eMac and iMac EOL'd?

[oingoboingo]

If they could do this then I pray they would make sure that the base machine of the new rev had at least 256RAM, else people are immediately going to whinge about performance...

I think it would be a winner at that price point, I just don't know how feasible that is.

Yes, the standard RAM is an joke, and desperately needs to be increased. Even if that $77 for the extra 128MB is passed straight on to customers, the default 128MB configuration should be dropped...it's not even enough to meet the minimum iLife '04 requirements, and does nothing except leave a bad taste in the mouth of any new eMac purchaser.

I also agree that in 'real life', an AU $999 price point is probably not something that Apple can achieve (well I'm sure they *can* achieve it, but they don't *want* to achieve it). Maybe we'll see some kind of substantial discount on the old 1GHz eMac when its replacement comes along...even pricing the old eMac at $999 until stocks run out or for a month-long sale could do a lot to introduce new users to Mac OS X. However, I have even less faith in Apple Australia to pull something like this off than I do in Apple USA. Perhaps Apple wants a 1% market share this year to make it easier to do financial calculations...after all you only need to divide total PC sales by an even 100 to come up with your figures! GO STEVE GO!!!

 

[aswitcher]

Yes, the standard RAM is an joke, and desperately needs to be increased. Even if that $77 for the extra 128MB is passed straight on to customers, the default 128MB configuration should be dropped...it's not even enough to meet the minimum iLife '04 requirements, and does nothing except leave a bad taste in the mouth of any new eMac purchaser.

Its a wonder they can bundle iLife with a machine not really capable of running it properly. It screws up the whole, iLife is Office for the rest of your life thing...

I also agree that in 'real life', an AU $999 price point is probably not something that Apple can achieve (well I'm sure they *can* achieve it, but they don't *want* to achieve it). Maybe we'll see some kind of substantial discount on the old 1GHz eMac when its replacement comes along...

That would be a start, but I agree Apple Australia are far from aggresive at marketing. One wonders what they really do apart from stick up iPod posters. US deals on ram and now the 23" screens, and nothing for the already overpriced Aussie market...

 

[nargot]

...That would be a start, but I agree Apple Australia are far from aggresive at marketing. One wonders what they really do apart from stick up iPod posters. US deals on ram and now the 23" screens, and nothing for the already overpriced Aussie market...

Well nextbyte's service sucks, i went in today and was treated like a moron for a perfectly simple question that they should have been able to help me with (twice now this has happened). And i'm going to have to start a thread about this problem so someone can try and fix it for me... now that aside... The problem with just selling ipods is that if service is bad, people are not going to deal with them. Apple need to get competitive with both prices and customer service (which apple centres used to be good for) especially in metropolitan areas

 

[aswitcher]

Well nextbyte's service sucks, i went in today and was treated like a moron for a perfectly simple question that they should have been able to help me with (twice now this has happened). And i'm going to have to start a thread about this problem so someone can try and fix it for me... now that aside... The problem with just selling ipods is that if service is bad, people are not going to deal with them. Apple need to get competitive with both prices and customer service (which apple centres used to be good for) especially in metropolitan areas

If a Sydney sider http://www.macmall.com.au is good for prices and not bad on advice.

I've been looking to switch for 6 months now and not a single person has said or posted a nice thing about Apple Australia...
My own calculations on exchange rate suggest to me they are making an additional healthy profit on what I understand are already high margins for the computer world...20-35%+ Like a $1000+ AUD above US for Pro machines...

Hopefully June will bring some rationalisation to the Australian market

 

[oingoboingo]

Well nextbyte's service sucks, i went in today and was treated like a moron for a perfectly simple question that they should have been able to help me with (twice now this has happened). And i'm going to have to start a thread about this problem so someone can try and fix it for me... now that aside... The problem with just selling ipods is that if service is bad, people are not going to deal with them. Apple need to get competitive with both prices and customer service (which apple centres used to be good for) especially in metropolitan areas

Which NextByte store are you talking about? I was recently looking for a mini DVI to TV out adapter for my 1GHz 12" PowerBook, and after a fairly amusing encounter at AppleCentre Broadway (they didn't actually know that the 1GHz 12" PowerBook had a mini DVI port...yep...talk about knowing your products well) I tried NextByte in the CBD.

I stood there with a friend for 15 minutes waiting for someone who could help me out. I think there were 6 staff members in the shop...one of them was getting an order from the storeroom out the back for a customer, but the other 5 staff were on the phone...for 15 minutes straight. It was like a call centre! All I needed was to ask and pay for my $35 TV out adapter. During that time, a number of other people in the store wandered in, looked around, stood about for a few minutes (presumably waiting for someone to help them), and then walked out.

