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New iMac
- Thread starter driverjoe
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jameslmoser
macrumors 6502a
This is the only thing that makes sense to me... my initial thought was that they actually wanted to get rid of inventory on these machines before they release new retina imacs later this fall.
Bad move psychologically - Apple are devaluing their hard earned brand, it's akin to buying a budget Beamer, you just wouldn't would you? 😕
Menel
Suspended
Except this budget beamer is a finely polished golf cart. And while that's great for some specific users, the market large is better off paying the 2% more for the 5series.
The problem with that is that Joe Public will simply see the Apple logo and think they are buying into something special, until that is they try to use it in anger.
What they will then find is they've purchased a wheezing asthmatic facsimile of the real thing.
mojolicious
macrumors 68000
The Joe Public who buy on the strength of 'the Apple', without considering the specs, will never use the computer 'in anger'.
It's a perfectly good spec for web browsing and iApping.
If it had a matt screen, I would buy some for the grandkids. However, as it is ... cheaper to buy them all a wall mirror.
gmanist1000
macrumors 68030
Huh? Chromebooks are already huge in education and that's only going to grow.
Chromebooks require pretty much no training or extra tech support costs. They're extremely simple products.
jvette
macrumors 6502
With lots of stuff going to the cloud how much power will you need in the future? Trying to be everything to everybody just doesn't works sometimes. I have also noticed that Apple currently has a lot of product in the Buyers Guide that is a Caution or Don't Buy. We might have a lot of stuff in the pipe waiting to be released or we may have a bunch of stuff that is becoming out dated under the current leadership.
I was in the local Apple Store the other day and noticed a lot of older people in there taking classes on the Mac so this could also be pointed towards them.
I was in the local Apple Store the other day and noticed a lot of older people in there taking classes on the Mac so this could also be pointed towards them.
The cloud like many fads before them has been shown to be vulnerable to security concerns. I like many others have my own personal cloud. This is an area that Apple should be looking at as it's showing huge growth.
I disagree somewhat.
Apple has always placed great emphasis on getting Macs into elementary, secondary, and (very popular) now university levels of education. This is one reason why I think Macs are so popular today: they got young kids loving them because of iPhoto/Garageband/iMovie/FCPro, then when the kids grew up and went to college, they of course wanted to stick with Mac (this besides the whole iPod/iPhone revolution). Macs are THE most popular laptop for students on campuses now. And when all these students go off and start their own businesses and careers, they are not going to want to go back to PC's anymore (unless mandated by their employer).
Universities are definitely catching on and I see more and more Mac computer labs across both universities that I have/am attending. Many of them run dual-boot Mac/Windows for the reason that not all software is available on Mac, but the hardware is getting more infiltrated with Mac.
Obviously, it's not possible nor practical to replace all PC's at a university with Mac, but most professors I have and the vast majority of undergrad/grad students are using Macs. It also depends on location though: in UT, it was mostly students with Macs and some professors had them, but here in CA, both students and professors predominantly use Macs.
Macs have a ridiculously small market share when compared to Windows PC's. Even though I own a Mac I'm not blind to reality.
What you say about Mac's in educational establishments might have some credence in the U.S. but here in Europe they wouldn't even register as a blip.
What you say about Mac's in educational establishments might have some credence in the U.S. but here in Europe they wouldn't even register as a blip.
jaxhunter
macrumors regular
In general I have a "wait-and-see" attitude about these sorts of things; I think the numbers will tell the tale as to whether or not this was a good idea. But there are a few points I'd like to make:
1. The I5-4260U may start at 1.4 Ghz but it can almost double it's speed via TurboBoost up to 2.7 Ghz. With an iMac having a much larger cooler capacity I suspect most of these will be spending more time boosted to a degree than sitting at their base frequency. Also, this is a dual-core CPU with HyperThreading; while it may not be a full quad core there will be many a situation for which this may be more advantageous than having a full quad core. Especially for the low-end/home/educational user.
