Apple is trying to sell their leftovers. It is crazy they are trying to make money with schools.
Very classy!
Very classy!
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Apple Launches $999 iMac for Educational Institutions
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The sad part is that most schools, institutions of higher learning, and informed business will want to keep the machines for a lot longer than 2 years. From a consumer standpoint . . . sure, spend $999 now and then spend another grand in 2 years when your machine starts to show age.
In a budget conscience environment like a school or university, where you're spending more for the software anyhow, you can't justify dropping $999 for 2GB of RAM and a dual core chip then try to upgrade to whole new system in a few years.
These machines have to last at least past their warranties if not double that in most situation.
The university I work for has about 40 six year old MacPro towers that they are just now going to put upgrades into. And a whole host of white Intel iMacs that were top-of-the-line 6 years ago that are still kicking. Suggesting that the "basic" user won't need that much power isn't looking at it in the right way at all, and isn't very economical.
Overall this is a smart move. Most basic Labs need basic machines, why have a $1200 /$1500 Mac when really it is just for Internet, Intranet, Word, Excel etc. and even 2Gb RAM will do the job fine (Bit stingy Apple but no surprise). Hard disk is generally irrelevant as network homes/mobile Homes will be in operation anyway, graphics wise it is fine for task.
Think about it dont need Thunderbolt etc and if you buy 1000 of these they will save $150k not to be sneezed at in these tough times.
My only wish for the iMac would be a lockable slot loading Hard disk carrier as it is a bit of a pain to swap disks out and they have a fairly high failure rate IHMO. Otherwise got to love those iMacs !
Think about it dont need Thunderbolt etc and if you buy 1000 of these they will save $150k not to be sneezed at in these tough times.
My only wish for the iMac would be a lockable slot loading Hard disk carrier as it is a bit of a pain to swap disks out and they have a fairly high failure rate IHMO. Otherwise got to love those iMacs !
Well I still do quite a bit of billable work on a G4 Quicksilver tower, and lots of web surfing from a G3 B&W . In both cases, those G3 and G4 machines were base models for their day.
Yes that is extreme when compared to your situation, but it goes to point out that a machine doesn't fail to become useful after 2 years, just because it is a base model. I am sure there are departments in every school that require high end hardware for specific processor / graphics intensive tasks, however, a school holding onto 4+ year old systems (even base models) as general computing systems is still economical in my book. Does your school hand these systems down to departments that don't need the processing power, or do they simply do in place upgrades?
It is also entirely possible that Apple could pull the forced obsolescence card on the Core i3 processor in 3 years too. The recently unsupported Core Duo systems are banned from Lion, but seem to run Windows 7 just fine in most cases. Apple's support practices could have more control on the longevity of these systems, more than the shortcomings of the actual hardware.
Yeah, universities have a need for "dumb terminals" so that students without laptops (or without their laptops with them) can just check their email and Facebook pages between classes.
I know a place where there are still some G4 and G5 iMacs in use for this purpose. Obviously, with Leopard now unsupported, those need to be upgraded for security reasons.
This will send property taxes throught the roof.
"We can't make affordable computers." Steve Jobs
"We can't make affordable computers." Steve Jobs
I study currently at the University of Hertfordshire and we do have many macs, in the library there are about 3 dozen iMacs that are replaced quite often and are of a hight spec, although these models are cheaper we are a Apple Training Facility so get higher discount than most Unis, meaning we can get higher spec iMacs at lower cost. But on a whole these new cheaper education models would not do much good at a university because of the software that is required to run on these machines.
I am studying film and TV and we have a large edit suit running Final Cut Studio and PhotoShop as well as some other software, these machines would be no where near powerful enough for what we do compared to the Mac Pro's we run.
Many people from class have bough iMac's in the last few months and would most likely not buy these lower models and go for the higher spec at the little added cost.
I agree and understand for some educational institutes the saving would be high, but i can not see how with the growing requirements of system for software how these Macs at such a low spec are justifiable for education. These macs would be out of date for use sooner than the next model up resulting in replacing all macs compare the cost of upgrading to the next model that will last longer.
Students such as myself who were introduced to Mac's through education are converted to Mac from PC for the software and ease of use, But also the quality and performance of hardware (seeing that i can do a lot more on mac with ease persuaded me).
Bad move not having thunderbolt... Apple really should be making every effort possible to make it an industry standard, i.e. stick it on every single machine that they make! Even iPads! (well maybe not but yeah)
Sure. I'm sure most kids would enjoy driving a Ferrari when they reach driving age too instead of something more modest.
