Apple Looking to Launch Lower-Cost iMac in 2014

leftywamumonkey said:
How about they just sell it without a display?
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Nahaz said:
They could reintroduce the Macintosh LC range in a new case. It could be the bigger brother of the Mac mini.
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Yeah, I agree, it's something I'd been saying for a few years. A product between the Mac Pro (the older version) and the Mini, some kind of small-ish tower that could use 3.5" drives, lots of ports, etc., though that wouldn't wind up being cheaper by the time you put a whole machine together (display, mouse, keyboard), and anyway, I doubt, this would happen.

Speaking of the Mac Mini: it's an odd beast, people don't even seem to know it exists.

Right now (it hasn't been updated yet), a Mini with 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD and a dual core i5 is ~$700 vs. a an iMac quad i5, 1TB HDD, 8GB is ~$1300. So that's $600 for a display, mouse/pad, keyboard. Say you go $150 for real Apple components on the latter two, that's about $450 for a display, easy enough to get a good 22-24" display for around $200-250.

So that's about $200-250 savings over a 21.5" iMac but it's going to be a good bit less aesthetically pleasing, require more cabling/power, missing things like the integrated FT cam, lower specs, integrated GPU, etc.

My point: the Mini is a pretty streamlined little machine, but it's almost as much when everything is factored in, and it's a confusing purchase since it doesn't seem to be a "complete computer" vs. the iMac (even though you can even customize it with all the missing peripherals).

If Apple ever made a home, headless machine, they'd really need to put it together a little better, have packages already configured where you just "Add your own monitor" (i.e., *include* a mouse/keyboard *in* the box).

Just my $0.02 :cool:



James66 said:
Actually, the entry level iMac is $1,349.00. With Apple Care and nothing else (i.e.: with no USB Super Drive, no printer, and no additional software) it's $1600 before tax.
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General point taken, but in the US store I'm seeing $1299 on the entry level 21.5" (1TB HDD, 8GB RAM), plus Applecare is $169 for a total of $1468.00[?] (FWIW, that would be ~$1570 with tax, shipped to my door)
 
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krravi said:
Bring back the chunky iMac with the DVD Drive and better cooling...

This thinning of iMac's turned out to be its worst enemy. This was a desktop for many and with the thinning it has become a glorified laptop with a giant screen.

No clear direction at Apple... Jony Ive is running wild and the execs just shake their head in agreement, is my guess.
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The iMac has always been a gloried laptop with a giant display. Only now it's a glorified laptop with a giant display and no SuperDrive ;)

Jony Ive does wield a lot of power. From reports that's no accident. What can Tim Cook et al. say? They would be screwed without Jony.
 
krravi said:
Bring back the chunky iMac with the DVD Drive and better cooling...

This thinning of iMac's turned out to be its worst enemy. This was a desktop for many and with the thinning it has become a glorified laptop with a giant screen.

No clear direction at Apple... Jony Ive is running wild and the execs just shake their head in agreement, is my guess.
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Well, I'm all for a thinner imac. DVDs are not essential anymore, and from what I've read, there doesn't seem to be ANY issues with overheating with the new iMacs. HOWEVER, I don't like the gluing of the glass and the inability to access the guts of the iMac in the new form factor. That does suck. And I hope Apple changes that in future versions.

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ValSalva said:
The iMac has always been a gloried laptop with a giant display. Only now it's a glorified laptop with a giant display and no SuperDrive ;)

Jony Ive does wield a lot of power. From reports that's no accident. What can Tim Cook et al. say? They would be screwed without Jony.
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Well, considering that the new MacBook pros don't have SuperDrives either, I think its a moot point. Optical drives are a thing of the past. Better let that one go.
 
I see a lot of people complaining about a lack of DVD drive. Well, this issue came up when the floppy died. We moved on. Then there was the issue with the nonremoveable batteries from laptops. We moved on.

The thing that Apple has gone wrong with current models is the quest for "thinnest" at the expense of the upgradability. Really, no one cares about "thinness" for their desktop. We're not carrying them around in our pockets or book bags. The previous size was optimal.

Finally, as some have said here before. There needs to be a model in between the Mac Mini and the iMac. The model should be headless and upgradable. The biggest marketing point is that it should work like lego blocks. This would tie in nicely to the "maker movement" and the democratization of technology that we see today. Apple can make their precious "gold" from all the different accessories and proprietary peripherals.
 
I will not do integrated graphics, which, this new low cost will most certainly have. My only fear is that they force you to buy the 27" model if you want a discrete graphic card, and I don't need a screen that big.
 
