Sorry, I was unclear. I meant M.2 slots in addition to the built in NAND. But I still think it's super unlikely.
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New iMac Reportedly in Advanced Stage of Development
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I've almost pulled the trigger on the studio and studio display but would rather an imac. If it hasn't happened by the end of the year I'll pull the trigger on the best option at the time.
Life is full of things we want, but we can’t have and we have to resign ourselves to it and adapt.
The base 5K iMac started at $1,799. I’m not talking about the higher-end upgraded models.
Which I did go on to mention - along with a lot of other reasons why Apple were likely to be selling fewer iMacs.
...and, still, buying a base Mini and Studio display for $2200 doesn't "add $1600" to an $1800 budget... and if you'd done that a year ago & now fancied a shiny new M2 Mini you wouldn't be forced to buy a new display today.
It's still unlikely there will be another 27' iMac.They would have released one by now if they had plans to.There is also nothing in the rumour mill except the 24'.
In my example, someone who has roughly a $2K budget for a larger iMac would likely be looking for an M2 Pro Mini - $1,300. You’d have to add on an extra $1,000 now to get a studio display ($3,000 total)
I know plenty of consumers who used to be iMac owners that will never by a studio display. In fact all of them (myself included) went with either a mini or a Mac Studio and got third party monitors. For us we ended up using more of our budget on a nicer computer and the money left over (money that WOULD have gone to Apple) we spent on 3rd party displays.
If apple had an M1 Max iMac last year I would have gotten it. But instead I spent that money on a Mac Studio and got a nice 4K dell monitor for the price I would have spent on an iMac. In my case and all my colleagues cases - Apple lost business from us because we bought 3rd party displays.
I’m not saying everyone is the same as me or those I know. I’ve done enough stats to know my sample size is small. But I really can’t imagine people are really justifying buying a $1,600 display when you could get 4x 4K displays for the same cost or spend more money on getting a nicer computer (what we all did) and buy a 3rd party display for MUCH cheaper.
That is unless they are trying to do an 6K, XDR, ProMotion display with an Ultra chip. That specific display spec literally doesn’t exist yet. And that’s a tall order to put in an iMac.
...but a M2 Pro Mini is lot more powerful - both in absolute terms and relative to the current line-up - than the old $2k i5 iMac.
...and as a customer I welcome being able to make that trade-off, and I'm just sad that I couldn't do it back in 2017 and now have an outdated computer welded to a still "premium" display (I do actually wonder if I should have got the trashcan instead...)
As for Apple, I'd let them worry about how much of your money you give them. Sounds like plenty of people are buying Mini Pro/Studio/Studio Display combos, and Apple only have to sell one $3600 system to make the same revenue as two $1800 systems - plus I'm sure they get more profit margin out of a $1600 Studio display than a $1800 Mac with the same panel plus a whole Mac, CPU SSD and dGPU.
Losing iMac 27" reminds me when Sonos abandoned the Play:3. Several years later (this year) they finally released the ERA 300. It may take Apple years to understand their customer, but eventually a 27"(+) solution may appear. iMac 27" was sacrificed for the Mac Studio & separate display money grab - didn't fall for it. Will not compromise for a 24" iMac - been there, done that when it was white.
Possibly the Mac Pro could support M.2 sockets with their own controller and PCIe interface like PCs do it.
LMAO that is all he cares about "show me the money" I think he has enough -_-
His #1 job is to make the company more profitable and continue to do so. He would fail as CEO if he did anything else.
Apple's next iMac has reached an "advanced stage of development," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his newsletter today, Gurman said the new iMac will have the same 24-inch display size and color options as the current model.
The new iMac will likely include Apple's upcoming M3 chip, internal design changes, and a new manufacturing process for the stand, according to Gurman. The M3 chip will reportedly be manufactured based on Apple chipmaking partner TSMC's latest 3nm process for additional performance and power efficiency improvements.
Apple last updated the iMac in April 2021 with the M1 chip and an ultra-thin enclosure available in seven colors, including green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. It is currently the only iMac in Apple's lineup, as the Intel-based 27-inch iMac and iMac Pro were both discontinued within the past two years. Gurman previously claimed that a larger iMac could return, but he did not share any new info about that possibility today.
Gurman expects the new iMac to be released in the second half of 2023 at the earliest.
Article Link: New iMac Reportedly in Advanced Stage of Development
Honestly, I think the most realistic possibility is that the new (color) iMacs will allow the M3 chip as a "high end" custom option, on the Apple Store. My current iMac was custom ordered from Apple's Online Store.... and always.... the iMacs have three general configurations: Good Enough, Better, Best.
The first is the entry level low-end.... you know, for the "starving college students" on a budget.
The middle has somewhat better specs, maybe even a faster CPU. Usually priced at $200-300 more than the low end model.
The best iMac configurations usually have the best CPU, and best video memory/capability, but falls just short of being a "pro model" Mac. And for this config the default SSD hard drive is usually a bit more generous than the paltry tiny hard drives and tiny RAM that come "standard" with the low end models.
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Funny how people can get locked into a way of thinking.
”They haven’t had M2 in the iMac yet.”
“It’s not coming until 2024.”
I can’t see Apple waiting more than two years into 2024 until introducing M3 on the iMac while the MacBook Air gets it this year. I strongly suspect the M3 iMac will be released by the end of this year, sometime in the fall at the latest. Book it.
”They haven’t had M2 in the iMac yet.”
“It’s not coming until 2024.”
I can’t see Apple waiting more than two years into 2024 until introducing M3 on the iMac while the MacBook Air gets it this year. I strongly suspect the M3 iMac will be released by the end of this year, sometime in the fall at the latest. Book it.
Agreed. People need to stop assuming Apple is putting M2 into every Mac. Of course they always can, but there’s no reason to think they have to do this. Apple can skip chip generations on niche products if they want. They’ve done it many times before.
Unless they're talking about a larger screened iMac or some form of iMac Pro (even without the Pro name) there is no "new" iMac coming. There is an upgrade to the existing iMac 24. And I'm okay with that. It's pretty much a given that when this upgrade is released I'll be ordering spec'd to my tastes.
My own small concern isn't the hardware, but the OS. I'm currently running High Sierra 10.13.6 on my 2011 21.5 iMac. From what little exposure I've had to Ventura they looked to have changed some things up that might not be intuitive to get used to. But I'm sure I'll manage.
My own small concern isn't the hardware, but the OS. I'm currently running High Sierra 10.13.6 on my 2011 21.5 iMac. From what little exposure I've had to Ventura they looked to have changed some things up that might not be intuitive to get used to. But I'm sure I'll manage.
In the ~25 years that iMac has been around, the current model is the longest that one has ever been sold (734 days and counting) without an update. Regardless of whether you think the next one will have any design tweaks, going this long without an update is not "completely in line with what they've been doing". Perhaps the delay is a new normal or something boring, but we'll see how it goes.
I'd like to see a bigger one too, but with as long as Apple's waited and the various displays they've shoved out in the time since, I wouldn't hold my breath on them introducing one.
Let’s not forget:
Apple maneuvered a major transition nobody else has attempted to do at this level, while also suffering from a major supply chain shortage, logistics issues, and production issues for years.
Essentially from 2020-2023 we cannot make any sort of “this must be the new normal” prediction. Even if we did not have an unprecedented global pandemic (that we are still recovering from) a major transition of silicon to an in-house chip at this massive scale of millions of products sold every quarter - we’d still see an “unusual” release cadence as the company adjusts.
Come 2025 we may have a better understanding of what Apple intends to do for release cadences. And even then who knows.
Nothing about the last 3 years is normal.