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How stupid would it be if I bought the iMac right now?

I just bought a rMBP personally because I was sick of waiting, and it was literally harming my career/work.

What are we waiting for anyway? iMac? The only thing worth waiting for is a new Mac Pro. rMBP will have great resale value, portability, and runs faster than a maxed out 27" 2011 iMac for the exact same price. Apple wants us to stop buying desktops and so I'm going to finally try listening to them and see how it goes.
 
Atisha said:
I just bought a rMBP personally because I was sick of waiting, and it was literally harming my career/work.

What are we waiting for anyway? iMac? The only thing worth waiting for is a new Mac Pro. rMBP will have great resale value, portability, and runs faster than a maxed out 27" 2011 iMac for the exact same price. Apple wants us to stop buying desktops and so I'm going to finally try listening to them and see how it goes.
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That is highly unlikely. First if there are any long term display issues, it will drive down the value. Image persistence has been mentioned lately. I'd be more interested in how they hold up after a year or more. Beyond that any major advancements at lower price points tanks used values. At the high end people will buy the newest thing. If they release either a 13" version or migrate the rMBP design into the $1800 15" price point, it will tank used values, especially when such things hit their refurbished section. Right now it seems like they're trying to clear out inventory from last year. The same thing will happen again. SSD standard sizes will increase. Standard ram configurations will change. Your advantage isn't resale value. It's that you can own such a machine today. I get really tired of seeing people try to suggest that these are some kind of investments. You are just lying to potentially gullible readers.
 
thekev said:
That is highly unlikely. First if there are any long term display issues, it will drive down the value. Image persistence has been mentioned lately. I'd be more interested in how they hold up after a year or more. Beyond that any major advancements at lower price points tanks used values. At the high end people will buy the newest thing. If they release either a 13" version or migrate the rMBP design into the $1800 15" price point, it will tank used values, especially when such things hit their refurbished section. Right now it seems like they're trying to clear out inventory from last year. The same thing will happen again. SSD standard sizes will increase. Standard ram configurations will change. Your advantage isn't resale value. It's that you can own such a machine today. I get really tired of seeing people try to suggest that these are some kind of investments. You are just lying to potentially gullible readers.
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Are you saying that a year from now a 2012 rMBP which is BTO maxed out, 2 years of Applecare remaining, with USB 3 and retina display (two reasons why people will not buy <2012 MBPs then) will not resell better than a 2011 iMac which is already overpriced, not portable, purchased 1/10 as often in general as Apple's laptops, and SLOWER than rMBP?
 
Atisha said:
I just bought a rMBP personally because I was sick of waiting, and it was literally harming my career/work.

What are we waiting for anyway? iMac? The only thing worth waiting for is a new Mac Pro. rMBP will have great resale value, portability, and runs faster than a maxed out 27" 2011 iMac for the exact same price. Apple wants us to stop buying desktops and so I'm going to finally try listening to them and see how it goes.
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Untrue. People are buying Imacs for a different reason that a laptop. Gaming and GPU-accelerated rendering and # crunching is way better on the 2011 27" imac than the rMBP could ever do. The new imac will be another giant leap better in that department.
 
iMcLovin said:
:D LOL - the self proclaimed "2013 iMac Evangelist" at work.
Your constant undertone is just funny :D I'm sure you would actually be disappointed if you see an iMac this year.
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I'm just hoping for the best possible iMac of course, which would not be possible with the already aging ivy bridge, etc. ;-)

Next year would be mucho bettera with a far more substantial upgrade. Hell, if I was going to wait at this point I'd be waiting for that.
 
