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Apple Announces New iMacs, Mac Minis, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule
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I agree with you...to an extent.Yes these updates sorta stink. I'm still pissed that the base Mac mini comes with only 1GB ram, Apple is very cheap with ram. What you have to understand is that YOU are NOT Apple's next customer. You only have a 2.5 year old Mac, that's still pretty new to a LOT of people. Many people keep their computers for at least 5 years. There's no reason for you to upgrade now is there?
The people that have a really old Mac or tired of dealing with Microsoft's BS are the customer for Apple's newly released models today.
And to the rest of you that are upset, you either weren't buying anyway or your a PC user that wouldn't have a Mac even if they gave it to you so you just come here and purposely rate this thread negative and post a senseless thread.
Whatever became of the Psystar / Open Computer case?
Hackintosh ftw!
You expect us to move to the USA to buy a computer? Of course you don't.
What an incredibly pointless statement.
The reason we don't is because of people with your attitude that somehow think your country is better than everyone else's.
Hackintosh ftw!
funkyp56 said:
You expect us to move to the USA to buy a computer? Of course you don't.
What an incredibly pointless statement.
The reason we don't is because of people with your attitude that somehow think your country is better than everyone else's.
So the entry-level Mini is now more expensive than the top-end one used to be. Great job, Apple
[G.D. forum ate my original post... *sigh*]
I feel bad for my non USian brethren re: the apparent prices hikes.
However, for US buyers who are eligible for the education discount, the new Minis aren't really that bad of a deal.
In September 2007 I purchased the higher-end 2.0GHz Core Duo SuperDrive Mini with 1GB RAM and 120GB HDD with an education discount. I also manually added 1GB of Crucial RAM from newegg. Grand total: $800 at the time.
You can get the lower-end Mini for $549 with an education discount; then add one Crucial 1GB 204-Pin DDR3 and a Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 7200-rpm 320GB SATA hard drive for a total of $100 from newegg (including shipping and a $20 mail-in rebate). Grand total: $650--for essentially the current "$799" Mini.
So, today I can get a 2.0GHz Core Duo SuperDrive Mac Mini, with a 1.5x faster bus, 2x faster FireWire, 4x faster graphics, dual monitor support, +1 USB port, 2x faster WiFi, 1/3x faster hard drive, and nearly 3x the hard drive space for $150 less than what I paid for my 2007 Mini.
If my current Mini weren't perfectly adequate for my current usage needs, I wouldn't exactly feel horrible plunking down $650 for the new Mini (plus upgrades).
I feel bad for my non USian brethren re: the apparent prices hikes.
However, for US buyers who are eligible for the education discount, the new Minis aren't really that bad of a deal.
In September 2007 I purchased the higher-end 2.0GHz Core Duo SuperDrive Mini with 1GB RAM and 120GB HDD with an education discount. I also manually added 1GB of Crucial RAM from newegg. Grand total: $800 at the time.
You can get the lower-end Mini for $549 with an education discount; then add one Crucial 1GB 204-Pin DDR3 and a Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 7200-rpm 320GB SATA hard drive for a total of $100 from newegg (including shipping and a $20 mail-in rebate). Grand total: $650--for essentially the current "$799" Mini.
So, today I can get a 2.0GHz Core Duo SuperDrive Mac Mini, with a 1.5x faster bus, 2x faster FireWire, 4x faster graphics, dual monitor support, +1 USB port, 2x faster WiFi, 1/3x faster hard drive, and nearly 3x the hard drive space for $150 less than what I paid for my 2007 Mini.
If my current Mini weren't perfectly adequate for my current usage needs, I wouldn't exactly feel horrible plunking down $650 for the new Mini (plus upgrades).
For that minority of (possibly American) mac zealots telling us Brits to stop whining because the pound is worth sweet FA:
- we can't stop, we're Brits
- we have a lot to whine about
More on-topic
- the price is more than it was for a iMac bought in the UK yesterday. No need to compare to the dollar price
- even comparing to the US price, we didn't get the benefit of 2:1 exchange rate
- the competition has raced ahead in terms of specs and price
- the criticisms of anti-Mac zealots (that macs are pretty overpriced crap) is now justified - a really sad day for us UK fanbois
- the long delay between updates and insertion of components that aren't brand new (and have therefore crashed in price) coupled with the rise in prices means Apple are charging more for computers that are cheaper to build. Will be interesting to see a breakdown of total cost of components for these iMac lemons
Apple are damaging their long-term brand for the sake of short-term margin. Big fail.
