Hoping to mollify impatient fans of Apple Inc.’s desktop Mac personal computers, Chief Executive Tim Cook Monday said the company has “great desktops in our roadmap.”

Admirers of the Mac desktop had every reason to feel Apple was no longer interested in the PC given the lack of upgrades and the thriving business of powerful portable machines. The newest iMac is now more than a year old, while the Mac mini and Mac Pro haven’t been updated since 2104 and 2013, respectively.

Only last month Cook debated the longevity of the personal computer at an event in the UK. “I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” Cook was reported as saying.

In a post on an employee message board, clearly intended to be revealed to the public, however, Cook appeared to backtrack. In view of the growing concern Apple might be ready to axe the desktop, Cook came back with a resounding response extolling the company’s “unique,” “important” and “critical” desktop products as “very strategic” for Apple.

Not that Cook needed to remind users, he relayed the fact that the desktops were still bigger, faster and more powerful, offering more memory and other features. Cook concluded the missive by writing, “Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops. 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.”

This still might not placate desktop users who are all too aware that while the Mac Pro hasn’t seen an update for three years, even though from 2006 to 2013 it received one every year. The Mac mini has faced a similar dearth of updates, although the iMac is not in the same league. Last year Apple launched the iMac with Retina 5k display, which garnered universal acclaim.

There has been much talk of the death of both desktops and laptops in the tech media, buttressed by the fact that worldwide sales are in the decline.

Photo credit: DeclanTM via Flickr