After letting its most powerful and expensive Mac go 1,202 days without an update, Apple (AAPL) picked Tuesday to enlighten potential Mac Pro buyers about the future of its flagship desktop computer.

The Mac Pro will not, in fact, stay frozen in its late-2013 incarnation. Sometime after this year, Apple will finally ship a completely rebuilt version of the desktop. What’s more, the company’s iMac, which has gone 539 days without a refresh, will also see an update later this year.

Apple even said it was sorry for leaving its customers wondering if the Mac Pro had a future. But this gesture at transparency doesn’t mean Apple will now be as public with its product road maps as, say, its environmental efforts. This company — like many others in the tech business — remains deeply devoted to parceling out information about its hardware on its own terms, as frustrating as that can be for its customers.

Hard-where?

As Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber, TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino, Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff, Axios’s Ina Fried, and BuzzFeed’s John Paczkowski separately wrote after attending a Monday briefing near Apple’s headquarters, a reborn Mac Pro will sacrifice the current model’s titanium-trash-can style in favor of a design that eases storage and processing upgrades.

As an interim step, Apple has bumped up the specifications on the existing model and offered an uncharacteristic apology to customers.

“If we’ve had a pause in upgrades and updates on that, we’re sorry for that,” Panzarino quoted Apple marketing vice president Phil Schiller.

The iMac, meanwhile, will get a less comprehensive update than the Mac Pro later this year. The five writers had fewer details to share about that desktop, aside from the hint that Apple will offer models geared toward professional users.

Apple’s all-in-one iMac is also getting a refresh. Schiller also revealed that desktops still make up 20% of Apple’s computer sales — a data point Apple last seems to have shared in 2012, when desktops held a 25% share.

There’s still no word on Apple’s two other neglected computer lines — the MacBook Air, which has now gone 758 days without an update, and Mac mini, now neglected for 902 days.

Opacity and openness

It’s crazy for Apple to offer even a vague outline of a future product given its history of secrecy regarding devices. When I asked Apple PR if the company had anything to say about the MacBook Air and Mac mini, a representative declined to comment on unannounced products.

But while this tight control of information helps Apple crank up excitement before each product launch and hasn’t hurt its stock price (from the Dec. 19, 2013 release of the Mac Pro to today, it’s nearly doubled in value), this opacity can hurt customers’ confidence in the company.