$499 Headless iMac?

[sigamy]

Well I'm also not sure if this will happen, but if it does this is great news.

I can't believe half of what I'm reading in this thread. You all have been asking for a headless Mac for years. Now there is a rumor that one is coming and all you can do is complain that Apple doesn't make a low-end display to go with it!!!! Geez. Make up your mind people. I thought this machine was for all those people who already have a display--even an el-cheapo 17" CRT?

Next, as for the G4 and the GPU. Again, PA-LEASE. You all realize that 80% of computer users don't even know that there is such a thing as a video card, right?

You need to think outside of the Macrumors community for a while. Think about your neighbor, your non-geek relatives, etc. A 1.25ghz or 1.5ghz G4 is still a solid performer for iLife apps and an excellent performer for web/email/word processing. Regular people do not do much more on their computers. A year and a half ago we were all using G4s. I'm sure many professional audio and video production houses still have plenty of G4s in use today.

Now is the time for Apple to attempt to grow market share. Microsoft is extremely vulnerable right now. I had to "fix" two relatives PCs over the holidays. Let me tell you--if you haven't touched a "regular" person's PC in a while it is shocking what they have to put up with. The things are basically un-usable. Popups and spyware EVERYWHERE. I tried to install a 3D home design software on a 1 year old Gateway laptop (which was a total piece of cheap plastic junk, btw) and after 15 minutes this thing was only at 6% complete. I have no idea what it was doing and I just left it.

Tech writers thought that the browser would kill MS's dominance because we wouldn't need or care about the OS. That hasn't happended. But now, MS is even more vulnerable--they are being attacked. Apple should join this attack and attempt to gain market share. They've done so much R&D with Panther, iLife, and the Pro-apps that they now need to look into expanding their market.

Apple has been selling refurb eMacs for $549 and $599. I was hoping they would just keep this config and sell for $549 new. I'll take this headless wonder any day.

Let's hope this one comes true.

 

[madmaxmedia]

I doubt this unit will be a set-top box by itself for $499, but Apple will perhaps have an optional bundle that could include Airport Express or a TV tuner and complete that functionality.

That will be pretty cool, Apple will have knocked down 2 birds with 1 stone- a cheap switcher machine, and a media player type unit.

 

[Photorun]

I'm a bit confused as to why Apple would call this an iMac or any incarnation. I'm not saying this wont happen, ThinkSecret lately has had a (frighteningly good) 95% accuracy, the only issues they've had over the last year was exact dates of a few things but they were within a week or two. I know they/we're just calling it "headless iMac" but I highly doubt Apple will refer to it as such. It's using the components of an eMac and/or iBook (not sure which 75xx is in it, if either) it should get it's own name... tMac? hMac? Who knows, but we'll see.

 

[applekid]

Yes, what shall we name this new Mac? It's definitely a start of a new family.

 

[voodoofish]

Does anybody else see this as a sign of less expensive displays? Surely Apple doesn't expect a switcher to walk into an Apple Store and take home this new $499 box hitched to a $1299 display.

Regardless, I can think of three people I know who will jump all over this. They're in love with their iPods, sick of Windows, but not willing to pop $1500 for a nice iMac G5.

-Drew

It would be a bit weird going into an Apple Store and not being able to get a cheap display to match your cheap Mac, but the majority of people who might buy something like this are prolly Windoze users who are told they can use their existing moniter etc. with their new cheap Mac and then if they ever run into any incompatability issues they can always just use their old Windoze box for whatever's incompatable.

 

[steveh]

I think Apple can make some decent money off this box.

Consider:

1. Logic board:

Variant of the current iBook board, less the circuits needed to drive the LCD but with DVI/VGA outputs (probably just DVI with an adapter)

Very similar architecture to the iBook board, but more room for layout, so "development" consisted of figuring out how to produce it at the cheapest possible price.

Cost: $150?

2. Hard drive: Does Apple even pay $40 for 80GB drives?

3. Optical: same combo drive as the iMac G5. Cost: $40?

4. RAM: Cheapest 256MB DDR RAM (same specs as the current eMac), $30?
(one open slot)

5. Case plastics, power supply, keyboard/mouse, packaging. $80?

Total cost to Apple: $350?

Nice margin for a "low-end" box.

You're not done yet:

You still have to factor in manufacture, packaging, shipping, marketing, development, software ...

 

[artifex]

I don't think it has to be expandable for its intended target market. The rumored specs and price are almost enough by themselves, just give it a nice looking design and it will be an absolute winner.

It would be nice if the graphics card is CoreImage compatible, but I doubt it. As long as it is Quartz Extreme capable that will be good enough.

