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Apple: No New Products Before Holidays
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it seems "less" is apples theme this year.
less different products
less updates
less features
it's not only their hardware it's also their software: iLife, iWork, iMovie discontinued
i'm getting more and more worried about the platform. with technology getting changing faster and faster and people wanting more variety it seems odd that apple has update cycles of 12 month or longer. and having less different models is also strange.
this may be good for the short term profits but leaves the door wide open for competitors to establish in a niche. e.g. netbooks, touch screen PCs, office software, subnotebooks, gaming PC's,.....
It's not that Apple is so good (they are good of course) it is PC makers weakness that makes Apple thrive.
less different products
less updates
less features
it's not only their hardware it's also their software: iLife, iWork, iMovie discontinued
i'm getting more and more worried about the platform. with technology getting changing faster and faster and people wanting more variety it seems odd that apple has update cycles of 12 month or longer. and having less different models is also strange.
this may be good for the short term profits but leaves the door wide open for competitors to establish in a niche. e.g. netbooks, touch screen PCs, office software, subnotebooks, gaming PC's,.....
It's not that Apple is so good (they are good of course) it is PC makers weakness that makes Apple thrive.
Why because they didn't give you everything you wanted, I'm sure Apple is shaking in their boots.
I so wanted a refreshed mini & new 24" display to compliment my Air. No mini, not buying the display.
I was just at the Apple Store in Des Moines this weekend and there was narry an imac to be found in the store. I assumed this meant that an imac update was inevitable this week. Maybe they were just swapping them for fresh imacs.
Errry single display imac was suspiciously missing from the store, I was like somethings wrong but I can't put my finger on it. My wife is like where are the imacs, WHERE ARE THE IMACS. Then we ran, we ran like we've never ran before.
Errry single display imac was suspiciously missing from the store, I was like somethings wrong but I can't put my finger on it. My wife is like where are the imacs, WHERE ARE THE IMACS. Then we ran, we ran like we've never ran before.
All the negative votes and comments.
OMGosh!
All the whiners saying the iMac isn't on par with the notebooks now or the Mini hasn't been updated in so long. The iMac is a great computer and should sell just fine through the holidays. The Mini isn't suppose to be everything to everyone, remember entry level. Stop making it into something more than it is. It could be updated but it is still adequate as is.
OMGosh!
All the whiners saying the iMac isn't on par with the notebooks now or the Mini hasn't been updated in so long. The iMac is a great computer and should sell just fine through the holidays. The Mini isn't suppose to be everything to everyone, remember entry level. Stop making it into something more than it is. It could be updated but it is still adequate as is.
On the contrary, they had dropped it from the new iMac prototype, but after all the turmoil about the new MB without firewire, they had to rework the new iMac to put FW back and the launch has been postponed. They still trying to figure out if they'll keep it on the Mac mini or not...
*******
It would be good if MWSF '09 was all about the Mac. It's been a long time...
Everyone is moaning and groaning how Apple dropped FW on the MacBook. If you go to Dell's website, Dell dropped VGA from their Studio computer (not at all compatible with VGA)...
No New Mac Mini = No New Mac For Me.
I'm not buying a two year old crippled computer with two year old specifications and a two year old price. Either drop the price to compensate for the poor specification, or improve the specification. At least if you drop the price, you'll get more switchers and I hardly think they'll lose much profit considering the vast amount they must be making at the moment given the archaic specifications.
The iMac isn't such a bad issue however, it's more up to date. The graphics are quite out of date however, and the whole system is a full generation behind chipset-wise. They could have boosted the hard drive or the standard RAM at least for the holiday season. I thought the Intel move would have resulted in a more fluid update style with minor specification increases quite often to complement the big updates every year, but Apple don't appear to like that, prefering to sell systems that age badly in the fast moving PC world.
My only hope is that they mean "no updates before holiday season" and that they might have an update during the holiday season. However I suspect they're leaving things for January - either to sell out of existing stock, or because it will be worthy of a keynote mention.