Atisha said:
Are you saying that a year from now a 2012 rMBP which is BTO maxed out, 2 years of Applecare remaining, with USB 3 and retina display (two reasons why people will not buy <2012 MBPs then) will not resell better than a 2011 iMac which is already overpriced, not portable, purchased 1/10 as often in general as Apple's laptops, and SLOWER than rMBP?
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First you are basing this on nothing. The two are virtually the same speed when it comes to the speed of their X86 cores. The imac remains faster in gpu terms unless CUDA is a necessary item. In that case the imac wouldn't be a consideration at all due to lack of NVidia options. This comes up in OSX with certain software. You can also use more ram in the imac. Going from a practical standpoint, if you're pushing both to their limits, you can still pull more speed from the imac in most applied workloads. This is not the same thing as dragracing geekbench. The applecare thing is a pointless discussion here. You can add it to either. It'll cost you less on the imac. The imac still has the larger screen. I'm conflicted on which has a better display. The glare updates definitely help on the rMBP. The resolution is nice. The color temperature is an improvement. Overall people keep wanting to debate color accuracy, and that's not a very strong point of any of their displays (ability to match to a target and generate profiles where the xyz measurements dictate in the profile are accurate relative to output under minimal ambient lighting conditions).

In terms of which sells more, it doesn't matter. Both will plummet if some of the shiny updates find their way into a greater portion of the Mac lineup. A new 13" would cannibalize used 15" sales. A new $1800 rMBP model would cannibalize used sales. Refurbished units of either type would further cannibalize things. You can add Applecare to those too if you like. If you're worried about residual value, it's likely that you're spending too much.


mojothemonkey said:
Untrue. People are buying Imacs for a different reason that a laptop. Gaming and GPU-accelerated rendering and # crunching is way better on the 2011 27" imac than the rMBP could ever do. The new imac will be another giant leap better in that department.
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I don't quite see it as a huge step on the X86 portion. If it gets the 680m that everyone wants, that could be a nice bump. Intel has cut back on the tdp of their "desktop" processors, probably in an effort to better support shrinking form factors. Overall I see the biggest gains at the high end where Xeons will see a core count bump at the top and the dual core level + integrated graphics levels. The retina macbook pro was a very moderate boost over the model from last year. Many of the boasts involve a perceived lack of throttling under heavy tasks. This would be less of an issue outside of notebooks. I just read many posts of people who are annoyed that their computers are worth much less than what they paid, and they're pointless complaints. If there wasn't any difference they wouldn't be selling the one they already own.
 
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mojothemonkey said:
Untrue. People are buying Imacs for a different reason that a laptop. Gaming and GPU-accelerated rendering and # crunching is way better on the 2011 27" imac than the rMBP could ever do. The new imac will be another giant leap better in that department.
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I don't know, when I look at MacWorld's tests, including Cinebench, they are very similar once you account for the SSD in the rMBP test. The new iMac, which we have no idea when it is coming out, will be 15% faster (assuming it comes out this fall) than the rMBP I just ordered if you are going dollar for dollar. That is definitely something I can live with. Continuing to wait for an iMac is not. I feel we are all forgetting that Mac Pro > iMac (and MBP) in the first place. Despite that, I would definitely return my rMBP if iMac comes out within the next 2-3 weeks (edit: okay, it depends on the features, retina would seal it).
 
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Atisha said:
I don't know, when I look at MacWorld's tests, including Cinebench, they are very similar once you account for the SSD in the rMBP test. The new iMac, which we have no idea when it is coming out, will be 15% faster (assuming it comes out this fall) than the rMBP I just ordered if you are going dollar for dollar. That is definitely something I can live with. Continuing to wait for an iMac is not. I feel we are all forgetting that Mac Pro > iMac (and MBP) in the first place. Despite that, I would definitely return my rMBP if iMac comes out within the next 2-3 weeks (edit: okay, it depends on the features, retina would seal it).
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I'm really getting tired of waiting myself and may just get a rMBP and skip the purported 2012 iMac refresh, which may or may not happen. I'd rather enjoy a solid product now. All this waiting is just creating misery and life is too short to be miserable. Apple may very well pass on 2012 and just release the iMac in 2013, which hopefully won't be the case, but knowing Apple and how they like to prolong desktop refreshes, they may very well do this. What do they care? They can afford to keep us waiting till 2013! :mad: I was actually playing with the rMBP and it is a very capable machine and possibly an iMac replacement.
 
