My wife wants to buy an iMac, but according to the
Macrumors buyer's guide page there's only an average of 1 1/2 month until an update, so I've advised her to wait.
What kind of update might be expected? The usual stuff (minor speed bump, slightly bigger hard drive etc.) or stuff really worth waiting for (Blue Ray burner etc.)?
She'll be using it for regular stuff like email, web-browsing, word-processing etc. She basically just needs a reliable computer (unlike her old PC) for everyday stuff.
Should she wait?
I've been "camping" for an iMac for about 4 months now (It was cash at the beginning now it's waiting for a new release.)
I'm very eager and I've been doing a lot of research, obviously with Apple a lot of it is simple rumours and guesses, but here are the "facts":
At least 2 rumour websites, also it being echoed on here, put new iMac's down for release at the end of October/beginning of November --
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...oks_imacs_up_next_on_apples_2008_roadmap.html
Basically it works like this:
The next "big update" to iMac will most likely be things like Quad-Core Nehalem, Blu-ray perhaps, etc etc, big stuff, but most of us know this won't happen until at least mid-2009.
Now the dilemma that creates is that it's unlikely that Apple will not update the iMacs until then, their update cycle would be destroyed, but they also don't have much room to move, the only thing they can really do to the existing models is a CPU speed bump, better graphics cards and such, this wouldn't justify a big announcement at MacWorld at all, so chances are that it will be either a simple silent Tuesday update like they usually do for their speed bumps. Or perhaps, however unlikely, that the notebook event next week will bring them in.
My advice it to wait until Tuesday just because it's so close, and you never know, but should that day come and go with nothing, go ahead and buy, your wife doesn't need it for anything intensive, and those speed bumps won't make a blind bit of difference to her.
