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Why is MacWorld in Jan?

So all, this whole things comes down to one questions for me, why is MacWorld in Jan? Seems to me that some of the holiday purchasing will turn (even quicker than it normally does) into one gi-normous bout of buyers remorse when some of these switchers find out that their brand new computers will be seen as instantly outdated by the second week of January.

I understand that Apple likes to wait for MacWorld to introduce new products, but it seems like January is the worst of all times to do that.
 
dernhelm said:
So all, this whole things comes down to one questions for me, why is MacWorld in Jan? Seems to me that some of the holiday purchasing will turn (even quicker than it normally does) into one gi-normous bout of buyers remorse when some of these switchers find out that their brand new computers will be seen as instantly outdated by the second week of January.

I understand that Apple likes to wait for MacWorld to introduce new products, but it seems like January is the worst of all times to do that.

Which is why I strongly doubt any updates to the iMac in macworld. Mac Mini has been around for a while now, and the same for the iBook. People who bought these products knew they are not buying newly designed items. They probably know they're towards the end of their life span. iMac however, had a major face lift just a few weeks ago.

The powerbook, however is a mixed bag. It was updated not too long ago, but it was a modest update to say the least, with barely any speed improvements. It needs a refresh more than the rest combined.

Then again, after the iPod video introductions - 5 weeks after the iPod nano introduction, you'll never know with Apple.

Oded S.
 
supergod said:
I'm assuming that these are mostly first time mac buyers, right? Is someone familiar with the system actually going to shell out money now for a pre-intel mac?

I am, as someone who is familiar with the system. I'd be damned to see the iMac upgraded to intel in January and the iBook and Mac Mini hold no interest for me. I think a lot of people who are familiar with the system are choosing to hold off because they don't want a somewhat buggy Rev A model and/or the current PPC models work just fine for them.
 
SiliconAddict said:
PS - Merry Christmas/Chanuka/Kwanza/Ramadan/[insert other here]
Sorry to point out another correction! As I recall, Muslims celebrate "Eid" (pronounced 'eed' with a soft 'd') twice a year, one of which comes after the end of Ramadan. Ramadan itself is not a time of celebration, it's a time of fasting and reflecting upon the needs of the not-so-fortunate.

We are one of those who 'knowingly' purchased a PPC-based 20-in iMac for Christmas. Despite the looming switchover, the current iMac is a very good machine and it's inexpensive enough to be replaced within 2 years if need be.
 
miketcool said:
I can safely say, Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy your maxed out credit cards, yay apple!

Merry Christmas indeed, considering I do not have a maxed credit card(s). :eek: ;) :D

dernhelm said:
So all, this whole things comes down to one questions for me, why is MacWorld in Jan? Seems to me that some of the holiday purchasing will turn (even quicker than it normally does) into one gi-normous bout of buyers remorse when some of these switchers find out that their brand new computers will be seen as instantly outdated by the second week of January.

I understand that Apple likes to wait for MacWorld to introduce new products, but it seems like January is the worst of all times to do that.

MacWorld SF, does not really mean that Apple will always update hardware. There is that remote chance that they will introduce something new or update something that require an update for a long time coming. Plus you have to remember that it will take weeks if not months depends on what hardware is released along with availability issues.

The iMac G5 line that was mentioned in this article along with the iPod line will not see an update so soon in January as it was indeed updated for the holiday season. :)

People who are waiting are those who are waiting for an iBook, PowerBook and or Mac Mini. ;) :)

ksz said:
We are one of those who 'knowingly' purchased a PPC-based 20-in iMac for Christmas. Despite the looming switchover, the current iMac is a very good machine and it's inexpensive enough to be replaced within 2 years if need be.

There might me one more update for the iMac G5 come 2006, as at that point it would have reached rev D. Usually and I say usually in a loose term that after 4 revs it jumps to another chip or a dual processor configuration.

If you have noticed the iMac G5 has been update about every 6 months and making the jump from PPC to x86 might bring some issues that people are not accustom to expect from the iMac line.