I'm not buying a two year old crippled computer with two year old specifications and a two year old price. Either drop the price to compensate for the poor specification, or improve the specification. At least if you drop the price, you'll get more switchers and I hardly think they'll lose much profit considering the vast amount they must be making at the moment given the archaic specifications.
The iMac isn't such a bad issue however, it's more up to date. The graphics are quite out of date however, and the whole system is a full generation behind chipset-wise. They could have boosted the hard drive or the standard RAM at least for the holiday season. I thought the Intel move would have resulted in a more fluid update style with minor specification increases quite often to complement the big updates every year, but Apple don't appear to like that, prefering to sell systems that age badly in the fast moving PC world.
My only hope is that they mean "no updates before holiday season" and that they might have an update during the holiday season. However I suspect they're leaving things for January - either to sell out of existing stock, or because it will be worthy of a keynote mention.
no big deal ... People get all worked up and place their hopes and dreams into the littlest rumors and are so crushed because they are wrong. It's only a few more months till mwsf I think we can wait that long
or it says " hey we're not going to throw out an update a week after you buy your new computer, so buy now"
It amazes me that we are still talking about FIREWIRE.
Again, it has nothing to do with being old but everything about UPSELLING to PRO macbook.
Why FAN BOYS continue to be blind is beyond me.
It's stunning actually that people think its about getting rid of a old technology. Yeah, sure, that's why its on the MBP.
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Again, can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Good, but did you know for almost one (1) year you COULD run motion, final cut? Again, did you know you could run motion and final cut?
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
So, while you could not play games, the different OPEN_GL of motion and final cut could work on an older macbook.
Now guess what? Motion and Final Cut will run AWESOME on the new MACBOOK, but alas no firewire. Hmmmmm. Coincidence? I think not.
One last time, we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
So if thats the case, and knowing you could NEVER EVER EVER play games and then everyone said here, "nyaa nyaa, nyaa, why would apple care about gaming, blaah blaah, blaah" and only a handful of the smart people saw that this was BOGUS and had nothing to do with gaming but everything to do with Apple and what you said.
CASE POINT:
Older Macbook OPEN GL BENCHMARKS
1st Macbook 70% OPEN GL
2nd Macbook, 130%, then 140% (Tiger)
3rd and Leopard, 171% (OPEN GL). Again, no gaming but would run motion fine, go ahead and google MACBOOK and MOTION.
So, what does Apple do with the older macbook (last before new one), they release the INTEL X300. Want to guess what the benchmark was? Allllllllllll the way back down to 70%, making MOTION useless on the old white and black Macbook. So what did Apple gain from this? You couldn't play a game on it, so why bother? Really, why bother.
It's because as you say, to keep the smallest of small user base, the Pro, the PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE for thinking different from ever being able to use the machine for ANY creative use whatsoever, therefore, you have to buy a pro machine.
Same on the iMac, no Matte so no color correction, no high end graphic work (please spare me the small, miniscule market handful of people that use it for graphics, as I am talking about the DESIGNER MARKET on a whole, not the Jim and Susan two doors down), and not only did they not release MATTE but they changed the firewire chipsets on both the MACBOOK and iMAC from Texas Instruments (in the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro), to a cheap, problematic chipset that caused problems for audio/video professionals. Hmmm.
So, Apple does it again, says one thing, pretends its not important and slaps the PRO user in the face. In fact, they slap the PRO user all the time. CREATIVES used to teach FCP, SHAKE, MOTION, now it's iLife and making cards and how to use your iPhone.
Oh yay, Apple really is creative. Creative at decepting you at thinking they have your best interest, when in fact, they make two models, the Macbook and Macbook Pro from same body, slap on a firewire, larger screen, and express slot and charge $899 more. Hmmm, just like selling $49 dollar RAM for $300. Nice Apple, really nice to take care of those they helped you stay afloat for years. What a way to treat your loyal customers.
Anyone see the keynote when he passed the chassis around? He looked paranoid like someone would steal it. Goodness, paranoid?
