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2011 Thunderbolt iMac w/ SSD Shipment Tracker

Don't hold your breath.

On the 21.5", if you get just the 256GB SSD, the shipment time is still 2 to 3 weeks. Only if you spec the 256GB SSD with a 1TB or 2TB drive, the shipment time falls to 5 to 7 days.

That doesn't seem right. I expect one of those to get corrected.
 
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mrfoof82 said:
Don't hold your breath.

On the 21.5", if you get just the 256GB SSD, the shipment time is still 2 to 3 weeks. Only if you spec the 256GB SSD with a 1TB or 2TB drive, the shipment time falls to 5 to 7 days.

That doesn't seem right. I expect one of those to get corrected.
Click to expand...

Not for me. It shows 5-7 business days all around (with any SSD option)
 
Yeah it's 5-7 business days for all the 21" SSD BTO options when I check in the US Apple Store....
 
Not here. Cache flushed, still comes up as 2-3 weeks for just the SSD on the higher-end SKU. 5 to 7 days if you include a drive.

C8fSl.png
 
Still 4 to 6 weeks.

In theory, on Wednesday some orders on the sheet should start shipping. If they do ship, it indicates a huge supply problem being the reason for the delays. If they don't ship and the ship dates for those orders slip, it indicates other speculated issues, such as firmware still to undergo validation testing, SSD caching not yet ready for release, 10.6.8 being required, Bob Mansfield being required to hug every iMac as it leaves the assembly line, etc.

On the 27s...
  • Upgrading from an i5 to an i7 pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Upgrading from 4GB to 8GB pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Upgrading from 4GB to 16GB pushes ship times from 24 hours to 2 to 4 days.
  • Upgrading from a 1TB hard disk to a 2TB hard disk pushes ship times from 24 hours to 2 to 4 days.
  • Upgrading the 6970M from 1GB to 2GB of memory pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Changing the pointing device from Magic Magic to any other option pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Changing the keyboard from the default pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
If you customize anything, you're risking adding at least a day. However the larger shifts for the hard disk and memory options may be indicative of supply problems. The SSD is still the big unknown though.

Apple's personal computer market share growth is rather anomalous in the industry right now (the market is down 3% in terms of quarterly shipped units YoY, Apple is up 25%). General supply problems are a real possibility.
 
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mrfoof82 said:
Still 4 to 6 weeks.

In theory, on Wednesday some orders on the sheet should start shipping. If they do ship, it indicates a huge supply problem being the reason for the delays. If they don't ship and the ship dates for those orders slip, it indicates other speculated issues, such as firmware still to undergo validation testing, SSD caching not yet ready for release, 10.6.8 being required, etc.

On the 27s...
  • Upgrading from an i5 to an i7 pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Upgrading from 4GB to 8GB pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Upgrading from 4GB to 16GB pushes ship times from 24 hours to 2 to 4 days.
  • Upgrading from a 1TB hard disk to a 2TB hard disk pushes ship times from 24 hours to 2 to 4 days.
  • Upgrading the 6970M from 1GB to 2GB of memory pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Changing the pointing device from Magic Magic to any other option pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
  • Changing the keyboard from the default pushes ship times from 24 hours to 1 to 3 days.
If you customize anything, you're risking adding at least a day. However the larger shifts for the hard disk and memory options may be indicative of supply problems. The SSD is still the big unknown though.
Click to expand...

All you say makes sense, but it still doesn't explain the huge gap in time difference between the 21.5 and 27".
 
vhp3 said:
All you say makes sense, but it still doesn't explain the huge gap in time difference between the 21.5 and 27".
Click to expand...

This difference does seem to be the oddest thing. The only reason I can think of would be that they want to do a smaller group of SSDs initially, as I would think most people opting for the SSD would also be going with the 27".
 
mrfoof82 said:
In theory, on Wednesday some orders on the sheet should start shipping.
Click to expand...

I feel like the entries for 27" orders with estimated shipping dates before June 14 are clearly false. What explains four people on the spreadsheet randomly having two or three week estimates while everyone else has 6 week ones?

Do c3076696, bassanoclapper, dilgit, and etranger want to confirm what their actual estimated shipping dates are?
 
All the early 27-shippers are outside the U.S.

And yes, most SSDs buyers are going with the 27" -- 96.4% of the sheet currently is (fun Statistics sheet). Actually, 3 out of 4 buyers are basically getting completely decked out models, fitting the power user mold (heck, majority of buyers are DIYing memory upgrades). This is unsurprising, as the only way an "average person" ends up with a computer with an SSD is a MacBook Air or a netbook.
 
mrfoof82 said:
All the early 27-shippers are outside the U.S.

And yes, most SSDs buyers are going with the 27" -- 96.4% of the sheet currently is (fun Statistics sheet). Actually, 3 out of 4 buyers are basically getting completely decked out models. This is unsurprising, as the only way an "average person" ends up with a computer with an SSD is a MacBook Air or a netbook.
Click to expand...

