European customers lose the Mac Pro on March 1, maybe earlier

Product safety regulations, how do they work? European regulators are requiring adherence to UL's 60950-1 second edition standards, which originally came into effect in late 2010. The rules cover power supply design and other technical specifications.

As reported in Macworld, the Mac Pro's 2010-era design doesn't meet the new spec, and Apple is ceasing sales of the tower machine in Europe as of March 1 to comply with the regulatory cutoff. Tim Cook has previously said that 2013 will see a revamp of the heavy-duty Mac form factor, which currently offers expandability at the cost of modern I/O like Thunderbolt.

Even though the Mac Pro could technically be sold for one more month, UK reader Terry Hall in Devon reports that his local retailer had already sent back all the Mac Pro inventory in stock. While it would be nice to think that we'll see an all-new Mac Pro before the end of Q1 2013, more likely that it will debut at WWDC this summer instead.