new directions and doing truly innovative things. In response to the idea that Apple might be losing its willingness to innovate without the promise of profitability, Cook said, “You can rarely see precisely where you want to go from the beginning. In retrospect, it’s always written like that. But it’s rarely like that. The fantastic thing about Apple employees is they get excited about something, and they want to know how it works. What it will do. What its capabilities are. If they want to know about something in an entirely different industry, they start pulling the string and see where it takes them. They’re focused more on the journey, which enables so many great things to happen. ”

　　It’s been well over a year since Apple’s iMac all-in-one PC was updated, almost two years since the Mac Mini was refreshed, and the Mac Pro hasn’t been touched in just over three years. That’s forever in PC time, and so Apple needs to get moving if it’s going to remain relevant in the desktop market. Microsoft’s Surface Studio AIO set the bar for innovation in desktops, and so it’s likely that Apple is looking to pull some serious strings in response.