17-inch iMac to Stop Production?

[MacRumors]

Digitimes reporst that the 17" flat-panel iMac will terminate production in June.

Digitimes originally reported that the 15-inch iMac would stop production in October and claism that it has done so.

The 15" iMac is still being offered by Apple at this time.

This production halt may simply be related to switching suppliers per ArsTechnica

 

[DHagan4755]

Didn't I read that they stopped production because they're were going to be manufatured at another manufacturing company?

 

[ddtlm]

If this is true, I wonder what they would replace both iMac models with... perhaps standard-shaped 17" LCD's that don't cost as much? Hmmm. Odd.

 

[Hemingray]

That doesn't sound right. What are these guys on?

The 17" is the perfect size, IMO. I still say they will never make a 19", and there's nothing wrong with the 15" either.

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by ddtlm
If this is true, I wonder what they would replace both iMac models with... perhaps standard-shaped 17" LCD's that don't cost as much? Hmmm. Odd.

Or maybe same size as existing models, but with a touch-screen display that had to be manufacured elsewhere. Or forget touchscreen, maybe it's a whole removable iPad display!

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by Hemingray
That doesn't sound right. What are these guys on?

The 17" is the perfect size, IMO. I still say they will never make a 19", and there's nothing wrong with the 15" either.

Yeah man, I work on a 15" LCD all day and I have no complaints about it. Apple should be lowering their prices, not adding larger and larger screens (not that they're mutually exclusive, but the focus should be on lowering prices...)

 

[DHagan4755]

Well here's the link regarding changing production facilities:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=5746

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by DHagan4755
Didn't I read that they stopped production because they're were going to be manufatured at another manufacturing company?

I dunno, the article implies that the 15" iMac production was halted in October because iMac sales "stalled in June". Could Apple really just have been selling from their inventory since October? That would certainly explain why there have been no iMac updates in a year! I guess Apple vastly overestimated demand for the iMac, and had to hold off on updates until it could clear out its huge inventory. Hopefully this inventory's been cleared away enough now for Apple to make an update....

 

[e-coli]

maybe they're not selling well. maybe it's going to suffer the same fate as the cube. anyone know?

 

[mymemory]

I know that some times when a comopany produces too many unites they destroy them, they take a truck and run over the units

About 20 years ago there was a tv factory here in Venezuela (a Sony factory) and some times when they produced too many tv they do that.

Can you imagine to run over a iMac?

That would be like killing a dolphing or something like that

 

[arnette]

honda did the same thing

In regards to the Sony TVs, Honda did the same thing to a boatload (literally) of Civics that it was shipping to California. For some reason that I forget now, they didn't pass emissions inspections or some other requirement and the Japanese company decided to park them at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean instead of waste the fuel to ship them back to Japan. Crazy.

Anyway, I doubt this is what's happening to FP iMacs. I think someone's got their wires crossed. I could understand this news bit being confused with a switch in manufacterers

 

[lmalave]

Re: 17-inch iMac to Stop Production?

Originally posted by Macrumors
Digitimes reporst that the 17" flat-panel iMac will terminate production in June.

Digitimes originally reported that the 15-inch iMac would stop production in October and claism that it has done so.

The 15" iMac is still being offered by Apple at this time.

Hahaha! Check out another Digitimes article listed on the same page, with the headline "Intel executives found not guilty of damaging VIA balloons":

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2003/01/02&pages=04&seq=27

 

[CyberZorn]

Apple's already done this, that is bury unsold macs. I forget which model though. It was around 1983 or 4 maybe. I remeber reading about it in a book apple confidential. Don't have it here at work though to refference.

 

[Taft]

This doesn't sound right.

This doesn't sound right to me...and a lot of other people. I'm particularly surprised to hear that they supposedly have already stopped production of the 15" iMacs. Also, what are they going to sell if they don't make the 17" iMacs? You can't tell me they have months and months worth of inventory just lying around. After the disasterous inventory backlog of a few years back, Apple should have learned their lesson.

Also, there's this from the slashdot forums. It basically contends that Apple is still making the 15" iMacs dispite the article's contention that they stopped in October. Not the most credible source, but interesting if it is true...

STOP THE FUD (Score:5, Informative)
by blackfly (122455)
...
I am an Apple Reseller. This is all wrong. As others have pointed out the 15" LCD iMac is absolutly still being made. I have proof that both the 15" and 17" are being produced.
Apple serial numbers include the week the product was produced. I got a delivery this very morning of both 15" and 17" made in the first week of december 2002.

blackfly

Taft

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by e-coli
maybe they're not selling well. maybe it's going to suffer the same fate as the cube. anyone know?

The sales numbers do seem pretty sucky, though not as bad as the Cube. I mean the original iMac sold, what, about 6 million units in 2 or 3 years? Looks like the FP iMac is not even reaching half that rate I don't see Apple abandoning the iMac though - I think they really believe in the design and attribute poor sales to the overall tech downturn.

