Reliable source says no chance Apple will ax Mac Pro

One well-connected insider has given Mac users hope that Apple will release a new Mac Pro with a comment that there is no chance Apple will discontinue the line.

Jim Dalrymple of The Loop made the remarks on Wednesday during his "Amplified" podcast with Dan Benjamin, as noted by Marco Arment. Dalrymple has a proven track record with Apple predictions.

When asked by Benjamin if there is "any chance" that Apple will get rid of the Mac Pro, Dalrymple simply replied, "No." After a few seconds of silence, Benjamin followed up by asking "You're really confident in that? You feel good about that?"

Dalrymple responded by laughing. "Good, that's what I want to hear," Benjamin said before moving on.

Arment compared the exchange to a blog post by Dalrymple from February that succinctly confirmed a rumor of a March 7 iPad launch with the word "Yep." That report turned out to be accurate, as Apple did in fact hold its 2012 iPad launch on March 7.

Some sources have suggested that Apple may have been questioning the long-term viability of the Mac Pro, which was last updated in July 2010. For its part, the company has remained characteristically silent on the matter.

AppleInsider contacted Apple last week for comment on the status of the Mac Pro, but it did not hear back from the company.

Mac Pro petition

Dalrymple's confidence in the continued existence of Apple's Mac workstation comes as a Facebook petition calling for Apple to inform customers about the fate of the Mac Pro has been attracting attention. As of late Wednesday, the page had garnered more than 14,000 "likes" since the page was created in early May.

AppleInsider spoke with the page's creator, professional video editor Lou Borella, earlier this week. Though Borella admitted that he is hoping for a new Mac Pro with upgraded specifications, he said that the only thing he's asking for from Apple is an indication whether he and others should continue waiting for a new machine or make other plans.

"All they (Apple) have to do is say four words: 'Pro users, stay tuned,'" he said. "That's all they would have to say and the the 13,000+ people that are on the site right now would breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Apple still sees us, they're still committed...Everybody's patience meter which has gone all the way completely to frustrated would just automatically be reset back to zero."

Borella noted that Apple customers commonly experience "angst" when buying a product because "they're scared to death that they bought it too late in the life cycle" and Apple will release a new version the next week.

"No one's going to buy [the current Mac Pro] as it sits now for fear that next week Apple's going to say, 'Here's the new one,'" he added.

One AppleInsider reader did, however, report earlier this spring that he had in fact ordered a custom Mac Pro. The machine had seen repeated delays and had yet to ship as of April.

Interestingly enough, Borella's petition may be an example of the customer interaction Apple inspires that prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to leave Compaq and join the Mac maker in 1998.

Cook said in an interview on Tuesday that he was impressed back then by the fact that Apple customers, unlike those of other PC makers, would get mad at the company but still continue to buy their products. "An Apple customer was a unique breed," he added, noting that customers connect with the company's products on an emotional level.