$499 Headless iMac?

[snahabed]

Some thoughts:

1. In the words of everyone's favorite stupid, spoiled whore: "THAT'S HOT!"

2. If ANYONE other than ThinkSecret reported this, I wouldn't believe it for one red second.

3. These specs are VERY decent, and certainly appropriate for a $499 computer. My 1ghz G4 does e-mail, web, word processing, and iTunes as fast as can be (and those surely are the prime activities for the target demographic). Hell, I even do Photoshop, Logic Pro, Final Cut, etc... with THESE applications, I would love a faster computer, but none of it is slow enough to really deter me.

4. That slimline mockup in this thread might actually be very accurate. If this is being marketed in the "iMac" family, then the design will likely follow -- iPod influenced. This makes sense for the switchers who are under the halo effect.

5. Provides for very interesting server/media center possibilities, though I don't think Apple will market it that way.

6. I have to think that Apple will introduce consumer 15" and 17" displays that match the iMac color scheme, for reasons stated in this thread (Apple not wanting to send people out of the store to complete their systems). Maybe they won't, and not a big deal, but it seems logical.

7. The only thing that really needs to be upgradeable is the RAM. People in the target demographic are not really the types to upgrade anyway.

8. Apple REALLY needs to start pushing software companies to offer aggressive crossgrades. This is a huge deal (often, the hugest) when I talk to Windows users about switching. If you have thousands of dollars invested in Windows software, does it make sense to start all over? I can't say I blame them.

9. If I were Apple, I'd market these in original white (like the iPod) and then in the iPod mini colors. How many girls would piddle themselves over a sleek, slim, sexy, pink computer that cost $499??

10. It makes me think that the new "Keynote-accompanying" software products might really be other parts of an office suite... or that AppleWorks will finally be revolutionized. A computer at this level needs a basic Works suite bundled (to mitigate the blow of no MS Office crossgrade).

 

[Doctor Q]

Updated news story

[Update] AppleInsider adds a few other details: There are to be two USB 2.0 ports, a single port for VGA or DVI, the iMac will draw power through an external power brick, and the price is "sub-$600".

According to sources, the headless iMac was to include a built in iPod dock, though sources say this feature was scrapped and may reappear in future versions of the headless iMac.

 

[noel4r]

If this turns out to be true, I'll buy one w/ Airport Extreme and BT then give my eMac to my sis...

 

[cr2sh]

If Apple didn't introduce this product at MWSF...but waited until it was ready to ship...everyone would whine about that too. Bottom line is that advanced introduction is good for Apple...to guage demand as then begin building them. (Why doesn't anyone get this?)

There are a lot of buyers (even on this forum) who might argue that ordering a machine and then having to wait months for it, isn't a great idea. It certainly isn't consumer friendly - it certainly isn't a first impression I'd want my company making. I know that when I was waiting 4months for my 17"pb frustration crossed my mind several times.

I understand that an introduction will allow them to "gauge demand" but I'm also quite certain that Apple has a research team that has some idea how many of these they'll sell.

 

[artifex]

Well, this is great!

I just got a gift card from my parents for Christmas, and Apple will probably apply the student discount, as well...

This would be great. I can use a monitor switch to use the second head of my pc for this mac. Or I could just run VNC on it, or something?

Wonder if it would be a similar form factor to my old Sparc IPX "lunchbox?" Hey... wait... I remember begging for Apple to make a lunchbox or a pizzabox a long time ago, in forums like this multiple times. And they say they've been working on it for about a year?

(hey, Apple: y'all're welcome to my other ideas, also, but please keep them cheap since I'm a jobless student! Or hire me to post on mac forums...)

(edit: p.s. it would be really sexy if y'all could offer black or silver, not just white. Most of my AV gear are those colors, my U2 iPod is black, etc.)

 

[ccuilla]

Because the eMacs are perfect for k-12 schools. Cheap, All-in-one, rugged.

Funny thing is...same could be said for the vast majority of desktops in the corporate world.

 

[yourmom98]

umm i know im a newbie but dosent this sound alot like just the emac revision when apple revises a product there is usually is a price drop to make up for the lack actual upgrade cause 1.25 Ghz to 1.5 Ghz aint that big of a deal cause if u think about it the emac only cost like $200 more but it comes with a monitor. Also if this was a headless mac to make PC users switch shouldnt it have a VGA port so ppl can just use their old monitors?

 

[AirUncleP]

Not for iPod they don't. For Mac, maybe. Not for iPod though. What more should they do exactly for iPod?

How about......

Less commercials of a silhouette jumping around.

