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M3 iMac Gains More Maximum Memory, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3
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The lightening format is Apple proprietary. Apple [is supposed to] a royalty commission on each lightening port sold. USB is a royalty free format. Small commission from millions of units. That is more likely the reason than inventory surpluses.
Current “just in time” manufacturing practices makes it seem unlikely that there would be many months of surplus components just sitting around. And Apple and Foxconn are the poster child for “just in time” manufacturing.
Current “just in time” manufacturing practices makes it seem unlikely that there would be many months of surplus components just sitting around. And Apple and Foxconn are the poster child for “just in time” manufacturing.
I think a decade of the same amount of base RAM in a computer is worthy of complaint, especially on a system that can't be upgraded post purchase. My point is that the people complaining of the woefully low amount of internal storage and the RAM aren't being unreasonable, it's a perfectly valid to mention it and if a lot of people are complaining about the same thing, then usually they have a point.
If it had more internal storage I would have been sold. I think they do not want to cannibalize sales of Mac Mini and Mac Studio.
Apple's 24-inch iMac has been updated with the new M3 chip that offers notable speed improvements over the prior M1, but as it has not been refreshed since 2021, there are also a few other new features.
The machine's design has not been updated, and it comes in the same colors, but the more advanced M3 chip allows the 24-inch iMac to be outfitted with up to 24GB Unified Memory, up from the 16GB maximum in the M1 version.
Apple has also added Wi-Fi 6E support to allow the iMac to connect to 6GHz networks, and it supports the Bluetooth 5.3 protocol for improved connectivity and range.
The M3 iMac still comes in two-port and four-port varieties with the latter featuring an extra two USB 3 ports. The two-port model has an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU, while the four-port model has an 8-core GPU and 10-core GPU. The version with more ports also supports up to 2TB of storage, while the two-port model is limited to 1TB.
Pricing on the M3 iMac starts at $1,299 for the two Thunderbolt port model, while the model with two Thunderbolt ports and two USB 3 ports is priced starting at $1,499. Apple is accepting orders today, with the new machines set to arrive to customers next week.
Article Link: M3 iMac Gains More Maximum Memory, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3
I think if Apple went back to their old ways of letting us upgrade ram and/or HD later to higher capacity when we need or could afford it later after purchase that would negate a good half of complaints. I think the real problem is the lack of expandabilty after purchase, being basically locked in at purchase for the lifetime of that particular Mac out of the box. Personally Apple should have the the base HD at 1TB or base Ram at 16gig, then i dont mind as much upgrading on purchase, but having to upgrade both kinda makes me mad a bit.
But, their success tells you that Apple isn't doing something wrong. They are doing it exactly right, by focusing on what makes people buy their products, not on what people will complain about in forums. Your (and many others here) argument is that if Apple just included 16 GB as standard, people would stop complaining and a lot more people would buy their products. The first part is provably false (people will never stop complaining, if you give them something for free they will complain that they didn't want it - ask Bono), and the second part is highly unlikely.
Forum users always think that they are a representation of the average user. Nothing could be further from the truth. We're all the geeks and complainers with enough OCD to even bother to register to a forum to discuss these things in the first place. The things we care about is very often completely disconnected from the majority of the customers. Which is why Apple doesn't give two ***** about our complaints. We think we know better than the average joe, and if they just acted like we do, their lives would be much better. When in reality, it would make them pedantic, unsatisfied and grumpy, just like us.
Those are beautiful machines! I always wanted Apple to go back to the coloured iMacs.
I want a reason to buy one but I just do not have any. I am not sure who is buy desktop imacs as educational market no longer buys "luxury' brands, and more serious people are into the Mac Pro models.
I want a reason to buy one but I just do not have any. I am not sure who is buy desktop imacs as educational market no longer buys "luxury' brands, and more serious people are into the Mac Pro models.
Non-serious people?
Seriously (no pun intended), the three people I know that still use iMacs are very casual users, who only use it when they have a specific purpose, like reading email, purchase something online, printing invitations for a family gettogether etc. It's not even on their radar that they have a need to do this without being at home in their office, so they have no reason to buy a laptop which would only get them a smaller screen. They are also all 60+ years old, which is a group of people that forum users tend to believe don't exist. They typically replace their computer about every 10 years.
To make this on-topic: None of them would be able to tell you how much RAM is in their iMac.
He should, iMac sales would be far higher had he not let Helen Keller design it.
- Mail / Calendar / Contacts / Messages / Notes
- Office (365)
- Teams / Zoom / Slack
- Simple photo editing with Photos
- Simple video editing with iMovie
Everything else is pretty much done on the web.
I think this covers a huge majority of the people using or buying low-end Macs.
It's not valid when you can order a model with more memory and storage space.
What they're really upset with is the price Apple charges for a Mac with 16Gb of RAM and 512 SSD. So complain about that instead.
Manipulating large Excel files with 16GB on my M1 Pro is already showing the machine's limits, I would definitely feel limited. Each Office app takes about 800MB of memory before opening any document, Whatsapp is 1GB, Spotify 200MB, Safri and Chrome easily run into the GBs... add a cloud synch service or two, device management software (if it's a corporate machine) - these easily eat up GBs -, utilities like Logitech Options+ eating up hundreds of MB each... 8GB in 2023 is shameful on a machine costing $1600, there is really no excuse. And so is 256GB of storage - it's what my 2011 MacBook Air came with. I would much rather have 2x slower but 2-4x larger SSDs and RAM than what Apple is including as standard here.