Remember the iMac is what started it all, if you cripple the line it does not reflect good upon the company. :)

hubristol said:
I am, as someone who is familiar with the system. I'd be damned to see the iMac upgraded to intel in January and the iBook and Mac Mini hold no interest for me. I think a lot of people who are familiar with the system are choosing to hold off because they don't want a somewhat buggy Rev A model and/or the current PPC models work just fine for them.


It's the software lineup, since there are already few titles compared to the wintel world for applications and when launched there will be even fewer for an x86 Mac.

Peoples business runs on key applications and without those, there is no tempting reason to buy leading edge hardware if they software will not run on it.

Bill: is that one of the new Intel Mac's you have there.

Steve: yeah it is, it does all this neat stuff and I am glad I am one of the first to have it. All those other PPC users out there don't know what they are missing.

Bill: will your business software run on that Intel Mac.

Steve: aah....NO..but who cares its the latest thing in Mac hardware and on the bleeding edge as far as Mac OS 10.4 (x86) and the Mac community care about.

Bill: so what are you going to do to run your business if your new Intel Mac will not run the current business tools you have,

Steve: aah.did you hear me.....it the "NEW INTEL MAC" who cares if it runs my business software.

Bill: you just don't get it do you, Steve. :rolleyes:

-------------------------------


I have to say this, in the past Bill Gates was right in his comments. Steve Jobs was wrong and he has learned that lesson since then. Steve Jobs is playing not hard however "smart ball." He introduced the iMac to re-market Apple to give them enough press that is positive rather than all the historic negatives under some other CEO.

With that he introduced the G4 Cube, which was a great machine however it was a little too early and expensive. (re-designed into the Mac Mini for far less).

Steve Jobs then introduces the iPod, keeps it a Mac only hardware. Good move since he wanted to test it out without investing too much into a flop if it did turn into one. Later introduced it to the x86 Wintel market as a testing ground to see how well it would do, and well it did very well (However no x86 software to manage those tunes for the iPod that existed at that time, which was created by Apple).

Apple introduces iTunes for Windows, to get the word out that you no longer has to own a Mac to acquire a partial experience of what the Mac has to offer. iTunes for Windows was very popular since it offered a glimmer of what the Mac and its applications behaved like.

Apple then introduces iTMS, for Mac and Windows. Integrated into iTunes that is already popular with the Windows crowd and will not harm them as it will be a tester, if you like it great if you do not, not big deal. You gained something for nothing. Which WIndows user could resist.

And from there we have the T.V. shows..........its all following the same path, my friends........Steve Jobs has learned and he is telling Bill Gates that Yes you were right to a certain point and I was wrong to a certain point. However that being said there is a way to convert people to the Macintosh ideology.

Steve Jobs, I have to commend that this business plan is one of the most brilliant in years. :)
 
Oh thats why they had mobs

I stayed away from the mobs in the Apple store this December. It was the only store on Michigan Ave. that had a crowd.
 
zedwards said:
I stayed away from the mobs in the Apple store this December. It was the only store on Michigan Ave. that had a crowd.

just went strait for those ipod vending machines eh
 
JGowan said:
FYI: "Kwanzaa" for most of the 18 million people celebrating what you're most likely referring to is spelled with two A's, not one.

The 'misspelled' Kwanza does have two As in it, I think YOU meant it has two As at the end (three in total). And on the subject of spelling (or more precisely, punctuation) 'two A's' is incorrect, since A is not possessive, but rather, plural. You should have writeen 'two As'.

:p
 
SiliconAddict said:
Of course its limited. For the most part the only people who know about the transition are geeks, nerds, Mac fans, and professionals who are looking to upgrades. The average consumer is going to be oblivious.


