Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iMac Last Updated 602 Days Ago, Longest Span Ever Between Updates

HJM.NL said:
Well, if a fashion brand doesn’t have new seasonable fashion to show, consumers will shop elsewhere.
Most creative professionals have already shopped elsewhere. It won’t take long that mouth to mouth news will brand Apple computers as über expensive old tech.

This fact will snowball to every other category they’re in and will hurt the brand in the long term.

My advice to Apple is to get in our out of a category and act like that. If Apple was fully committed to their products, we won’t have the misery state most of their products/services are in.
Click to expand...

Apple isn’t a fashion brand. And minor spec increases annually isn’t really going to result in significant performance improvements. So I guess Apple would be fine updating for the more significant leaps in component tech, and skipping the minor iterations.

We might see an update around June? A 2-year refresh cycle for the iMac seems about right these days, though I expect it to eventually slip to 3 years.
 
Abazigal said:
Apple isn’t a fashion brand. And minor spec increases annually isn’t really going to result in significant performance improvements. So I guess Apple would be fine updating for the more significant leaps in component tech, and skipping the minor iterations.

We might see an update around June? A 2-year refresh cycle for the iMac seems about right these days, though I expect it to eventually slip to 3 years.
Click to expand...
Minor iterations? LoL
How are the i7 8700k and the i9 9900k minor iterations?

A 2 year refresh cycle will be the end of the iMacs line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kfamily and 9081094
ROGmaster said:
Minor iterations? LoL
How are the i7 8700k and the i9 9900k minor iterations?

A 2 year refresh cycle will be the end of the iMacs line.
Click to expand...

The iPad is already slipping to a 1.5 year refresh cycle, and that’s with all the attention Apple is paying to it.

People upgrade their iMacs even less frequently than iPads.
 
Nunyabinez said:
That is an easy answer. Simply update with the latest processor each year, or reduce the price to reflect that it's year old tech.

AirPods don't have alternatives that use better technology for a lower price like Macs do.
Click to expand...
Why don't car manufacturers do that? They roll out the same car and slap 2019 on it and charge more. Actually, car manufacturers sometimes make the car "cheaper" by removing, simplifying, or changing materials to save costs.

I know it sounds easy to just "Swap processors" but Apple actually likes to engineer their products, so the swap can result in more engineering, design, software, etc. This kills margins and likely only offers incremental gains, which aren't noticed or valued by enough. It's just business.
 
Abazigal said:
The iPad is already slipping to a 1.5 year refresh cycle, and that’s with all the attention Apple is paying to it.

People upgrade their iMacs even less frequently than iPads.
Click to expand...
The reason why we upgrade so less, is the reason that there isn't a compelling reason to upgrade from Apple at all. You don’t have to be a math scientist to understand.

Aren’t we willing to upgrade? Yes we do and we are dissatisfied with the big differences in offering from competitors compared to what Apple is offering. To be clear: Apple does a bad job in keeping its customers satisfied.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aldaris
Since i see a pattern here.... More and more are not getting updates regularly, tells you something. The iMac would still best in term of desktop pro, and Macbook pro as best pro laptop, but i reckon based on this Apple is slowly concentrating on iPhones.

They DID just update Mac mini though ...:) so i guess it's not all bad.
 
HJM.NL said:
The reason why we upgrade so less, is the reason that there isn't a compelling reason to upgrade from Apple at all. You don’t have to be a math scientist to understand.

Aren’t we willing to upgrade? Yes we do and we are dissatisfied with the big differences in offering from competitors compared to what Apple is offering. To be clear: Apple does a bad job in keeping its customers satisfied.
Click to expand...

And the main reason for that is that technology simply doesn’t improve quickly enough to justify incremental updates year after year.

Most people are not upgrading their Macs annually or every other year anyways. My guess is that majority of Mac owners hold on to their iMacs for anywhere from 5-7 years, Apple has done the sums, and decided that the efforts that go into annual refreshes isn’t going to pay for itself.
 
Abazigal said:
And the main reason for that is that technology simply doesn’t improve quickly enough to justify incremental updates year after year.

Most people are not upgrading their Macs annually or every other year anyways. My guess is that majority of Mac owners hold on to their iMacs for anywhere from 5-7 years, Apple has done the sums, and decided that the efforts that go into annual refreshes isn’t going to pay for itself.
Click to expand...
So in other words you are saying that Apple is milking you to the max by not selling you the latest tech you pay for. Seeing their line up today and the buyers guide it contradicts with Timmy’s mantra that the customer is the most important.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ROGmaster
HJM.NL said:
So in other words you are saying that Apple is milking you to the max by not selling you the latest tech you pay for. Seeing their line up today and the buyers guide it contradicts with Timmy’s mantra that the customer is the most important.
Click to expand...
I’d further add that we have all been told “we have an amazing pipeline” we have “great products coming down the pipeline”. We’ve been told this for the better part of the last decade-maybe it’s really just marketing hype-but where are these products?

Yeah AirPods are pretty great, and the apple watch is a fair addition to the ecosystem, but where has the innovation been the last decade? Are there any products we can identify as coming from this insanely great pipeline?

Seriously the updates are getting more modest in specs, and longer in duration...
 
  • Like
Reactions: ROGmaster and 9081094
Abazigal said:
And the main reason for that is that technology simply doesn’t improve quickly enough to justify incremental updates year after year.

Most people are not upgrading their Macs annually or every other year anyways. My guess is that majority of Mac owners hold on to their iMacs for anywhere from 5-7 years, Apple has done the sums, and decided that the efforts that go into annual refreshes isn’t going to pay for itself.
Click to expand...

