A few weeks ago, Microsoft released the Surface Studio, its first foray into desktops under the Surface product line. Meanwhile, Apple did not release - nor announce - a new iMac. However, the company's CEO, Tim Cook, has promised that a "great" desktop is in the works and will soon be released into the market.

As TechCrunch notes, Apple focused heavily in their portable products this year, which is why the public started to believe that it was no longer interested in desktops. In addition, it seemed that things were already going downhill for the Cupertino-based company anyway. The media attention was so dense that it reached Cook, who correspondingly set the record straight with his team.

"Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we're committed to desktops," he wrote in an employee message board. "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."

Cook went on to say that desktops are important - making a new and revamped iMac a priority. He acknowledged that a desktop offers power, storage and memory that a portable device just cannot compete with at this point. Desktops, as he said, are "really important and, in some cases, critical to people." He went on to clarify that the desktops is a very crucial item to have in the company's arsenal.

The future of Apple is unclear, but there is definite hope and hype for the company's planned products. However, the numbers are not at the level that most investors would want it to be. As Fortune notes, Apple's fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on September 24, generated about US$5.7 billion in revenue. And while the number is staggering on its own, it illustrates a 17 percent decline from the same period of the previous fiscal year.