Quiet Introduction of $899 iMac Education Model

[Henri Gaudier]

Another rip off price in comparison to the US

... and this is for education!!! 899$ is 705€ not 960€!!!

28% more - Cheap Apples for inner city kids my a**e!

 

[balamw]

Wow, it's still hard to think of 80G as small.

I know! My first hard drives were in the ~40MB range.

80GB is only small if you handle video. A 1 hour DVD project will eat up ~11 GB for the uncompressed video + another 4 for thr DVD master!

Can somebody help me with my research? How would prices compare if I bought a Windows PC from a well-known PC vendor, equipped to match the specs of this new iMac for Education, including camera, speakers, Wifi, keyboard, mouse, Windows instead of Mac OS X, and the equivalent of the iLife applications?

The main problem with this is that the Core Duo processors (which run much faster than most current Intel desktop processors) are not generally offerred in desktops from other vendors so you can't get an "apple" to Apple comparison. For grins I tried configuring a Dimension 3100 @ 3.2 GHz P4 with the appropriate RAM, HDD Combo drive no Camera or iLife equivalent and ended up around $1125 in the CA education store... It had a 3 year waranty though, so you might need to add in Applecare for a more realisitic comparison.

B

 

[artifex]

Yeah, an external DVD burner kind of defeats the purpose of the iMac.

If you're buying a lot for a school, though, having a couple of externals to share is a lot cheaper, and they're easier to replace.

 

[macdragonfl]

Okay... Now we have a "basic iMac" with the GMA950... Where's the "high-end Mac mini" with the X1600/128MB?

Not that it matters to me anyway, I've cancelled my WoW account.

This would be great!!! Drop the Solo to $499.00 then drop the Duo to $599.00
make the x1600 version $799.00 call it the Mini Pro. It would expand the line and seem to make many people happy and fit with in Apples new marketing plan.

 

[christian_k]

Unpaired memory

That's for a MacBook Pro, which has a dedicated graphics card. It makes a difference for integrated graphics.

No it doesn't.

I do have a MAcBook (2.0 GHz). I upgraded memory by replacing one 256MB stick with a 1 GB, resulting in a total of 1.25.
Some benchmarks got lower by a few points (Cinebench dropped bei 3% or something) , but in real life this doesn't matter. Quake III is between 50 and 90 FPS, even the ppc-Doom III demo is playable (in Rosetta!).

Tha machine works a lot better now than the 2 x 256 default configuration.

I think for most users using a single 1 GB is the better upgrade path. You can add the other 1GB later at any time if you really want to. The speed loss for unpaired memory won't be a problem for most users.iLife really flies on that sytem - my iMac G5 seams slow in contrast.

Christian

 

[JAT]

I did the exact same thing with our MB, now at 1.25GB. I haven't done testing, but it is nothing but better. 512 just wasn't enough. Parallels wasn't even usable, now it flies along like a PC laptop. Note that this upgrade cost me $85, soon to be $75 when my rebate shows up. Cheaper than the $90 bump to 1GB at the Edu Store on this iMac.

Anyway, I have a question that I imagine could be answered here easily enough. What is the "school year" as defined by the Edu Store? You are allowed to buy one of each computer type per "school year". Is that calendar, 12 months from first purchase, Sept-Aug, what?

 

[Bonte]

... and this is for education!!! 899$ is 705€ not 960€!!!

28% more - Cheap Apples for inner city kids my a**e!

American price is tax EXcluded (different taxes according to the state your in), European price is 21% tax INcluded.

 

[ensee]

This might be normal but I found it weird that it says "1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor (1)". Why is it quatifying that there's 1 CPU, will this change to (2) in high-end ones soon?

 

[Eidorian]

This might be normal but I found it weird that it says "1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor (1)". Why is it quatifying that there's 1 CPU, will this change to (2) in high-end ones soon?

1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor (1)

1. The iMac continuously monitors system thermal and power conditions, and may adjust processor speed as needed to maintain optimal system operation.

