Apple managed to split opinions more widely than ever this year. The iPhone 7 lost the headphone jack, the MacBook Pro refresh was disappointing for power-hungry professionals, and the desktop line of Mac computers hasn't seen any love for years, suggesting to some that Macs on the desktop may in fact be dead.

Tim Cook put the record straight yesterday, however, and gave some hope to Apple fans desperate for a new desktop computer.

As reported by TechCrunch, as part of a wider post on an internal Apple employee message board, Cook was asked the question, "We had a big MacBook Pro launch in October and a powerful upgrade to the MacBook back in the spring. Are Mac desktops strategic for us?"

Cook responded by reassuring employees that, "the desktop is very strategic for us." He went on to point out that, "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." Most importantly, he confirmed that Mac desktops are not dead, "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."

There's no detail beyond that. We don't know when new Macs will be announced, and we don't know if Cook is referring to the iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, or all three. That's a shame, as I think we've reached a point now where Apple is unfairly asking existing Mac owners to wait too long for their next hardware purchase.

The last time the Mac Pro received a hardware refresh was December 19, 2013. The iMac and Mac Mini were last refreshed on October 16, 2014. Clearly they are all well overdue for new components to bring them in line with what non-Mac desktops offer in terms of performance in 2016.