Jo-Kun said:
just imagine having a slightly thicker 20" flatpanel with everything in there in the back, connectors on the side and an i/powerbook type of combo/superdrive built in. allso standard BT built-in and delivered with apple's BT desktop, mayb a wireless audiosystem, so no cables to attach, only one powercable and it's ready to run that would be nice and clean & since I don't like the sphere & arm on the iMac now I think this could look nice
so basically you just want one of
these gateway machines.
steve jobs said when the last imac was released that apple would never design a computer like this because the only space conscious way to put the optical drive behind the LCD is to do exactly what that gateway i linked to did: situate the drive vertically. steve said apple would never do this because vertical is not the natural position for an optical drive--horizontal is. it slows read time and is a bit cumbersome--no one likes messing with the kind of drive where you have to pop the CD onto the little mount (like a laptop tray drive). plus if it's on the side its not as easy to access and might be tougher to reach.
if i had to make a guess, i'd say the new imac is going to look like the current one with some major cosmetic changes. but the current imac is a great design for a lot of reasons: it puts it optical drive in an accessible, horizontal position; it has a small footprint; the ports are accesible; it packs a lot of stuff into a pretty small area and has room for cooling and the like; the screen is easy to situate so that it's comfortable to look at. the design you proposed goes against all these things: makes the optical drive vertical, forces everything into an even small area, and behind the LCD no less, giving less room for cooling, makes the screen itself heavy and cumbersome to move to a comfortable position. your idea goes against most of what is highly ergonomic and useable about the current iMac. if you want a G5 in there, i hate to tell you, but there is no chance that the new imac will look like your proposal.