It would combine all of the benefits of a touch interface with none of the drawbacks such as dirty smudges, clumsy fat fingers and bad ergonomics of holding your hand straight out for long periods of time. At last year's WWDC Craig Federighi (VP OSX Software) made it very clear that Apple does not think touch screens on a computer are sensible. But the vibrating pen patent does suggest that this could be the direction they want to take. I've also recently read about experimental glass covering that actively resists fingerprints.
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iMac Update Might Be Coming Sooner Rather Than Later
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It would combine all of the benefits of a touch interface with none of the drawbacks such as dirty smudges, clumsy fat fingers and bad ergonomics of holding your hand straight out for long periods of time. At last year's WWDC Craig Federighi (VP OSX Software) made it very clear that Apple does not think touch screens on a computer are sensible. But the vibrating pen patent does suggest that this could be the direction they want to take. I've also recently read about experimental glass covering that actively resists fingerprints.
1.It's called an investment: increasing the user base for the sake of future margins. And the reason they have so much cash on hand has little or nothing to do with the iMac. It's because of the ipod/iphone/ipad. They have a lot of room to grow their desktop user base.
2. The majority of users don't think the form factor justifies the price bump over a comparably priced PC; that's why less than 4% of desktop users in the U.S. are Mac users.
I don't know how many use wifi vs Ethernet, but I assure you Apple knows exactly how many do. On another thread, someone mentioned how they'd prefer if the case was slightly thicker to accommodate a standard HDD. So you want it thicker for Ethernet, he wants it thicker for an HDD, and there's plenty who want it a little thicker to accommodate an optical drive. Let's do all that, and we have the last gen MBP. Congratulations.
Apple clearly stated that they wanted to start from scratch, and threw out everything that was on the way out. That way they could do something radical, and not just refresh what's out there already. If Apple felt that Ethernet was necessary, it would be there. They don't, so it isn't. There were plenty of people who thought Apple was bonkers to eliminate the 3.5" floppy in the iMac.
Yeah the "touch screen" would get zero use from me if introduced, however I would use the heck out of a cintiq type function for sure. Fingerprint resistant glass would be awesome too.
I'm hoping for a specs update, USB 3.0, more thunderbolt ports and HDMI-in/out...playing xbox on my iPad screen (without lag) would be amazing, and would save me some cash on purchasing an office/mac-cave TV. 
I can't help but think the iMac will be woven into whatever TV plans Apple holds, and I doubt we see a total refresh of the iMac anytime soon; therefore, I would imageine there would be some kind of future iTV compatibility with the iMac. So HDMI ports only make sense.
Also, the reason people buy iMacs over MBP is bang for buck...the iMac has had far and away the best purchase value of any Mac computer for a long-time now (re-sale value probably goes back to the MBP).
I can't help but think the iMac will be woven into whatever TV plans Apple holds, and I doubt we see a total refresh of the iMac anytime soon; therefore, I would imageine there would be some kind of future iTV compatibility with the iMac. So HDMI ports only make sense.
Also, the reason people buy iMacs over MBP is bang for buck...the iMac has had far and away the best purchase value of any Mac computer for a long-time now (re-sale value probably goes back to the MBP).
Indeed I do use my computer for work and a large portion of the day. If you read many reviews about the retina screen it is said to be excellent but not something that blows the old screens out of the water. I do not use it for HD video editing aside from casual editing here and there. If you speak to many who do, they seem to think the resolution may be too fine, and make their projects harder to work with. That remains to be seen.
On top of that, if you're a serious video editor, i highly doubt 15" is suitable for most. I'm all for retina, especially if it's reasonably priced. At this present time it is not. i'm not saying it doesn't have any advantages, it does. I personally am not going to be a beta tester for it, and pay a premium. If that's what others choose to do, more power to them.
You are right, this model absolutely isn't for me. I don't feel i'm getting all I need for a premium price that's going to run me well over $3,000. I will wait for the new iMac which should provide better performance at a better price.
Am I the only one who wants the ATD & ACD combined? Hell.. I really don't care what resolution it is; I just want two Thunderbolt inputs, maybe one DisplayPort (for our Windows PC folks) and then the bevy of inputs the ATD had. In the end, it shouldn't matter if Apple owning folks or Windows folks purchase a monitor; it's $999+tx to them either way. The ATD is currently the only Thunderbolt display on the market. Why not open it to all by adding DisplayPort compatibility? They'd one-up Dell by offering a better featured display with the same panel.
I've always been a Mac Pro user**, but the iMacs are just getting so dang nice. I bought a 27" iMac for my father last year and it just beautiful and really quick. I imagine that with Retina Displays and such huge amounts of ram you can put in these things, I'll become an iMac user in the future.
The only thing holding me back are the four bays for HDs. They are so easy to pop in new ones and there's nothing to configure. I really like these days having a HD internally to do my SuperDuper backups to and getting away from external HDs which just stack up around the desk. I don't want to have to go back to that.
** Last one June 2010:
2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon; 8GB 1333 MHz DDR3)
The only thing holding me back are the four bays for HDs. They are so easy to pop in new ones and there's nothing to configure. I really like these days having a HD internally to do my SuperDuper backups to and getting away from external HDs which just stack up around the desk. I don't want to have to go back to that.
** Last one June 2010:
2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon; 8GB 1333 MHz DDR3)
I can't wait for the new iMacs to be released. I watched the streaming blog posts hoping to read that Apple was refreshing the iMacs just before Father's day. I had my wife primed and ready to go, but alas, in a couple of more weeks, my hunger will be satisfied. I say weeks because I suspect the refresh will occur in July in order to make the back-to-school buying season. Right now, it's more of a graduation gift season than buying for back-to-school or going off to college.