Rogifan said:
Removing the floppy drive from the original iMac didn't make it thinner so why do people assume removing the DVD drive was all about thinness? It wasn't. Believe me if Apple had data that most of the customers were still using the DVD drive on a regular basis it would be in there. To me removing the DVD drive isn't any different than when Steve removed the floppy. And people bitched back then too. Honestly how many people still use DVD drives on a regular basis? My guess is the number is small enough and that's why Apple removed it. And seeing it removed from the rMBP should have given people a clue as to where Apple was going. In Apple's eyes the future is not internal optical drives in any product.
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Not necessarily. Apple put Firewire on computers for years and not many people used it. I'd be willing to bet that more people use the DVD drive than Firewire. And Thunderbolt. IMO, Apple doesn't care about what the customer wants in the pc market anymore.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
Not necessarily. Apple put Firewire on computers for years and not many people used it. I'd be willing to bet that more people use the DVD drive than Firewire. And Thunderbolt. IMO, Apple doesn't care about what the customer wants in the pc market anymore.
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Nobody cares about DVDs anymore. Apple is right about the DVD. Its dead. Let it go. You'll be a lot happier. Thunderbolt rocks by the way. ;-p
 
"Greed is good"......until it is not.

My whole movie collection is DVD....I wish it weren't. One big ol drive would be so much better.

Firewire...for musicians a lot of us are invested in FW technology. i guess as long as the TB to FW converters are cheap ;-) and don't introduce latency....
 
Chosenbydestiny said:
Because it's basic physics, when you remove a part of something it loses mass, therefore opening up the opportunity to redesign it. You're just deluding yourself with hype. Your needs are not everyone else's needs. And I'm 100% sure Apple weighed profits in before everyone else's needs to base their decision upon. You're just defending their decision, blindly.
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My point is a 5mm edge isn't the reason the iMac doesn't have an optical drive. And if Apple had data that showed most people still use optical drives the iMac would still have one. For every person that says they need one I could probably come up with two or three that don't use it anymore. Or the few times they do, a cheap external OD works just fine.

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Chosenbydestiny said:
It's not that the line is too expensive, but it's because they keep taking stuff away and lowering the overall value of the product just to make it look shinier and more compact. Not too long ago we could buy an entry level iMac with a built in optical drive and discreet graphics with upgradable RAM, replaceable hard disk, etc. Some might disagree that these features are no longer needed, but it's obvious they're shaving production costs for what's supposed to be a luxury product. I am less happy with every new generation of iMacs.
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The 27" iMac allows for user upgradable ram so I don't think thinness has anything to do with leaving it off the 21" model.
 
sofila said:
floppy: mostly software or archived documents
CD/DVD : software, archived documents and media entertainment, name it music, movies or games.
You can't ignore this difference and still believe that the two "removals" are of the same kind.
Phil Schiller is well paid to say this BS and probably not believe it himself.
Not the others
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I'd love to know the % of PC users who use a DVD drive on a regular basis in 2013. My guess is its very small.

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krravi said:
Bring back the chunky iMac with the DVD Drive and better cooling...

This thinning of iMac's turned out to be its worst enemy. This was a desktop for many and with the thinning it has become a glorified laptop with a giant screen.

No clear direction at Apple... Jony Ive is running wild and the execs just shake their head in agreement, is my guess.
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I thought the new iMacs had better cooling? :confused: Also one would assume the planning for these iMacs started while Steve was still around so I think it's highly likely he signed off it.
 
Rogifan said:
I'd love to know the % of PC users who use a DVD drive on a regular basis in 2013. My guess is its very small.
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Go buy a motherboard and look in the box to see what the drivers come on, surprise a DVD. When high speed internet covers every corner of the globe then maybe you'd have a case, but it isn't. Oh, and have you ever tried using Microsofts DVD/USB Tool? Well I have, and out of the 6 USB flash drives I have, none of them worked. I'm forced to burn the Windows ISO to DVD cos it's the only reliable way to get the OS installed. The world doesn't live inside the Infinite loop bubble, remember that.
 
MacDarcy said:
Optical drives are a thing of the past. Better let that one go.
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Not so fast. I own an older game that demands an original CD to play. Not a major factor in my life, but it would be a drag to have to buy an external optical drive or never play it again. Also I have the Netflix DVD delivery service because Netflix's catalog of classic movies is very weak. Clients occasionally send me DVDs of large files. I also rip CDs into iTunes, not so much as I used to, but it still comes up once in awhile. Those who believe that optical drives are no longer useful are expressing their own needs. The rest of us aren't ready to give them up just yet.
 
Apple would sell a LOT of desktop computers if only they would sell what buyers really want, a "normal" computer. A box bigger than the "mini" and much smaller then the current Mac Pro.

It needs to have room for a couple disk drives and be upgradable so it can last more than three years. It could even be made of plastic.

