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Apple Looking to Launch Lower-Cost iMac in 2014

MacDarcy said:
Sorry if I mistook you for complaining. But I do disagree that more people care about DVDs than thunderbolt. I think most people don't care about DVDs anymore, but they do care about speedy connections. I guess we just differ there. :)
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Thunderbolt it far from mainstream. And outside of a small percentage of Mac users, the general public hasn't even heard of it. Again, IMO.
 
Smaller display?

Am i the only one that thinks that there are a huge gap between the 15" Macbook pro and a 21" iMac?
I really want a 17" Macbook pro
i'm sticking if my 2 year old 17"Macbook until apple fill the gap
I'm all in favor of a small line of Mac's but this is ridiculous .
 
neuropsychguy said:
People said the exact same thing when Apple removed 3.5" floppy drives. Removing the optical drive was not just about making the iMac thinner, it was removing a component that was rarely used by most people.
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+1. I have a disc drive on my 13" MBP, it's never been used. I have an old external disc drive that sits in my closet that I can connect to my mid-2011 Mac mini... I've never connected it. I don't see the need to ever use a CD drive again, or floppy drives, or tape drives, punch cards, etc...

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cadujr said:
Am i the only one that thinks that there are a huge gap between the 15" Macbook pro and a 21" iMac?
I really want a 17" Macbook pro
i'm sticking if my 2 year old 17"Macbook until apple fill the gap
I'm all in favor of a small line of Mac's but this is ridiculous .
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Why? Because of screen size? I don't understand comparing portable computers to desktops unless you are talking about power / speed in regards to productivity.
 
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I think prices need to be lowered... Use plastic if it helps

I never got why a desktop needed to be thinner.. this isn't something that needs to be moved all the time.

Couple of years ago you only needed to upgrade your computer... now its the iPhone the iPad and a computer...

Maybe apple needs to knock off $300 from the computer hardware line... because that computer upgrade budget is buying iPads and computers now.
Apple has nothing low end except for the mac mini...
 
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Its not strictly being too expensive its also making a stupid decision to drop the optical drive on a desktop. Consumers do care about that imo and apples decline compared to the pc is evidence of that imo
 
76ShovelHead said:
Bring back the white macbook, idc if its a repackaged mini. It should retail at $599. But knowing apple we'll be lucky if it sits below $999.
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In Brazil the cheapest iMac costs around $2500 if you're a student and buy it without a credit card. If Apple could offer a cheaper plastic iMac for around $1500 then it could be a big seller. Just put a 21" display in a plastic case, 500GB, 5400rpm HDD, less RAM (4GB default), less ports (2xUSB 3.0 and one TB would be fine), that is, an entry-level MacMini in an iMac case.
 
Poisonivy326 said:
Actually you could argue that removing the optical bay on a desktop is an economic calculation on Apple's part that people are more likely to only download Apps from the Apple store and stream media through itunes downloads. Both of which make Apple a lot of money.
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Not to mention that iMac was cheaper with ODD than now without ODD, which itself costs about a hundred $ to buy from Apple.

They are really greedy in this department and people see it.
 
Poisonivy326 said:
Actually you could argue that removing the optical bay on a desktop is an economic calculation on Apple's part that people are more likely to only download Apps from the Apple store and stream media through itunes downloads. Both of which make Apple a lot of money.
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So less functionality for the user, along with no user upgradeability, AND higher prices, are all great for apple, but bad for users.

Apple - bad for users.


This line of reasoning is fun. Care for another round?
 
Count Blah said:
So less functionality for the user, along with no user upgradeability, AND higher prices, are all great for apple, but bad for users.

Apple - bad for users.


This line of reasoning is fun. Care for another round?
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Not saying that. Saying that Apple wants to make money, like any other company, and removing upgradeability and also closing the ecosystem further makes them more money.
 
Its not "that" exprnsive are they??

I fear that Aplpe's battleing with a "how low can you go" with "improvments with processor, ram, etc"

The two resist at one another.
 
Tech198 said:
[they're not] "that" expensive are they??

I fear that Apple's battling with a "how low can you go" [against] "improvments with processor, ram, etc"
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Exactly. I don't believe pricing is the issue, but rather what the consumer is receiving for the price. Price-points remained relatively constant yet Apple removed components (more specifically the ODD, a bold move in the face of the battle against Blu-Ray media while most consumers and professionals require ODD media), while focusing on a thinner desktop that required a return to mobile parts for some models. It didn't make sense then and still doesn't. Further inspection would uncover the still high demand for pre-2012 models, pointing to other reasons.

Apple seems more focused on stretching out technology in their product lines by offering "cheaper" models. While I loathe the "Steve wouldn't approve of this" commentary, I would wager well that it would most definitely apply in this instance. Jobs believed profits followed exceptional products and was not the driving force, the current business practices suggest the opposite. Soon, the "four quadrant" business model that pulled Apple out of near bankruptcy will be a distant memory as more models in the same product line are released instead of new products replacing older lines.
 
