MacRumors.com

Apple's recent financial results numbers revealed that last quarter a full 70% of their computer sales were notebooks. While the general industry trend has also been towards notebook sales, part of the reason for Apple's dramatic shift has been a lack of recent Mac Pro updates. Apple last updated the Mac Pro over a year ago in January of 2008.

Several MacRumors forum members have been closely tracking all the possible Mac Pro news in lengthy discussion thread in our forums. Forum member Tallest Skil has even organized an extensive (though speculative) summary post of what might be expected in the next Mac Pro.

Readers waiting for the new Mac Pro, however, received a useful tidbit of news last week from Fuzilla.com. According to their report, Intel is expected to finally start selling Nehalem-based Xeon processors on March 29th, 2009. (Though some retailers are already showing them in stock).

These Nehalem Xeon processors are expected to be used in the next generation Mac Pro and should provide substantial performance boosts over existing models. The last we had heard of their release was simply 1st Quarter 2009. These Nehalem Xeon processors have been previously described as "ridiculously fast".

Unfortunately, Intel's release date does not guarantee a simultaneous Apple announcement, but should indicate a refresh is drawing near.