Apple to cease European Mac Pro sales March 1 due to regulatory requirements
Sales of Apple's Mac Pro desktop will stop in Europe on March 1 because of new regulatory requirements in the region.
Apple announced that sales will halt in a month in a letter the company sent to resellers on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors. The company cited Amendment 1 of Regulation IEC 60950-1, but did not explain what in particular about the Mac Pro desktop is in violation.
Halting sales of the Mac Pro won't have much of an effect on Apple's bottom line, as the high-end professional desktop is largely a niche product for the company.
In fact, it's possible that the situation may have no effect at all on customers in Europe, as Apple has already revealed it's planning to update the Mac Pro this year. It's possible that Apple could update its aging desktop ? and subsequently comply with European regulations ? before sales are halted.
However, no timetable has been given for the Mac Pro update, with Apple only indicating that it will arrive sometime this year. Even analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who detailed Apple's planned product roadmap earlier this month, offered no indication as to when the new Mac Pro may arrive.
Apple's full letter provided to resellers on Thursday is included below:
Apple announced that sales will halt in a month in a letter the company sent to resellers on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors. The company cited Amendment 1 of Regulation IEC 60950-1, but did not explain what in particular about the Mac Pro desktop is in violation.
Halting sales of the Mac Pro won't have much of an effect on Apple's bottom line, as the high-end professional desktop is largely a niche product for the company.
In fact, it's possible that the situation may have no effect at all on customers in Europe, as Apple has already revealed it's planning to update the Mac Pro this year. It's possible that Apple could update its aging desktop ? and subsequently comply with European regulations ? before sales are halted.
However, no timetable has been given for the Mac Pro update, with Apple only indicating that it will arrive sometime this year. Even analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who detailed Apple's planned product roadmap earlier this month, offered no indication as to when the new Mac Pro may arrive.
Apple's full letter provided to resellers on Thursday is included below:
As of March 1, 2013, Apple will no longer sell Mac Pro in EU, EU candidate and EFTA countries because these systems are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date. Apple resellers can continue to sell any remaining inventory of Mac Pro after March 1.
Apple will take final orders for Mac Pro from resellers up until February 18th for shipment before March 1, 2013.
Countries outside of the EU are not impacted and Mac Pro will continue to be available in those areas.
Comments
Maybe a power consumption issue?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 65C816
The new Mac Pro - a stack of Mac Minis in the Mac Pro box!
A rack like box with hot pluggable CPU/disk modules could be interesting.
Search for the word "significant" to find the changes that matter.
http://www.elliottlabs.com/documents/60950_requirements.pdf
Here's an overview of the amendment, since there's… nothing saying anything about it in the article.
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I would take this to mean the replacement to the current Mac Pro is unlikely to launch in Europe before March 1st otherwise this letter would be moot.
Could be made to cover any and all refurb sales after said launch.
Any pre-purchased items they can sell. Refurbs arrive as Apple has the stock and they could simply not sell any refurbs to 3rd party retailers, which I'm not even sure they do right now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerk36
Maybe a power consumption issue?
That's the only thing I can think of too.
It's kind of stupid reason, but the Europeans always have screwy laws too.
Don't go to Italy unless you have a LOT of cash in your pocket to pay for tickets driving a car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronbo
The problem turns out to be that the fans are "unprotected"... but you have to open the case to get at those unprotected fans. Jeez.
Jesus, its not like the fans will cut your fingers off if you accidentally stick them in there. When I had my MacPro, I can't recall them spinning very fast to begin with.
Originally Posted by Ronbo
The problem turns out to be that the fans are "unprotected"... but you have to open the case to get at those unprotected fans. Jeez.
If that's the case, then good for Apple. They're basically saying, "You know absolutely nothing about cooling systems, so we're not going to sacrifice the quality of our device or engineering to meet your uninformed requirement."
Who's actually buying these things?
I've been dying to buy a new Mac Pro for years but there's o way I'm spending several thousand on such old tech.
How long have thunderbolt ports been out? So much for a 'PRO' machine...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronbo
The problem turns out to be that the fans are "unprotected"... but you have to open the case to get at those unprotected fans. Jeez.
What's your source on that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by drblank
That's the only thing I can think of too.
It's kind of stupid reason, but the Europeans always have screwy laws too.
Passing laws to limit power consumption to take some load off an already taxed grid is stupid. Yes, those screwy Europeans. Unlike in the US, Europeans actually stand up to corporate interests.
Like going after MS for their illegal practices on webbrowser build in OS and getting €497M from them. And repeating that a few years later. Those screwy Euro laws you mean?
You forgot to start your post with ' as a hardcore Apple user for the past 35 years it pains me to say'.
If you are dying to buy a Mac Pro then buy a Mac Pro. Pretty simply, really. If you don't need it, then don't.
[URL=http://www.i-spec.com/IEC_60950/index_to_iec_60950.html]link[/URL]
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
Passing laws to limit power consumption to take some load off an already taxed grid is stupid.
Yes, it is stupid and quite totalitarian. Even though the trend in recent years has been towards lower powered CPUs and mobile devices, if somebody wishes to buy a computer that consumes a bit more power, then nobody should be able to come along and tell them that they can't, especially not a bunch of hypocritical weenies in the EU. A Mac Pro should be damn powerful and not be constrained by any ridiculous energy requirements. If I'm laying down thousands of dollars for a Mac Pro, I demand a beast of a machine, and one that is not limited in any way.
If it is a power issue, then Apple should either halt all sales of the Mac Pro to the EU region, as there probably aren't too many pros there anyway. Or Apple can release a lower powered model for the EU region in which half of the cores are disabled.