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It's clearly not going to be a big seller, but then no Mac desktop family has been for at least a decade, if not more. The iMac family is likely the best-selling Mac desktop, but it probably equals 10-15% of all Mac sales, at best.

So that Apple chooses not to update any of the desktop line annually should not be surprising.
I dunno why, most design jobs have offices full of imacs. They’re the machine that makes the most sense for work places.
 
I dunno why, most design jobs have offices full of imacs. They’re the machine that makes the most sense for work places.

MacBooks (Airs and Pros) are vastly more popular with customers (consumer, prosumer, professional and corporate) so they make up 75-85% of Mac sales now.
 
It's quite clear that the M1 iMac does not sell well. No one is buying it. Apple didn't even bother updating it to M2 even though the Mini got an upgrade.
No basis for that comment, the M1 24" iMac are quite popular for months for someone that likes the all-in one concept with a near 24" display. Its 2 year anniversary was just this week (4/20/2021). I had one as an alternative to the eventual announcement of the 14"/16" M1 Pro/Max MBP laptops as my 27" iMac died.

This should see an updated model soon as it's a logical candidate for that action.
 
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33% off a brand new Mac from a reputable store is rare.

Especially when considering this $1499 spec has the better cooling, fast SSD and plenty of ports, it's not like you're giving up much compared to whatever comes out later this year to replace it. Is anyone going to notice the performance difference when it gets the M2? Heck no.

Even the 256GB SSD doesn't bother me. Either you're using iCloud/OneDrive/etc. or you have way more media than will fit on any reasonably-priced Mac with internal SSD upgrade.

I price matched to Best Buy, and mine will be here tomorrow.
 
Not everything that is M1 based has been updated, Studio Mac is another example. (M1 Max/M1 Ultra). Expect 24" iMac to see similar update as Mac mini. (M2 and M2 Pro)

10cpu/16gpu with 16gb/1tb will be the perfect desktop. I've been patient for new iMac since the first M1 ones came out. REALLY hoping to see M2 ones this year.
 
33% off a brand new Mac from a reputable store is rare.

Especially when considering this $1499 spec has the better cooling, fast SSD and plenty of ports, it's not like you're giving up much compared to whatever comes out later this year to replace it. Is anyone going to notice the performance difference when it gets the M2? Heck no.

Even the 256GB SSD doesn't bother me. Either you're using iCloud/OneDrive/etc. or you have way more media than will fit on any reasonably-priced Mac with internal SSD upgrade.

I price matched to Best Buy, and mine will be here tomorrow.
My family is the perfect use case for these kinds of deals/computers. My wife's (base) M1 MBA has served both of us well (fast user switching enabled) over these past 2 years. It's an amazing machine.
 
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My family is the perfect use case for these kinds of deals/computers. My wife's (base) M1 MBA has served both of us well (fast user switching enabled) over these past 2 years. It's an amazing machine.

Here's a real life story directed to all those folks that wring their hands about 8/256 being 'too little' and 'not future proof'....

In 2018, I needed a new MacBook Pro, so I got a CTO 13" 4-port TB3/Touchbar with 16GB/512. It was/is fine. In 2020, I gave it to my wife to daily drive. A few months later, I got a base 2020 MacBook Air for that (then) rare $750 Best Buy sale.

Guess what? That $800 base Air runs circles around my 13" MacBook Pro that literally cost 2X. Who cares how much RAM it has if it's slower overall? So much for 'future proofing' my 2018 MacBook. That thing is hot garbage compared to anything Apple Silicon.

I've used base spec Apple Silicon machines to drive a Pro Display XDR, run pro audio applications, and do all the normal productivity stuff. You have to work pretty hard to hit the limits of 8GB unified memory, in my experience.
 
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The iMacs are super nice, but after using the MBP screens I just can't bare to use 1000:1 contrast ratio on most IPS displays...it's just such a bummer in comparison.
 
