daveg5 said:
Ok, I think the only way this could happen is for someone to sell this to Steve the way that someone sold open-source to him. I agree that upgradability is a good thing: it would probably take out one more leg from the anti-Mac crowd who take great pleasure in pointing out "Oh, look, you can't upgrade it!"
Here's the deal: the people I hang around with who would say this are computer techs who wouldn't want an AIO because they're power users who want slots and bays, so they wouldn't ever be a part of the demographic for this; and the people I deal with on the phone doing TS would, for the most part, buy this kind of system because they have a solutions-based (aka appliance) point of view, and they are the very folks at whom these systems are aimed.
Me, personally, I have an 800 MHz 15" iMac, and until the day that it is no longer useful or it dies, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love the design. I think whomever created it deserves a pat on his/her/their back for it and an attaboy. I was once what I could call a power user, but my needs and uses have long since quit being at the high-end and requiring the forefront of technology to satisfy.
I am not the kind of person who is interested in having a 5-, 6-, or 7.1 sound system connected. I don't play any high-end games. I am not a 3D rendering or animation artist. I am a graphic designer and desktop publisher, and my needs are fully met with InDesign, Photoshop, Quark, and occassionally Illustrator (used as a screwdriver or hammer, not as a paintbrush).
I love the screen. The only "deficiency" is the size: I would love to have the 17" screen. Otherwise, it does everything I want and more. If I had to go and get a screen for it, I wouldn't have bought it. Period. If it was sold as a dome or a box, I would have probably bought a tower and found a home for it.
I have used the G4 cube at another place I used to work for, and while it's nice, it's a real pain in the patookas because now I have yet another box taking up space on the worksurface. I can't stick it behind the monitor because there's no phyiscal space. I can't put it on the floor because the cord length isn't long enough, and even if it were, then I'd have to get under the desk everytime I wanted to insert a CD or DVD. Besides, it's made to be a piece of art, so it should be in a place where it can be seen. So, it sits to the rear right of the monitor, and it competes with a USB ZIP drive and USB floppy drive for space, to say nothing of the fact that it cramps where I can have my mouse and pad. If it were a FP iMac, none of this would be the case.
I think the point that a lot lot of people on this board are missing is the fact that there is a difference between having a choice and Apple obeying a marketing edict wherein they are trying to provide an appliance.