At least when someone became available, they knew exactly what I was talking about, got the part from their storeroom, and ran it through the register in about 30 seconds. But between AppleCentre staff not even knowing the basics of the products they sell, and having all store-front staff on phones for 15 minute stretches, it's a wonder Apple sells anything at all through their AppleCentre stores. But it's not much better dealing with Apple Australia directly.

I bought my G5 through Apple Australia's web site. When it arrived (about a month past the due shipping date), it crashed non-stop. A few phone calls to Apple, and they determined it was dead on arrival (DOA). Would Apple Australia pick it up? No...I had to take the afternoon off from work and take it to an AppleCentre myself (and then it took another 2 weeks for a replacement G5 to be provided). How does Dell manage to provide *on-site* next business day service on everything they sell? I had an Inspiron 4100 before my PowerBook, and its IBM Travelstar hard drive died about 18 months after purchase (Dell's 3 year extended warranty was only around $300, so I bought it. What is AppleCare for a PowerBook? Around $500?!?!). I called Dell, and the next morning a technician arrived at my office with a new hard drive, swapped it out in about 5 minutes, and then let me keep the old one to attempt data recovery...including a padded box to send back to Dell. Oh yeah...I got a free upgrade from the 4500rpm 40GB version to the 5400rpm 40GB drive too!

At least we know that we're not being singled out for 'special treatment' in Australia...Apple's warranty sucks worldwide.

 

[nargot]

Which NextByte store are you talking about? .

Brisbane.

So it looks like the same your side of the country too. As you mentioned Dell's warranty was better and its amazing someone actually buys stuff from these apple centres. So how does apple australia stay afloat?

 

[aswitcher]

SNIP

At least when someone became available, they knew exactly what I was talking about, got the part from their storeroom, and ran it through the register in about 30 seconds. But between AppleCentre staff not even knowing the basics of the products they sell, and having all store-front staff on phones for 15 minute stretches, it's a wonder Apple sells anything at all through their AppleCentre stores. But it's not much better dealing with Apple Australia directly.

Yeah, Netxbyte Sydney have been like that to me a few times...

I bought my G5 through Apple Australia's web site. When it arrived (about a month past the due shipping date), it crashed non-stop. A few phone calls to Apple, and they determined it was dead on arrival (DOA). Would Apple Australia pick it up? No...I had to take the afternoon off from work and take it to an AppleCentre myself (and then it took another 2 weeks for a replacement G5 to be provided). SNIP

At least we know that we're not being singled out for 'special treatment' in Australia...Apple's warranty sucks worldwide.

Thats pretty bad. NO thats really bad. For the delays, hassles etc Apple should have at least given you some sweatener like a $250 gift voucher, or an offer of same in software or something...

 

[aswitcher]

Brisbane.

So it looks like the same your side of the country too. As you mentioned Dell's warranty was better and its amazing someone actually buys stuff from these apple centres. So how does apple australia stay afloat?

They charge 25-35% or more above US retail.

They rarely seem to match or do foreign specials like the ram and 23" screen offer on now...

They hold a monopoly on importation into Australia so that there is no competition to bring in products at a significantly cheaper (not 5% guys) prices

They have no store front to put a public face on them for customers to shame them face to face for things like poor service etc

 

[PismoGuy]

Slow?!?

I just bought an emac for the wife and after less than a day we decided to return it. Slower than a slow dog in Slowsville, it seemed to me to be deliberately handicapped by the lack of ram. Bring on the new models!

Slow?!?
I have an 800Mhz eMac with stock RAM of 256MB. It ran nicely; smooth and snappy, but now that I added another 512MB its beautiful. It even manages to run unreal tournament 2003 at 20-50 fps on most maps at normal settings and its video card is slower and the AGP slot is half the speed of the new ones. You had a Nice ... Nice eMac all you needed was a lot of ram. But if it doesn't satisfy you I guess it is your business.

speculation on new iMacs and eMacs:

I assume and dearly hope that the iMac will be bumped to a G5, maybe an underclocked 1.6Ghz chip running @ 1.4 as the base line (depending on the speed of upcoming towers)

eMac ..... hummmm.... lets see now; I believe the eMac will still be a G4, with its top model running hopefully @ 1.42 maybe 1.5 if possible. I think the current design will be kept for one more revision and then redone for the G5 chip.

I would like to see apple give costumers the option of choosing a video card for the iMac. It is a wonderful computer that is fairly quick, has a beautiful display, and a great shape, I would buy one myself for my dorm but a better vid card is a must(and more vid memory). Especially on the 17" and 20" iMacs. does anyone see this happening?