Welcome to the new world of Apple Silicon. Any new Apple Silicon with 8GB of RAM will absolutely smoke any 2012 machine with 16GB. You're in for quite the upgrade if you decide to get this deal.

I’d hope so! I know the chips are crazy powerful, what I’m most curious about is how they handle something like photoshop as I thought it needed at least 16gb to function properly?
 
I’d hope so! I know the chips are crazy powerful, what I’m most curious about is how they handle something like photoshop as I thought it needed at least 16gb to function properly?

Watch starting at 11:56 on this video for 8 vs. 16GB Photoshop comparison:

I'm not regurgitating things I see on YouTube about RAM, I literally own 3 different configs of Apple Silicon:
8GB - MacBook Air M1 base spec
16GB - 16" MacBook Pro M1 Pro base spec
32GB - Apple Studio M1 Max base spec
 
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I dunno why, most design jobs have offices full of imacs. They’re the machine that makes the most sense for work places.
Intel iMacs running Windows used to make a lot of sense for a lot of workplaces too
 
Welcome to the new world of Apple Silicon. Any new Apple Silicon with 8GB of RAM will absolutely smoke any 2012 machine with 16GB. You're in for quite the upgrade if you decide to get this deal.
Why would anyone who bought an iMac 11 years ago, likely with 512 GB or more spinny storage, buy an iMac today with half the storage, even if its faster? The storage situation with Apple can't hold much longer. They are going to have to give in, unless they just want to kill the Macintosh division completely... maybe they do want to kill it. I'm sure they don't like the inherently un-locked downess of MacOS and would prefer locked down iOS based hardware only.
 
Why would anyone who bought an iMac 11 years ago, likely with 512 GB or more spinny storage, buy an iMac today with half the storage, even if its faster? The storage situation with Apple can't hold much longer. They are going to have to give in, unless they just want to kill the Macintosh division completely... maybe they do want to kill it. I'm sure they don't like the inherently un-locked downess of MacOS and would prefer locked down iOS based hardware only.

Why buy less storage than you had 11 years ago? Two reasons:

  1. You use cloud more, or exclusively. Mainly because cloud storage can be ubiquitous, and advantageous if have/use multiple devices, especially on the go. Why pay for 512 if you can get by just fine with 150GB + 2TB of iCloud? Heavily relying on cloud does not preclude you from doing 'cold' backups of your data via local/external storage.
  2. Your media collection has grown so immensely that 512GB isn't nearly enough, you'll pay the 'Apple Tax' to get 1TB+ of internal storage. Unless you're doing something professionally, (in which case you're not looking at these lower-spec models), if you're shopping at the low end, you're better off buying cheap external SSDs.
EDIT - also remember Apple loves to get that extra $$ for the one-time storage upgrade. But they'd much rather get your $$ every month for 2TB of iCloud storage. It locks you in deeper, better margins, consistent revenue in perpetuity. So they're 'saving' the Mac division by keeping the default storage low, not ambushing it :)
 
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Why buy less storage than you had 11 years ago? Two reasons:

  1. You use cloud more, or exclusively. Mainly because cloud storage can be ubiquitous, and advantageous if have/use multiple devices, especially on the go. Why pay for 512 if you can get by just fine with 150GB + 2TB of iCloud? Heavily relying on cloud does not preclude you from doing 'cold' backups of your data.
  2. Your media collection has grown so immensely that 512GB isn't nearly enough, you'll pay the 'Apple Tax' to get 1TB+ of internal storage. Unless you're doing something professionally, (in which case you're not looking at these lower-spec models), if you're shopping at the low end, you're better off buying cheap external SSDs.
I don't disagree with you. I still think Apple is full of it for the storage and RAM upgrade pricing.
 
I don't disagree with you. I still think Apple is full of it for the storage and RAM upgrade pricing.

If you look at their iPad/iPhone strategy, they've always been like that. That's the closest correlation to the future of Macs, because we haven't seen any indication that upgradability for storage/memory will be an option for Mac hardware in the future.
 
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