New iMac Deliveries to Be Delayed Until Early Next Year?

[fertilized-egg]

Does spending on the new Spaceship campus and retail store fronts count as CapEx?

If so that would probably be the major difference. Intel doesn't have those.

The retail store don't really count for all that much in the grand scheme of things and Apple hasn't suddenly accelerated opening up of stores. In the last fiscal year Apple spent $8 billion on CapEx and only $0.9 billion of that was for the stores.

I doubt the work campus has done much damage to the last quarter's at this point. Ditto for data centers. They are expensive but not that expensive and it's not as if Apple builds them in one single quarter.

Manufacturing is a service for Apple. They outsource it, so I think that would be kind of weird to be classified as having been spent on a capital asset.

Apple is famous for purchasing equipments for their manufactures. They themselves state "product tooling and manufacturing process equipment" count in the CapEx. As a case study there was an article last year describing how Apple bought up a ton of laser equipments just to put that tiny hole for lights in their devices.

About five years ago, Apple (AAPL) design guru Jony Ive decided he wanted a new feature for the next MacBook: a small dot of green light above the screen, shining through the computer’s aluminum casing to indicate when its camera was on. The problem? It’s physically impossible to shine light through metal.

Ive called in a team of manufacturing and materials experts to figure out how to make the impossible possible, according to a former employee familiar with the development who requested anonymity to avoid irking Apple. The team discovered it could use a customized laser to poke holes in the aluminum small enough to be nearly invisible to the human eye but big enough to let light through.

Applying that solution at massive volume was a different matter. Apple needed lasers, and lots of them. The team of experts found a U.S. company that made laser equipment for microchip manufacturing which, after some tweaking, could do the job. Each machine typically goes for about $250,000. Apple convinced the seller to sign an exclusivity agreement and has since bought hundreds of them to make holes for the green lights that now shine on the company’s MacBook Airs, Trackpads, and wireless keyboards.

So they outsource manufacturing but oddly enough they do buy much of the expensive the equipments themselves. Which makes sense given that one of Apple's biggest advantages (and challenges) is making metal casings.

 

[chfilm]

The BANNER referenced by the other post has been changed to "Coming Soon". The on-line store says available in November, another location on the site says "Coming in November".

So the Apple site does still push the message NOVEMBER. What that means in available stock and when will tell the story.

Hm at least in my memory the banner always said "coming soon". It certainly did in the German store, right from the beginning and so it still does

 

[CosmoCopus]

Although I agree its not hard to find a side view image (http://i.imgur.com/dyThz.jpg) None of the 5 images they have in the imac gallery that i can find are side views (http://www.apple.com/imac/design/).

Am i missing something?

Edit:
I notice this side view http://i.imgur.com/QYUFV.png
Tiny picture though.

Try this ...then click on gallery.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac

 

[Apple Corps]

All negative spin... Cook has done just fine... If u think mistakes did not happen when Steve was around u have been living under a rock somewhere.

These are the facts i see..
This whole thread is based on a bs rumor.
The new lineup is fantastic and unprecedented . Cook made it happen.
The new iMac is super impressive!
The managment reshuffle is great for apple and synergy in products. Cook did it.
Briwett was a moron that had to be ousted... Better sooner than later.
I love the new maps.. The turn by turn voice and the 3d ... Sure no street view.. But i have had more functionality out of the new features than i miss street view.
Map is more noise than an issue.. And it is getting better by the day.
Apple guidance of 52 billion is no joke.. It is 40% above their guidance for last holiday!
And i dont think they just winged that number.. They looked at what they can produce and demand.. And as always lowballed it too.

Apple did not invent the manufacturing process fir these products yesterday for them to stumble on it today.
Thry new what they can produce before they announced a guidance!

I can't tell if you are trolling or just delusional.

This thread covers more than the iMac rumor - and much of the content is fact.

The lineup is dated - Mac Pro, can't order a new iMac, etc. Cook has not made that happen - Steve put this innovation trajectory in place and Cook appears to be riding it out.

What is so impressive about the new iMac?

The management changes you refer to were made necessary by Tim Cooks huge blunder of hiring Browett - it is absurd to give him credit for firing someone he should never have hired in the first place.

Maps was a horrible product to launch - why would Tim have sent a letter of apology otherwise? You need to lower the amount of Apple KoolAid you are slurping.

The guidance is a result of game changing products Steve envisioned and was executing on prior to his death. Cook is fumbling the ball he was handed.

 

[brock2621]

Just plain wrong, it's listed as mobile. Anytime a GPU has m in the title it's mobile, even if they put a silly X after it.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware

It's a desktop chip, down clocked.

 

[SockRolid]

Operative word there is "may". Companies usually try to lock up sales the moment they can, not hope fickle consumers didn't opt for an alternative product from another company or spend that $ on something else entirely.