 

[~Shard~]

I would like to see apple give costumers the option of choosing a video card for the iMac. It is a wonderful computer that is fairly quick, has a beautiful display, and a great shape, I would buy one myself for my dorm but a better vid card is a must(and more vid memory). Especially on the 17" and 20" iMacs. does anyone see this happening?

Unless Apple breaks with its model, I unfortunately don't see this happening, although I think it would be a nice feature. Apple has designed and marketed the iMac as an "all-in-one" machine so that they don't have to incur extra costs (theoretically) by customizing the guts - one simply machine, all-in-one, mass produce, done. However, sicne you can technically upgrade the HD, RAM, etc., this kind of disproves this theory...

At any rate, I'd love to see it too, but it seems like the iMac is the "all-in-one" solution, with the PM towers being the upgradeable machines...

 

[jsw]

Unless Apple breaks with its model, I unfortunately don't see this happening, although I think it would be a nice feature. Apple has designed and marketed the iMac as an "all-in-one" machine so that they don't have to incur extra costs (theoretically) by customizing the guts - one simply machine, all-in-one, mass produce, done. However, sicne you can technically upgrade the HD, RAM, etc., this kind of disproves this theory...

At any rate, I'd love to see it too, but it seems like the iMac is the "all-in-one" solution, with the PM towers being the upgradeable machines...

I think you're right that it's unlikely given the current iMac form factor, but I also agree that it would provide a lot of potential buyers an added reason to get the iMac without fearing that it'd be out of date soon after purchase.

 

[floyd_gadget]

Brisbane.

So how does apple australia stay afloat?

I'm begining to wonder the same thing. All i can think of is that they market/service the education arena better than the rest of their customer base.

The April Australian Macworld editorial points out the problems with Apple Australia's current pricing, he included pricing for a 15" powerbook (superdrive)like in the table below:

Country......RRP...............$US...............$AUD
USA........2599 USD ...........-..................3500
AUST......4799 AUD ........3563..................-...
UK..........1999 GBP.........3628................4880
Swed......27995 KR..........3717................5007

What he pointed out was that at the current pricing it would be cheaper to buy a plane ticket to Hawaii, purchase a Powerbook from the local reseller, stay a couple of nights and then return to Australia.
I haven't done the maths on this but taking into account duty free im thinking it'd be correct. Whats also weird is that in the UK, which I'd presume is a bigger market than Australia, they pay a higher premium than we do.

So personally i'm happy to pay a premium for an Apple over a PC for obvious reasons. But when a company is completely ignoring the fact that the Australian dollar is strong at the moment and hoping their customers do the same I start to get annoyed and feel like people are getting ripped off. Luckily for myself the education discount conteracts this.

 

[aswitcher]

I'm begining to wonder the same thing. All i can think of is that they market/service the education arena better than the rest of their customer base.

The April Australian Macworld editorial points out the problems with Apple Australia's current pricing, he included pricing for a 15" powerbook (superdrive)like in the table below:

Country......RRP...............$US...............$AUD
USA........2599 USD ...........-..................3500
AUST......4799 AUD ........3563..................-...
UK..........1999 GBP.........3628................4880
Swed......27995 KR..........3717................5007

SNIP
But when a company is completely ignoring the fact that the Australian dollar is strong at the moment and hoping their customers do the same I start to get annoyed and feel like people are getting ripped off.

This is a big issue for me, Apple Australia's extortionist pricing...I wont switch if what I am after comes out and does not at all reflect the exchange rate...its just too rude paying $1200+ more when at most it should be like $500 to cover GST, shipping - given they get them wholesale for a lot less...

 

[CmdrLaForge]

This is a big issue for me, Apple Australia's extortionist pricing...I wont switch if what I am after comes out and does not at all reflect the exchange rate...its just too rude paying $1200+ more when at most it should be like $500 to cover GST, shipping - given they get them wholesale for a lot less...

The same is true for europe. Just see it like that. Apple is a US company and US costumers comes first, and second, and third.

Just be happy that the allow you to buy their great stuff at all.

 

[nargot]

The same is true for europe. Just see it like that. Apple is a US company and US costumers comes first, and second, and third.

Just be happy that the allow you to buy their great stuff at all.

I am happy to buy it, i just bought a new machine. However, the pricing structure problems hampered my choice... which is both good and bad. Good because i spent less money, bad because i could have used extra features (and the trip to hawaii sounds like fun )

True apple is a USA company, that doesn't mean that the prices should be so over-inflated tho.

 

[aswitcher]

The same is true for europe. Just see it like that. Apple is a US company and US costumers comes first, and second, and third.

Just be happy that the allow you to buy their great stuff at all.

If I went to Honolulu tonight I could get a fare on Qantas for $709+ taxes, and come back saving $400+. Not to mention the frequent flyer points this would give me, + opportunity to buy some duty free etc, and a chance to see a little of Hawaii if I stay a few nights...oh and get a mini ipod...

