I think people are being too worried about apples design procedure. The iMac is not the same height as the ACD but the iMac is not what the ACD is designed for. The ACD is mostly for hooking up MacBook Pros and Mac pro. Those people have no need for a 3 inch aluminum boarder at the bottom of their monitor. And I would guess 99.99% of all imac users have no need for a second display. I have seen many set ups with non matching displays before. Guess what they looked and worked great. I do a lot of work that uses 2 screens I did order one of these 27" displays to go with my iMac but as i said before I know I am in the huge minority and I don't care at all that it is not the same display.
Well said. People tend to ignore the idea of target demographics when looking at products. They choose to be selfish and think a company is making a bad choice by not including what they want, but they don't realize the company might not be targeting them with their product. Apple doesn't need to make a display that appeals to everyone, especially in today's world where there are hundreds of displays to choose from with so many different specs, sizes, and price points. The display market is not an easy one for Apple to compete in, and that is why they have inevitably come up with the display they have.
If they had added HDMI, then it would imply that it works well with game consoles, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players, and Apple clearly doesn't want this market. They save a lot of money by not having to test their display out to meet the requirements of HDMI and the licensing, etc.
If they had made the stand just a little bit taller in order to make it line up with the iMac, then the bottom of the display would have a giant empty space and make it look "uneven" even when sitting next to an iMac which has the aluminum thing sticking out under the display.
Then you look at the choice of matte vs glossy. No matter where you stand on this debate, the simple fact is that Apple clearly wants their products to have a certain look and be made out of certain materials. There is a reason they charge more for the matte display on the MacBook Pro, because it costs more to manufacture and ends up being more wasteful from an environmental standpoint. Apple probably doesn't want to compete with other matte displays either. They know their market, and considering there isn't many 27 inch glossy displays it's much easier to make a competitive product.
The 27 inch display is made primarily for people who are looking for a display for their MacBook or Mac Pro. The fact that there is built in speakers and a webcam (and magsafe for the MacBook) should pretty much give that away. The webcam is for the Mac Pro which clearly has none and for the MacBook to allow for better positioning when sitting on a desk. The speakers are for the Mac Pro because it has none (the tiny built in speaker doesn't count), and the MacBook because the speakers aren't very loud. Of course Apple wouldn't make a display that didn't work with the iMac and the Mac Mini, but it's clearly not the target demographic of this product.
