New iMac In September

[CholEoptera36]

Exactly. This is really worse for Apple as a company. Having nothing so sell for 2/3 of the quarter. Bad news. Very bad managed ramp-up, ramp-down.

For the consumer its mixed, at least you know when the new stuff comes. If you want to buy one now - bad news.

And that a new iMac is coming at all - well that was something that was already clear, just not the exact timing.

I agree with you both in some ways, most strongest about the consumers. It kinda sucks to get all excited right now but having to wait a few months. But it's no different than Tiger for that matter too... Atleast they did give us a time frame though. Some people would rather know when then if ever.

Yes most definitely shares go down because of this, but perhaps they will go back up in a boom when the iMacs come out? *hopes*

 

[ITR 81]

Time to simplify the line again... eMacs, gone.

iMac will no longer have a built-on monitor -- if the monitor is not included in the price it will make the cost of an iMac seem more in line with PCs.

(Anyone notice how expensive their cheapest new monitor is? $1300) Apple will introduce a set of consumer monitors to sell along side the iMac; LCD 15" and 17", possibly even a wireless LCD display with pen input.

iMac Prices: $599 - $1299
New Display prices: $399 - $999

It's part of the new business model Apple is adopting ... client, workstation, server.

That could work if they did make another set of LCD's for the new iMacs or just take the old 17 and 20 inch displays and make them dvi and package them to match the iMacs.

They also would have to announce the death of eMacs soon, but I figure the eMacs will be taken up the slack for Apples lowend for atleast the next 2-3 months.

 

[ErikGrim]

Why would Wireless Screens need to transmit that kind of data? Isn't all it need to display the image to the screen or if two-way communication is needed some simple AppleEvents back? A superthin VNC-client in the display should take care of this, shouldn't it?

 

[CholEoptera36]

Originally Posted by mjtomlin
Time to simplify the line again... eMacs, gone.

iMac will no longer have a built-on monitor -- if the monitor is not included in the price it will make the cost of an iMac seem more in line with PCs.

(Anyone notice how expensive their cheapest new monitor is? $1300) Apple will introduce a set of consumer monitors to sell along side the iMac; LCD 15" and 17", possibly even a wireless LCD display with pen input.

iMac Prices: $599 - $1299
New Display prices: $399 - $999[QUOTE/]

- CholEoptera36 -

Wow, I missed your post sorry. Figured I'd add my two cents reply...

If Apple EVER sells a NEW computer for 599$, I don't care what the model, BRAND NEW.... I'll #### a brick! Still don't agree that will be the same as PC prices, there are PC's at Best buy WITH monitors for that price... and the only PC monitors don't start at $1300. That's a fairly decent comparison of what the price of a PC LCD to Apple new line LCD's would be I suppose, but not all PC monitors. Honestly I think Best Buy is outragous in the first place, and I've seen them beat $599. (not often but still) It would bring the price down more then before, but I don't think Apple will go as low as $599.

(sorry don't mean to pick your post apart and be that picky)

Not saying they will or won't have headless iMacs, but it sure would be odd. iMacs are supposed to be simple, cludder free, plug in and play computers for your everyday Joe Smoe right? A headless iMac would definitely be a new change considering the way they've been built in the past. I think it's more unlikly then likly, but who knows yet.

 

[Awimoway]

If there was some glitch in the production of new iMacs, why not just keep producing the old ones a tiny bit longer to avoid a gap? No one would have been the wiser. It must have been way too late - production must have stopped. With this announcement, it seems likely production didn't just stop, but they already retooled for the new ones. Perhaps they were already producing the new ones, all seemed on schedule, but some last minute problem cropped up with the device that was so bad it would have caused a recall, or free hardware repair, or some such. So they hit the big red button, everything came to a halt very suddenly indeed, and they are testing/fixing hundreds from the first run, and were forced into this hasty and odd announcement. <--All speculation

You make an interesting point--surely new lines have been delayed before, so why zig this time instead of zagging?

Your theory is an interesting one. But hard to believe. Could there really be such a single catastrophic event that would setback a chronology that has been exercised by this company time and time again? I rather doubt it.

So a second possibility comes to mind. Apple is just getting older. Maturing. They've decided that one of the many things were paying for with the high prices they charge is honesty.

Yes, honesty. Coming clean. They goofed. Instead of charging people for yesterday's news they decided to give them fair warning.

I find it pretty ****ing refreshing.

