The International Electrotechnical Commission has forced Apple to stop selling the Mac Pro in European countries. Apple has officially announced the news to its retail partners, and all sales for the Mac Pro will come to a halt after February 18th. The U.S. remains unaffected.
The reason for the sales ban has to do with updated European regulatory requirements relating to fan guards and electrical port protection. Apple has previously confirmed that a new Mac Pro is coming later in 2013, and the updated product should pass inspection just fine.
“The new requirements necessitate fan guards and some increased protection on the ports on the electrical system,” explained Apple to Macworld UK. “Because Mac Pro is not compliant with the regulations, we do want to meet that regulation and therefore not offer Mac Pro beyond 1 March.”
It’s not that the Mac Pro is a dangerous product, but the computer hasn’t received a significant update since 2010. Apple updated some of the internals in 2012, and Tim Cook later said that “we’re working on something really great for later next year.” That’s a very, very rare example of Apple telling us about a future product.
Apple has given a deadline of February 18th for new orders in Europe so it has time to assemble and ship before March. Sales will cease in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
Source: Macworld UK