PS - Merry Christmas/Chanuka/Kwanza/Ramadan/[insert other here]

erm.. ramadan ended like two months ago
 
Why are people so happy that someone else is a millionaire and making alot of money. Sure i love apple and stuff but lets be real here, are we really that happy? I couldnt care less. Id rather them not be as popular becuase sooner or later viruses will start to be created and prices will jsut get rediculous again.
 
supergod said:
I'm assuming that these are mostly first time mac buyers, right? Is someone familiar with the system actually going to shell out money now for a pre-intel mac?

Um... am I really, really stupid for buying an iMac G5 for Christmas?? I haven't opened it yet so... I could still take it back. Seriously, I feel so stupid now... was that a super dumb thing to do? Should I take it back?

SiliconAddict said:
Of course its limited. For the most part the only people who know about the transition are geeks, nerds, Mac fans, and professionals who are looking to upgrades. The average consumer is going to be oblivious.


PS - Merry Christmas/Chanuka/Kwanza/Ramadan/[insert other here]

Yeah... I saved my friend's dad from buying an iBook! They didn't even know about the possible Intel for iBook in January. And his son (my friend), who was helping him to pick it out, didn't know, and he's even a computer nerd (needless to say on Windows, but saving for a Mac)! Ah, they listen to me because I told them about the iPod w/ video coming out the next day the night before. Which they had no clue about. :cool: :p
The only thing is if they don't come out w/ Intel iBooks (which is really expected, right?) I'm screwed. Or if the programs he needs suck on Rosetta. :(

ryannel2003 said:
I'm so happy that Apple has been doing good this holiday season. 2005 has been one helluva year for Apple! :) I'm so glad I got a iPod w/ Video for Christmas! So freakin awesome!! :D
Well, if we're doing English corrections on this thread, APPLE HAS BEEN DOING WELL THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!! :D ok. not funny. but 2005 has been one awesome year! here's to a more awesome 2006! *raises invisible champagne glass into the air with other mac geeks across the land*
Happy Holidays everyone!:)
 
Espnetboy3 said:
Why are people so happy that someone else is a millionaire and making alot of money. Sure i love apple and stuff but lets be real here, are we really that happy? I couldnt care less. Id rather them not be as popular becuase sooner or later viruses will start to be created and prices will jsut get rediculous again.

I'm not really happy/unhappy that someone else is making lots of money. Good for them, but I really don't care. What I care about is that Apple making more money should mean more and better products from Apple down the road — and maybe cheaper products too (though I'm not holding my breath on that one). I don't have faith in many corporations, but Apple's attention to design, detail, and the user experience leads me to believe that the people there will do even cooler things the more market share increases. Just look at the (net) improvements in the iPod over the last 5 years.

Also, the longer I use OS X (full-time since mid-10.1), the more I'm convinced that the small-market-share-keeps-malware-away is a load of crap. Windows is Swiss cheese, OS X isn't. That's all there is to it. Apple is now a high-profile company, so much so now that you'd think they'd be on someone's radar. Not to say we will never have any viruses/worms on OS X — it's probably inevitable regardless of market share. But I would bet hard cash that any exploit that is actually exploited will not have the same impact as, I dunno, take your pick of any of the dozens (hundreds?) of Windows exploits.

And why will prices get ridiculous "again?"
 
It's virtually impossible to register a product on the Apple site at 20:50 GMT 25th December!!

Loving my 6th iPod - 5th generation with video.
 
~Shard~ said:
They might if they are apprehensive about buying a Rev A Intel-Mac and would rather buy something proven which they know will work. Also, Pro users would no doubt want to stick with PPC machines since their professional apps may not be ported yet to x86, and/or they don't want to take a chance with Rosetta, etc. :cool:

Well, not neccesarily true. Remember, Apple's had MacOS X on Intel since Rhapsody-days. That means it had to be on "Test Mules" locked away in the deepest recesses of Cupertino since at least 2000. And the mules likely ran most flavors of Intel's (and, no doubt, AMD's) CPUs, chipsets and motherboards. Also, they've had "engineering samples" of Yonah since (most likely) before the WWDC announcement... And have (likely) added Conroe, Merom and Woodcrest examples by now.

