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Apple's entry-level machine for MWSF

The new iMac starts about $1500. Does Apple need a good entry level computer?

  • Drop the old iMac. Let the new iMac be the entry point.

    Votes: 7 15.6%

  • Keep the old iMac just as it is.

    Votes: 11 24.4%

  • Redo the old iMac: faster and bigger CRT. "Still all-in-one".

    Votes: 7 15.6%

  • Design a new iBrick or iCube: well under $1000. No monitor. monior

    Votes: 20 44.4%
  • Total voters
    45
New iMac style..?

What do you all think of a low end computer being in the form of the new iMac (even the same innards) without the lcd?

You think they could drop the price low enough to lure in those looking for a low end?
 
I think the new iMac should be modular. You can buy it:

1-with no monitor
2-with the 15" lcd (current)
3-with a 17" lcd

To those who might disagree I would say: why not?
What would it hurt to give people a choice?
 
Choice is good, but one of the big benefits to the apples, at least for me, is that there aren't all that many things that I can break off or mess up. (The bluetooth adapter looks like it would be broken in a week). Modularity on the new imac give choice, but at the same time would increase the number of parts to break. I can imagine breaking some little snap that is supposed to hold the lcd to the swingarm. The funny thing is I'm not a clutz or too rough, things just break sometimes. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
 
Give the people the choice of a 17" definitely...... Options= Good....the more options the better... look at Mercs.......:p

If they were to sell just the base of the iMac, it would only be reduced by the price of the part been taken off....... to stop people buying and ultra cheap base and getting a seperate 15" LCD for cheaper than buying an iMac with a 15" screen bolted on.... ... Apple are not going to lose money if they can help it!!!

Also remember the current iMacs aren't really that 'low-end' compared to some of the lo-fi trash that the wintel world calls a computer...... :p
 
The main issue that I can see with Apple offering the 17" for the G4 iMac is the weight of the screen on the boom. I don't know how they engineered the arm/boom, so I don't know if it can take the extra load that a larger screen would entail. The 17" screen would also increase the price of the iMac by at least another $500 or so. With the possibility of needing a different arm, that could pose even more issues with it. The G4 iMac comes with a port so that you can attach another screen to it, so if you really must have more, then just go that way.

Right now, people are crying about the small price increase that Apple did at MWT. How many would be willing to shell out another $500+ just to get 2" more of screen space?? I'm sure that Apple thought about that when they were creating the G4 iMac, and decided that the 15" would be the best balance. Consider this, the 15" lcd has almost the same screen real estate as some 17" crt's with better brightness and sharpness then many of them. I would take a 15" lcd over a 17" crt any day of the week. Granted, I have a 17.4" lcd and 19" crt at home, but I like my toys :D.
 
re: toys

those are not toys...they are tools

now your motorcyle...now that is a toy!

actually, it is an extension of a male bodypart which i never had the privelidge of owning...what do you think about indian motorcyles and the new excelsior-hendersons?

i found out the answer to my own question last week...harley did make a dirt bike! i like the idea of mud and flying thru the air...i grew up watching evil kenievel

off topic, i know:p
 
I agree about the 15" LCD, I have a Sony one (don't flame me here!! I had no choice!! Well I did and Sony was the best option!!) to go with My TiBook, giving 30.2" of screen space... So much nicer than my old 17"CRT that I had with my G3 266Mhz.....

But I'd so love 2 x 19" LCD's (I'm realistic here!!) I'd love 2 x 23" but Mr Bank manager....... say.... "There's the door mr Kirby, whilst rolling around the floor, with his sides spliting!!:p
 
jefhatfield, tools, toys, they have features of both. I use the G4 here at work as a tool, but when it comes to being at home, they are more like toys :D.

I think that the Indian motorcycles are butt-ugly (shave their a$$es and make them walk backwards ugly). Harleys look like a motorcycle should, and they have many, many, many years (99 of them) of history behind them. When you ride one, you know what you are on, as does anyone else with a simple glance :D.

Which body part do you not own?? ouch... LOL... I just love feeling the power between my legs :D.

iGAV, I blew my spare money on the new truck and Harley for this year. Although, I do hope to have enough available by MWNY to get a new tower (G4 or G5). At least the bank manager didn't tell you to make sure the door didn't hit you in the a$$ on the way out :D. I got lucky with both HD and Ford financing me without too much trouble. I wonder how Apple would see me for that... hmmmmm, might be worth a shot in a few months :D.