Agreed. When you consider the base spec with 2 ports is $1299, to actually make it useable in most cases you have to pick up the 4 port upgrade, the 16 GB ram upgrade, and the 512 GB SSD upgrade which takes you to roughly $2000 and suddenly it’s no longer such a good buy.
Considering that the actual components for these things are not much money if they were wrapped into the base spec it’s pretty awful to be nickel-and-dimed like that.
Don't underestimate having better bluetooth.
HAving an iPhone 13 and an M1 Ultra Mac Studio, I'm stuck with Bluetooth 5.0 and I have all sorts of problems when it comes to bluetooth connectivity.
HAving an iPhone 13 and an M1 Ultra Mac Studio, I'm stuck with Bluetooth 5.0 and I have all sorts of problems when it comes to bluetooth connectivity.
Thats a spurious argument.
If Apple had increased the specs of the storage and RAM of the entry level iMac over the last decade (which is a reasonable expectation), it’s likely to have sold far more units as it will have represented a better value purchase.
Apple have purposely and perniciously made iMacs poorer value than they used to be.
This is particularly evident to existing customers and it alienates them.
These are the ones using these forums and so they complain about it. Needlessly alienating your existing users is not a good thing.
if you have many Apple users with the same complaint, then it’s likely the complaint is a valid one.
Arguing that a decade long stay of 8gb RAM is good is bizarre, as is arguing that you can just pay more to increase the spec as then it represents even poorer value as the price dramatically increases.
If the amount of storage or RAM didn’t matter, we’d all still be using iPhones with 16GB storage like on the iPhone 5.
No one would accept 10 years of that on a phone, so it’s an illogical argument to make for a computer.
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One more drop in the "companies should give us more for less, then they will make more money" bucket I guess... Sorry, but business is not that simple. It has been proven time and time again across business segments that upselling is a better strategy than making your cheapest product the one people want to buy. Show me ONE succesful company (not in the introduction phase) across any industry, whose business model doesn't revolve around upselling.
Apple is not "alienating their existing users". Just the moaners on forums, who do NOT represent the majority of users (but typically think they do).
I'd argue 16GB for 1799,- is better value than 8GB for 1599,-, assuming you have a need for 16GB. Which is the whole point of the upselling strategy.
Computers are not phones. That comparison is useless.
Apple's market share is going UP.
That's a straw man argument.
No one is suggesting the entry level iMac should be made to be the one everyone wants to buy.
What they are arguing is it should start with more RAM and storage than it did 10 years ago.
As for moaners on a forum, I'd point out that you're moaning too...just about the moaners!
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Classic trolling: You are steering the conversation away from the point where you were wrong: You claimed Apple would do better business if they upper the entry RAM and storage. There is no proof to that, much the contrary.That's a straw man argument.
No one is suggesting the entry level iMac should be made to be the one everyone wants to buy.
What they are arguing is it should start with more RAM and storage than it did 10 years ago.
As for moaners on a forum, I'd point out that you're moaning too...just about the moaners!
Apple gives you a much better computer for the money today than they did ten years ago. There is more to that than RAM and storage. Apple Silicon requires less RAM, and many people have moved to more online storage, and streaming instead of selv-stored media. To many, including me, 256GB is perfectly fine. Fifteen years ago my 512Gb external harddrive was getting too small. Now I don’t even have one. The use cases changed.
The fact that Apple focuses on how the user experiences the use of the product, rather than just habitually increasing specs every year, is why I like them. I WANT them to spend the money on better screens, being fanless, better battery life etc, rather than RAM and storage I don’t need.
Here's the problem: they have been neglecting the user experience for quite a while. For example, everyone complains on how MacOS is now just an afterthought, "bigger" version of iOS instead of a proper version (e.g, the control panel became more confusing). Or how Apple doesn't care anymore about Final Cut, which allowed DaVinci Resolve to gain ground.
Yes, Tim Cook refined iPhones and turned Apple into a very lucrative company. But at what cost? Now Apple is afraid to create something really new, to the point we don't even see bold colors on their "Pro" products. I actually bought a regular iPhone instead of a Pro one because the Pro line lacked the more vivid colors the regular line has!
I'm just saying those who complained about the low storage and RAM are within their rights to do so.
You're the one (trying) to steer away from that.
If many people are complaining on a forum about the new iMacs spec, then they probably have a point.
If you're happy with it - great.
However, those who are not have a valid reason not to be.
“Everyone” complains?
I understand why FCP users complain about Apple focusing elsewhere. That’s completely fair. But some (not “everyone”) is arguing that if Apple carered to those power users more, they would make more money. While at the same time complaining that Apple is too profit oriented…
I don’t object to people complaining that Apple made choices they don’t like. That’s completely fair. It’s when you are arguing that I should be unhappy because you are, or that you know better about business than Apple’s army of Harvard Business School graduates, that I get riled up.
I don't think that's anyone's proposal to make you stop liking Apple. Who are us to prevent you to worship them in an altar if you feel like it?
That seems quite clear in our interactions.
BUT this is a forum, of course, which is a place where people exchange ideas. We're not here to kiss Apple's bottom line and always tell how amazing their products are – or else this would be a cult, not a discussion forum.
and? the needs of actual "pros" gets the black color. typical apple to do that trash.
Not for this price. There is a Lenovo that looks similar to imac can be had for like $800 (less than half) . Huge screen, does everything iMac does, and seems to come with free MS Office license and even a DVD-ROM!
I don't get the reference? can someone clarify? Those macs like beautiful, imo at least.