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$499 Headless iMac?
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Good lord. This thread is spiraling out of control.
Nobody is wrong or right here. People will buy what they want for their own reasons. Sometimes this is based simply on price, sometimes on looks, sometimes because it is what a friend or a magazine told them to get, whatever. Big deal. Such is life.
Apple does not have to woo or entice the entire population to survive. This machine or the next will not be the end all product that finally tips the scales for whatever that means.
I personally could care less if joe average, joe poweruser, joe blow comes crashing to the mac party anytime soon. Gradually things are changing for Apple and that should be seen as a good thing.
They have never been as popular as they are now with the media and wallstreet. They are not going to die. They are not going to quit innovating.
Apple in some ways is just getting ready to hit its stride with Tiger, the iPod, the new iMac, the well placed Apple Stores, etc. Everything is getting closer to a point that someone from a different platform could actually be swayed to even give them a look.
I think the passion in this thread by those that use a PC really indicates this curiosity.
Why be in such a hurry here to overtake the industry? Half the fun of owning a mac (for me) is that you are in the minority. I love it when someone sees my Mac or something from Apple and wants to know what it is.
Nobody is wrong or right here. People will buy what they want for their own reasons. Sometimes this is based simply on price, sometimes on looks, sometimes because it is what a friend or a magazine told them to get, whatever. Big deal. Such is life.
Apple does not have to woo or entice the entire population to survive. This machine or the next will not be the end all product that finally tips the scales for whatever that means.
I personally could care less if joe average, joe poweruser, joe blow comes crashing to the mac party anytime soon. Gradually things are changing for Apple and that should be seen as a good thing.
They have never been as popular as they are now with the media and wallstreet. They are not going to die. They are not going to quit innovating.
Apple in some ways is just getting ready to hit its stride with Tiger, the iPod, the new iMac, the well placed Apple Stores, etc. Everything is getting closer to a point that someone from a different platform could actually be swayed to even give them a look.
I think the passion in this thread by those that use a PC really indicates this curiosity.
Why be in such a hurry here to overtake the industry? Half the fun of owning a mac (for me) is that you are in the minority. I love it when someone sees my Mac or something from Apple and wants to know what it is.
I thpught God had a better machinebudugu said:Look i had to get into macs because of some other lab had other equipment and custom software written for mac. This is about May of this year. So that was when i was exposed to macs. I am not saying powerbooks are good enough either!
I had a 1Ghz 12" ibook with 768MB ram.
I WANT A MEDIA CENTER MAC!
What I really hope for is that secretly Apple has been designing a media center for osx and that this box can either be a normal "pc" or you hook it up to your TV and use it as a media center. I love the windows version and would totally die if apple made one. Anyway that's my 2 cents.
What I really hope for is that secretly Apple has been designing a media center for osx and that this box can either be a normal "pc" or you hook it up to your TV and use it as a media center. I love the windows version and would totally die if apple made one. Anyway that's my 2 cents.
I use a G4 Mac, all versions of windows...except ME, a Linux PC, and a Linux server at work. They all seem to work fine. But for my home, i use a Mac. I can't really tell you why, but I do. I've never had any problems with Windows.
So when these $499 come out **if they ever do** I'm going to grab 1 ASAP.
It's really not the OS, it's the user.
So when these $499 come out **if they ever do** I'm going to grab 1 ASAP.
It's really not the OS, it's the user.
AidenShaw said:Have you used a recent Intel Extreme system? You're not going to want to play games on it, but it's just as competent at surfing, email, photo editing and other tasks as anything Apple puts in a mid-range system.
What good is "iLife" unless you have a bunch of expensive digital toys? Not much, is it?
Glad to hear that the stereotype of Apple users being arrogant elitists isn't true anymore.
That 3 GHz Celeron on a 533 MHz bus with real DDR memory would smack that 1.25 GHz G4 on a pseudo-DDR 133 MHz bus. Smack it hard.
Who cares if it has a floppy or not??? You don't have to use it, but it's there in case you want to.
As far as "ugly", I'm glad that you can be so sure from looking at a 100x100 pixel thumbnail. Since I always put the tower on the floor under the desk, I'm more concerned with "function" than "fashion".
To your points:
- The Intel Extreme is probably on par with what Apple could offer. So in the end it will be a wash IMO.
- More people are getting "gadgets" including the iPod. Given that IMO Apple created (and yet abandoned the digital photo market), they know the consumer mind. They are not looking to "power users" but the mass market.
- The comment may have been harsh, but the thought is the same. Do we need a floppy, do we need separate CD and DVD drives for the mass consumer market. I would say, no we don't. As long as the box has better "ergonomics" than the rest of the market. Speed wise we will have to wait and see how Apple "cripples" this iMac mini. In the end I see no real difference between my PB 12" rev. B and a Toshiba Celeron (less than a year old). At least IMO I could see running OSX on 256 vs. Xp on 512. Though both systems do well with an upgrade. That being said the savings on smaller HDD's could be put towards more RAM on a Mac.
- The ugly factor was going out and looking for other images. My first thought on the the thumbnail was one of a big palmtop system. This goes to the core that Apple is approaching with this new system. That market wants "cute" as a driving factor for purchase. As homes in urban areas get smaller, we are entering in to the Japanese concept of what our "core appliances" should be. As to function, this new computer will probably meet the needs of 80% of the market. For those of us in the rest of the 20%, there will be options.