Besides, didn't they just shake up the corporate structure of the company? And now there's a new guy in charge of hardware? This could be the reflection of a new kind of personality at Apple. An honest one. You'll be reading it in the business page next week.

 

[appleface]

one of the WWDC poster photos states, "Mac OS X Tiger: now on Intel"

is his photo fake? (post #332)

 

[AidenShaw]

Don't be silly - Apple calls the Power Mac a "workstation", even an iMac is one!

The AMD64 is not a consumer desktop machine, nor are
Alpha, HP-UX, SPARC and POWER (IBM)
G5 was the first consumer desktop available at 64 bit - workstations
and servers not included.

The whole workstation vs. desktop argument is a silly semantic exercise. Since there's no strict definition of what really differentiates a workstation from a PC, most companies call a higher end, more expandable system a "workstation" - while calling a similar machine with fewer capabilities a "PC".

Pretty clearly, the Power Mac G5 is a higher end, expandable system....

Look for "workstation" on the Apple website. You'll find text like:

http://www.apple.com/education/science/solutions/powermac.html

The new G5 processor — available at speeds up to dual 2GHz with a new ultrahigh-bandwidth system architecture featuring AGP 8X and PCI-X — makes the Power Mac G5 a breakthrough in desktop processing power. And with special academic pricing, this industrial-strength workstation is well within your reach.

http://www.apple.com/education/hed/students/social_sciences/

“Better” Desktop 17-inch iMac with SuperDrive
Large data sets cower in front of the iMac’s DVD-burning SuperDrive, and complex graphs shrink before its bright and wide 17-inch (diagonal) display. Bring your assignments to their knees with this powerful UNIX-based workstation.

With the "workstation" argument clearly defused by Apple's own words, take a look at http://www.amdboard.com/hn05120301.html.

This is a story about a review of an Athlon 64 system from 12 May 2003 - a full month before WWDC.

 

[redAPPLE]

You learn something new every day. I always wondered what SeusS' first name was.

Dockter

 

[CholEoptera36]

Interesting article at the end about the AMD before the WWDC, like I said earlier too the 64-bit processing idea was surely not ever invented by Apple (IBM I should say for that matter). Even though this magazine article is from 2003, before the G5 was introduced, long before the AMD 64 was for released for sale, the article highlights:

***The results, even though me must considere them as temporary, show some impressive datas. Athlon 64 looks to be 70% faster than competitors running at similar frequency (1.4GHz).***

Still holds true of the upgraded and newer AMD 64 processors today


And the French translation for that article is funny lol - "even though me must considere" ?

 

[Awimoway]

And oh by the way, open season on photoshopping fake iMac G5 pics!

Man the shelters! Don't come out for three months!

Gonna be a blizzard of **** flying.

 

[CholEoptera36]

And oh by the way, open season on photoshopping fake iMac G5 pics!

Man the shelters! Don't come out for three months!

Gonna be a blizzard of **** flying.

lol you really think those are fake>? I never really even thought of that, man that would be pathetic if somebody did that *hands Awimoway a bat*

 

[Servaas SP]

Hmmm

All this talk about IBM and Moto and G4's and G5's makes me wonder...

All new design... 2 Months... Maybe Intel to the rescue?

 

[CholEoptera36]

All this talk about IBM and Moto and G4's and G5's makes me wonder...

All new design... 2 Months... Maybe Intel to the rescue?

Intel's too busy trying to figure out a way to make a 64-bit processor in the first place much less one to take the place of the old iMacs... Considering their huge lag behind the competition as of the moment in CPU performance and architecture, I'd be dissheartened if if Intel took the place of IBM for new iMacs. I'd hardly call that a rescue.

http://tech-report.com/reviews/2004q2/athlon64-3800/index.x?pg=4

Pentium 4 EE, the most advanced P4 only won 13 of the 40 tests against the FX-53, Opteron, and 3800+

 

[MikeH]

Well they might as well show us what the new iMacs will look like and what specs they have - it's not as if it's going to affect sales of the current range is it (as they're all gone)...

 

[CholEoptera36]

An afterthought... Intel does have better performance in the areas which a lot of professionals use Macs... hmmm? Dont wanna contridict myself here, but the AMD tests that are won over the Intels are not in any sorts of graphic design. Interesting dilema.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Exactly. This is really worse for Apple as a company. Having nothing so sell for 2/3 of the quarter. Bad news. Very bad managed ramp-up, ramp-down.

For the consumer its mixed, at least you know when the new stuff comes. If you want to buy one now - bad news.

And that a new iMac is coming at all - well that was something that was already clear, just not the exact timing.