Tools, toys, their all good.
 
actually the indian was around for a lot of years, then went out of business, but are back now...i love them but never have heard one

the japanese companies have copied the harley engine to a t and now some of their bikes sound exactly like harleys

harley davidson tried to sue but it was the technology of some of the japanese companies which helped harley davidson cut down costs while keeping quality as the same high level and still stay in business

harley almost bit the dust recently in the 90s...hard times

i can't tell anymore when i hear a harley...i have to actually see the bike close enough to read the name...that is a shame since i think it was wrong for the japanese comapnies to steal the harley engine

now when it comes to rocket bikes, i love what the japanese are doing and that is a whole diffrent ball of wax

i have a music friend who used to own a harley dealership and he had 2 harleys, triumphs, indians, ninjas, hurricanes, a cool custom gang banger honda accord lowrider, a hot rod muscle car, and an old truck...but only two of three vehicles ever ran at one time:D

he told me to get a harley 883 or something like that because he could teach me how to fix it and it was a reliable machine
 
Jef,

HD had problems back in the AMF days. Once they bought back the company and went public things started improving right away. Within a few years, quality was back up there (where it should be) and the bikes were selling like hotcakes. Why else would the jap bike makers rip off so much of HD's designs??

The only thing to sounds exactly like a Harley, is a Harley. They might be close, but to me, nothing else is the same. Also, the fit and finish on a Harley beats all, hands down. There is also the reliability issues, which Harley doesn't have.

Once you own a Harley, you can't imagine getting anything else. I know that has happened to me already.

As for the 883 (Sportster), dude, that's a girl's motorcycle :D. It might be fine to start with, but not for any length of time. All Harleys are reliable machines. Follow the routine maintenance, and you will get many, many, many years of riding out of them (and tons of miles too, like over 100,000). The final drive belt alone is rated to last around 85,000 miles on the Harley. You also can't swing a dead cat without hitting a dozen companies that make parts/accessories for Harley's.
 
Completely off the topic of Harleys:

a) FYI-the 17" display weighs 3 pounds more than the 15" (or 26%). Surely the arm can support an increase of 26%, especially given an internal component change.
b) Given that displays seem to last longer than computers...when I want to upgrade or replace the computer, will I have to just throw away what will probably be a perfectly good lcd?
c) When a customer sends Apple a computer for repair or replacement, will Apple throw away the good lcd? Wouldn't they just disconnect the base and attach a new one to my lcd and send it back? Or vice-versa, if the lcd is bad and needs replacement, are they going to throw away the computer?

All these things seem to demand that the iMac be modular.

If the iMac is modular, as it seemingly must be, then why on earth would they not offer different configurations? No monitor, 15", 17"...
 
i heard that about the 883...my harley dealer friend told me they are the cheapest to fix and in the days he was a dealer 70s and 80s, many harley models were great out of the sales floor but broke down a lot and were expensive to fix...could be amf

as bad as amf was for harley, the early or mid 90s was a time they almost went out of business but it wasn't due to bad bikes, it was more like the management spending $1.10 in expenses for every dollar they made

it didn't seem to matter how many harleys the company sold in any given month, somehow there was serious financial arterial bleeding somewhere that had to be stopped in both management and certain ultra expensive manufacturing processes

there are some experts who can claim they can hear the difference between a new harley and a japanese copy...the engineering is nearly the same, but you have to really know your bikes, which i don't

i do know vintage guitars (25 years collecting), and i could tell you if a part is counterfeit by the sound or even the plastic used on some of the parts or if the instument was refinished due to the angle of the cracks on an old refin job and how close they are...those fine details are what us guitar collectors look for...even finger bacteria gives a super desireable black funk which settles into the wood of the guitars fingerboard and some upper bouts of a guitars body has the stench of cigarettes and human underarm sweat...a truly wonderful experience for a vintage guitar collector...i know this is more than anybody here ever wanted to know...he he

i guess harleys and all motorcyles have their signatures

i want a harley and a ninja so i can indulge both my motorcyle moods...classic or os x:D
 
Originally posted by sjs
Completely off the topic of Harleys:

a) FYI-the 17" display weighs 3 pounds more than the 15" (or 26%). Surely the arm can support an increase of 26%, especially given an internal component change.QUOTE]

right on, that arm can hold me mama;)
Click to expand...
 
modular

sjs,

The iMac's are probably modular, but not in the way you would normally think.

As for the weight difference between the 15" and 17" lcd's, that would be fine if they were sitting on a table. Being on the arm/boom, the weight effects it differently. The extra few pounds could be enough to tip the iMac with the screen in certain positions. It is a weight on the end of a lever, which has an applied weight that is more then just the weight of the screen. To put the 17" lcd on an iMac might require adding weight to the base unit (to offest the increase in the screen). It would also require Apple getting additional supplies of the 17" lcd to meet demand. Considering the difficulty they had in getting enough of the 15" screens, I can't see it happening, at least not anytime soon (or this year). That's not to say it will never happen, it just might not be as soon as you are hoping for.