Poisonivy326 said:
Not saying that. Saying that Apple wants to make money, like any other company, and removing upgradeability and also closing the ecosystem further makes them more money.
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They make more money by limiting user choice, and totally locking people in, ends up chasing potential purchasers away. Couple that with higher prices in a crappy economy, and you have where we are at today.
 
apple stuffed up

I think apple stuffed up big time, with the new imacs.

firstly the memory - who hasn't bought a new mac only to upgrade the memory after purchase with third party memory because its way cheeper ? can't do that any more.

secondly the hard disk - the ssd disks are still too expensive to replace a match your existing (sized) system.

Why would i upgrade my mac, if i can't get store everything from my current mac onto my new one ? no one wants to stuff around with external drives any more. It's such a waste of time. People buy macs because they just work.

My existing imac - which is a few years old, core i3 with 1 tb drive and 16 gb ram, which originally cost about 1500 Aud is now going to cost more like $2000 or 2500 to get a similar amount of storage and ram (albeit a better processor and screen), why would i bother ? it's such a massive INCREASE in COST
 
It would be cool if these things had tiny batteries in them so they don't turn off from a little hiccup power outage. Just enough UPS to give enough time to save everything before a blackout or keep it alive through a hiccup. Using a full UPS is overkill, but everyone needs it.
 
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Tech198 said:
Its not "that" exprnsive are they??

I fear that Aplpe's battleing with a "how low can you go" with "improvments with processor, ram, etc"

The two resist at one another.
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Apple keeps screwing up their own designs. It is Intel and NVIDIA that are making Macs better. Stupid slim designs, no FW ports, too few USB ports, glued together cases, no OD option, few to no user upgrades, rip-off storage and RAM upgrade prices. . . the list goes on.

It is Apple that is taking its own products out of the market. Sure there will always be people who buy them but they are leaving a lot of buyers (like me) on the side. There are some great Windows machines out there, like from Asus, with lots of performance and reasonable prices.
 
blackhand1001 said:
The A7 is not anywhere close to a core 2 duo, core i3, i5, or even an old athlon 64. ARM is great for mobile etc. but its not where near the performance of desktop, and laptop class chips, even ones from as far back as 2006 and earlier.

My late 2008 early 2009 hp dv7 with a core 2 duo scores under 200ms in sunspider while the a7 scores over 400. (lower is better)


It scores 1882ms on mozilla Kraken vs 5904ms for the A7.


Lastly on google octane my dv7 scores 13978 vs 5500 for the A7. (Higher is better)


There are other areas that x86 absolutely destroys arm such as memory stream and the much more robust instruction sets. Out of order execution is also a giant advantage.
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You're assuming a laptop A7 would run in the same power envelope as a cellphone.

This would not be the case.

A laptop A7 would be running with much higher power (for more MHz), with higher-power memory interfaces.

They could also fab the A7 in a higher-power process as well. The A7 is likely manufactured in a very low-power process.

In general, most architecture have a 10x power range. The same i7 chip can run in a 10W system or a much faster 100W system.

Phone SOC's are generally in the 1-2W power range. A laptop version would be in the 10W-20W range.

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ScottishDuck said:
What planet are you living on
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The one where I was an ASIC designer, including ones you likely bought.

How many ASICs have you designed?

(Seriously, who knows, maybe you've designed more ASICs than me?)
 
mozumder said:
You're assuming a laptop A7 would run in the same power envelope as a cellphone.

This would not be the case.

A laptop A7 would be running with much higher power (for more MHz), with higher-power memory interfaces.

They could also fab the A7 in a higher-power process as well. The A7 is likely manufactured in a very low-power process.

In general, most architecture have a 10x power range. The same i7 chip can run in a 10W system or a much faster 100W system.

Phone SOC's are generally in the 1-2W power range. A laptop version would be in the 10W-20W range.
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So does Intel Core ULV used on Haswell Macbook Air.
http://ark.intel.com/products/75033/Intel-Core-i5-4350U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_90-GHz

ARM is all about ultra low power that's why it's so popular. If you need to increase the clock and TDP on it to reach certain performance, I just don't see it has any edge over Intel Core in your case.
 
IJ Reilly said:
The entire point being, the optical drive is not obsolete. No matter what Apple does or anyone says, it's still a needed device for a lot of people. For those people, buying a new iMac also means buying an external drive that previously was included.

Before anyone says this is just like Apple deleting the floppy drive, it isn't. When Apple dropped the floppy, they replaced it with an optical drive. Eliminating all removable media is a bigger step and makes a larger assumption about what people need.
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USB sticks are removable media. So are SDXC cards.

Apple is correct. You don't need Optical drives.

Let's get rid of them.
 
scottsjack said:
Apple keeps screwing up their own designs. It is Intel and NVIDIA that are making Macs better. Stupid slim designs, no FW ports, too few USB ports, glued together cases, no OD option, few to no user upgrades, rip-off storage and RAM upgrade prices. . . the list goes on.

It is Apple that is taking its own products out of the market. Sure there will always be people who buy them but they are leaving a lot of buyers (like me) on the side. There are some great Windows machines out there, like from Asus, with lots of performance and reasonable prices.
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Right, they are making their consumer desktop unreasonable. It is more like a laptop on a stand than a desktop.
 
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