If only the G5PBs were out...

 

[nargot]

If I went to Honolulu... If only the G5PBs were out...

Waikiki... and another new laptop... oh how i need the holiday

 

[fenlyn]

iMac/eMac availability

Ever since this rumor came to pass, I've been tracking the inventories of iMacs. There was a $250 off promo for Employee Purchase Plan participants for the 20-inch that last until last Saturday in what I call an inventory clearing promo. I've also been looking at Macmall's stock numbers. They have roughly 200 left of each iMac model. As for the G5's, they just in the past couple of days received about 500 of the DP 1.8s. It's obvious those haven't been EOL'd. They have about 2000 DP 1.8s in stock and about 1600 DP 2.0s in stock.

If they were to announce new G5's this coming week, these resellers would lose some unbelievable amounts of money in the price difference after the price drops compared to how much they had to pay for each item.

We're definitely going to see some iMacs (and MAYBE an updated eMac) in the next week or so. There can be no doubt after looking at these numbers.

Edit: For that matter, iBook and Powerbook stocks appear to be very small as well. Maybe those were EOL'd too?

Brad

 

[aswitcher]

Ever since this rumor came to pass, I've been tracking the inventories of iMacs. There was a $250 off promo for Employee Purchase Plan participants for the 20-inch that last until last Saturday in what I call an inventory clearing promo. I've also been looking at Macmall's stock numbers. They have roughly 200 left of each iMac model. SNIP

We're definitely going to see some iMacs (and MAYBE an updated eMac) in the next week or so. There can be no doubt after looking at these numbers.

Edit: For that matter, iBook and Powerbook stocks appear to be very small as well. Maybe those were EOL'd too?

Brad

Well maybe they will release new iMacs with the same form factor, better bits to tide us over for 3 months when the for factor change comes...

And yes new PBs are on the cards, but it will only be a minor G4 upgrade unless Steve gets to do his show introducing them.

 

[rdowns]

Ever since this rumor came to pass, I've been tracking the inventories of iMacs. There was a $250 off promo for Employee Purchase Plan participants for the 20-inch that last until last Saturday in what I call an inventory clearing promo. I've also been looking at Macmall's stock numbers. They have roughly 200 left of each iMac model. As for the G5's, they just in the past couple of days received about 500 of the DP 1.8s. It's obvious those haven't been EOL'd. They have about 2000 DP 1.8s in stock and about 1600 DP 2.0s in stock.

If they were to announce new G5's this coming week, these resellers would lose some unbelievable amounts of money in the price difference after the price drops compared to how much they had to pay for each item.

We're definitely going to see some iMacs (and MAYBE an updated eMac) in the next week or so. There can be no doubt after looking at these numbers.

Edit: For that matter, iBook and Powerbook stocks appear to be very small as well. Maybe those were EOL'd too?

Brad

WHen I worked for an Apple reseller, when products were EOL'd, you filed for price protection and received a credit but the inventory was yours. Hard to imagine they don't still do this.

 

[oingoboingo]

The same is true for europe. Just see it like that. Apple is a US company and US costumers comes first, and second, and third.

Just be happy that the allow you to buy their great stuff at all.

Yes, I have a small shrine next to my G5 dedicated to Steve Jobs and spend a few quiet moments in prayer each day before booting up, thanking him for providing me with an opportunity to purchase his amazing products!

I hope you're joking, but so many people post comments like that seriously...and then can't understand why Apple has barely more than 1% of the computing market.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Yes, I have a small shrine next to my G5 dedicated to Steve Jobs and spend a few quiet moments in prayer each day before booting up, thanking him for providing me with an opportunity to purchase his amazing products!

I hope you're joking, but so many people post comments like that seriously...and then can't understand why Apple has barely more than 1% of the computing market.

I AM KIDDING I AM KIDDING

 

[Zaty]

200 Days!

And yes new PBs are on the cards, but it will only be a minor G4 upgrade unless Steve gets to do his show introducing them.

It's been 200 days since the last the last release! PB are definitely comming later this months, my guess is April 20.

As for the iMac, they might be announced on the same day as the PBs.

 

[aswitcher]

It's been 200 days since the last the last release! PB are definitely comming later this months, my guess is April 20.

As for the iMac, they might be announced on the same day as the PBs.

An extra 75 days is hardly going to break Apple if they do hold out to the WWDC. But if its just a G4 bump, then I think they'll let it go early BUT may still announce the G5PB at the WWDC shipping then or within a few months...

 

[paulsecic]

According to Appleinsider, the eMac and iMac have been "end of lifed" (EOL'd).

End of life status on products occurs when products are discontinued or about to be upgraded.

I don't believe it!