As for knowing the differences between Harley's and Jap bikes... it is similar to knowing the difference between the Mac OS and windblows. On the surface they might be similar, but scratch the surface and the difference really shows (hence winBLOWS).

I will be using Mac's, and riding Harley's until I take the dirt nap. :D
 
no, don't say that...stay safe alphatech

i used to work in er on friday and saturday nights and i have seen gruesome accidents...faces ripped off people that had to be sewn on and one motorcyle rider had his head roll several hundred feet after a car made a bad left turn

i had a friend ride in a car to a party and their friend was riding in a motorcycle too close behind the car...there was a thump which was barely noticeable on the car and that was all she wrote

i always wanted to go to sturgis and check out the bikes but being of japanese american ethnicity, i would feel a little uncomfortable

and i don't easily get intimidated either since i am a part time volunteer social worker and i get to work with the junkies and dealers and some of these people have iced other human beings...awful stuff

life is too precious, stay safe on your bike...i am married so i won't ride...i trust myself but not the silicon valley road rage...during the height of the california road rage, three people per day were getting shot dead and many more were getting wounded

well, anyway, i feel safe with my mac, even if it goes 300...300 mhz:D
 
then i know it wasn't honda, but some other japanese makers made a whole series of v twins and they actually used some sort of high tech acoustic meter to get the sound correct within the range of human hearing

in the harley book i read, the author simply bought all the harleys, all the triumphs, bmws, and japanese bikes so he could test them on his own

yeah, right...that was just an excuse to buy a lot of gear like my harley dealer buddy

he would say, "i like that harley year better than that other year, but i am not sure, so i will buy them both"

guitar collectors are the same... i had a friend who could not decide on a red fender strat or a blue fender strat, so he bought them both...btw, he is almost 30 and still lives at home rent free...how else could he have owned 35 guitars:D

i have been way off topic, more than usual, today...i am getting to be like spikey, kela, monkeybusiness, john123, and joeyj...he he
 
jefhatfield, sounds like you do some pretty amazing stuff with the volunteer social worker work, I really admire people that take the time and go out of the way to help people..... it's an amazing quality to have.......

You have also seen some truely horiffic crashes.... I'd probably be one of them if I ever rode one again!!!

As for guitars, I used to have a Rickenbacker 330 in Fireglo, so nice..... so very nice.... I know rickenbackers are an aquired taste... but I love em.... superb to play, and the most amzing sounds..... I just wish my playing got the best out of the instrument!!:(

Alphatech..... what's your bank mangers name, I wanna meet this guy.... new truck and Harley indeed...... thats RUDE man..... :D
 
iGAV, I didn't go to a bank, I went with the companies (like Ford and HD) :D. It probably didn't hurt that I went to the general manager at the Ford dealership either :D

I had to get a black truck since the bike is a dark metallic blue, black along with the chrome :D. Now I just need to measure the bed to see if the bike will fit in the back or not. I am planning on making a trip to FL next spring, and would prefer to put it in the truck then a trailer.
 
Originally posted by iGAV
jefhatfield, sounds like you do some pretty amazing stuff with the volunteer social worker work, I really admire people that take the time and go out of the way to help people..... it's an amazing quality to have.......

You have also seen some truely horiffic crashes.... I'd probably be one of them if I ever rode one again!!!

As for guitars, I used to have a Rickenbacker 330 in Fireglo, so nice..... so very nice.... I know rickenbackers are an aquired taste... but I love em.... superb to play, and the most amzing sounds..... I just wish my playing got the best out of the instrument!!:(

Alphatech..... what's your bank mangers name, I wanna meet this guy.... new truck and Harley indeed...... thats RUDE man..... :D
Click to expand...

RICKKENBACKER, ONCE CALLED RICKENBACHER (for the afficionados of the "early" stuff), IS REALLY COOL...so is gretsch in a world of gibson/fender/ibanez (kind of like the big three of the guitar world)

i have an ltd by esp, but would like the full-on esp but they cost as much as a tibook...which i would rather have for 2800 dollars with extras
 
yamaha, d'angelico, bc rich, jackson original charvel, robin, hamer, paul reed smith, johnson guitars, pensa suhr...so many cool guitars, so little time and money

i do want a rick...maybe a 330, or a john lennon model

well, at least they are safer than motorcycles

or i could be like prince with a motorcyle with an electric guitar strapped to my back in the movie "purple rain"

btw - alphatech, what kind of bike did prince have?
 
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