There are always "hardware hiccups" with a new design, but I doubt it will be due to the change in processor architectures. If anything, Apple has had "road tests" already with PCI-Express x16, DDR2, S-ATA (1, but now S-ATA 150 is here), and such thanks to the recent upgrades to the iMac G5 (w/ Front Row & iSight) and the PowerMac G5 (with dual dual-core PPC970MPs)... The tricky parts will be bolting Yonah & the Napa (Centrino) Platform into MacOS X.

So, I'm not afraid of the transition or rev-A hardware. The only thing that scares me is if this "poppycock" nonsense of Apple releasing iBooks with the Yonah dual-core and Napa's bells & whistles while letting the PowerBook fester in its grave until Merom ships around September... Yonah looks to be more expensive than the G4, so where is the logic in an iBook transition at MWSF!?!

As for the mini - don't get me started! If you throw a dual-core Yonah in there, with its 667MHz frontside bus, DDR2 DRAM (which it will support), PCI-Exp x16 GPUs (again, Napa-supported), then add DVR functionality (which means the 2.5" ATA HDs would need to be replaced by 3.5" S-ATAs)... Now you've got a machine that is twice the size and (easily) twice the price of todays Mac mini... That's not the reason & allure for the mini...

Therefore, if anything, Apple "may" keep the mini as-is until the single-core Yonah ships around May, but... BUT... they will "unofficially-expand" the line to include all those features, in a similarly-styled case, but with a different name... Perhaps the "Home Media Server _______" - the Brits will love it, calling it the HMS Apple... Now, if it would just float, and come with a sail-antenna for WiFi...

amateurmacfreak said:
Um... am I really, really stupid for buying an iMac G5 for Christmas?? I haven't opened it yet so... I could still take it back. Seriously, I feel so stupid now... was that a super dumb thing to do? Should I take it back?

Are you being tongue-in-cheek, or are you seriously doubting your iMac G5 purchase?

Look at it this way: Apple hasn't "trumpeted" this point, but the iMac has had a 64bit cpu for the past 15+ months... Even if Yonah is a dual-core, would they really "backpedal" like that to a 32bit cpu? Also, the 20" iMac already has a faster frontside bus (700MHz) than Yonah's 667MHz bus. And it has gigabit ethernet, PCI-Exp x16 graphics and DDR2 DRAM...

That's why I think the iMac will stick with PPC until Merom, the 64bit, dual-core "successor" to Yonah ships around September. By that time 802.11n (is that WiMax?) will be more mainstream, and more studios & networks will have gotten on board with iTMS' video downloads, so we may see higher bit rates and feature films... Until then, Apple can squeeze another 100-300MHz out of the present PPC970FX, bump up the hard drive and gpu, etc. to keep the iMac competitive.
 
Originally Posted by Norse Son
Originally Posted by amateurmacfreak
Um... am I really, really stupid for buying an iMac G5 for Christmas?? I haven't opened it yet so... I could still take it back. Seriously, I feel so stupid now... was that a super dumb thing to do? Should I take it back?

Are you being tongue-in-cheek, or are you seriously doubting your iMac G5 purchase?

Look at it this way: Apple hasn't "trumpeted" this point, but the iMac has had a 64bit cpu for the past 15+ months... Even if Yonah is a dual-core, would they really "backpedal" like that to a 32bit cpu? Also, the 20" iMac already has a faster frontside bus (700MHz) than Yonah's 667MHz bus. And it has gigabit ethernet, PCI-Exp x16 graphics and DDR2 DRAM...

That's why I think the iMac will stick with PPC until Merom, the 64bit, dual-core "successor" to Yonah ships around September. By that time 802.11n (is that WiMax?) will be more mainstream, and more studios & networks will have gotten on board with iTMS' video downloads, so we may see higher bit rates and feature films... Until then, Apple can squeeze another 100-300MHz out of the present PPC970FX, bump up the hard drive and gpu, etc. to keep the iMac competitive.
I agree, and it raises a good point for those thinking Apple will announce an intel iMac in a couple of weeks, will they be willing to allow a 32-bit iMac, or will they hold out on this range and wait for the 64-bit dual core processors? I think the latter is more likely.
 