Well, the spreadsheet is not necessarily representative of the entire mac buying population; for example, I'd guess that the sheet has a much higher percentage of people who are upgrading the RAM themselves. I'd bet the overall percentage of SSD buyers still does lean heavily towards 27" though.
 
Anyone putting an SSD in an iMac isn't representative of the entire Mac buying population. :D CTOs are in the minority as is.

Most people balk at the cost. Add drastically extended shipping times to that and even power users are thinking twice. iMac SSD buyers are almost exclusively developers, power users and enthusiasts/anoraks.
 
mrfoof82 said:
Anyone putting an SSD in an iMac isn't representative of the entire Mac buying population. :D CTOs are in the minority as is.

Most people balk at the cost. Add drastically extended shipping times to that and even power users are thinking twice. iMac SSD buyers are almost exclusively developers, power users and enthusiasts/anoraks.
Click to expand...

Sure, but the group of people who would actually find a thread about the shipping delays and post their order information is going to be even more heavily skewed than just the group of people who ordered an SSD. It seems like a good guess that the majority of SSD buyers are getting more or less fully loaded 27" systems, but we don't have real data; I'm just saying it's not quite safe to extrapolate from our little self-selected sample to all SSD buyers.
 
Wonder if maybe, somehow this could be related to the mysterious goings-on at Apple Stores reported for "something big" this Sunday for their anniversary. I really don't see how it could be, unless Apple diverted a huge amount of new iMacs to their retail stores for the event. Just a crazy thought...
 
Er, no. This is similar to cars with hopped up models. The percentage of Lancer buyers who bought a Lancer Evolution MR are < 1%. The percentage of Impreza buyers who bought a WRX STi are < 1%. The percentage of Golf buyers who bought an R32 are < 1%. Same for M3s to 3-series. RS4s to A4s. Etc.

Top-tier performance models do not sell in droves, which is exactly why they are priced to reflect that lack of sales volume in addition to the increased manufacturing cost -- it has to be worth the while to even bother offering them at all.

This is no different that people who bought HDTVs in 2001. People who bought iPhones the first 30 days of launch when they were unsubsidized.

I guarantee you that most people sticking SSDs in an iMac are in the vast majority of CTOs. Most users don't value the SSD enough and place a high enough priority the benefits where they will pay the extra cost, they mostly only get them if they have no choice (MacBook Air, some netbooks). This isn't like television sports packages (where a ton of people want it, and only pay it because there's no other option). This is buying a 911 to ferry the kids to kindergarten instead of a Corolla. They both do it. One does it faster. And one costs 5 times as much despite being smaller.

I work with some of the top developer talent in Boston. Even out of that crowd, SSDs are still in the vast minority.
 
You misunderstand my point.

I'm not saying that SSDs are common, or that it's not true that most SSD buyers are upgrading everything else, or really disagreeing with anything you're saying about those who opt for SSDs. I actually completely agree that all of that is most likely true.

My only issue is that the spreadsheet is not real data to support that. So it's completely valid to say that cost, long shipping delays, and the need to customize the order at all mean that most SSD buyers will probably also be the type of buyer who will upgrade everything else. It's not valid to say that most SSD buyers will get the 27" iMac because that's what the results are showing on the spreadsheet.

Again, I generally agree with your conclusions, I just take issue with treating the spreadsheet as a valid data source for making those conclusions.

Edit: To clarify further, I do think the spreadsheet is cool and useful to collect information among this group, it's just not valid to use it as a basis for making conclusions about all SSD iMac purchasers.
 
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dwmac said:
I feel like the entries for 27" orders with estimated shipping dates before June 14 are clearly false. What explains four people on the spreadsheet randomly having two or three week estimates while everyone else has 6 week ones?

Do c3076696, bassanoclapper, dilgit, and etranger want to confirm what their actual estimated shipping dates are?
Click to expand...

My order still shows an estimated delivery date of 18.5.2011 although the status is currently showing as 'scheduled' and not shipped so I have my doubts that it will show up on that date.

I will update if anything changes.
 
c3076696 said:
My order still shows an estimated delivery date of 18.5.2011 although the status is currently showing as 'scheduled' and not shipped so I have my doubts that it will show up on that date.

I will update if anything changes.
Click to expand...

Awesome, cool. To be clear, I had suspected that trolls had changed your entry in the spreadsheet, not that you were trolling. Still quite weird, since there are other Australia orders that have the standard 6-week shipping time.
 
Anyone else finding themselves compulsively checking their Apple order status or re-specing a new iMac to see if the shipping time drops?

Ahh,... the joys of being an early adopter. It's funny, I'm apparently a "Mac Rumors regular" but I only post here when I'm going nuts waiting on a new :apple: product to arrive.
 
Haha, yeah I have the JuneCloud delivery status widget, and I hit F4 probably five or ten times a day....

I'm really interested to see what happens with the orders that are scheduled to ship in the next few days.
 
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