Efforts that go into annual refreshes. Shipping the computer with an updated CPU/GPU, huge effort involved there..
 
  • Like
Reactions: ROGmaster and 9081094
Simple answer: We won't get an iMac update until we get an iMac Pro update, or Apple decides to pull the plug on the iMac Pro in favor of the "modular" Mac Pro to replace the 5+ year-old trashcan Mac Pro that's coming later this year. Xeon-W refresh, maybe? And most likely waiting for Navi GPUs. Apple doesn't want a 9900K iMac cannibalizing sales of the base-tier/lower-mid-tier (8-core/10-core) iMac Pros.
 
Disappointing :(

There's a lot of room for improvement in the iMac: more modern design with smaller bezels, inclusion of some kind of biometrics, backlit keyboard, six-core processors, improved cooling and graphics, etc.

Hopefully an update to the iMac is coming this year. Maybe alongside the iMac Pro and the possible debut of the T3 chip.
 
Analog Kid said:
Certainly not everyone. Not even most. Some geeks around here, sure, but that's a small minority and certainly not Apple's target demographic.

The only effort I remember Apple making to advertise the processor type, was the tank ad for the PowerMac G4. Most of the ads around that time were the "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" personification ads. Apple has always pitched what their computers can do and the experience of using one, not what's inside.

I'm pretty sure Apple wasn't highlighting the MHz myth, because PPC was way behind on that metric.

(I blocked out the Spindler/Amelio days, so maybe things were different then...)
Click to expand...
You forgot these:

 
  • Like
Reactions: Analog Kid
Point: HJM.NL

My reflexive response was that this was from the Amelio days, but Jobs was back by the time the PowerMac G3 shipped.

I still hold to my feeling that gear heads have never been the core of Apple's market, and could try to argue that this era was when Apple was at a low point, but I'll just leave it at the simple fact that you're right: there was more performance advertising than I remembered.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9081094
HJM.NL said:
So in other words you are saying that Apple is milking you to the max by not selling you the latest tech you pay for. Seeing their line up today and the buyers guide it contradicts with Timmy’s mantra that the customer is the most important.
Click to expand...

As I said in another thread (the one about Angela and Apple Stores), Apple sells you an experience, not technology. And that experience is made possible by integration between hardware, software, and services.

So yes, your Mac may not have the absolute best hardware specs in the market at that particular time, but it is compensated elsewhere (such as Final Cut Pro being Mac only, and it running well on lesser specs). It’s still going to be powerful for what you need it to do.

The onus is also on the customer to do their homework, realise when the product was updated (seems a lot don’t really care, actually), and decide whether they are okay with paying for essentially 1.5 year-old tech in order to continue getting that unique Mac experience that only Apple can offer.

I get that it’s not exactly the answer you are looking for, and no doubt you will likely have lots of issues with the answer I just provided. For me, it just so happened that my 2011 iMac was starting to develop screen issues in 2017, Apple just announced a refresh of their 5k imac, so I quickly made the leap while it still had some resale value left, and I expect to hold on to this for 6-7 years (basically until it craps out or is no longer supported with updates).

That’s just the way it is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris
ThisBougieLife said:
Disappointing :(

There's a lot of room for improvement in the iMac: more modern design with smaller bezels, inclusion of some kind of biometrics, backlit keyboard, six-core processors, improved cooling and graphics, etc.

Hopefully an update to the iMac is coming this year. Maybe alongside the iMac Pro and the possible debut of the T3 chip.
Click to expand...

iMac Pro? This 602 days thing is kind of bogus when the iMac Pro exists.
 
ROGmaster said:
Minor iterations? LoL
How are the i7 8700k and the i9 9900k minor iterations?

A 2 year refresh cycle will be the end of the iMacs line.
Click to expand...

And yet Apple is in far better financial shape than Dell, which throws crap against the wall to see what sticks every time Intel releases a new CPU...but don’t ship for 6-8 weeks while they wait for the chips.

Yes, Apple needs to release 6-core and 8-core iMacs, it they need to do so with updated GPUs, which AMD still have not shipped yet.
 
ThisBougieLife said:
Disappointing :(

There's a lot of room for improvement in the iMac: more modern design with smaller bezels, inclusion of some kind of biometrics, backlit keyboard, six-core processors, improved cooling and graphics, etc.

Hopefully an update to the iMac is coming this year. Maybe alongside the iMac Pro and the possible debut of the T3 chip.
Click to expand...

The bezels are fine, FaceID might be nice, but backlit and TouchID on wireless keyboards is going to require better batteries to accomplish, and Bluetooth is not quite the ideal security citizen for TouchID, six- and eight-core CPUs are overdue, so is improved cooling and we are all still waiting for AMD Navi.
 
smoledman said:
My point is iMac Pro is proof Apple is pricing Macs again at 1990 levels of absurdity.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I don't disagree. I can't remember the CEO's name offhand, but he was the reason Apple went up but also went down. I think Jobs did a one-on-one interview with a network when he was at NeXT about it. It was a nice ball-busting comment against then Apple.

Though I also question what Apple's idea of Pro actually is given they've neglected and rather pissed-off many customers who relied on actual products meant for pros and not some fancy moniker on a pig.
 
pier said:
Redesigns take time, specially considering the Mac is 10% of Apple's revenue and Mac desktops are probably a 10% of all Mac sales.
Click to expand...

Redesigns do, updates don’t require anything near 12 months let alone 4 years.

But yes, Macs are no longer Apple’s priority or cash cow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back