Anyway, the user base said, Apple not interested in gaming, well apparently they do as it out weighs the music business. So, now that the machine can play games, this translates into a machine that will run motion and FCP and any 3d OPEN GL pro applications with ease, therefore, they take away the firewire and any pro user that used it for pro apps is SOL. Not to mention numerous musicians and audio professionals that have firewire interfaces. Firewire interfaces are much more PRO than USB interfaces.
I think its sad that Apple is STILL, after all these years of growing, are afraid of the PRO user using a cheap macbook when the PRO user is less than 1% of the apple retail base buyer/purchaser. If Apple didn't care, they never would have crippled the first generation from 171% 3rd gen macbook with the X300 and drop it down to 70%, think about it, you couldn't play games so they only people it hurt was the pro user, the user that kept apple afloat for many, many years.
I'm thinking someday Apple will get that the PRO will always keep buying the MBP and Mac Pro and the cheap system as a field machine, but now, they have no reason and many home studios (which far out weigh the PRO user base) have nowhere to go except to pro macs which many cannot afford.
Hope Apple gets it and realizes this is a SNAFU that is talked about on almost every Apple podcast, website, music site.
Again, it has nothing to do with being old but everything about UPSELLING to PRO macbook.
Why FAN BOYS continue to be blind is beyond me.
It's stunning actually that people think its about getting rid of a old technology. Yeah, sure, that's why its on the MBP.
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Again, can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Good, but did you know for almost one (1) year you COULD run motion, final cut? Again, did you know you could run motion and final cut?
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
Can we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
So, while you could not play games, the different OPEN_GL of motion and final cut could work on an older macbook.
Now guess what? Motion and Final Cut will run AWESOME on the new MACBOOK, but alas no firewire. Hmmmmm. Coincidence? I think not.
One last time, we agree that on the old macbook you could not play games?
So if thats the case, and knowing you could NEVER EVER EVER play games and then everyone said here, "nyaa nyaa, nyaa, why would apple care about gaming, blaah blaah, blaah" and only a handful of the smart people saw that this was BOGUS and had nothing to do with gaming but everything to do with Apple and what you said.
CASE POINT:
Older Macbook OPEN GL BENCHMARKS
1st Macbook 70% OPEN GL
2nd Macbook, 130%, then 140% (Tiger)
3rd and Leopard, 171% (OPEN GL). Again, no gaming but would run motion fine, go ahead and google MACBOOK and MOTION.
So, what does Apple do with the older macbook (last before new one), they release the INTEL X300. Want to guess what the benchmark was? Allllllllllll the way back down to 70%, making MOTION useless on the old white and black Macbook. So what did Apple gain from this? You couldn't play a game on it, so why bother? Really, why bother.
It's because as you say, to keep the smallest of small user base, the Pro, the PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE for thinking different from ever being able to use the machine for ANY creative use whatsoever, therefore, you have to buy a pro machine.
Same on the iMac, no Matte so no color correction, no high end graphic work (please spare me the small, miniscule market handful of people that use it for graphics, as I am talking about the DESIGNER MARKET on a whole, not the Jim and Susan two doors down), and not only did they not release MATTE but they changed the firewire chipsets on both the MACBOOK and iMAC from Texas Instruments (in the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro), to a cheap, problematic chipset that caused problems for audio/video professionals. Hmmm.
So, Apple does it again, says one thing, pretends its not important and slaps the PRO user in the face. In fact, they slap the PRO user all the time. CREATIVES used to teach FCP, SHAKE, MOTION, now it's iLife and making cards and how to use your iPhone.
Oh yay, Apple really is creative. Creative at decepting you at thinking they have your best interest, when in fact, they make two models, the Macbook and Macbook Pro from same body, slap on a firewire, larger screen, and express slot and charge $899 more. Hmmm, just like selling $49 dollar RAM for $300. Nice Apple, really nice to take care of those they helped you stay afloat for years. What a way to treat your loyal customers.
Anyone see the keynote when he passed the chassis around? He looked paranoid like someone would steal it. Goodness, paranoid?
