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New iMac Deliveries to Be Delayed Until Early Next Year?
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All those things could have been added/changed/improved with the previous chassis.
How about that they could have shipped 6 months ago??? Or not having to raise the price??? If they wanted to remove the optical there were better ways to utilize that space with the previous design.
Anyway, this smells of a typical Apple information leak to soften the blow when the delay is announced in the coming week or so.
I don't understand why desktop Macs should be thinner?
Because hipsters think a cool look is far more imortant than actual functionality.
The original idea of the iMac (or internet Mac) was to be a computer that was all in one and that anyone regardless of computer know how could get from boxed computer to surfing the internet within 5-10 mins. No stuff you have to do before you can actually do anything on the computer.
And the new iMacs still embody this principle.
Because of the new lamination.
"The friction stir welding technique used to seamlessly join the two aluminium pieces which make up the iMacs chassis is proving more difficult than expected.
The optical lamination technique used to fuse the display to its glass cover is also problematic, particularly in the 27in model, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a note to clients, several weeks before the iMac was announced, he wrote: « Apple has demanded full-lamination between the panel and the cover glass. Lamination for the relatively large 27-inch panel comes with a lower yield, so we expect the 27-inch iMac to trail 21.5-inch iMac by 6-8 weeks in hitting the marketplace. »"
In the meantime you can make your own iMac:
Buy a high res top quality display even bigger than 27 "
Duct tape a Mac mini to the back of that display.
Done and available now!
If they shipped six months ago you'd be getting a very minor spec bump, and no improved display. The laminated display is the only reason I am even considering buying this machine.
Well no, but in the end Tim is still responsible for delivering an important product line. Well at least it used to be important. How long has it been now? like 550 days or something? Unbelievable.
But it's still a stupid 27" monitor. This glass panel is of no actual use and makes the overall design worse (glossy).
Just remove it and ship the new iMac 6 months ago.
Just reading this thread. I still can't believe people are wondering why they made it thinner. As if they have never bought a Mac before? It is pretty obvious that aesthetics and design are a huge part of what separates Macs from other PCs. It might not appeal to you at the time, but to a lot of people, it will attract them to the product.
To all the people that ask the question, why stop there, why use aluminum in the design? Why not make it a giant clunky separated box in the base with a monitor attached? Clearly if you understand why design changes, you should be capable of understanding why something gets thinner.
To all the people that ask the question, why stop there, why use aluminum in the design? Why not make it a giant clunky separated box in the base with a monitor attached? Clearly if you understand why design changes, you should be capable of understanding why something gets thinner.
The CPUs, the GPUs and Ivy Bridge that the "new" iMac are using were released by Intel and Nvidia ~6 months ago.
If they would have released then a new for iMac could have been shipped in January, which is probably what it is looking like anyway. Instead we got months of old tech and now months of no tech!
Apple needs more time to make them slimmer and lighter by removing the CPU
and GPU and hooking those external parts up with two new $50 Lightning adapters. Magic.
and GPU and hooking those external parts up with two new $50 Lightning adapters. Magic.
<-------Fanboy
Ok, I was known for being a fanboy, but things are changing. I mean of course only thing Windows has for me right now is Windows 8 which is a fail also IMHO.
But announcement of iTunes XI available next month...... oh wait it's not ready, soon very soon.
Announcement of new iMac available next month...... oh wait it's not ready, soon very soon.
I am starting to see a pattern under Tim's reign. I am still excited for the future of but they gotta put it together.
I'm glad they want things right before they release, but don't announce something until it's ready.
Ok, I was known for being a fanboy, but things are changing. I mean of course only thing Windows has for me right now is Windows 8 which is a fail also IMHO.
But announcement of iTunes XI available next month...... oh wait it's not ready, soon very soon.
Announcement of new iMac available next month...... oh wait it's not ready, soon very soon.
I am starting to see a pattern under Tim's reign. I am still excited for the future of but they gotta put it together.
I'm glad they want things right before they release, but don't announce something until it's ready.
Because thinner is better!
Or something like that.
I still chuckle at how careful the photos of the new iMac are to avoid that it's only thin at the edge. There's a ugly bulge on the back that kind of makes the idea that this is a thin computer silly.
If they really wanted the display to be thin, then put the computer into the stand and just let the thin screen float in air. Like the old swing arm lamp iMac.
Or better yet, just leave it the H*LL alone. This is a desktop computer that you pick up once, set on the desk, and look at from the front for the rest of its life. They had already achieved a pretty amazing design with the old one. I'm not saying you don't tweak it. Play with the front to make it more amazing. Tinker with the display (sort of like they've done with this one) to reduce glare, make it more sharp and bright. But there was no functional benefit, and very, very little cosmetic impact to making this thing thinner.
And I'm not sure Tim's head should roll for this one, but he certainly should be uncomfortable in his chair. Is it his fault that a welding process is taking longer than they thought it would? Not really. But as a CEO of a major company your job is to weigh the big picture issues, try to predict how they'll come together and make tactical and strategic decisions that are good for your company.
In this case, a good CEO would have weighed the fact that people love the design of the current product, (but just wanted the specs bumped) the impact of lost functionality from the redesign, and the fact that any new manufacturing process is going to inevitably have some glitches, then make the decision about whether to A. Move forward with the new design, and B. Decide when to stop making the old model and announce the new one.