Would have been better if Apple didn't spend the excitement of a new machine capital when the machine wasn't ready and waited until CES to announce.

Hmmm. I still think pre-announcing new iMacs, even if they're not ready, was the right move. Especially since the entire tech media was focused, laser-like, on the "iPad mini event," when they were announced.

Apple probably looks at CES as "the Apple device accessory showcase."
They have massive mindshare. Without an actual Apple booth.

 

[coder12]

I don't understand why desktop Macs should be thinner?

...

 

[rdlink]

OK, I'll bite. What "line" was crossed in the new design? The biggest change was the optical drive was pulled. But optical drives are so 20th century. They are just another place for dust and debris to enter the machine. If one really needs one and ext is, what $29, and you can bring it out if you need to install s/w. I think most people put their iMovies and such on YouTube now that it supports 1080p HD. I know I do.

The only major drawback to the 21.5" iMac is that there is no way for users to upgrade RAM after purchase. But the iMac has been upgrade unfriendly for sometime now. This just tightens the screw one step further. Most iMac users don't upgrade after purchase anyway though. Upgrade aficionados are going to need to wait to see what Apple announces to replace the Mac Pro next year.

Look, nobody believes that optical discs are a dying technology more than me. I haven't had a DVD player for years. All of my movies have been on hard drive since 2003. But there are a bunch of people out there who still use optical media regularly.

My point about why a line was crossed here is that (all of this is my opinion, of course) Apple didn't make this change to bring any real user benefit to the computer, and in fact they took away functionality to a large segment of people who already have a Mac.

Not saying that I wouldn't ever buy one of these, but I am glad that I have two very well configured iMac 27" units from 2010 and 2011, respectively.

 

[AlexJaye]

Dammit... shoulda sold at 700.

With almost every piece of news from Apple lately, I've been echoing that sentiment!

 

[tmroper]

With the welding an lamination, will these new iMacs be serviceable at all? I don't see how the suction cup method will still be able to work, and can't envision a new way.

 

[7709876]

Nobody uses them... Plus fir 50 dollars u can have an external one!
They also dropped the floppy drive years ago.. Do u miss it?

Which is more important to u.. A super clear screen.
The fusion drive that doubles performance and lowers storage cost for the given performance...? Or having no internal optical drive that no one uses any way. Which u have the option of having an external one in the rare event that u may need one!.?

None of the things you listed require the removal of the optical drive - which I and plenty of others use.

A better question to ask would be - would you rather have an optical drive or a slightly thinner computer?

----------

I did, and i did not care. Have not used one on my iMac for nearly 2 years.
Once open a time they droped floppy disc drive too.

Well then why did you ask what functionality has been removed when you knew the answer?

 

[steve119]

None of the things you listed require the removal of the optical drive - which I and plenty of others use.

A better question to ask would be - would you rather have an optical drive or a slightly thinner computer?

If the thinner computer equates to a better screen(in that things stand out better) then I will take a thinner computer.....every time.

But I don't understand why people are jumping up and down over the optical drive. Its been done away with now, and something tells me they will not u-turn over this.

 

[^^BIGMac]

This will be good for the stock. Jeeeez.

 

[Yojimbo007]

I can't tell if you are trolling or just delusional.

This thread covers more than the iMac rumor - and much of the content is fact.

The lineup is dated - Mac Pro, can't order a new iMac, etc. Cook has not made that happen - Steve put this innovation trajectory in place and Cook appears to be riding it out.

What is so impressive about the new iMac?

The management changes you refer to were made necessary by Tim Cooks huge blunder of hiring Browett - it is absurd to give him credit for firing someone he should never have hired in the first place.

Maps was a horrible product to launch - why would Tim have sent a letter of apology otherwise? You need to lower the amount of Apple KoolAid you are slurping.

The guidance is a result of game changing products Steve envisioned and was executing on prior to his death. Cook is fumbling the ball he was handed.

Ahh man give it break... Everything is steve argument is old...
U are wrong on every point.
Management change is not strictly about the Browett case.. It is about the reshuffling of much more than that.
Ives as head of design and interface now.
Craig as head of ios and osx
Cue as head of maps and siri..
These are fantastic moves! And we will all see the benefit from it.
Bowett was a mistake that was terminated on time!

As for apples success with hordes of cash they have.. It was not steve jobes inventing products or u are completely delusional.
His genius was cherry picking and pr and marketing
Most of the cool stuff u associate with apple was invented or designed by someone else in apple!

The margins that apple has enjoyed to make them the most valuable company in the world is the doing of one person. Tim cook!
And in the past year he has done great, it being a transitionary year from steves death. And an unprecedented product line up and 20 billion more in the bank.

As for your single minded point about everything being syeve jobs .. It is a hypocritical argument.