More commercials of ease of use, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, maybe the actual device.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I love these out-of-the-blue-nobody-saw-that-coming rumors.

This is a good thing. The low price will drive down the used mac market, and brings the price of new macs into emachines territory. With this box and a $60 el-cheapo CRT monitor you've got a new Mac that is possibly $200 cheaper than an eMac.

Yes, the G4 is slow, but like others have said a Celeron at double the clock isn't exactly a speed demon either. This is a low-end marketshare gainer. Couple it with the iPod and Apple now has two products for the beginning Mac user. As an Apple user since the 80's I can say there has never been a time when Apple made a machine that could really compete with PCs at the low end. This machine can. What it lacks in pure speed it makes up for with a slick OS, elegant design and a butt-kicking integrated software suite. I can't see this not working to Apple's advantage.

My only concern: make it more upgradeable than a Powerbook - I would prefer a processor on a daughtercard and 2 DIMM slots. But the fact that Apple can offer it it at that price is critical. Expect a Radeon 9200 folks, though I've really got my fingers crossed for a Core Image compatible GPU, for Apple's sake.

 

[rogozhin]

Wouldn't it be killer if this thing had a TV tuner built in? That would make it an almost perfect set top box with bluetooth.

As long as it has an HDTV (ATSC/QAM/DVB) tuner, then yes, I would agree. I've been thinking about adding a DVICO Fusion card to my powermac and using that as a quasi-STB, but something like this would be a more elegant and DEDICATED solution if it had a comparable card in it.

Check out this site for more info about using the Fusion card with the Mac...

Either way, I'm going to get one. Oh, and for those who have wondered about adding an expensive LCD screen to such an inexpensive CPU, have you looked at the price for Apple's 17" screen lately?

 

[Thanatoast]

Considering the form factor, how difficult would it be for Apple to intergrate pvr functions into tiger? Would it come as a seperate iLife program? Standard on imac mini's and with iLife '05? Combined with airport express, tv in/out and a remote, this machine could be the one to redefine the living room market.

 

[macmax77]

Considering my iBook never runs fan (at least I never hear it), I bet this one must be the same super quiet machine. The only concern of mine is how loud the hard drive would be. Any comment from iMac users?

If it is silent as iBook, I will definitely buy one as soon as possible.

For the GPU, I don't think Apple will never offer upgradability. But, I wish they put a GPU supporting Core Image.

I own a new iBook G4 1.2 and a new iMac G5 17 incher.

In my experience the iBook is louder than my iMac, which is dead quiet!!!

You cannot hear the thing!!! which is good.

 

[ccuilla]

There are a lot of buyers (even on this forum) who might argue that ordering a machine and then having to wait months for it, isn't a great idea. It certainly isn't consumer friendly - it certainly isn't a first impression I'd want my company making. I know that when I was waiting 4months for my 17"pb frustration crossed my mind several times.

I understand and agree. In fairness though...if you pre-order and know about the lag-time in shipping, then frustration seems like an inappropriate response. If you order and expect it (nearly) immediately...and then there is a delay...well...you know...that's frustrating.

I understand that an introduction will allow them to "gauge demand" but I'm also quite certain that Apple has a research team that has some idea how many of these they'll sell.

True. And maybe there won't be any delay from introduction at all.

(I find it funny that we've gone from a rumor...to assumptions that it won't be immediately available anyway!)

 

[mian]

AppleInsider

I wonder if Apple leaked some info to AppleInsider to set expectations about price. They need to avoid a situation similar to when the ipod mini price was announced.

I would purchase one for my kids. I have extra monitor or two around and don't want to spend the money for an all-in-one device. Buying used is too expensive. I'll order one the day they are introduced.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Perhaps these computers can be clustered like XServe. For educational purposes at least.

 

[artifex]

As long as it has an HDTV (ATSC/QAM/DVB) tuner, then yes, I would agree. I've been thinking about adding a DVICO Fusion card to my powermac and using that as a quasi-STB, but something like this would be a more elegant and DEDICATED solution if it had a comparable card in it.

Check out this site for more info about using the Fusion card with the Mac...

Either way, I'm going to get one. Oh, and for those who have wondered about adding an expensive LCD screen to such an inexpensive CPU, have you looked at the price for Apple's 17" screen lately?