I was ready to buy today. Certainly not now. I'll be in the market for a hackintosh/ efix system when SL comes out. I think anyone who pays £1800 for an iMac today will feel slightly ridiculous in 6 months time when quad core systems become available for a fraction of the price.
Well said.
Apple have done this before: made a quiet upgrade, then a short time later significantly bumped the CPU specs (you know, like waiting ages for a bus then several turn up in succession!). I don't think it'll be long before this happens to the iMac - now is a bad time to buy one, especially in the UK, as this is a stop-gap update until they go Mobile Quad-Core or get with the program and start using desktop CPUs.
For the first time I'm going to seriously gen-up on the Hackintosh situation. I was never going to buy an iMac, but the Mac Pro isn't attractive anymore when Core i7 gives better bang-for-buck than Nehalem Xeon. EFI-X looks promising in conjunction with a home-built Core i7 rig (10.5.7 supports it), not to mention it can double as a screaming fast games PC with a much bigger choice of graphics card to run on the Windows side.
I can never understand why Apple doesn't reduce the price of it's aging machines in the run up to an update like this.
I mean, the fact that on Monday your $1499 doesn't buy you good value. Everyone knew updates were coming so why not entice people to buy the older spec with discounts?
I mean, the fact that on Monday your $1499 doesn't buy you good value. Everyone knew updates were coming so why not entice people to buy the older spec with discounts?
Apple has never been known for giving customers good values on products. They focus on the providing a better overall package with design and quality as their hallmarks.
That said, yes they are more expensive, but that's because Apple is perceived as a PREMIUM brand and they don't see themselves as a direct competitor to Dell or HP who charges half the price. If anything Apple competes with Sony.
It's annoying when people bag on Apple's prices as a "Apple Tax"... so answer these for me:
Why must BMWs, Mercedes and all those luxury cars cost so much? Why can't I buy any of them for the same price as a Toyota Camry?! Even in this economy, you would think they could slash the price of a $35,000 luxury car down to $18,000...
Same ordeal. I could go on and on with this... Rolex watches, fine dining etc etc...
And to the rest of you that are upset, you either weren't buying anyway or your a PC user that wouldn't have a Mac even if they gave it to you so you just come here and purposely rate this thread negative and post a senseless thread.
A pretty strong generalization I might add...
Seems like there are a lot of disappointed people out there, I'm NOT one of them. I just purchased the high end iMac and can't wait for it to arrive. I'll be upgrading from my G4 125Ghz desklamp with 1GB of Ram. I'm pretty sure it will be a noticeable upgrade!!!
The high end iMac is quite a bit cheaper than yesterday's high end and you do get a memory, graphics and storage bump.
Very Happy!
Nice Job!
If you're a brand new Mac purchaser, or you're coming from a vintage G4, then these new Mac's might make sense since they are your only options. They are still exceedingly overpriced compare to their PC alternatives. But at least you get to stay on your favorite OS.
If Apple doesn't come out with newer, better, cheaper hardware at around the same time Windows 7 comes out (likely Fall 2009), then the heady days of Apple increasing their market share are over.
I think Apple is slowly killing themselves with their overpriced hardware. They don't want to compete with clone makers like Psystar and it's obvious WHY. They are MILKING the market with total aplomb. The problem is people WILL EVENTUALLY jump ship if they don't get their prices in line with comparable PC hardware. I imagine for those that don't want to go PC, Hackintoshes will be on the increase and companies like Psystar will be getting a lot more business for as long as they are allowed to sell.
When you consider that you can get the Mini with the SAME GPU and get your own 24" monitor for under $400 (in the US at least), that would put the Mini + 24" monitor at almost 1/3 less than the price of the 24" iMac (or $1000). I would get the lower model and put my own HD and memory in or better yet add a good size external drive with FW800 as the 2.5" drives aren't worth it, IMO.
O.M.G. - if this is an attempt to play the race card, you've massively overplayed your hand
Please don't embarass us Brits with any more of this nonsense
It would be nice if Apple gave people the option to update the graphics while ordering on the base 24" iMac....
....but they don't.
....but they don't.
I hope your right. I really want to see a Quad iMac/MBP @ WWDC. It's not very likely though...
