Mid-2011 iMac with Black Friday discount - buy or wait?

[darkpaw]

I need to buy an iMac before the end of December (for accounting reasons), and was thinking of buying one in the Black Friday sale, to get $101 (whatever that is in the UK) off the price of a Mid-2011 3.4GHz i7 iMac.

The MacRumors Buyer's Guide says to buy only if I need it, as it's approaching the end of a cycle (about 10 weeks away).

Are Apple likely to release an updated iMac toward the end of this year?

Are there any rumours that point toward this?

Thanks!

 

[1goodidea]

Hello - I just bought an iMac 2 weeks ago from an Apple Store in Australia. Although their policy isn't to discount they will price match so I got one 10% off as another major retailer here was offering that. They actually threw in a wired keyboard as well, ie, didn't swap out the blue tooth one from the box when I asked for a wired one (I use the alpha numeric pad a bit and like to have the USB on the keyboard).

Accordingly, I wouldn't get too excited about Black Friday discounts as you can do better anyway. I think there is close to 0% chance that there will be a iMac refresh before 31 Dec. By 31 March possibly. By 30 May highly likely.

 

[flopticalcube]

The next major release will be Ivy Bridge processors from Intel which won't happen until the spring of 2012. Of course, Apple may get some early (has happened before) or may release a spec bump machine before then (although processor specs have not changed since the last release although Intel may do a special for Apple). Refurb iMacs are a better deal than Black Friday, from what I have seen.

 

[Roozer]

Is there anything particularly interesting we can expect from Ivy Bridge processors?

 

[swimminmatt]

The value of your Macbook Pro drops by generation. Wait it out. In September I bought my first Mac and then a new one comes out. -_-

 

[malman89]

I guess I would wait if a really minor CPU (even less likely GPU) bump would really annoy you. It would be like a .2GHz bump in the CPUs across the board probably.

As stated, nothing major should go down until the Ivy Bridge CPUs come out. Earliest Apple might get them is Q1 2012, but it would be surprising if they got them for mass production that early. Mid Q2 would be more likely. That would be the best to wait for, but if you're limited by time, oh well.

 

[Penn Jennings]

Educational Pricing

In the U.S. you can always get educational pricing if you are a student or happen to know a student or teacher. The education discount is $100 off.... only $1 less than the sale price for an iMac. I got $200 off my build to order MBP 15.

I personally think that $101 off of a $1199 product during a Black Friday sale is a bit insulting but Apple is in a position to do it.

 

[moxxey]

The next major release will be Ivy Bridge processors from Intel which won't happen until the spring of 2012.

And, at that, April 2012. That's some time away. Those chips are going to be more applicable to the MacBook Pro than iMac. The power consumption should allow Apple to squeeze a quad-core in to a 13" MBP, for the first time. Or maybe even in the Air. That would be superb.

 

[flopticalcube]

Is there anything particularly interesting we can expect from Ivy Bridge processors?

Up to 30% faster. Faster internal graphics (not applicable to iMac). Lower power consumption.

FWIW, I bought a refurb $1019 iMac in the afternoon of the 23rd. Arrived yesterday afternoon! That was standard shipping.