The thing that kills the iMac for most people is that you have to trash a perfectly good LCD monitor to upgrade the CPU.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
I hear it will use colorful plastic instead of aluminum but only be priced $100 less while encompassing this year's technology. Then, apparently people will say "for only $100 more" and buy the aluminum one instead because it has the latest tech. :rolleyes:
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The majority of committee members agree.
 
ChrisA said:
Apple would sell a LOT of desktop computers if only they would sell what buyers really want, a "normal" computer. I box bigger than the "mini" and much smaller then the current Mac Pro

It needs to have room for a couple disk drives and be upgradable so it can last more than three years. It could even be made of plastic.

The thing that kills the iMac for most people is that you have to trash a perfectly good LCD monitor to upgrade the CPU.
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Wait, what?

D.T. said:
Yeah, I agree, it's something I'd been saying for a few years. A product between the Mac Pro (the older version) and the Mini, some kind of small-ish tower that could use 3.5" drives, lots of ports, etc., though that wouldn't wind up being cheaper by the time you put a whole machine together (display, mouse, keyboard), and anyway, I doubt, this would happen.

[snip]
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:D :cool:
 
IJ Reilly said:
Not so fast. I own an older game that demands an original CD to play. Not a major factor in my life, but it would be a drag to have to buy an external optical drive or never play it again. Also I have the Netflix DVD delivery service because Netflix's catalog of classic movies is very weak. Clients occasionally send me DVDs of large files. I also rip CDs into iTunes, not so much as I used to, but it still comes up once in awhile. Those who believe that optical drives are no longer useful are expressing their own needs. The rest of us aren't ready to give them up just yet.
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As far as Apple is concerned internal optical drives are a thing of the past and they are not coming back. Besides, having had a SuperDrive fail in an iMac, an external USB SuperDrive is a better way to go regardless.
 
could it be...

that a lot of possible buyers might actually want a DVD burner built in?? Ever since this new design came out I have resisted buying one, the design seems to trump any functionality. SD card slot...round the back uhh? No DVD burner....uhh?
 
Woyzeck said:
A company that produces computers to satisfy their shareholders and not their customers
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This is probably the most outstanding comment that drives home a theme that should have Apple seriously ponder. Well done who ever you are who wrote this.
 
As l posted recently in another thread, the price of the iMacs has gradually risen, and are £350 more expensive than the previous aluminium ones from 2008 which started at £799. Plus it's lost user accessible RAM slots, a DVD drive and a few cm depth. When was the last time you heard anyone buying a desktop based on thinness? I've never bought a laptop on the merit of thinness either, it's nice but not something people will pay over the odds for. Pushing over that magical £999 mark really doesn't go down too well, especially when most desktop (not AIO) PCs are £500 tops.

Same issue with their notebooks, the non-pro MacBook was £719, now the entry level MBP is £999.

Around 2005-2010, people used to be surprised at how Macs weren't as expensive as they thought; now people in the market for a mid-high end PC don't consider a Mac because it's just so expensive. It's similar to people looking to buy a base BMW, they just don't consider a Ferrari.

woodbine said:
that a lot of possible buyers might actually want a DVD burner built in?? Ever since this new design came out I have resisted buying one, the design seems to trump any functionality. SD card slot...round the back uhh? No DVD burner....uhh?
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Exactly on both counts. The SD slot should be on the side, or even on the bottom. Trying to plug it in requires turning the computer around or spending a fair while poking about behind blind. The DVD drive is another expense and wrecks the "clean floating design" of the iMac.
 
Anyway we know what "lower-cost" means now.
It means old model, cheaper for Apple to manufacture, with less features, fewer options and lower quality.
But same or higher price :(

=> Better margin for Apple, no benefits for the customers.
 
I actually logged into the site to say this is one of the greatest comments I have ever read on here, and that my only regret is that it is not in a thread with more viewers.

Kudos to you sir and your brilliance. Well done.

HobeSoundDarryl said:
That's the trend. Take gut after gut out of the former "all in one" but keep the price about the same. Eventually, we'll be buying a glorified thunderbolt hub called an iMac and having to attach everything to it to make a computer. It will be spun as the "thinnest and lightest" iMac ever but we'll need to bring everything to the hub to actually get a working computer.

Then, someone will point out that it's just a thunderbolt hub.

And 500 guys will call him a Samsung troll... and praise this as the "headless Mac we've always wanted", the brilliance of Apple and on and on. We all know how it goes.

;)
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topmounter said:
As far as Apple is concerned internal optical drives are a thing of the past and they are not coming back. Besides, having had a SuperDrive fail in an iMac, an external USB SuperDrive is a better way to go regardless.
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External DVD drives aren't that expensive for those who still require one. But it wouldn't be Apple if people didn't complain about their products or how they should be doing X instead of Y. As far as the iMac goes one would assume Steve was involved and signed off on it. I mean it was released only one year after he died. I have a hard time believing Apple only started development on the new iMac after he died.
 
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