Norse Son said:
Are you being tongue-in-cheek, or are you seriously doubting your iMac G5 purchase?

Look at it this way: Apple hasn't "trumpeted" this point, but the iMac has had a 64bit cpu for the past 15+ months... Even if Yonah is a dual-core, would they really "backpedal" like that to a 32bit cpu? Also, the 20" iMac already has a faster frontside bus (700MHz) than Yonah's 667MHz bus. And it has gigabit ethernet, PCI-Exp x16 graphics and DDR2 DRAM...

That's why I think the iMac will stick with PPC until Merom, the 64bit, dual-core "successor" to Yonah ships around September. By that time 802.11n (is that WiMax?) will be more mainstream, and more studios & networks will have gotten on board with iTMS' video downloads, so we may see higher bit rates and feature films... Until then, Apple can squeeze another 100-300MHz out of the present PPC970FX, bump up the hard drive and gpu, etc. to keep the iMac competitive.

Haha, thanks. I just realized how funny and whiny my first post was. And I wasn't deliberately trying to be tounge-in-cheek although it sort of happened subconciously tounge-in-cheekly (agh, I'm trying to make an adverb), if that makes any sense at all. I guess I'm just scared something awful is going to happen to me like it did to my friend with the iPod w/ video being released 16 days after an iPod photo purchase. But on a much larger scale. With an iMac. :( :p Ok, anyways, I'm happy. I like the iMac G5. :D
 
Just to add my voice to the chorus, on Friday I overheard a shop assistant in an Apple store in Switzerland saying that iPod nanos were sold out in the whole of Europe. Instead he was trying to sell a customer a voucher for an iPod nano plus an accessory to put something physical under the Christmass tree.
 
Norse Son said:
That's why I think the iMac will stick with PPC until Merom, the 64bit, dual-core "successor" to Yonah ships around September. By that time 802.11n (is that WiMax?) will be more mainstream, and more studios & networks will have gotten on board with iTMS' video downloads, so we may see higher bit rates and feature films... Until then, Apple can squeeze another 100-300MHz out of the present PPC970FX, bump up the hard drive and gpu, etc. to keep the iMac competitive.

A dual core consumer line iMac? Just wait till you see the PowerMacs! :D
 
I understand how it makes sense to wait to purchase something if it's about to be upgraded, but I think some of the posts I read on here (and other gadget forums) sort of make me laugh when I see how paranoid and afraid some people get about their technology becoming *gasp* not so cutting edge after a few months pass. :rolleyes:
 
All I know is that this year, I have purchased 18 Macs and 2 iPods, and I inadvertently become my friends' IT person. It's been an Apple of a year for me.
 
The analyst said iPod inventory levels at Apple specialist stores are averaging between "the full-stock supply we have seen at Apple retail stores and spotty selection at 'big box' third-party retailers."

Some specialist stores "are seeing evidence" that customers are holding off on buying new computers until the launch of Macintoshes based on Intel

I don't read Forbes often, but this article seems suspiciously to say nothing. Absolutely nothing. I would hope that this is not one of the standard shorts that they print. *licks finger* Would you like me to give you a weather report?

buryyourbrideau said:
* waits furiously for January 10th :)

if the new ibooks are introduced. COUNT ME IN!

I'm waiting for January 10th too, that's when I will find out if I got in to a certain Chicago medical school.
 
California said:
All I know is that this year, I have purchased 18 Macs and 2 iPods, and I inadvertently become my friends' IT person. It's been an Apple of a year for me.

As a hindu, I would like to induct you as one of the many Gods we pray to. You will be called "California - God of Consuming Apple Products"

Jai Hind
 
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