B-52 Macer said:
First- its not a pc. I already acknowledged that people dont look at the specs as closely has they do with pcs.
Second -the Dell DJ & the iPod are closely priced & the hardware is more evenly matched the Apple WINTEL comparison.
So it makes sense that Apple can beat the Dell DJ.
AidenShaw said:
Please AidenShaw, you know better then to say things like this. There is no such thing as "psuedo DDR". If the memory subsystem would (theoretically since it doesn't exist IIRC) use 66Mhz DDR RAM (133Mhz), would it then be "pseudo-DDR"? Yes it doesn't take advantage of the full bandwidth of the memory wich it is equipped with, wich has it's pros(if engineered properly) and cons. Though the cons far outweigh the pros at the low bandwidth wich the current G4s can muster.
AidenShaw said:
Will the end user care about the function that you care about, though?
My mum, for example wants a computer thats 1) small 2) quiet 3) allows her to surf the web, look at her pictures, write some emails and play solitare/mahjong.
Now I've got no idea if she represents the "average consumer" or not, but undoubtedly there are other people out there with different value systems.
I think its concept looks like this much more expensive Sharp desktop PC:
Sharp Desktop PC
which is currently is a hot seller in Japan.
Sharp Desktop PC
which is currently is a hot seller in Japan.
jcroft said:
Sorry I use "hacker" in a broader sense. For they are looking to exploit "flaws" to their own means.
B_Gates said:
Are you sure about that? You know what the processor speed is in each? You know what the screen resoltuions are?
Maybe you do, but I sure don't, and I suspect most people are more like me.
I have no idea if the specs are evenly matched or not, and I don't really think it matters on iota.
Chip NoVaMac said:
Okay, but my point is this:
Advertisers only go where the money is. They don't act out of vengance or personal hate. You suggested that if Apple sold the fact that "malware can't get us," they would come back with "yes we can" and go after Mac OS X. This might be true for the small handful of virus and trjon writers, but I don't believe it's true for spyware and adware. They don't care about Apple until Apple can bring them money.
Why wouldn't a media center mac be $500? It's already been discussed that a G4 will do most anything people want it to do, as there are still machines being sold brand-new with G4's. A simple software solution and some extra jacks or a "media center dongle" could easily turn this into a kick ass mac/pvr/living room computer.jcroft said:
jcroft said:
I see your point. But if Apple were able to sell a million or two of these new iMac mini's (I am shooting from the hip here based on the sales of the iPod) a year; that is a good sized market for the malware people.
Eric_Z said:
Is it not correct that the memory controller (north bridge) is running the memory at DDR rates, but the FSB (CPU <-> north bridge) is SDR only?
That's what I meant by "pseudo-DDR" - the memory is Double-Data-Rate but the CPU can only access it at Single-Data-Rate.
I assumed that most anyone familiar with Apple's hardware would understand that the G4 doesn't have a DDR FSB, so it's unable to take full advantage of DDR memory.
I think some people here are missing Apple's intentions entirely.
I may be totally wrong, but as I percieve it Steve Jobs and Apple have long ago accepted the fact that they lost the PC marketshare war (a recent issue of Macworld printed a quote from the early 90's with Steve saying as much). Apple has rarely tried to go point-for-point hardware wise with PC's.
However, I believe that Apple IS pursuing victory in smaller markets, and has a good chance at winning. For example, Apple is well placed to make heavy inroads into the home media computer market - a market that the $499 Mac is well placed to compete in. Raw power in this market takes second stage to smooth media integration - one of Apple and OS X's strong points.
The issue of whether Apple's hardware can yet directly compete with the x86 world is not as important if Apple finds other ways of getting customers.
I may be totally wrong, but as I percieve it Steve Jobs and Apple have long ago accepted the fact that they lost the PC marketshare war (a recent issue of Macworld printed a quote from the early 90's with Steve saying as much). Apple has rarely tried to go point-for-point hardware wise with PC's.
However, I believe that Apple IS pursuing victory in smaller markets, and has a good chance at winning. For example, Apple is well placed to make heavy inroads into the home media computer market - a market that the $499 Mac is well placed to compete in. Raw power in this market takes second stage to smooth media integration - one of Apple and OS X's strong points.
The issue of whether Apple's hardware can yet directly compete with the x86 world is not as important if Apple finds other ways of getting customers.
B_Gates said:
Well, this is actually not true! Apple never had a majority share, and they "lost" because they were backwards incompatible with their own system - and hence also expensive (since people not only had to buy the machine but also all new software and training).
Those staying with Apple those days were anything but followers - which even reflects the Mac-community today.
I know people that didn't get iPods that absolutely know the specs. Supposedly, this was a reason (other than saving some coin) that they got the brand they did.B_Gates said:
Like I said earlier, people have their reasons and always will. How many times have you been shopping for something bought it, and then spend time justifying why you did it if someone opposes you or has a differing opinion. Are you wrong?
Of course not.
Let's move on please.
I'm really hoping to see this machine because of the people that could be given the opportunity to try the mac platform that feel it is out of their reach.
Unfortunately, they will also discover that once they become hooked, they will want more. OS updates, iLife updates, .mac, iBooks, iMacs, etc.
Oh yeahhhhh.