 

[thogs_cave]

My school has had that for years even with 10mbit and 100mbit. Works well, even though we're on wintel and not mactel. In practical school cases I would think most machines are on a server with the students' logins and/or files stored on a network linked drive.

Which is really not a bad way to go in education or business. At my current gig, I have Macs, Suns, Linux PCs, Windows PCs, and SGIs all using common file servers and unified logins. It took a bit of doing, but it makes developers quite happy to move from system to system w/o difficulty. It also makes my life easier for backups.

 

[thogs_cave]

Personally, we can use whatever we want. But for compatability with Microsoft Office for Windows you need to have the Mac version.

I disagree. I finally got my last Mac user (our CEO) converted to NeoOffice (OpenOffice). We've had zero problems dealing with MS Office files, and everybody is happy. Just remember, Office isn't the standard, the file formats are....

 

[thogs_cave]

I know! My first hard drives were in the ~40MB range.

The first HD I ever got was an honest-to-goodness ST506 (Seagate 5MB). I thought I was stylin'. (That actually went into a PeeCee [0] - at the time I had a Mac 512Ke and two 800K floppy drives. Since it didn't have SCSI, the only practical option was the really, really expensive HD20 that used the floppy port. I do have one now on my 512Ke, as I couldn't resist one when I saw it on eBay for $50.)

[0] A rompin', stompin' Zenith Z-248 with an 8MHz 80286 and 512K of RAM. I remeber thinking at the time that I was at the pinnacle of computing: TWO 8MHz computers with a combined total of 1 MEGABYTE of RAM! My, how times have changed. And while I have nostalga, I won't give up my MacBook or G5. No way, ain't gonna happen.

 

[Pistol Pete]

nice....too bad ill never see one in real life..

 

[50548]

You miss the following...?

"Statement of Eligibility - I represent that I am a member of one of the defined groups above eligible to purchase and that the products being purchased direct from Apple Computer, Inc. are for my own personal, education, and/or research use."

If you are purchasing it for someone else it isn't for your own personal use is it now... which was my point. The purchase limits exist to reduce the purchase then later sell type behavior but if you purchase the system on behalf of someone not eligible you are committing fraud (you purchased it never having the intent of using it yourself).

Indeed, I didn't see that last part yesterday...(too much commuting here in Switzerland while I look for another apartment)

However, it may argued that:

1) Apple inserted that line just to ensure that the target market is the educational market, at least for the first sale;

2) The educational purchaser, in his sphere of personal uses, is also perfectly able to buy the product as an eligible individual and dispose of it as he sees fit.

But your line of thought is correct in principle...if Apple demands that the person use a computer for his/her own goals, that person should not just buy it for someone else...this would be, indeed, a case of frauden legis.

 

[Doctor Q]

The main problem with this is that the Core Duo processors (which run much faster than most current Intel desktop processors) are not generally offerred in desktops from other vendors so you can't get an "apple" to Apple comparison. For grins I tried configuring a Dimension 3100 @ 3.2 GHz P4 with the appropriate RAM, HDD Combo drive no Camera or iLife equivalent and ended up around $1125 in the CA education store... It had a 3 year waranty though, so you might need to add in Applecare for a more realisitic comparison.

Thank you for this information. I too haven't found it easy to make a head-to-head comparison for our decision-making committee to evaluate.

 

[medea]

The problem I find with all these budget mac to pc comparisons is the simple fact that this is not just a budget pc, it's a mac! What they are offering is an all in one mac capable of running the mac os for $899. You can certainly get an HP for $500, hell I know someone who just got a pretty capable HP laptop for $300, but it is not made to run os X. If you want to run os X on a budget then where is the problem with this edu iMac? The mac mini doesn't come with a monitor, nor keyboard and mouse.

 

[sushi]

Just remember, Office isn't the standard, the file formats are....

Agreed.

However, if you use Microsoft Office suite to it's fullest capabilities you will run into issues.

For simple memos, spreadsheets and presentations this is not an issue. For complex ones, it can be.