On one hand steve is responsible for everything in 2012 lineup and tim is a nobody. On the other hand the apple libeup is not exciting because Steve is not there and tim has no capabilities.
U cant have it both ways..

Stop bashing tim. If u think u can do a better job .. Go make your case to apple.
And yes .. I love the maps.. I love the turn by turn voice guidance.. The 3d ..And to this date it has had only one error... It is not perfect yet.. But it getting better by the day!

----------

Look, nobody believes that optical discs are a dying technology more than me. I haven't had a DVD player for years. All of my movies have been on hard drive since 2003. But there are a bunch of people out there who still use optical media regularly.

My point about why a line was crossed here is that (all of this is my opinion, of course) Apple didn't make this change to bring any real user benefit to the computer, and in fact they took away functionality to a large segment of people who already have a Mac.

Not saying that I wouldn't ever buy one of these, but I am glad that I have two very well configured iMac 27" units from 2010 and 2011, respectively.

For 50 dollars the few that still need an optical drive can buy an external one!
Do u miss your floppy drive?

 

[Arth7ur]

I think I would wait until they got some of the kinks worked out.

 

[Aidan5806]

Well, Tim Cook is the CEO. So he is indeed to blame for anything that goes wrong. Either for not making sure that things work out at Foxconn (if that's the problem), or for not hiring a person who makes sure that things work out at Foxconn. That's why he is paid a huge salary.

Maybe but using him as a scapegoat for some things he literally has no control over is ridiculous. Would you blame Tim for the theft of the $1.5 million worth of iPad minis stolen from an air port?

----------

Uhhhh. Tim has no influence over anyone at Foxconn??

You are smart.


Lol

He doesn't have influence over single people and he cant be in constant communication with their leaders. On top of that, he is not a mind reader or a time traveler and therefore cannot see the unseeable.

 

[DitteVilladsen]

Ok, I guess you don't like the lack of the optical drive which is of course caused by the slim design.

But besides, should the whole iMac as a consequence of your thoughts be as thick as the bulge is right now or the G5 was back in the days? I don't think that this would be a solution either.

I think the thickness should roughly be such that the enclosed volume of the case is equivalent to the new model. Without some advanced calculus I can't give you an exact thickness there, but it would roughly be half the thickness of the current bulge, where the bulge volume is distributed around the edges. They could still have curves there, but not as extreme.

 

[Apple Corps]

Ahh man give it break... Everything is steve argument is old...
U are wrong on every point..."


I am clear now - you are both delusional and trolling.

 

[Arman]

iMac

I for one will be picking an iMac, delay or no delay. The loss of optical drive is a non-issue. The iMac will be the family PC in the family room. The same room where our 65" Plasma sits. It will hardly if ever get used for movie watching and it will more likely be Netflix, Hulu, or iTunes content.

Just go pickup a third party optical drive. I bet you if the DVD drive was included, there would still be people moaning and groaning why it didn't have Blu-Ray. At least this way, you have a choice.

And generally yes, thinner is better. I enjoyed my Sony 34" XBR960 HDTV back in the days but you'd have to stick a gun to my head to take that back even for free over any new flat panel TV.

 

[Thunderbird]

So it's going to be 6 months out of spec before it even hits shelves.

Awesome.

Win for Tim.

Since Ivy Bridge came out in April 2012, it will be almost a year out of date. Haswell should be out by June 2013. Whoever started that thread in the iMac forum section about no new iMac in 2012 has proven to be precient

What a joke. The more we learn about the new iMac the more of an epic fail it becomes.

.

 

[Arman]

Ahh man give it break... Everything is steve argument is old...
U are wrong on every point..."


I am clear now - you are both delusional and trolling.

Says one troll to the other troll.

 

[Thunderbird]

Nobody uses them...[optical drives]

Please speak for yourself.

They also dropped the floppy drive years ago.. Do u miss it?

Using that logic, they should drop USB ports too.

 

[AidenShaw]

I have a suggestion for everyone that is angry that the new iMac may be delayed. Use the money that you were going to buy it with and INVEST it for the time being. The returns that you can potentially get would be pretty decent on $2,000 invested.

But don't invest in AAPL - dropped another $11 today and is on quite a downward trend.

If you put your $2k savings into AAPL today -- in January you'll be getting a Dell, dude.

Dammit... shoulda sold at 700.

With almost every piece of news from Apple lately, I've been echoing that sentiment!

LOL. Investment decisions shouldn't be driven by whether or not you like a company....

 

[CosmoCopus]

I've been thinking about getting one of the new 21" iMacs to do some AutoCAD work and light video editing ...anyone have any thoughts on this. Would the built in hard drive and ram present a problem?

 

[ChrisTX]

This is just sad really. I used to REALLY love Apple. Sad to see the company Steve Jobs built fall apart like this.