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Memory in New $1099 iMac is Soldered and Not Upgradable
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I love Apple software but their products are starting to suck!
Now first thing is first. I loveeee Apple Software. The best in the world. iOS and Mac OS X are unbelievable computing experiences unmatched by no other. With that said..... This just proves how stupid Apple customers are. Of course it's all about the almighty dollar and it was really apparent with the iPhone 5c. That's when the flare went up that pretty much showed me that Apple cared way to much about money instead of their product but the fact of the matter is, why should Apple care? Especially with their stupid customers buying up their products like they are going out of style anyways. Ever since 2007 when the first iPhone came out. When the new iPhone came out after that the previous model would go down $100. So when the iPhone 5s was coming out I thought to myself, cool. The iPhone 5 is a solid phone with a beautiful metal finish that is defiantly worth the money. But what did Apple do? To make more money they took the iPhone 5 and wrapped it in plastic, threw bright colors on it to appeal to stupid customers, and charged the same $100 which the iPhone 5 should've cost and called it the iPhone 5C but now you have a stupid plastic finish instead of a beautiful metal finish FOR THE SAME PRICE!!!! BS!!! Then you have the Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs. RAM is the easiest thing to upgrade on a computer and you can extend your computer past it's Tech lifespan fairly cheap by doing so. But Apple started to solder those to the board. F'n Bull Crap! So what do true Apple Fans like myself who love the software but see that they're failing us in the hardware department... We build Hackintoshes. Hopefully Hackintoshes pick up steam and Apple realizes they are losing out on thousands of dollars per customer because they are so greedy in the hardware department. That's what happens. Just like Microsoft, just like the music industry, just like the movie industry. You charge an arm an a leg for your product.... people will find a way to jack your ass! You charge a decent price for your product... and we will buy it.
Now first thing is first. I loveeee Apple Software. The best in the world. iOS and Mac OS X are unbelievable computing experiences unmatched by no other. With that said..... This just proves how stupid Apple customers are. Of course it's all about the almighty dollar and it was really apparent with the iPhone 5c. That's when the flare went up that pretty much showed me that Apple cared way to much about money instead of their product but the fact of the matter is, why should Apple care? Especially with their stupid customers buying up their products like they are going out of style anyways. Ever since 2007 when the first iPhone came out. When the new iPhone came out after that the previous model would go down $100. So when the iPhone 5s was coming out I thought to myself, cool. The iPhone 5 is a solid phone with a beautiful metal finish that is defiantly worth the money. But what did Apple do? To make more money they took the iPhone 5 and wrapped it in plastic, threw bright colors on it to appeal to stupid customers, and charged the same $100 which the iPhone 5 should've cost and called it the iPhone 5C but now you have a stupid plastic finish instead of a beautiful metal finish FOR THE SAME PRICE!!!! BS!!! Then you have the Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs. RAM is the easiest thing to upgrade on a computer and you can extend your computer past it's Tech lifespan fairly cheap by doing so. But Apple started to solder those to the board. F'n Bull Crap! So what do true Apple Fans like myself who love the software but see that they're failing us in the hardware department... We build Hackintoshes. Hopefully Hackintoshes pick up steam and Apple realizes they are losing out on thousands of dollars per customer because they are so greedy in the hardware department. That's what happens. Just like Microsoft, just like the music industry, just like the movie industry. You charge an arm an a leg for your product.... people will find a way to jack your ass! You charge a decent price for your product... and we will buy it.
Except that it's the same off the shelf RAM from the same suppliers that anyone can buy from and that every manufacturer uses. Some of it is even supplied by Samsung. And when you buy it yourself, it comes with a lifetime warranty. How long does Apple warranty it for? Give it another shot.
Damn, people are getting so cheap these days! $1099 for a full computer built to the high Apple standards with years and years of future-proofing built in with free OS upgrades... yah.... price is way too high.
past-proofing
The RAM is actually worth a gazillion dollars because it's premium quality
This $1099 iMac is actually a bargain because the premium quality
RAM itself is worth $GAZILLION.99 because it's the most premium RAM on earth, there's no comparison. should take the RAM and make jewelry out of it, jewelry industry should be afraid, that's what they get for living in the past, I don't feel sorry for them, it's their own fault
I'm pretty sure the stuff Apple supplies is bog standard Micron/Samsung manufactured ram with their logo slapped on it. While it's far from bad, I wouldn't call it the crème de la crème of memory, either.
If they were really fancy, they'd use Corsair.
IMO this foreshadows the coming of most, if not all iOS and OSX devices at some point becoming the same thing. These are purely consumer devices with obsolescence built in that will probably last no more than a few generations of OS updates.
I wonder it there would be as much backlash if it was marketed as an EMac instead of IMac.
At the very least, they went for 8 GB instead of 4; 8 GB is already overkill for a low-end machine used for browsing/videos/Facebook/light games, and that'll give the machine some relatively decent life expectancy.
It doesn't really excuse any of the weird decisions of having a closed, limited, ULV-powered desktop weakling for this price, but hey, I'm sure they'll sell plenty of them.
I'm more worried about the Mini if this iMac is the new king of entry-level models, they may just kill it altogether.
It doesn't really excuse any of the weird decisions of having a closed, limited, ULV-powered desktop weakling for this price, but hey, I'm sure they'll sell plenty of them.
I'm more worried about the Mini if this iMac is the new king of entry-level models, they may just kill it altogether.
I wonder how much faster Apple can assemble these computers without the seperate parts.
For example, the 3.5" hard drive, quite heavy. They replaced it with SSD Sticks in the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and iMac as an option. This stick is faster to put in because theres only one screw and it's lighter so the worker doesn't need to put as much effort in holding it and seating it.