I know this is the wrong place for it, but can you point me to FAQs or something for newbie switcher types, so I can learn what all this CoreImage Quartz Extreme stuff is? Hopefully they'll also tell me it's easy to install OSX on another drive, so I can flip the lid on this new box when I get it and drop a spare 200 in, or something. Do you think it'll be SATA? Or maybe I can at least hang it off FW.

Ooh! I predict first third-party item for the new box (after a PS/2 style stand if it's like the mockup) will be a matching drive cage, what do you think?

 

[Arcus]

iLackAMonitor

iCheapo

iNexpensive

iNcreaseMarketShare

iHeadLess

or just plain iHead

j/k about the names BTW. I think this is a great idea!!!

 

[nagromme]

Hey, now that's a fun rumor

It wouldn't compete on MHz with a $499 Wintel box. It would blow such a Wintel box away in terms of OS, software bundle, reliability, and connectivity. Can those things be sold to ignorant computer buyers who look at Mhz alone?

Thanks to iPod, probably so!

I wonder if it will have the same awful video boards (no dedicated VRAM) as bottom-end PCs? I hope it has a REAL 3D board (low-end of course) like all other Macs.

(Also, another market: connect one of these to TV at 640x480 with bog fonts and you have the perfect email and photo station for my grandmother.)

 

[artifex]

Yes, what shall we name this new Mac? It's definitely a start of a new family.

If it's a (cheese) pizza box, and it's cheap, call it the mac&cheese! (That's what we call Kraft Dinner, for you non-USA types)

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

Jeez maybe I'm starting to fall into the Reality Distortion Field but Steve Jobs really *does* seem to be positioning Apple to take over the world. The retail stores *were* a good idea, the iPod *did* get people into them and got them looking at macs, and people *will* buy a $499 Mac, and right now the timing is perfect. People are sick to death of viruses and spyware, so a mac that costs little more than an iPod is worth a shot. It takes the risk out of buying a new OS, especially with iLife giving most users of a low end system most all the software they need, all done by Apple so you know it's good. This is gonna grow Apple market share for a change. These are going to be iPod hot before you know it. It's low power, yes, but perfect for users like me that just need the basics.

I think the rumor is gonna be accurate, right down to the lousy 256 megs of ram and smallish hard drive.

It's gonna fly off the shelves.

Hopefully the stock price goes through the roof

I like the mockup another poster made. I think he's probably pretty close to the design.

Any guesses as to how long it'll take Apple lawyers to try to squash this information?

God help the person that leaked this if it's true. Steve will NOT be happy.

I totally agree, not only that but this may also be the smallest desktop on the market

 

[Zaty]

Up until this afternoon, I was very skeptical and if it had been reported by some else I wouldn't have believed it at all. But now that Apple Insider has jumped onto the bandwagon, too, this doesn't seem to be completely unfounded. The $599 price tag AI is suggesting makes the story sound much more credible, after all this is Apple we're talking about and a $499 Mac would have been to good to be true. By the way, that this headless Mac is said to to draw power through a separate power-brick seems to prove those wright who say Apple just took out the innards of an iBook and put it into another enclosure. As for the name, if this headless Mac ever comes to life, it won't be called an iMac. Why? Because when the new iMac G5 was announced, Apple said the iMac was an AIO system, probably in order to play down all the headless rumours that floated around prior to that announcement. Remember the pizza box? Perhaps that rumour wasn't a rumour after all. So let's hope we won't be disappointed come January 11.

 

[voodoofish]

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.

A computer at this level needs a basic Works suite bundled (to mitigate the blow of no MS Office crossgrade).

hmm most people I know in the kinda demographic to buy this computer don't have thousands invested in software, just in a coupla copies of The Sims. Half the people I know in this category also have a pirate version of Office (they don't understand all warez-y stuff, they just know how to press 'copy' on their CD writing software to copy a version of office a friend gave them for another friend), although when Windoze people buy computers and ask about Word they of course get told it's included (in Works) so it wouldn't look good if the Mac sales people couldn't say the same.

 

[Ugg]

Well personaly in my own opinion, id never want to see something like that hit the shelf... I've always seen Apple computers as high end, expensive and I guess you could say exotic like a nice Porsche. For me personaly, having a product at that price range would be like Porsche making a car thats as cheap as a toyota. Good for the company? probibly, but I think that ruins the whole exotic idea.

Nah, even BMW sells entry level vehicles. Nothing like sucking them in with a cheapo box so they can see the beauty of the OS and software and then down the road when they need/can afford more, they'll upgrade. It's a tried and proven tactic.