Anyway, the user base said, Apple not interested in gaming, well apparently they do as it out weighs the music business. So, now that the machine can play games, this translates into a machine that will run motion and FCP and any 3d OPEN GL pro applications with ease, therefore, they take away the firewire and any pro user that used it for pro apps is SOL. Not to mention numerous musicians and audio professionals that have firewire interfaces. Firewire interfaces are much more PRO than USB interfaces.
I think its sad that Apple is STILL, after all these years of growing, are afraid of the PRO user using a cheap macbook when the PRO user is less than 1% of the apple retail base buyer/purchaser. If Apple didn't care, they never would have crippled the first generation from 171% 3rd gen macbook with the X300 and drop it down to 70%, think about it, you couldn't play games so they only people it hurt was the pro user, the user that kept apple afloat for many, many years.
I'm thinking someday Apple will get that the PRO will always keep buying the MBP and Mac Pro and the cheap system as a field machine, but now, they have no reason and many home studios (which far out weigh the PRO user base) have nowhere to go except to pro macs which many cannot afford.
Hope Apple gets it and realizes this is a SNAFU that is talked about on almost every Apple podcast, website, music site.
what were you expecting???
a new Mac Pro and new iMac just before Nehalem?? and then 1 month later, new iMac and Mac Pro with Nehalem?!!!
but I do agree with a new Mini with a 9400M...
If you expect the iMac to have a nehalem cpu early 2009. YOU will be disappointed.
The nehalem cpus that will be available later this month are high-end desktop cpus (quad-core, 130W), will be nice in a smaller/less expensive Mac Pro, but this will probably never happen.
The Xeon nehalem cpus will be available early 2009 (AFAIK), those will probably be used in the next Mac Pro (expect an increase for the price of the base model).
Mainstream nehalem cpus (desktop & notebooks) will not appear before Q3 2009, with the dual-core mobile parts probably only in Q1 2010.
Not many (Apple) computers will have nehalem cpus in 2009.
and that's why it's a good time to buy a apple notebook right now. if you like them buy the new models, if you don't like the new models buy the old one as clearance item. the next relevant speed increase in apple notebooks will be january 2010. in between you might get a GPU update at best. hard drives can be upgraded in case a 256 SSD for a reasonable price comes out and snow leopard leverages the speed increase.
Now that really makes me NOT want to buy an iMac/MBP.
FWIW, I agree with most of what you said.
I would like a single cpu Core i7 Mac Pro, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Superdrive, with a Texas Instruments FW chipset, any gpu with a DL-DVI out, at less than $2,000. (I'll upgrade the RAM and HDD(s) myself, thanks.)
The Nehalem LGA 1366 socket CPUs are expected to be released on November 18, 2008 and x58 motherboards are available now, but Apple isn't likely to offer any LGA 1366 systems. On the other hand, there's a good chance that the Hackintosh community will have OSX running on a Nehalem system before the end of the year.
Everyone is moaning and groaning how Apple dropped FW on the MacBook. If you go to Dell's website, Dell dropped VGA from their Studio computer (not at all compatible with VGA)...
It looks to me like the studios (two desktops, two laptops and the mini) all have either HDMI + VGA or HDMI + DVI-I.
DVI-I has all the VGA signals, you just need the cheap passive adapter dongle.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-studio-slim?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19
By the way, did you look closely at the Studio Slim?
Blu-ray Disc burner, HDMI, TV tuner, 1394, 802.11n, Q9550 CPU (quad 12MB L2, 2.83GHz, 1333FSB), 8 GiB RAM, eSATA, 7.1 sound, Intel® GMA X4500HD with built-in support for full 1080p high-definition video playback, including Blu-ray* disc movies, 3.5" SATA (up to 1 TB), PCIe x16 slot for graphics, two PCIe x1 slots, one PCI slot, three 3.5" drive slots / two optical slots (4 total)
$869 for Quad 2.33 GHz, 4 GiB, BD-ROM/DVD-RW, 640 GB, ATI RADEON 3450 HD 256MiB, Vista 64-bit.
$549 entry price