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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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During the Q&A portion of today's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about the number of product releases in the fall of 2012 and whether he wished Apple had done things differently.

His answer was somewhat revealing, as Apple is usually hesitant to disclose internal discussions and deliberations, but Cook said that looking back, he would have delayed the release of the new iMac until 2013 to avoid some of the delays that many customers experienced after ordering a new Mac.

newimac-500x372.jpg
I don't spend a lot of time looking back except to learn from it. If we could run it over, I'd announce the iMac after the turn of the year. We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product.
Apple's new iMacs, first announced in October, experienced significant delays in shipping, presumably due to the thinness of the machine. The displays required a new manufacturing process along with advanced welding techniques, causing some customers to wait for weeks before receiving their orders.

During Apple's Q1 earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that the iMac was constrained for the entire quarter, resulting in a "significant shortage".

The above quote is from a rough transcript of the earnings call

Article Link: Tim Cook Would Have Preferred to Announce the New iMac in January
 

64Mario64

macrumors regular
Mar 14, 2013
192
2
Welding techniques? Are these things welded together?! After experiencing the extreme ease of opening an iMac G5, the fact that my 2006 Intel iMac had @#$%ING DUCT TAPE in it was shocking.
 

JSchwartz15

macrumors regular
Mar 21, 2012
119
4
Seeing as I was lucky enough to get mine in early/mid December, can't say I would have been happy with this! haha :D
 

Mike Valmike

macrumors 6502a
Feb 27, 2012
551
0
Chandler, Arizona
And if he had planned to announce the iMac redesign in early 2013, probably they could have done a spec bump in summer 2012 which would have made so much more sense and made so many more people happy and so much more profit than doing it how they did.
 

bungiefan89

macrumors 6502a
Apr 5, 2011
565
76
It would have been interesting if they went along with that plan... although delaying them until 2013 would have put nearly a two-year gap between releases...

Not that the 2011 iMac is anything to sneeze at! My 27" baby is still running very strong since I got it almost two years ago! :)
 

acorntoy

macrumors 68000
May 25, 2010
1,997
2,211
How long ago was Maps released? Why are people still complaining about Maps? It's not even a big deal. Don't like it, download one of the other billion map applications.

Because people can only really think of only two massive mess ups when it involves apple in recent years, and the other one was all the way back with the iPhone 4.
 

GREEN4U

macrumors 6502a
Mar 24, 2010
678
392
Wow, so he would've delayed a product that was perfectly fine and ready to go? Somebody please get rid of this guy for good.
 

acorntoy

macrumors 68000
May 25, 2010
1,997
2,211
It would have been interesting if they went along with that plan... although delaying them until 2013 would have put nearly a two-year gap between releases...

Not that the 2011 iMac is anything to sneeze at! My 27" baby is still running very strong since I got it almost two years ago! :)

My 2009 is still running perfectly as well.

----------

Wow, so he would've delayed a product that was perfectly fine and ready to go? Somebody please get rid of this guy for good.

But it wasn't. Supplies were significantly constrained. But let's just keep attacking anybody that isn't Jobs :rolleyes:
 

cole01

macrumors 6502
Dec 29, 2008
304
0
If anything, I think the new iMac should've been called the "early 2013" version as opposed to "late 2012". Most people had to wait until 2013 anyway! That was the most grueling wait I've ever experienced from an Apple launch...and I've preordered my fair share of iPhones and iPads. It was worth it though, I love this computer.
 

rdlink

macrumors 68040
Nov 10, 2007
3,226
2,435
Out of the Reach of the FBI
Wow, so he would've delayed a product that was perfectly fine and ready to go? Somebody please get rid of this guy for good.

Definition of a product that's ready to go: I click order, and they assemble it and ship it to me in a reasonable amount of time (under three months). It was not "ready to go."

There's more to releasing a product that you want to sell than designing it. You need to be able to supply it to the customers who buy it.

It was a mistake to announce it before it was ready to ship in any quantity. Glad he owned up to it.
 

pirg

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2013
618
0
Because people can only really think of only two massive mess ups when it involves apple in recent years, and the other one was all the way back with the iPhone 4.

Also when android gives you choice it's all types of awesome, but if apple gives you a choice it's because they've failed miserably!
 

A Hebrew

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2012
846
2
Minnesota
First thing I thought of was how big of a slap in the face this is to Mac Pro users when he said "We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product."
 

31 Flavas

macrumors 6502a
Jun 4, 2011
775
406
Tim Cook quickly added though, "Not wrong about killing the DVD drive. Screw optical disk drives. Stevey J wanted to murder them long ago. I'm just carrying out his will."
 

chrisrayb

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2012
8
0
Wut

Pretty much sums it up.
2013 Trolling Award goes to...
 

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rumplestiltskin

macrumors 6502
Apr 12, 2006
284
103
Jony Ive, the destroyer of worlds

If I had designed a product that was so difficult to manufacture that it resulted in a three month delay in order fulfillment, Apple would have sacked me. Instead, Jony Ive gets a raise, more responsibilities, and the ability to destroy Apple almost single-handedly.

By the way, I've had a few conversations with the techies who will have to repair the new iMacs when, for example, a hard drive goes south. They believe this design (double-faced tape to affix the screen) is ludicrous. The ones who have actually had practice with the repair believe there will be displays broken as a result of this design.
 

Elijahg

macrumors 6502
May 23, 2005
269
174
Bath, UK
By the way, I've had a few conversations with the techies who will have to repair the new iMacs when, for example, a hard drive goes south.

I completely agree with you, Apple seems to be getting rather OCD about shaving off another 0.Xmm just for the sake of it, which is completely unnecessary on a desktop. When was the last time you heard anyone say "I wish my iMac was thinner"...?

It's pretty ridiculous too that they have to use an expensive and slower mobile CPU and GPU just so they can save a few millimetres... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't loose any sales by having perhaps an internal PCI slot with the GPU in, which would have fitted in the older aluminium design no problem. How about user-upgradable RAM too? What happened to that?
 
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