Seriously, this model is meant for secondary and high school markets -- and for general curriculum courses like math, language, etc. It would be a waste of money to buy MPs where that kind of processing isn't required.
Apple is trying to sell their leftovers. It is crazy they are trying to make money with schools.
Very classy!
This was never a regular model, so how could it be a "leftover." It was created for educational needs. Since when is an 3Ghz i3 a left over anyway. Also I don't know any company that sells their wares to schools at a loss. Businesses have to make money to pay for employees & satisfy investors. Do you realize that publishers require public libraries to pay full list price for books? Unlike book stores, they get zero discount, the rationale being that many people will read the library copy and not buy their own.
How would giving schools technology that they would never use make it an industry standard?
Not a vry compelling offering compared to the current low end, but I guess every dollar matters for edu's buying in bulk.
The sad thing is that those schools who need to replace after two years and will replace after two years will turn around and sell those machines. At my high school they told us before we left last year to get excited because we'd come back to new computers... what we came back to were "new to us" iMacs running (of all things) Windows. One some, the Mac side wasn't even set up for use. On the ones where it was set up... well, sometimes wasn't right with the internet so we couldn't get online... therefore, we were stuck on the Windows side. The machines were slow and definitely put a bad taste in some kids' mouths for Macs. I remember when I was a kid playing with the fruit colored iMacs and the eMacs... They had the Kid Pix software installed for us to play with as a "treat".
I had the chance to buy an hp workstation from a special deal with the uni. They sold the workstations for the same price that costs them to buy them for them. And in 2008 it was a quad core with 4gb of ram and and dedicated graphics card + lcd +mice + keyboard. And it was way cheaper than that imac.
I think it is way to expensive for the education market.
I think it is way to expensive for the education market.
my uni has loads of these. the dells and hps in all libraries and many computer labs got replaced a while ago... and the imacs are loaded with both windows and mac and has an OS selection screen upon log on. Our IT department said they've received overwhelming positive feedback when the macs were introduced
The problem with the wired mouse at uni is that half the scroll wheels don't work any more due to excessive use... the keyboard's alright though.
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Why not offer the base retail model for an even lower price point? Apple's cash reserves and lack of philanthropical gestures would merit that...besides, fom a business perspective it makes sense...more teachers and students (including their families) will be exposed to Apple systems than if they were to purchase one independently. iMO, that means more future customers.
Agreed, 2 GB is indeed on the (too) low end of the spectrum...
Lion runs fine on my 2006 core 2 duo 20" iMac with 2gigs of RAM.
Typical, someone else not thinking of global sales. I have friends in China and have lived in Hong Kong, along with the fact that I have taught and will teach again in the East. The Mac in most School over there is becoming God as well as in the US too ... and with Britain only getting and average in the international standard of pupils education perhaps we should follow suit
Apple are clearly thinking of emerging markets (ha ha emerging, they are already bending over their knee and giving us a tanning)
A lot of lab machines and public computers at the library at North Carolina State University are macs.
The 2GB of RAM is kind of lame, but the HDD space won't matter for most universities as most give users network space on the University's servers (So that you don't have to sit down at the same machine every time).
But the 2GB of RAM is easily upgradable by the IT department at a later date, and for a much cheaper price.
The only bad part of this deal is the dual core i3, but it will still be plenty fast for the majority of student tasks.
The 2GB of RAM is kind of lame, but the HDD space won't matter for most universities as most give users network space on the University's servers (So that you don't have to sit down at the same machine every time).
But the 2GB of RAM is easily upgradable by the IT department at a later date, and for a much cheaper price.
The only bad part of this deal is the dual core i3, but it will still be plenty fast for the majority of student tasks.
These are clearly aimed for K-12, which don't need a lot of power and will be fine four years from now.
Are you talking about the standard warranty? What institution orders any hardware without an extended warranty? And Edu AppleCare can be purchased in four or five year blocks.
If your budget cycle is every six years, your university needs more funding. Machines should be replaced when their warranties expire, which in Apple's case would be five years, max. We purchase everything in four year cycles where I am.
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I'd love it if we had those at our school. All we get are cheap HP/Dell laptops and desktops from 5 years ago that run on XP. A high school like mine with an IT specialty program should at least invest in good computers.
I'd love it if we had those at our school. All we get are cheap HP/Dell laptops and desktops from 5 years ago that run on XP. A high school like mine with an IT specialty program should at least invest in good computers.