I just think it is ridiculous that some are saying don't pay now for last years components.
When what, 1-2% of the users on here may actually even notice any speed difference in every day use between a 2012 and a 2009 model.

Unless you plan on only using it to run benchmarks everyday, then if you need it, then by all means please go get it and be happy with it.
 
mmomega said:
I just think it is ridiculous that some are saying don't pay now for last years components.
When what, 1-2% of the users on here may actually even notice any speed difference in every day use between a 2012 and a 2009 model.

Unless you plan on only using it to run benchmarks everyday, then if you need it, then by all means please go get it and be happy with it.
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For the average user, the major issue here is longevity. One year newer for the same money (when the 2012 is released) lasts one year longer. Also, there's expected to be a 100% increase in GPU speed at the high end, which will benefit gamers, which come in far greater numbers than 1-2%.

P.S. there are a lot of processor intensive things that you can do on a computer than run benchmarks all day. Even if you do things as simple as edit in iMovie, exports will run more quickly.

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Atisha said:
I just bought a rMBP personally because I was sick of waiting, and it was literally harming my career/work.

What are we waiting for anyway? iMac? The only thing worth waiting for is a new Mac Pro. rMBP will have great resale value, portability, and runs faster than a maxed out 27" 2011 iMac for the exact same price. Apple wants us to stop buying desktops and so I'm going to finally try listening to them and see how it goes.
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Good choice if it's harming your career. I've been tempted by the rMBP, but I don't need portability and I can quite simply get a high quality 27 inch display computer for the same or a lower price. I also expect it to outperform the rMBP when it's updated....whenever that is.
 
12dylan34 said:
For the average user, the major issue here is longevity. One year newer for the same money (when the 2012 is released) lasts one year longer. Also, there's expected to be a 100% increase in GPU speed at the high end, which will benefit gamers, which come in far greater numbers than 1-2%.

P.S. there are a lot of processor intensive things that you can do on a computer than run benchmarks all day. Even if you do things as simple as edit in iMovie, exports will run more quickly.
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Just saying, avg user doesn't do much more than what you can do on an iPad.
ie: my wife, her 2009 iMac vs my 2011 iMac. both have 8GB RAM and SSD's, in every day tasks hers is just as quick as mine. Her stuff = web surfing, facebooking, watching videos, plays WoW, Diablo, AoE3. No FPS games.

I am still willing to say 98% of the people on this message board do not push their current iMacs consistently to 98-99% load, even then you're talking a matter of seconds on "most" tasks..... I am not taking into account some 75GB Final Cut Professional video editing.

I am definitely not cutting edge any longer, that used to be me and I finally added every receipt on things I was buying and adding on and it was well over buying 1-2 iMacs/year and I was never happy. 10+ years of that and I was done with it. I am just way, way, way too busy to game as much as I did before.

Now I can easily keep a higher end desktop for 3-4 years before it starts showing it's age. The $2k saved on the iMac this year will go towards picking up my rMBP for my wife this weekend.
 
Long refresh cycles

So what IS up with Apple lately?? Take a look at the MacRumors buyers guide:

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//

There's a whole heck of a lot of red dots there. They are behind on refreshing Mac Pros, imacs, Mac Minis, ipods, iphones .... frankly, there have not been a lot of new products coming out of Cupertino recently! :cool:

I know we are getting something in a few weeks, but they are seriously behind ...
 
rgdigital said:
How much are current models discounted when new ones go on sale? 10%? 20%?
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I can only speak from experience in Canada WRT this, but my last 15" MBP purchase (Spring 2010) and the 21" iMac my sister bought (Summer 2011) were both purchased days after new product announcements and both were discounted by 20%. Both units were brand new sealed from FutureShop. Stocks at the time were very limited though, all older stocks were gone within a week after announcement/discount.
 
to answer you topic, you would be really stupid buying right now..after reading all the latest rumors.
 
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