iMac sale at MacMall - spring line phased out?

[Ambrose Chapel]

I got a MacMall catalog in the mail yesterday - they put the iMacs on sale. Is this in indication that new iMacs are coming in the near future? It's been about 5 months. I would hope Apple refreshes the line before school starts up in the Fall.

[Ensoniq]

As a general rule, Apple refreshes every product line about once every 6 months. I would say that yes...the iMacs are due for an update. Seems unlikely that it will be the G5 update we'd all hope for until AFTER the PowerBooks have G5 chips. But mark my words...the first iMac update AFTER the PowerBook G5 update WILL include G5 chips in the iMac line.

Any G5 chip with enough heat/power disappation to run inside the enclosed space of a PowerBook will run just fine in the iMac dome. Apple is not going to wait a year to get a G5 into an iMac "just because" this time. That was only necessary in the past with a stagnating Motorola, and where the only advantage of a G4 over a G3 was AltiVec. The G5 is significantly better than the G3 and the G4, and Apple must know the public will be demanding that chip across the entire Apple line in no more than 1 year from now.

The iMac G5 chips will match whatever the low-end single processor G5 chip is when they are released, just like the iMac G4 1 GHz matched the PowerMac G4 1 GHz now. That right there is proof that Apple doesn't need to keep the G5 out of the iMacs just to avoid competing with the PowerMac line. That argument against seeing the G5 move to Apple's entirely lineup quickly remains spurious at best.

But for this upcoming iMac update...I'd expect G4 chips. Possibly the 1.42 GHz chips previously sold in the Dual high-end PowerMacs. Since Apple discontinued selling that machine, and dropped down to 1.25 GHz chips, maybe it's so that Apple can take all the remaining stock of 1.42 chips and use them on the iMac instead. Wouldn't THAT be a nice surprise? A 42% jump in MHz in the new iMac. That would certainly be a fair placeholder until the iMac G5 is possible.

[evil]

im waiting on the next upgrade to the imac probably before i buy one.

[cubist]

I don't think the iMac will go to the 1.42GHz 7455's, because it doesn't have the substantial cooling system required.

There are rumors floating around that 7457's are going into the PowerBooks tho, and that's what's holding up PB updates. If that's the case, I'd expect the iMac to get a 7457 at around 1.2GHz as well.

Other than that, I agree with Ensoniq that Apple is not going to be slow about getting a G5 into the iMac. It's the top of the line consumer machine. It needs a G5 and a Radeon 9600 or better.

[Ambrose Chapel]

Well after looking through the catalog they have every type of Mac on sale, even the recently updated eMac and iBooks, so maybe I read more into this than there is.

As for what I'd like to see, yeah there's no shot for a G5 iMac for awhile, but I think it will get a pretty good bump this time around. I also hope that the low-end model gets feature parity with the 17" model. As it stands now the 15" iMac is pretty unattractive. For the same price you get an eMac with better specs in every way.

[ibookin']

I see on the website that a $1294 iMac has been discounted to... *drumroll*

$1287.05

Wow. A savings of $6.95. I could almost buy some iKlear for the LCD :rolleyes:

Although this is on their online store. They may have something better in the catalog.

[Ambrose Chapel]

originally posted by ibookin'
I see on the website that a $1294 iMac has been discounted to... *drumroll*

$1287.05

Wow. A savings of $6.95. I could almost buy some iKlear for the LCD

Although this is on their online store. They may have something better in the catalog.

hahaha..yeah, the catalog says to call for the amazing too low to print sale price...probably just marketing b.s.

[applemacdude]

Someone should call 'em and see how much it is...Nothing more than b.s like ambrose said.

[mislabeledstar]

macmall has "sales" all the time, they knock off like 5 bucks and throw in a printer and bam! marketing at its finest

[Sabenth]

i find it highly amusing this g5 stuff the whole line up of the new processor indicates that the Power Mac is going to be pushed first its the model apple wants to push the most but baring in mind that most people want a system that is ceap but fast as well i think seeing a g5 i mac tis year is a sure hit even maybe a g5 e mac as well but then again could be way of track and some one at apple is problay laughing there head of at the idea i know what i wouldnt mind seeing on all the apple products a bare minimum of 256 memory instead of 128 sdram its just plain stupied...


Bump up the ram and ill be very happy indeed..

[djtet]

i have seen it in other threads, as well as this one, and it seems that everyone wants to "just put a g5 in it"
now i'm not that involved in technical specs of computers, but wouldn't it be difficult to just throw a g5 into any of apple's current computers. wouldn't each computer (powerbook, imac, emac, xserve) need a redesign of the motherboard, cooling system, etc.??? i'm not an expert, but i think if it was that easy to just put a g5 in it, apple would already have their entire lineup of all machines running the g5...

[Ambrose Chapel]

originally posted by djtet
now i'm not that involved in technical specs of computers, but wouldn't it be difficult to just throw a g5 into any of apple's current computers. wouldn't each computer (powerbook, imac, emac, xserve) need a redesign of the motherboard, cooling system, etc.??? i'm not an expert, but i think if it was that easy to just put a g5 in it, apple would already have their entire lineup of all machines running the g5...

not necessarily - apple will put the new chip in their highest margin product, which i believe is the power mac. that way all the people who need the G5 right away will buy it and apple will maximize their profits.

as for the technical aspect, i think the PPC 970 runs too hot for the iMac.