Not trying to be a Monday morning quarterback, but in the same position I would have done a couple of things going into the holiday sales season:
First, I would have very critically weighed the benefit/user experience impact of changing this design just to make the edges thinner. A lot of people have focused on the fact that the DVD drive is gone. Important, yes, but just as important is the fact that this new design required them to move the SD slot to the back. One of the nice features of my iMac is the ability to come in from shooting pics, pull the SD card out of my camera, and slide it into my Mac to upload into iPhoto. With the new design I have to either move my Mac, or stretch over the top of it every time I want to slide the card into it. Kludgy and degraded user experience, IMO.
Second, I would have seriously questioned the wisdom of taking the old iMac off the market before we absolutely knew the updated one would have been ready for the holiday season.
As CEO, does Cook have his hand in every step and process in getting this thing to market? No. But he is ultimately responsible for the strategic decisions that put them in this position. That's why he makes the really, really big bucks. If you are going to get the reward of this type of position, you certainly should be willing to be held accountable for the results of your mistakes. For multi-millions of dollars per year you should be an oracle.
First, it is very likely that this new iMac design was green-lighted by Steve Jobs. To invoke "Steve would have never done this" probably doesn't line up with the timeline.
Second, if the previous rumors about the iMac being targeted for September ( back in June/July ) were right ( some leak predicted timeline for MBP 13" retina so that isn't a big leap) then Nov/Dec was already a significant slide from when Apple wanted to launch. It is doubtful the original plan they had back in January (or before) had the iMac sliding into December.
Third, even at 95% ... that still leaves 5%. Stuff happens. They may have thought they had a solution in late September / early October that scaled and it turns out that it too doesn't (or that it only scales to what will later be steady state production levels and can't handle the launch demand bubble ).
Fourth, Apple said available in Nov .... Nov is pretty far from over; just reached half way today. They may not make it out before "Black Friday" mania next week but the 2013 rumor sounds a bit too bleak on very little hard evidence (doesn't name a primary root cause).
It very may well be the case they have a fix, but now that a whole hoard of other stuff is being ship worldwide for holiday sales that building and shipping a launch inventory of iMacs is going to take a couple weeks longer than they thought.
Speed bump how? The switch to Ivy Bridge involved a change to the mainboard to use the new USB 3.0, new GPUs, and other updates. The size and shape of the new 2012 motherboards is incompatible with the 2011 ones. If they stuck with Sandy Bridge components you'd heard the wail of "its ancient technology .... oh the agony.... fail ".
The fact is folks can still buy an iMac if they want one.
Go to google and search on "iMac buy" and click on the "Shopping tab". It even show you local stores with them in many cases. Amazon, Frys.com , Abt , Bhphoto , etc. all have them. Retailers like Best Buy etc. all have them.
Those iMacs are not significantly different than very minor speed bump stuck on Sandy Bridge. It appears Apple is being cagy buy slowing their iMac sales to a crawl ( and flushing their entire inventory) while letting the other retail partners sell through the current iMac stock. It will be a 'fail' on Cook's part if the partners also draw down to zero and folks wander off to buy systems from other vendors. However, as long as iMacs are still being sold, even at reduced rates, it really isn't a "end of the world" issue folks are making it out to be.
Ugh, just stop already. There is always going to be unforeseen delays in products, Tim Cook has nothing to do with it. Nobody blamed Steve Jobs when the white iPhone 4 was delayed, but suddenly Tim Cook's name is getting dropped like crazy. Yes it is Apple's responsibility to ship a product on time, but to act like the sky is falling because a single product is delayed is silly.
Also stop complaining about design changes already, it's obvious there are plenty of people who like the change, so all you are doing is trying to start more fires.
If this is true, this is an absolute failure by Apple, because they're pushing the desktop to such ridiculous form factor standards that its becoming difficult to make and assemble them too...
And what for? So the edges are 5mm thin? If there was ever a case of form over function, this iMac wins hands down.
It's a desktop, and if I recall they haven't reinvented the stand, so it will still require a lot of space on the desk as it did before...
And what for? So the edges are 5mm thin? If there was ever a case of form over function, this iMac wins hands down.
It's a desktop, and if I recall they haven't reinvented the stand, so it will still require a lot of space on the desk as it did before...
Since Tim became CEO we've seen the launch of three new iPads (iPad 3 and 4 and the iPad mini), two new iPhones (4S and 5), a whole range of new iPods, new Airs, new Macbook Pros with Retina displays, iOS6 and Mountain Lion, iCloud and iTunes in the cloud.
In 16 months we've seen more products announced and shipped on time than in any other time in Apple's history.
We've also seen a couple of less perfect executions - Maps being the main one, and a delay in the launch of the new iMacs and new iTunes... I'm struggling to think of much else that's gone wrong since Tim became CEO.
So, that's a new product or service launched successfully per month of Tim's CEO-ship, one poor product and two minor delays... What's this pattern you think you're seeing? Because, for me, the pattern is a great company performing brilliantly with a handful of small blips.
There has been a lot of issues with Apple lately. Bugs in IOS, bugs in OSX, delayed shipping of products, Apple Maps, and arrogance. With all the thousands of people working for Apple, you would think that they would quality control every step of the process. It looks like the upper management is slipping.