Apple has never been known for giving customers good values on products. They focus on the providing a better overall package with design and quality as their hallmarks.
That said, yes they are more expensive, but that's because Apple is perceived as a PREMIUM brand and they aren't a direct competitor to Dell or HP who charges half the price. If anything Apple competes with Sony.
It's annoying when people bag on Apple's prices as a "Apple Tax"... so answer these for me:
Why must BMWs, Mercedes and all those luxury cars cost so much? Why can't I buy any of them for the same price as a Toyota Camry?! Even in this economy, you would think they could slash the price of a $35,000 luxury car down to $18,000...
Same ordeal. I could go on and on with this... Rolex watches, fine dining etc etc...
My local BMW dealership has some amazing deals on at the moment, and I'm going to guess that has something to do with recession perhaps? A common metaphor but not entirely comparable
Really,
If I could live in Europe or Canada, Id move there in a heartbeat!
At least you won't go bankrupt there if you do ever get sick.
If I could live in Europe or Canada, Id move there in a heartbeat!
At least you won't go bankrupt there if you do ever get sick.
Whatever became of the Psystar / Open Computer case?
Hackintosh ftw!
You expect us to move to the USA to buy a computer? Of course you don't.
What an incredibly pointless statement.
The reason we don't is because of people with your attitude that somehow think your country is better than everyone else's.
Video RAM on Mac Mini
This may get lost in the 30-odd pages of comments, but:
I was going to buy the higher end mini to get the extra video RAM. Then I noticed this note on the Mac Mini tech specs page:
Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 128MB for 1GB configuration and 256MB for 2GB configuration.
So there is no video memory. It is just shared with the main memory. And if you add an extra gig to the low-end mini, you'll still get 256MB of video memory.
Does everyone else read this the same way as me? If so, any idea what happens if you put 4G in the mini (only $150 extra on the low end)? Will you get 512M video RAM?
--t
This may get lost in the 30-odd pages of comments, but:
I was going to buy the higher end mini to get the extra video RAM. Then I noticed this note on the Mac Mini tech specs page:
Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 128MB for 1GB configuration and 256MB for 2GB configuration.
So there is no video memory. It is just shared with the main memory. And if you add an extra gig to the low-end mini, you'll still get 256MB of video memory.
Does everyone else read this the same way as me? If so, any idea what happens if you put 4G in the mini (only $150 extra on the low end)? Will you get 512M video RAM?
--t
Since the news dropped at lunch time, the following has happened:
My brother, computer novice, who I asked to wait for a new Apple desktop release (iMac or Mini) will now buy a Dell or similar. Reason: way overpriced for spec compared to rivals.
A PC stalwart who was seriously considering an iMac or high-end Mini laughed at the news and said "I do not an empty wallet in a recession".
Me, OSX stalwart, waited and waited with cash ready for a new desktop (Mini or iMac) will now shop around for a PC to run Windows 7.
Apple lost three customers in the space of a few hours.
You can say UK users are complaining and to expect a price based on exchange rates. But, as has been pointed out, when the pound was booming, prices did not accurately reflect that. It was always cheaper to fly to the NY to buy an MPB and return with money left over than buy at UK prices.
Spec-wise, the 9400 iMacs are so wrong, it's untrue. I get the feeling they're cutting back on specs but jacking prices - and in a recession. I feel for the workers in the Chinese factories - sales will be down so orders will be down - more jobs lost.
My brother, computer novice, who I asked to wait for a new Apple desktop release (iMac or Mini) will now buy a Dell or similar. Reason: way overpriced for spec compared to rivals.
A PC stalwart who was seriously considering an iMac or high-end Mini laughed at the news and said "I do not an empty wallet in a recession".
Me, OSX stalwart, waited and waited with cash ready for a new desktop (Mini or iMac) will now shop around for a PC to run Windows 7.
Apple lost three customers in the space of a few hours.
You can say UK users are complaining and to expect a price based on exchange rates. But, as has been pointed out, when the pound was booming, prices did not accurately reflect that. It was always cheaper to fly to the NY to buy an MPB and return with money left over than buy at UK prices.
Spec-wise, the 9400 iMacs are so wrong, it's untrue. I get the feeling they're cutting back on specs but jacking prices - and in a recession. I feel for the workers in the Chinese factories - sales will be down so orders will be down - more jobs lost.