Hey, here's an idea I haven't heard: maybe the iMac will feature a removable screen, not because it's an iPad, but just for modularity, so if you bought a 15" iMac you could buy a larger display later. All you'd have to do is connect the cables and "click" it in (of course they would have to redesign the connection to the lever arm to make this possible). This might help alleviate people's fears about the unupgradeability of an all-in-one machine. Plus you could buy a stand for your old removable 15" display and use it as a monitor for another computer. Just an idea - I know it would make me more likely to buy an iMac.

 

[rainman::|:|]

Originally posted by CyberZorn
Apple's already done this, that is bury unsold macs. I forget which model though. It was around 1983 or 4 maybe. I remeber reading about it in a book apple confidential. Don't have it here at work though to refference.

Can anyone confirm this? it's certainly happened with other products - Atari buried over 10 million game carts, many of them disfunctional ET games, in the early 80's. Ran a steamroller over them and poured concrete in. Rumor says that one of their warehouses was built on such a burial ground as well

one would think they could disassemble these things, but it must be cost-prohibitive. Kinda sad, all that pollution...


pnw

 

[Max72118]

My first thought

My first thought was that the demise of the current flat panel design may tie with the "ornamental appearance" patent article that was mentioned a few days ago. - Perhaps there will be a new incarnation of the iMac that will be able to alter its own appearance.

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by paulwhannel


Can anyone confirm this? it's certainly happened with other products - Atari buried over 10 million game carts, many of them disfunctional ET games, in the early 80's. Ran a steamroller over them and poured concrete in. Rumor says that one of their warehouses was built on such a burial ground as well

one would think they could disassemble these things, but it must be cost-prohibitive. Kinda sad, all that pollution...


pnw

Forget disassembling them - they should donate them to a charitable foundation that would carefully distribute them. Make sure they get sent to folks that would never, ever buy a Mac (so for example they couldn't just give the machines to schools in the U.S., otherwise they might get the idea that if they don't buy Macs they'll eventually just get them for free...)

 

[midiman]

Originally posted by CyberZorn
Apple's already done this, that is bury unsold macs. I forget which model though. It was around 1983 or 4 maybe. I remeber reading about it in a book apple confidential. Don't have it here at work though to refference.

It was the Lisa. Here's a link.

http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/lisa.htm

 

[dtremit]

Wasn't the 15" Studio Display discontinued around October? If so, and we can assume the author was just confused, then maybe the 17" Studio Display is what's getting the axe, in favor of a 19" model. Seems much more plausible to me.

Also, the buried Macs were Lisas (or Mac XLs, probably, at that point.)

d.

 

[Kid Red]

MacRumors- You need to edit your first post as it implies the Imac is dead. I believe they are meerly switching suppliers.

 

[MrMacMan]

Yeah nothing *major* is happening unless they change designs, which I doubt.
Anyways, I don't like apple killing off choices, leave the 15 and 17" iMacs the way they are, don't kill em.

anyway this is totally false, killing BOTH models makes no sense inless they are doing something *very dramitic* like selling the company to sony or [/insert random rumor company] or something.

 

[ffakr]

load of crap

The same source, digitimes, has a link to another of their articles at the bottom of this one...
They wrote that Apple would ship a 19" iMac in Quarter 3 of 2002.

I'd say that is about as creditable as Apple stopping 17" iMac production soon.. or the claim that they are still selling 15" iMac stock from October.

I'm sure it'd be easy to refute the last claim. Anyone got a new iMac? check the production date... Apple always puts it somewhere.. usually in firmware.

 

[whfsdude]

Re: 17-inch iMac to Stop Production?

TAIPEI (AFX-ASIA) - Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (2317.TW) has replaced

LG Electronics Co as the sole supplier of Apple Computer Inc's iMac/eMac desktop

PCs, with 2003 shipments estimated at up to 1.0 mln units, the Economic Daily

News reported without citing a source.

While Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (2475.TW) will provide 17-inch monitors for

the eMac machines, AU Optronics Corp (2409.TW) has been certified as a TFT-LCD

panel supplier to Apple Computer, it said.

http://library.northernlight.com/MC20030101260000054.html?cb=0&dx=2006&sc=0#doc

 

[foniks2020]

Sounds like iMac got pasted in

I'm of the opinion that the 'source' of this rumor was confused about which 15 in., 17in. and 19 in. products were being revised... sounds more like the LCD Display line is getting this treatment, not the iMacs... well the 15in. iMac may be discontinued eventually.

If this is the case then this is just a rehashed OLD rumor that everyone already knows about... seems like they added 'iMac' to the story with the plausible excuse that they were slightly mistaken... just to get more hits, etc.

Scam-artists. That's all.