2. Do not underestimate the eco-friendly movement; a low voltage all-in-one Mac with a larger screen may be significantly more desirable than generally thought. There may be a much larger gap in the market for such things.
3. Do not underestimate the appeal of a cheaper, more accessible (financially) Mac. There are many people in the world who just want a Mac and don't need it to be a high-performing machine. Most people do not do photo/video work and just need a computer that can do internet and Flash-based games. Not only that, but a cheap iMac may serve as a central point to manage/enhance people's home/work Apple ecosystems.
4. There is a history of Apple releasing "retro" machines to certain markets; the eMac is a perfect example. At a time when apple had switched over to LCDs in it's entire lineup an were well into the G5 changeover, here comes a CRT/G4 based machine designed specifically to occupy the spaces left by the G3 iMacs. And the eMacs sold in huge numbers.
5. This may just be a test. Use materials already in the supply chain to see how well the idea works. If it fails, the cost to the company is minimal; if it succeeds then they can build on that market.
Just a few thoughts; like I said, I’ll wait and see. Personally, this machine has no impact on me; I'm not the target audience. But it will be interesting to see what this does to the Mac product line in the future.
1. The I5-4260U may start at 1.4 Ghz but it can almost double it's speed via TurboBoost up to 2.7 Ghz. With an iMac having a much larger cooler capacity I suspect most of these will be spending more time boosted to a degree than sitting at their base frequency. Also, this is a dual-core CPU with HyperThreading; while it may not be a full quad core there will be many a situation for which this may be more advantageous than having a full quad core. Especially for the low-end/home/educational user.
2. Do not underestimate the eco-friendly movement; a low voltage all-in-one Mac with a larger screen may be significantly more desirable than generally thought. There may be a much larger gap in the market for such things.
3. Do not underestimate the appeal of a cheaper, more accessible (financially) Mac. There are many people in the world who just want a Mac and don't need it to be a high-performing machine. Most people do not do photo/video work and just need a computer that can do internet and Flash-based games. Not only that, but a cheap iMac may serve as a central point to manage/enhance people's home/work Apple ecosystems.
4. There is a history of Apple releasing "retro" machines to certain markets; the eMac is a perfect example. At a time when apple had switched over to LCDs in it's entire lineup an were well into the G5 changeover, here comes a CRT/G4 based machine designed specifically to occupy the spaces left by the G3 iMacs. And the eMacs sold in huge numbers.
5. This may just be a test. Use materials already in the supply chain to see how well the idea works. If it fails, the cost to the company is minimal; if it succeeds then they can build on that market.
Just a few thoughts; like I said, I’ll wait and see. Personally, this machine has no impact on me; I'm not the target audience. But it will be interesting to see what this does to the Mac product line in the future.
jaxhunter
macrumors regular
Also, as it pertains to Steve Job spinning in his grave I think that is just a ridiculous thing to say. You assume that Steve would never have done anything like this and I will point out that you are wrong. Again, the eMac is a perfect example of this, not to mention the continuing iPhone upgrade trend. Every new iPhone release one of the prior models is downrated in both storage capacity and price (3GS down to 8GB, sold for $99, 4 down to 8Gb, sold for $49, etc). Further, people who like to act as if they know what Steve would have done seem to forget one thing; his passing was not that long ago and Tim Cook was basically running things for a couple years before Steve passed on. It is almost a certainty that we have yet to see a single product that Steve didn't know about and bless. The entire company roadmap has been laid out for years. Apple is not a reactionary company, they are trend-setters, they push the industry (at least from a planning/strategy standpoint). I would not be so presumptuous as to assume I knew Steve Jobs, and I worked for Apple under his tenure and have actually met him and spoke to him about Apple and its future. I would say that Steve's hand-picked successor knew him and his intentions better than any of us. Further, we all are going to have to accept that Steve is gone. What he would or would not have done is irrelevant at this point. But I personally think Tim Cook is carrying on his legacy quite well. I also applaud the fact that he is doing so as Tim Cook, and not Steve 2.0.
