Thats too logical for Grumman to ponder. He wants to claim that we need the power efficiency of a M3. What is it about the larger iMac rumor that implies that?
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New iMac Not Expected to Launch Until Late 2023 at Earliest
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There's a third category of (potential) iMac users, besides average users and tech nerds: creatives doing video, photo, music etc. They may not always need a Mac Pro, but something around the performance of a Studio or Mac mini (M2 Pro). I used to own a 27" with an Intel i7 CPU and would consider one again with an M2 Pro/Max processor. The M1 version is just not sufficient.
What if the MacBook Air goes the same route as the iMac right now and doesn't end up getting updated until the M4 chip? Its like Apple wants each form factor to have advantage over the other. Hence why they are not updating the Mac Studio concurrently with the release of the new Mac Pro. Also, the other issues with supply chain might also be factoring into this.
Apple can't afford to neglect the MBA, it probably sells more than the entire desktop lineup combined.
IMHO a iMac that would have been the size of the studio display would have been very light, easier to carry around then the previous 2020 27" iMac design with its narrow edges around the display and that awkward large stand that moves unless you wedge foam between frame and stand.
If they make a 15", I"ll be a day 1 buyer ... for the first time since the original iPhone in 2007
If not the supply chain it's just that manufacturing normalcy in China is at play. We saw in early January how Apple releases several product all of a sudden after covid zero policy ended in December. We don't really know how much they are still on the cusp of releasing in March April because of that along with available parts?
The current Barbie Hot Wheels iMac is a failed product with tiny screens and outdated specs. Not to mention a total lack of a neutral or appealing color. This follows the Apple template:
1.) Take a beloved product and create a terrible version of it
2.) Neglect the product forever because "no one is buying it"
Do better, Apple.
1.) Take a beloved product and create a terrible version of it
2.) Neglect the product forever because "no one is buying it"
Do better, Apple.
I bought an M1 MBA last year after the M2 was announced, so I agree that latest and greatest isn't always needed for most people.
What is annoying is that Apple never adjusts pricing over time for Macs it seems. I was perfectly happy to buy a product announced over two years ago, but probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been a good deal on Amazon.
The newer product also had a ridiculous markup over the older, so to be honest I'm not really sure where I would have gone. The thing to remember is that people more likely to buy outdated tech are probably also less likely to want to spend this-year's-model-money on a product several years old.
I don’t think people are necessarily itching to upgrade an M1 to an M2. It’s more about the people needing to get a device now, only to find out that their support life is already 2 years old. Based on the way apple keeps part inventory (7 years?) and provides OS updates their computer won’t functionally last as long. Apple really needs to get on a regular, predictable schedule that consumers can rely on like with iPhone.
Exactly. Not to mention the iMac is quite wasteful. Throwing away an entire desktop because the CPU is outdated is just crazy.
Super annoying.
I'd possibly be in the market for a maxed out M1 MBA refurb ... but the pricing has been the same since they first offered them refurbished.
The value there just keeps getting worse ... and Apples answer (even on a refurb!) is to just let them languish there in the store.
Infuriating
They should be able to do that now that manufacturing is getting back on track. Throwing out past rumors again from Grumman is just maintaining hits.
The MBA was a complete redesign which added a lot of upgrades and features. I wouldn’t call it a ridiculous markup.
That’s Apple’s entire business model you’re complaining about. They will never drop the price of an older model without having released a newer one.
OTOH the 2019 27" iMac I *did* buy for about that price (just bumped to an SSD instead of HDD/Fusion which was still the standard configuration then), is now sitting practically obsolete. It has been given some server functions but that lovely 5K screen is entirely wasted, chained to a machine sat in the corner that really might as well be headless, and therefore almost permanently dark.
I couldn't be happier with the current lineup. The Mac Studio and Studio Display are exactly the products I wished Apple would make for years, "Like a high-end iMac without the screen, and that great screen separately please." Because displays and computers have very different product life cycles, more so the more upmarket you go.
(I only don't have a Mac Studio because it came out six months after I bought a MacBook Pro, which I was unhappily using on 4K displays and, for a while, Luna Display to the iMac... The *next* machine will probably be a Mac Studio, assuming those rumours of its cancellation prove to be as wrong as they are daft, which I'll plug into the Studio Display I bought a couple of years earlier.)
I also couldn't be happier with the M1 24" iMac I bought in January. At the time even knowing there might be an M2 version coming along imminently; for the reasons I was buying it, it didn't matter. Because of the context that iMac is intended for: Low-intensity computing that can be given a *place* in a living room or a kitchen or a bedroom without it turning into an office-like environment. And I think that always *was* the true, best home of the iMac, back to when they came in bright colours the first time around. Having monster-spec iMacs was always wrong-headed. Because of the reasons stated above. Display and monitor will obsolete at different rates, even without the problem of a fault in one rendering the other useless too. But at the low end, not anything like as much. For the tasks to which I'll put it, and for the tasks to which I think most people would put the 24" iMac, the M1 will be just fine for years and years. Maybe even the lifetime of that screen. 😉
(Even so I know I'm underutilising the iMac 24" to the point of practically insulting it: One-up from the base model, it of course could stomp all over that 2019 iMac 27" if I let it, albeit with the caveat about the 40GB of RAM that's in the latter, which only ever got used when running VMWare Fusion.)
Thinner iMacs are in a lot smaller boxes that past iMacs with the large wedge form packaging form they came in. But yeah I tend to think Apple values how many boxes they can stock against how much they make with other devices they stock at Apple stores. Example how many iPhones versus a 24" iMac at a store. But if they start selling a lot more Apple displays if a cheaper one comes out then the studio display then there goes their precious storage space.
Same. I bought a 15 inch MBP in 2019. I wish I waited a year for obvious reasons, but I'll buy a 15 inch MBA on day 1 if they release it.
Why wouldn't those people buy a Mac Studio or Mac mini?
That is a very good point about Apple's modus operandi. I think Apple shoots itself in the foot with what you described.
It’s not even two years since the introduction of the 24” iMac which was launched in late April of 2021. If they do an update by ethics fall, that will still only be 2.5 years. Historically, many Mac models went longer than that between updates. With the covid disruptions, it is hard to see exactly what Apple’s plans were for the timing of these updates, but it looks like they may be aiming for annual updates of laptops and updates to the desktops at about 18-24 months. We’ll get a better idea as Apple starts rolling out the M3 series.
I guess this means an M3 iMac and Air will not be part of the back to school promotions.
Either the pandemic, or Cook wanted to spread the PR out over as many times as possible, I’d wager.
It could be that the transportation system out of China was so messed up that Apple focused on what can ship the most to change their revenue status ASAP. New 14"/16" MBP and Mac minis easily was what to ship first.