New eMacs
When I switched my wife (and accidently myself) to Macs in 2003 we bought the middle road eMac. It was an entry level Mac at a price point I could accept and with the nice all in one design that suited my wife's use. I think they can still serve this function (low/middle road price point with all in one design) as well as being the system for education customers.
I seems that Apple basically has two lines of systems to maintain both in portables and desktops. One is the upper end and one is the lower. The upper end runs G5s and is all about power and the lower runs G4s and is power tempered by cost. I think the Mac mini is the bottom rung and the eMac should be the next step up.
Now that being said I do believe the eMac needs to be redesigned. I think in essence that Apple is shooting themselves in the foot by keeping a CRT in the line because it's an unnecessary expense. It also looks out of place in their otherwise gorgeous line. I think that as mentioned above they should move the eMacs to a very iMac like design with a plastic cover protecting their screens. This leaves them durable but cheaper. They should in essence be the iMacs of yesteryear's G4 era though in the form factor of today's iMacs. I see it as two models that are the visual twins of the current G5 iMacs but are based around G4 processors with lesser specs, smaller screens and sub-1000 price points. Here are my specs:
15" Model ($799 USD)
15-inch widescreen LCD
1.42GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
60GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load Combo Drive
17" Model ($999 USD)
17-inch widescreen LCD
1.5GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load Super Drive
Those specs would in essence make the eMacs a mild bump up from the barebones Mac mini to the average Mac all in one for just 200 or so more and suit the customers who are interested in a cheap Mac but don't want to buy a monitor and keyboard and mouse as well just to try it out. It would also give them a line of computers with gradual increases in price and power starting at 499 and ranging to 999 in the low end line and 1299 to 2999 in the upper end, though I would consider killing the current low end iMac and dropping iMac price points by 100 USD as well as beefing up their video card specs if the eMacs were revamped this way as it becomes cluttered in the middle of the line and could confuse consumers. Either way this would also get the computers in their line looking like a family instead of having the oddball fat cousin in there.
Along with these benefits it gives them an excuse to continue their G4 line of processors and the business connections attached to them. When you figure in the multiple core G4s that seem to be in the pipe there is a nice upgrade path for these without a move to the lower margin harder to cool G5s.
Thoughts?
When I switched my wife (and accidently myself) to Macs in 2003 we bought the middle road eMac. It was an entry level Mac at a price point I could accept and with the nice all in one design that suited my wife's use. I think they can still serve this function (low/middle road price point with all in one design) as well as being the system for education customers.
I seems that Apple basically has two lines of systems to maintain both in portables and desktops. One is the upper end and one is the lower. The upper end runs G5s and is all about power and the lower runs G4s and is power tempered by cost. I think the Mac mini is the bottom rung and the eMac should be the next step up.
Now that being said I do believe the eMac needs to be redesigned. I think in essence that Apple is shooting themselves in the foot by keeping a CRT in the line because it's an unnecessary expense. It also looks out of place in their otherwise gorgeous line. I think that as mentioned above they should move the eMacs to a very iMac like design with a plastic cover protecting their screens. This leaves them durable but cheaper. They should in essence be the iMacs of yesteryear's G4 era though in the form factor of today's iMacs. I see it as two models that are the visual twins of the current G5 iMacs but are based around G4 processors with lesser specs, smaller screens and sub-1000 price points. Here are my specs:
15" Model ($799 USD)
15-inch widescreen LCD
1.42GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
60GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load Combo Drive
17" Model ($999 USD)
17-inch widescreen LCD
1.5GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load Super Drive
Those specs would in essence make the eMacs a mild bump up from the barebones Mac mini to the average Mac all in one for just 200 or so more and suit the customers who are interested in a cheap Mac but don't want to buy a monitor and keyboard and mouse as well just to try it out. It would also give them a line of computers with gradual increases in price and power starting at 499 and ranging to 999 in the low end line and 1299 to 2999 in the upper end, though I would consider killing the current low end iMac and dropping iMac price points by 100 USD as well as beefing up their video card specs if the eMacs were revamped this way as it becomes cluttered in the middle of the line and could confuse consumers. Either way this would also get the computers in their line looking like a family instead of having the oddball fat cousin in there.
Along with these benefits it gives them an excuse to continue their G4 line of processors and the business connections attached to them. When you figure in the multiple core G4s that seem to be in the pipe there is a nice upgrade path for these without a move to the lower margin harder to cool G5s.
Thoughts?
Would be so hot!! 
