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Deals: Woot Introduces Record Low Prices on M1 iMac, 13-Inch MacBook Air, and More (Up to $499 Off)
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It is likely to be refreshed to M2 within 2-4 months.
2 months from now is the 25th year release anniversary of the 1st iMac.
It is a good time to do a refresh by then.
Historically a Mac is released between after iPhone release & December.
M3 is likely out Q1 2024.
Ah, thanks, I stand corrected! Undercaffeinated and typing before thinking.
Still, that extra $150 buys you a proper year of support AND just as important to some: the ability to buy further years of AppleCare if you wish.
Depends. You could still get a ton of good utility out of one of this machine. I'm using mine (8 core, 16 GB RAM) to hammer out tons of graphic design work and it's not even remotely a bottleneck in my workflow. No beachballs, no weird pauses, I'm never really waiting for anything to happen. (The few issues I do have come from how much Adobe Creative Cloud sucks.)
I could upgrade to a hypothetical M2 or M3 iMac tomorrow and unless it had a bigger screen or something, it would not be any more useful to me. I guess it would save out or open some huge file slightly quicker at some point? We're at a point where even a "basic" Mac can get a lot of work done.
They're usually on sale because you'd have to be crazy to pay Apple's regular retail price for one when it only has 8GB memory (or a slower speed 256GB SSD in the case of the MacBook Air)
yeah but it's all relative to the price.
If you figure 7 years support. $1500 for 7 years is $215/yr. $1000 for 5 years is $200/yr.
Because the M1 is still a very capable processor?
Because they have already delivered a wide range of new machines and finally moved all machines to Apple Silicon?
Because the iMac is not a "developer-oriented" machine, and WWDC is about developers?
The iMac will be upgraded later this year.
If by waiting you mean for a 27” model, well, you’re going to wait a very long time I think.
The dichotomy between the folks that say this type of thing and the folks that tout Apple's long support and incredible build quality is always funny.
Yep its a great tactic to get you to pay for the upgraded memory and storage.
They would rather you buy a Mac mini or Mac Studio and pair it with a studio display. The Pro mini is $1299 without a display, mouse or keyboard. Doing some math with the Mac mini and current iMac prices, an M2 Pro iMac would most likely be $2499 when it's all said and done.
An M2/3 (i.e. M0.66667) is a step back from an M1 though. 🤣
This. Apple may very well end support, or partially end support (some new features of MacOS not available) with the next software update in a year or two. They'll say something like "Available as a free update for every Mac with the Z99 bingbong chip," and you're left behind. No telling any more.
You'll start getting beachballs a few months after MacOS updates are discontinued for your machine. Maybe you think I'm being facetious. I'm very serious. Watch and learn.
No, I've been there many times over the years. If you keep updating your Mac (or iPhone or iPad) eventually the OS and other software will become demanding enough to slow your once-snappy machine down to the point where you want a new one. I don't think the M1 Macs are quite there yet. And at the prices they're going for, if you get a few years' good use out of one, I think it could be worth it.