 

[briansolomon]

To me, and probably most school systems, $899 still doesn't seem cheap enough. But then again, most classrooms are filled with sub$500 Dell systems and where it counts, like Multimedia Labs, Apples will be found regardless of their price.

 

[Doctor Q]

The problem I find with all these budget mac to pc comparisons is the simple fact that this is not just a budget pc, it's a mac! What they are offering is an all in one mac capable of running the mac os for $899. You can certainly get an HP for $500, hell I know someone who just got a pretty capable HP laptop for $300, but it is not made to run os X. If you want to run os X on a budget then where is the problem with this edu iMac?

I see nothing wrong with it, but I need to justify it both by the advantages AND by cost comparison. It's OK if the iMac price is more than a "comparably equipped" PC. That's where we weigh the advantages of Mac OS X, Apple's quality and simplicity, the all-in-one design, total cost of ownership, the iLife applications, etc.

 

[mikes63737]

When 1 GB becomes standard, they won't be using 4 x 256. They will use 512 x 2.

512 sticks of 2 MB RAM?????

I think that this is great, but I also wonder if it comes with an IR sensor built in. If it does, then someone can use the remote from their new Mac and activate Front Row on all of them...

Maybe my school will try Macs again... I impressed the IT guy with how great my el cheapo mini performed during the computer club. Our newest computers are 3 years old... maybe it's time to upgrade our 6 and 7 year old labs??

To me, and probably most school systems, $899 still doesn't seem cheap enough. But then again, most classrooms are filled with sub$500 Dell systems and where it counts, like Multimedia Labs, Apples will be found regardless of their price.

I agree, but most (public) schools (around here at least) don't care about mutimedia. They even uninstalled WMP, Flash, and Shockwave from the computers. But they have QuickTime.

 

[LBmacman]

yay an iMac i can finally afford

 

[thogs_cave]

However, if you use Microsoft Office suite to it's fullest capabilities you will run into issues.
For simple memos, spreadsheets and presentations this is not an issue. For complex ones, it can be.

Well, most people don't use 10% of the capabilities of Office. But, I (and others) have pushed OpenOffice pretty hard and not had problems even with complex tasks going back and forth with Office.

The latest versions are very good, IMO. Other than the load time, it's amazingly good.

 

[eXan]

I think this iMac's configuration is not right. All schools (here at least) teach to use MS Office and it runs onder Rosetta on this Mac, so 512 MB RAM is not enough.

I think they should have made it with 1.66 CoreDuo or even Solo, but ship it with at least 1 gig of RAM. I'm sure the performance would be higher on 1GB 1.66 CD than on 0.5 GB 1.83 CD.

Also schools dont bother with upgrading computers. lol my school (finished it in May) has a class of 13 PC with Celerons 700 MHz, 128 MB RAM and 20 gig HDs And you know what? Its enough!

 

[christian_k]

I think such comparisons are not quite fair. Budget PCs usualy have a P4 (or even a Cerleron, Sempron or other ********). A P4 isn't as fast as a core duo. You have to compare it to a Pentium-D or Athlon x 2 System.

I haven't seen a lot dual core systems that are much cheaper than the edu iMac ( the iMac includes a screen). And I haven't seen anything for that money that has such a nice all in one design.

I think at least as long as we have to use Rosetta frequently, there is a need for the performance of the core duo, even at schools.

Christian

The main problem with this is that the Core Duo processors (which run much faster than most current Intel desktop processors) are not generally offerred in desktops from other vendors so you can't get an "apple" to Apple comparison. For grins I tried configuring a Dimension 3100 @ 3.2 GHz P4 with the appropriate RAM, HDD Combo drive no Camera or iLife equivalent and ended up around $1125 in the CA education store... It had a 3 year waranty though, so you might need to add in Applecare for a more realisitic comparison.

B

 

[dwbarcl]

No More Emac

I am so glad they got rid of the emac. I no longer have to install 100+ of those beasts each year.

NO MORE CRT YEA

Plus the teachers will like the imac better, and best of all they will be thinking the got a higher version of the imac and not know that it is the low end version(if you can call it low end)

DEATH TO THE PC