Fusion Drives Standard

[KCiiRE]

I had been waiting for the new iMacs to be upgraded to replace my old G5 and pass over my macbook air to my wife for quite some time, and was rather disappointed to see that the fusion drives were still just an option that required at least $200 more, when iMacs got refreshed last month. I feel like apple has been slowing down the implementation of new technology since Steve left. my question(s) to you folks is(/are):

how likely is it that with the arrival of mavericks in the next 2 weeks or so, apple will refresh again the current iMac lineup to include fusion drives as a standard feature? if very unlikely, as I fear; then how much longer in the future should we expect this to happen? I'm thinking I might just be better off getting a refurbished iMac for $250 less than the current model, that has the same RAM and HD, but just a slower processor and video card (which I'm not that particularly interested about, since I don't game or edit video)?

any advice or insights welcomed. thanks in advance to all!

 

[faxao]

Very unlikely now: late 2014 (possibly)

 

[tomnavratil]

Very unlikely now: late 2014 (possibly)

Or they will completely skip Fusion as a basic option and jump to SSD on the basic config. However considering incremental innovation we see from Apple lately, Fusion seems like a more probable option.

 

[COrocket]

They probably don't include them standard to keep costs down especially on the basic models. SSD's have been around for a while so theres no technical/innovation hurdles to implementing them as standard, its just an economics issue. I'm sure someone at apple has done market research and determined that there is still demand for a lower cost computer running off a HDD. Right now SSDs are only in computers like the MBA where the power/size requirements make sense.

 

[KCiiRE]

thank you all for your comments so far.

I'm particularly interested in Fusion Drives (or even SSDs) because their reliability/durability (compared to spinning disks). iMacs are not very easy to open or upgrade, so I want to invest in a product that will guarantee me several years of usage without having to spend more money in smaller regular upgrades, until I'm ready to replace the entire machine again. and my current budget is limited too.

I'm aware the demand for flash HDs is still low and therefore the prices are still high; but the apple I knew made this relationship inversely proportional: they made new technology accessible and affordable, and therefore increase demand and continue to drive the costs even lower. I haven't seem much of that lately. seems like Cook's approach is to ride longer on what's already working before moving towards where "the hockey puck will be", if you know what I mean.

 

[topmounter]

Fusion drives (or SSD's) will become standard when including them in the base config either:

1) Increases the volume of Fusion Drives enough that there is a resulting cost reduction that allows them to hit the target price-point for that particular generation's base config.

2) Helps them address an external competitive pressure that justifies the margin hit.

edit: Fusion drives do still have "spinning" storage in addition to the SSD storage or as some might say, "more things to fail" than a traditional HDD or SSD.

 

[TrollToddington]

I guess it is far more likely to have SSD as standard and Fusion Drive as a BTO option:

256GB SDD standard
128GB SSD + 1GB HDD = Fusion Drive for $100 more

 

[d0nK]

The BTO push drives onward

They don't include Fusion Drives as standard so that they can squeeze every ounce of profit from the consumer and make them buy Fusion for extra money.
How reliable is this laptop drive going to be in a desktop? Is this also a push to drive people to buy Apple Care?

Fusion on 21" is essential now that they have started using 5400rpm laptop drives which are sluggish to say the least. They know that. We know that.

It's a given that Apple are continuing on their uber-price gouging mission.
Apple stockholders will be happy.
Fanboy's and people who buy the tricked-out iMac's will of course complain that we are a niche market and are complaining about tech stuff that doesn't matter to the "normal consumer"
All it takes is a quick run around a 21" iMac to see that it's sluggish as hell.

 

[MikeChicago]

Fusion drives (or SSD's) will become standard when including them in the base config either:

1) Increases the volume of Fusion Drives enough that there is a resulting cost reduction that allows them to hit the target price-point for that particular generation's base config.

2) Helps them address an external competitive pressure that justifies the margin hit.

edit: Fusion drives do still have "spinning" storage in addition to the SSD storage or as some might say, "more things to fail" than a traditional HDD or SSD.

This...

 

[KaraH]

I had been waiting for the new iMacs to be upgraded to replace my old G5 and pass over my macbook air to my wife for quite some time, and was rather disappointed to see that the fusion drives were still just an option that required at least $200 more, when iMacs got refreshed last month. I feel like apple has been slowing down the implementation of new technology since Steve left. my question(s) to you folks is(/are):

how likely is it that with the arrival of mavericks in the next 2 weeks or so, apple will refresh again the current iMac lineup to include fusion drives as a standard feature? if very unlikely, as I fear; then how much longer in the future should we expect this to happen? I'm thinking I might just be better off getting a refurbished iMac for $250 less than the current model, that has the same RAM and HD, but just a slower processor and video card (which I'm not that particularly interested about, since I don't game or edit video)?

any advice or insights welcomed. thanks in advance to all!

I was ecstatic to see they were not required! Yes, I will keep my OS and applications on an SSD (but a bigger one than apple's and via USB3) but did not want to be forced into fusion. Aside from not having it decide a frequently played mp3 belonged on my SSD I did not like the idea that the failure of a single drive would mean the failure of everything. In fact, I am mirroring my SSD to an internal partition to guard against that very problem.

Some like fusion. Others avoid it like the plague. In any case, fusion is just an incremental technology. In the future everything will be all SSDs and fusion will just be a footnote along with skads of other whiz-bang things.

 

[jayselle]

I agree. On the $1999, the 1TB Fusion should be standard. I understand not making a pure SSD standard as these machines are built for the masses. A lot of soccer moms would quickly run out of space for their photos and videos on a standard 256GB SSD. The CPU/GPU/RAM on these are so fast now that storage I/O is the weak link in the chain.

 

[Krevnik]

I'm aware the demand for flash HDs is still low and therefore the prices are still high; but the apple I knew made this relationship inversely proportional: they made new technology accessible and affordable, and therefore increase demand and continue to drive the costs even lower. I haven't seem much of that lately. seems like Cook's approach is to ride longer on what's already working before moving towards where "the hockey puck will be", if you know what I mean.

The demand is much higher than it looks because the real demand is placed on the chips themselves. Which are used in smartphones and tablets in large quantities. As well as SSDs seeing faster adoption in the server space. The supply of these chips is constrained keeping prices high. Placing more demand on the supply at this point just drives prices UP if the suppliers can't figure out how to expand manufacturing capacity faster than demand grows without also over expanding. Silicon production is a tech you can't just throw unskilled labor at either, unfortunately.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130705PD203.html

 

[KCiiRE]

I appreciate all your valuable information. I think I'll wait until mavericks is out and then either get a refurbished iMac with a regular HD (not a Fusion one) or a new one with the 256GB SSD. and if they don't make the MacPro outrageously expensive (which they probably will, being made in USA and all), I might consider it, since SSD will come standard and I wouldn't need another machine until 2024, maybe? =D