MartinAppleGuy
macrumors 68020
When you look at people spending 1000+ on a computer, I'm sure I read that Macs were way ahead of PC's. This budget Mac looks to be the first iteration of Apple trying to get an increased audience for the -1000 range of people.
I'm not big on sycophancy myself. SJ worked very hard to move on from products like the eMac and take the brand up market. This latest move smacks more of a company devoid of new ideas and new products hence reduce the price to increase sales for the ageing product line.
mojolicious
macrumors 68000
Is that a good or bad thing?
I liked it when Apple made computers, rather than brand decisions. The eMac was an excellent computer which should have been replaced, I guess initially through the continuation of the 17" iMac line.
DesertSurfer
macrumors 6502a
Good points, I think. Someone on another thread tried out the new iMac with Aperture and was pleasantly surprised at how well it performed. Some others have used POS to describe it. I assume this is short for having a very POSitive reaction to this new model.
Nope. The chip package is limited to 15W for the entire die which is not nearly enough to maintain full turbo under heavy CPU + GPU load (gaming). As the MBA is not really limited by its cooling the two will perform identically. Furthermore, intel's CPUs almost never boost to top multiplier, regardless of cooling (single core turbo is infrequent). Therefore its is much more likely to expect a real world frequency of ~2.4 ghz (two core turbo). The only time dual + HT is more advantageous is for power consumption reasons. That said for casual use intel's ULV CPUs are more than sufficient.
The 21.5" 2013 imac uses around 26W idle and 85W full load (max brightness). Both these values are quite low and moving to a ULV CPU will cut perhaps idle power down to 20W and load to 50W. For general low performance use though power will be similar.
This is 100% true.
It seems to me that Apple had excess inventory and is trying to dump. The ULV CPUs they are using are not substantially cheaper than the quads they are replacing.
Apple must have some very specific demographic and marketing data indicating these units at this price point are a viable product.
My guess (and that is all it is) is that these are to push market share penetration a bit more and nibble away at the Microsoft PC landscape that is currently suffering under the pandemic of Windows Hate Point One.
But all the assertions and speculative posts are very entertaining. 🙂
My guess (and that is all it is) is that these are to push market share penetration a bit more and nibble away at the Microsoft PC landscape that is currently suffering under the pandemic of Windows Hate Point One.
But all the assertions and speculative posts are very entertaining. 🙂
Sorry to dig up an old thread but I really wish people would actually use a product before slandering it. I have been using the new 1.4ghz iMac for sometime now and it's no slouch, those people saying it is just powerful enough for "Web browsing and word processing" are being unbelievably stupid (A damn raspberry pi is more than powerful enough for those uses for goodness sake). I have been using it for very heavy professional creative work including photoshop, aperture, video editing and grading, illustrator work etc... and it has EASILY handled everything I have thrown at it, even games have performed really well. I do not regret buying this for my production machine as it easily allows me to do professional work without breaking the bank. (I have a 27" at home)
This model has been getting such a bad reputation for no reason whatsoever, I swear some of the things people have been saying give the impression that it hardly has enough power to turn on. It really stinks of elitism to me. This is a really great machine that doesn't deserve all the hate it has been getting.
This model has been getting such a bad reputation for no reason whatsoever, I swear some of the things people have been saying give the impression that it hardly has enough power to turn on. It really stinks of elitism to me. This is a really great machine that doesn't deserve all the hate it has been getting.
I agree with you, I've used a baseline Air with 8GB of RAM before and it also screams through everything I throw at it (Lightroom, some Photoshop, AfterEffects). I'm actually surprised at its capabilities.
The iMac has the same guts as the baseline Air with 8GB of RAM, so it'd perform identically as well.