Sounds like you've been doing a lot of research... is there a decent USB or firewire HDTV tuner solution out there, yet? Or, heck, even regular NTSC. I've been thinking that's what's really missing from those G5 iMacs with the wide screens. I mean, hello, wide screens, HDTV, I think there's a connection? It'd certainly work for these new headless beasts, also.

edit: I haven't seen Apple's 17 inch prices, but are they competitive with the pretty Dells? I'm used to a plain non-widescreen Viewsonic VA720, myself, which might be considered garbage to the rest of you, but it was all I could afford at the time

 

[mambodancer]

Poor performance?

I'm working on an 867Mhz G4 with 1.1Gb Ram, 64Mb video graphics card and I would take this configuration over any PC at any price. In fact, for my uses I find no practical reason to upgrade yet and plan on keeping this machine for another couple of years (This Macintosh was manufactured the week of 8/13/01). What surprises me is the implication that a 1.25Ghz is too slow. Compared to what? Doing what? Surfing the internet? Writing letters? Balancing your checkbook? Desktop publishing? Web Development? Graphics arts? Networking? This would come as a big surprise to the tens of thousands of professionals and average persons that would find that statement laughable.

I used to have a metric for upgrading years ago: I would consider it if I saw a doubling of performance for less money than I had spent. In the last couple of years I've had to discard this metric because now, the speed of the hardware has far exceeded any valuable performance increase. While I use the Adobe suite, buying a G5 isn't going to double my performance with the software much. The biggest performance increase I've seen with my Mac resulted when I upgraded the memory and added a 20" display. The former was most significant because it provided the biggest performance increase where it was needed most...the person typing on the keyboard. All the processing speed in the world couldn't do that.

Ironically, the application that is driving processor and video speeds is gaming. If you don't game...who cares?

 

[yourmom98]

I understand and agree. In fairness though...if you pre-order and know about the lag-time in shipping, then frustration seems like an inappropriate response. If you order and expect it (nearly) immediately...and then there is a delay...well...you know...that's frustrating.



True. And maybe there won't be any delay from introduction at all.

(I find it funny that we've gone from a rumor...to assumptions that it won't be immediately available anyway!)

.



well the thing is the lag time aint that bad i ordered my imac g5 on the 1st day it came out and it came in like 2 weeks and 3 days it was BTO too so it should have taken longer so lag time aint that bad now

 

[snahabed]

Uh-oh, AppleInsider is saying "sub $600" i.e. $599. For some reason that doesn't seem like the right sweet spot.

Then again, maybe it's a higher configuration with a bigger hard drive.

 

[ccuilla]

How about......

Less commercials of a silhouette jumping around.

More commercials of ease of use, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, maybe the actual device.

Why on earth do you think this will work? The stuff they have been doing is already enabliung them to sell every single one they can make.

Everyone thinks that "feature" commercials are what Apple "needs". The lifestyle ads are working great. I also doubt quite seriously that the ads you suggest would have somehow reached the audience you referred to earlier anyway.

 

[Hemingray]

Boy I sure hope this is true... this could very well turn the tide... and for that price, I might consider replacing my old PowerMac G4! My mom's been wanting to get a new Mac for years, and this would clinch the deal. Keep your fingers crossed everyone! This could even convert a few of my PC friends.

 

[tjwett]

Could this be "Goodbye eMac"? I don't see Apple having 4 different desktops in their hardware lineup.

 

[macmax77]

iMac mini. Maybe

iminiMac, hehehhehe

 

[ncbill]

AppleInsider article / speed of the G4

1. AppleInsider's article suggests that it will use something very similar to the iBook G4's logic board (down to using an external power supply), if not the actual iBook logic board itself.

2. The G4 is slow?

The eMac G4 1.25GHz in most uses is just as good as the iMac G5:

http://macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html

I would expect this "iMac mini" to perform more like the current eMac than the iBook in the above article (faster hard drive for example)

 

[aethier]

Why not price a SuperDrive they cost about 80 USD, a combo drive cost 50 USD might be cheaper now with holiday sales.

The only reason they put in a Combo is because more people burn CD's than DVD's since it takes way to long at present at 4x even 8x. I do not see it getting anything higher than an 8x if they have a BTO.

Dual layer burners cost upwards of 100+ USD.

8x is only Apple's top speed better / cheaper is still on the market...: Sony's 16x Double layer burner ... strange doesn't cost "Upwards of 100+ USD" its only 109CAD which according to XE is only 89.64USD. also note that 16x dvd burners only take 5 minutes to burn "Single layer DVD+R discs can now be burned at up to 16X speed, burning an entire disc in about 5 minutes." there is also this one for 95 $CAD

as for normal dvd burners, well here is one for 53$CAD = 43USD granted it is oldschool 2x still better then nothing. here


anyways research before posting is fun and should be done by all