Ahhh baloney! This is the way the Apple market works ALL the time. Apple biggest problem is customers waiting for the next model - even when they have stock of the current one.

I sat on my money for 14mths before the Mac I wanted came along. I hear it regularly here that folks are waiting for the next model or for certain specs.

Apple have done extremely well to sell out of the old iMacs considering how many people seem to have been waiting for an upgrade to it.

Sure, for the next 2 months Apple will have no computer in that market segment, but they also have a very big carrot to get people to wait. It's just the reverse situation where they've got computers but no customers.

how many potential iMac buyers are going to buy a PC because they can't get an iMac? Not many.

I hope this DOES push Apple's share price down, coz it will be a good time to buy coz when the new iMac comes out, share prices will rocket.

The bigger concern for Apple will be whether they can meet demand for the new iMac when it does come out. (History says they often under estimate)

 

[ChrisH3677]

Well they might as well show us what the new iMacs will look like and what specs they have - it's not as if it's going to affect sales of the current range is it (as they're all gone)...

yes definitely! If they want to create some buzz, leak some pics like they've done for the last two years before WWDC with OS upgrades. And as you say, give some specs. They have the chance to create 2 months of constant publicity, Ford Australia did it here with their new model last year and it worked a treat.

 

[MikeH]

Ahhh baloney! This is the way the Apple market works ALL the time. Apple biggest problem is customers waiting for the next model - even when they have stock of the current one.

While people on these forums may well wait for new products and be aware that the iMac was due for replacement, 'Joe Public' is unlikely to be as well informed. It's the sales from these non-hardcore Mac users that Apple are not going to be able to cash in on - maybe they'll wait, maybe they won't, maybe they'll just go and buy a Sony VAIO instead...

 

[CholEoptera36]

While people on these forums may well wait for new products and be aware that the iMac was due for replacement, 'Joe Public' is unlikely to be as well informed. It's the sales from these non-hardcore Mac users that Apple are not going to be able to cash in on - maybe they'll wait, maybe they won't, maybe they'll just go and buy a Sony VAIO instead...

Most likely, I do agree. The only people who are going to know about the iMac replacements are those that are browsing Apple.com not those browsing Best Buy. And perhaps the majority of us knowing of the new iMacs are people who are waiting and have been waiting on it to arrive anyway.

 

[MacRy]

Personally I don't care when it comes out - i'm just glad that it is coming out. I also think that it's really refreshing for a manufacturer to post something on their site to the effect of 'We messed up big time' as Apple have done with the statement:

"We planned to have our next generation iMac ready by the time the inventory of current iMacs runs out in the next few weeks, but our planning was obviously less than perfect"

 

[Porchland]

Like the Paris Expo? Which is in September BTW.

No, I meant to show some more detail. I can see that it would make sense to unveil/demo/sell the new iMac starting at Paris Expo, but it just seems odd to go from a non-announcement in June-July to unveil/demo/sell in September with out some kind of teaser in the middle.

The back-to-school kids are going to need a reason to wait.

 

[whooleytoo]

Well they might as well show us what the new iMacs will look like and what specs they have - it's not as if it's going to affect sales of the current range is it (as they're all gone)...

No, but it might cut into sales of other products, in particular the PowerMacs. Bear in mind, Apple expected to have 3GHz G5s by this point in time, so might have designed the iMacs accordingly - perhaps up to 2GHz?

If so, they might now be too close in performance terms to the current PowerMac range, so they're keeping them quiet for now?

 

[TrenchcoatJedi]

After all this hullabaloo, I decided to check with the NYU Computer store. Not only are they completley backordered on ALL their Apple products (with the exception of the higher end G5 machines) they have been selling almost three times as many Macs this year as they sold last year in the same time period (spring sale).

The main reason they're selling so many Macs is two fold according to the store: 1. People are afraid of viruses. 2. Macs are trendy in New York City.

 

[jakemikey]

Alright I'm running the risk of repeating someting that's already been said (I haven't read the whole thread).... BUT....

Do you realize what this means?!! ThinkSecret was WRONG!!!

New iMacs WERE announced during WWDC...just not in the way everyone thought! So much for their "immaculate" record!

Where's your snide tone now, TS?!

 

[utsava]

Appleisider says they have a rough sketch of the new design. RELEASE IT! I don't care if the accuracy is verified. Show it to us first!

"AppleInsider has obtained a rough sketch of the new consumer desktop, but is still seeking confirmation of its accuracy."