 

[snahabed]

hmm most people I know in the kinda demographic to buy this computer don't have thousands invested in software, just in a coupla copies of The Sims. Half the people I know in this category also have a pirate version of Office (they don't understand all warez-y stuff, they just know how to press 'copy' on their CD writing software to copy a version of office a friend gave them for another friend), although when Windoze people buy computers and ask about Word they of course get told it's included (in Works) so it wouldn't look good if the Mac sales people couldn't say the same.

Well I think the crossgrade strategy is important to Apple in general, beyond the headless iMac.

But I think it is ESPECIALLY important to price-driven buyers (the target demographic). If you've had a Windows computer for many years, even a cheapo owner might have invested tons in software (it adds up).

Overall, I still think it is a good idea for Apple to bundle a Works suite (hopefully an updated AppleWorks) and some financial package like Quicken.

 

[VicMacs]

name

A cockroach can survive for two weeks without its head, eventually dying only because without its head it can't drink or eat. In fact, if you were to lop the head of one of these ugly bugs, the body could still skitter around your house for days.

so.....

iCockroach

 

[Ugg]

Brilliant!

My Mom and sister will buy one immediately and I would be very tempted as my iMac 400mhz is getting a little long in the tooth. I'm planning on an iBook/PB in the spring so if this comes to pass I'll get an iMac Mini and an iBook for the price of a PB. What a deal!

 

[BornAgainMac]

This was probably already discussed at one time but does Steve Jobs or someone at Apple look at this feedback? I can remember the price of iLife '03 was made free at the last minute because people complained about a rumor that it was not going to be free. Also he mentioned something about the leaked G5 specs but didn't specify the site by name. Could have been ThinkSecret that he was talking about.

It seems like this feedback would be valuable. The general public will be in the dark for at least a week or two.

 

[macmax77]

Sure, for driving it would be nice to all have the same car experience (not nessisarly the same car though)... but I also feel as though with computers, if to many people are to use Apple systems you start to get problems like pc's have. You'll get viruses being made, you'll get the people that try to start destroying it and you'll get the whole thing where theres 100 programs from different people that do the exact same thing.

I just like Apple the way it is right now, maybe they don't have a super huge market share or the most users, but I think thats nice... personaly I don't want the device that everyone uses. Apple says "Think different"... well I want to be different; So I choose a mac.

If everyone started using a mac, id try to find something else even though the software would probibly end up keeping me since final cut pro doesn't run on anything else.

If you want to feel different and everyone is using a computer, just don't use computers.

 

[JW Pepper]

I just had a thought, assuming that the reports are true, it is a shame that this doesn't have a two network ports because it would make a great small office/class mail/web server.

 

[Rootman]

It's more fun to name it than to argue about it . . .

My suggestion:
iDeal

Or iDell

 

[CubaTBird]

okay, will this come with tiger when announced at mwsf? if so, will it ship really soon or do we have to wait like 4 mos... i mean, if they do announce it, they gotta show it off with tiger and ilife 05... new tech on panther.. hmmm meh

 

[quagmire]

iMac G5 from makers from the iPod

headless mac is called iMac mini

From the makers of the iPod mini we give you the iMac Mini.

 

[kaneda]

I thought MAC doesn't care market share

With this move, it will increase market share. I thought Apple doesn't care about market share. I don't want Apple to be like Microsoft or Dell. I want to Apple to be like Roll Royce, Ferrari...

 

[artifex]

Yes but that's part of going the Apple route. They've built machines with soldered in processors and video in the past when PC manufacturers were building stuff out of a modular bucket of parts that were built in large factories in China by subcontractors that plug into industry standard sockets. Apple is about making healthy margins per component, and their customer-base will support that because they support Apple's existence regardless of whether or not their hardware at every pricepoint is bleeding edge. That's not the issue at all. The issue is the user experience as Apple gives it to them, with the performance that they're given to work with. The only people that compare the 2 are people who cross shop or are platform agnostic, and that is a smaller group. Some Mac users do know that the PC's are faster in some key areas... but they know that having to run Spybot on a daily basis is also not their cup of tea either, and being sold down the river to 1 OS vendor that controls the whole kit and kaboodle and fires off draconian tactics, or another OS that's open-source, widely available, not quite as polished, and lacking in certain key applications is their 2 roadmaps to deal with.

You pegged us exactly, I think. Another thing about building PCs ourselves is that many of us see dropping $3000 at once for a setup as crazy, something we can't do all at once, but we'll happily put something together piecemeal, with parts we scrounge from our older gear. The overall cost at some point will be more, but we'll think we can roll the parts forward to the next box (not my mono NeXT box, unfortunately, it's too proprietary).