eMacs - discontinued?

[Ambrose Chapel]

what of those G5 rumors? either way, it's overdue for an update. oh well, i guess we'll see soon enough...

i can see an announcement about refreshed iMacs, then later in the day a quieter announcement that eMacs are discontinued

 

[aswitcher]

Well an eMac has a bit of a niche, all in one thing for the edu market and many users. I am a strong advocate that if they can revamp it with a 15" or even 17" LCD in a similiar all in one design, then it still has a place as both an edu machine, cheap second (third mac) and switcher machine.

Limiting screen size and making it still big (all in one) limits its competitiveness with the new Mac mini and limits its threat to iMac (as well as only having G4).

And using all PC not laptop parts means the price can be kept lower, hopefully even dropping the existing price points to within only $100 USD of the Mac mini prices.

Plus it can have up to a 160/250gig HDD, 2 ram slots, new BT, new speakers/optical audio out, and even a 64meg vram card (finally)...theres plenty of space with an LCD in a design like emac (even if its squished up much like the new iMacs) for all the components and superquiet cooling.

 

[matticus008]

Cheapest LCD there is a MAG which is 205.00 in quantity. But we like 17's, which are more of course. CRT's are not an option for us.

Why not? Your eMacs have CRTs, and a CRT+mini doesn't take up any more space than an eMac. True, theft is a much bigger issue, but if they're being used in some sort of high-traffic unmonitored area, like a kiosk, then the solution is to put the mini inside some sort of locked cabinet, like almost all PC-based kiosks.

Personally, I think the eMac will just be updated, but I don't expect it to stick around for many more revisions. They are heavy, bulky, and expensive to store and ship. Once the BTO options on the mini come down in price so that no eMac config is cheaper, that's probably the end of the eMac.