They removed the Optical Drive. So there's nothing to put in for that.
They replaced RAM sticks with soldered RAM that can be put on the motherboard like any other chip in the factory by machines.
Overall these changes probably save Apple a minute per machine built. And if you ever opened one of the older MacBook Pro's (Classic Shell or Unibody pre-Retina) you'd notice how many cables there were going from the display to different parts of the motherboard.
One for WiFi antennas, one for Bluetooth, one for Display and USB Camera. There were also sometimes a cable for the optical drive and SATA. These cables were all routed very intricately around components and stuck down with tape. That must take atleast a minute or more for a person to do.
Now most of that stuff is just gone, circuit to circuit with connectors and the cables have been almost entirely eliminated.
I guess a few minutes here, a few minutes there. It all adds up to the grand scheme of how many they ship. Probably saves them hundreds of hours a month across the whole manufacturing line.
For example, the 3.5" hard drive, quite heavy. They replaced it with SSD Sticks in the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and iMac as an option. This stick is faster to put in because theres only one screw and it's lighter so the worker doesn't need to put as much effort in holding it and seating it.
They removed the Optical Drive. So there's nothing to put in for that.
They replaced RAM sticks with soldered RAM that can be put on the motherboard like any other chip in the factory by machines.
Overall these changes probably save Apple a minute per machine built. And if you ever opened one of the older MacBook Pro's (Classic Shell or Unibody pre-Retina) you'd notice how many cables there were going from the display to different parts of the motherboard.
One for WiFi antennas, one for Bluetooth, one for Display and USB Camera. There were also sometimes a cable for the optical drive and SATA. These cables were all routed very intricately around components and stuck down with tape. That must take atleast a minute or more for a person to do.
Now most of that stuff is just gone, circuit to circuit with connectors and the cables have been almost entirely eliminated.
I guess a few minutes here, a few minutes there. It all adds up to the grand scheme of how many they ship. Probably saves them hundreds of hours a month across the whole manufacturing line.
This 100% non-upgradable computer is appropriate for the customer who wants it for what it does out of the carton and nothing more.
The computer for the rest of us is not this nor likely future iMacs. And it may not be made by Apple even though it is running OS X.
The computer for the rest of us is not this nor likely future iMacs. And it may not be made by Apple even though it is running OS X.
I wanted to and did upgrade the ram in my 2009 iMac. It has 8 GB in it and it is just fine for Photoshop, Aperture, web browsing, office apps, and other miscellaneous tasks. I plan on keeping it for several more years at least and don't see my 8 GB limit being an issue.
I'm a little surprised by this, but I work for a large urban k-12 educational institution and if this is geared toward the educational market it actually makes since. We have a problem with students stealing the ram out of computers.
Building the logic board is cheaper, no sockets and no time spent adding BTO memory. This is just what Steve Jobs original vision of the Macintosh was, a computer like an appliance and not made for people to open up and tinker with. I think schools that are on a rotational upgrade system will really benefit from the new low cost and when the latest OS update needs more memory its time for an upgrade anyway.
Apple RAM is superior quality with technologies you just don't see in consumer-grade chips that are bought on the cheap. Of course Apple doesn't want people using cheap RAM that causes problems that people then blame on them. It damages the brand and beauty of controlling the entire hardware and software experience to create perfect products.
Honestly I'm surprised it took them this long to come up with soldering memory to the motherboard. It's an excellent solution to an age old problem.
It's not bog standard stuff at all. There are far cheaper alternatives on the market, prone to errors, and people buy this stuff all the time. These moves are stopping people from buying upgrades from unscrupulous resellers who don't care about the experience.
AppleScruff1, I was at the Apple store a few months ago. The blue shirt was moving me toward the iPad Air. I asked him how much RAM the Air had. His response was that he didn't know. I asked him to find out. He said no one in the store knows. Went on to say that no one knows, not even Apple.
I must look really stupid. I hope that this type of duplicity is an issue at my area Apple store and not a company wide issue.
BTW I voted for you to be my spokesperson
They should have provided one model: 16GB. That way it gives schools a 3-4 year upgrade cycle.
The thing with 3 year planned obsolescence is: American industries have been there, done that. Once upon a time when Detroit was king, they decided to have planned obsolescence of their cars. The idea was, why would anyone want to drive around in a beat up 100,000 mile car anyway? You were supposed to change your car every 3-4 years. This worked great until other countries (cough, Japan, cough) entered the market, and people realized that yes, sometimes you do need to drive around a beat up Honda Civic for 10 years. And the same arguments were made about Japanese cars: they were cheap, why would anyone want to ride around in those little turds? You see where the car industry is today.
Apple seems to have decided for the consumer for three-to-four years planned obsolescence across the board. AppleCare expires in 3 years. Software upgrades no longer available for models of phones/ipads more than three years. Computers like MBA's with 4 GB RAM that they know will be about useless in say, 3 years. And for those who say Cupertino can't become the new Detroit, just look at what happened to HP. Laying off entire 10k+ people.
Making crappy products WILL catch up with a business. Yes, even a business as "premium" as Apple.
Apple seems to have decided for the consumer for three-to-four years planned obsolescence across the board. AppleCare expires in 3 years. Software upgrades no longer available for models of phones/ipads more than three years. Computers like MBA's with 4 GB RAM that they know will be about useless in say, 3 years. And for those who say Cupertino can't become the new Detroit, just look at what happened to HP. Laying off entire 10k+ people.
Making crappy products WILL catch up with a business. Yes, even a business as "premium" as Apple.
yep, that premium RAM got proven superior technologies. even the solder has superior technologies and qualities
that RAM solder is so beautiful that I will open up my $1099 iMac just to admire the solder. no one else pays this much attention to detail and that's why apple is #1