I think the new retina MBP is a dream, but the fact that everything is locked down is a bigger turn off than it not having an Ethernet port. For that amount of money, I want a device that can be readily upgraded. Thus, for me, this is a great 1st step but I will wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation MBP when Apple decides to allow us to upgrade the SSD and RAM ourselves. Right now your stuck with what you initially get which to me is too limiting.
I think a retina Display would be cool but very expensive and probably a year or two away from being a reality. They are probably working on it, but it's may not ready for launching quite yet.
I think the new retina MBP is a dream, but the fact that everything is locked down is a bigger turn off than it not having an Ethernet port. For that amount of money, I want a device that can be readily upgraded. Thus, for me, this is a great 1st step but I will wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation MBP when Apple decides to allow us to upgrade the SSD and RAM ourselves. Right now your stuck with what you initially get which to me is too limiting.
I think a retina Display would be cool but very expensive and probably a year or two away from being a reality. They are probably working on it, but it's may not ready for launching quite yet.
No the average consumer will be confused and annoyed.
Vista wasn't a huge change and people found that a nightmare to use. Metro is a total cluster****.
Can we please get more than 16 gig of RAM in the thing?
I have 32GB in my 2011 27" i7 iMac. I also got a SATA 3.0 eSATA port, 480GB SSD and 3TB HDD installed with OWC's Turnkey Upgrade Program.
When the self-confessed journalist fan boys hate it and call it "an unmitigated disaster" you know have a problem on your hands
In case you don't know and to give you some context, Dvorak is a huge MS fanboy. I think he is the only person that actually thinks BOB was good, hence why his review of Windows 8 is even more priceless.
http://articles.marketwatch.com/201..._1_windows-phone-windows-vista-desktop-screen
The only reason I chose a MacBook Pro over an iMac was that I live at my place of study during the week and drive home on weekends and wanted to take my Mac with me. I only use my MBP at home or at my dormitory, I wouldn't even need a battery in it. If I were in a different situation I wouldn't think twice and buy an iMac (I always wanted to have one). You get more power for less money and the screen is a lot bigger.
Instead of spending a lot of money on a maxed out MacBook Air/MacBook Pro and an external display I would rather go with a maxed out iMac 27" and the cheapest MBA instead. That would cost nearly the same (if we talk about an external display which is comparable to the iMac's screen), but you have a really powerful machine at home AND a really portable machine on the go while an MBA/MBP with an external display seems like a bad compromise between power and portability.
Back to topic: My girlfriend is waiting desperatly for an iMac refresh, she is moving in August and we hope they give the iMac at least a spec bump by then. My personal bet is that they release the new iMacs and Mac Minis with Mountain Lion. They said there will be a new version of OS X every year now and it makes totally sense if they refresh their desktop line together with OS X at the same time, just as they handle it with the iPhone and iOS.
Someone asked if the benchmarks couldn't show the current 27" iMac - No, the one in the benchmarks has RAM with 1600 Mhz while the current models only have RAM with 1333 Mhz.
Instead of spending a lot of money on a maxed out MacBook Air/MacBook Pro and an external display I would rather go with a maxed out iMac 27" and the cheapest MBA instead. That would cost nearly the same (if we talk about an external display which is comparable to the iMac's screen), but you have a really powerful machine at home AND a really portable machine on the go while an MBA/MBP with an external display seems like a bad compromise between power and portability.
Back to topic: My girlfriend is waiting desperatly for an iMac refresh, she is moving in August and we hope they give the iMac at least a spec bump by then. My personal bet is that they release the new iMacs and Mac Minis with Mountain Lion. They said there will be a new version of OS X every year now and it makes totally sense if they refresh their desktop line together with OS X at the same time, just as they handle it with the iPhone and iOS.
Someone asked if the benchmarks couldn't show the current 27" iMac - No, the one in the benchmarks has RAM with 1600 Mhz while the current models only have RAM with 1333 Mhz.
I've got 8GB of RAM over here and I NEVER use all of it, but Chrome is a memory hungry bitch, so I'm usually between 3-5 depending on what I'm doing.
Apple is all about profit share, not market share.
This is why Apple's iPhone business alone makes more money in a given year than the entire Microsoft corporation.
PC market share is high for one main reason... they sell Chevys, and Apple sells Lexuses. Unfortunately for the PC assemblers, there isn't much money in assembling bargain basement PCs.
Also, take into consideration Apple Computer's resale value. You can OFTEN sell a mac 3-4 years later for half of what you paid for it. Try that with a PC... you'll be throwing it away, or pushing it on relatives instead.
Again, your trying to separate profits from market share. The reason why they are profitable is because of their smartphone market share. I'm sure their margins on iphones and iMacs are comparable. But it's the iPhones that bring home the Bacon.
And if you take away the smartphone business, Apple is back to bringing in less revenue than Microsoft. The reason why Apple has grown so much in the past 5 years is because of increasing market share. If they want to continue growing, they are going to have to expand in new markets. Maybe it won't be in desktop computing, but there is no reason why it can't
Thats what they said 2 months ago, i am sick of waiting and just bought mine. Maxed out the spec and it's probably gonna last at least 2 good years.
I can routinely peg 32GB of RAM, but then I'm not surfing the web all day and still a browser will chew up memory fast, just not as fast compiling multiple source branches for development and working in Solid Modeling environments, not to mention Finite Element Analylsis.