Just happened to come across this when I was researching monitors - dunno if it's any use to you?
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Studio Display Shipping Estimates Have Significantly Improved
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Thank you, thought about this too. But I'm a designer and would like a screen like my iMac had (have an MBP16 now). Like the retina quality and teh colrs (have an LG 4k now). But would also want to be able to play my PS ;-)
Part of the agreement they made with Apple to become a retailer. Apple must give them X% of production.
Buying direct is usually the worst option in terms of delivery. Think about it. If you are a retailer of Apple products and Apple holds all the available inventory for themselves, you're not going to make any effort to carry Apple products. No one is going to purchase from you, and even worse, those that do initially they may never shop at your store again, for anything, because they have the impression that you can't fulfill their orders.
Good to see less waiting period. Hopefully all production issues are sorted out.
Considering the LG is $1300, anyone thinking the Apple Studio Display would be $1000 was not being realistic, in my opinion.
Yes, compared to the iMac 5K, the $1600 price seems unreasonably high, but the iMac was deeply amortized in terms of component and production costs by then whereas the Studio Display was not so honestly I can see why Apple charged $1600 for it when just a few months earlier you could get an iMac 5K for not much more.
Yeah, I don't really need Retina for a monitor. It's not as close to my face as the iPhone.
Well then compare it to the $1249 price of the 24" Retina iMac, which is a new product and hasn't been amortized. A 27" Retina panel could be made on the same production line as the panel for the 24" iMac (you'd just be cutting a different sized panel out of the same mother glass, using current Multi-Model on a Glass (MMG) production techniques.
The point is that, by removing native subpixel text rendering starting with Mojave, Apple changed MacOS in a way that forces consumers who want optimum text sharpness to purchase Retina monitors, yet it does not offer a single consumer-grade (and consumer-priced) Retina external monitor.
If you're a PC consumer and buy a $1,000 desktop, or a $1500 laptop, and want a large external monitor to use at home that makes text nice and sharp, you can get achieve that with a $500 27" 4k (because Windows still has subpixel text rendering).
But if you're a Mac consumer and buy a $1000 desktop (Mini) or $1500 laptop (Air), and want to achieve the same effectve functionality (really sharp text on a large external monitor), you need to spring for a $1600 27" Studio Display.
It's not unreasonable to ask consumers to pay, say, an extra 20% for equivalent Mac products, because they are much nicer (and have a much nicer OS). But asking them to pay >3-fold for equivalent functionality is another thing entirely.
Finally, since Apple's consumer user base is much larger than its pro user base, even though the proportion of consumers who buy large monitors is less than the proportion of pro's, I'm assuming the absolute number of large-monitor buyers is higher for the consumers. That's why when I wrote "most of those hoping for this were also hoping it would be more in the $1000 range", I was thinking of consumers. What criterion do I use to distinguish these two groups, at least for this purpose? It's: Consumer = pay for it as a personal expense. Pro = pay for it as a business expense.
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Well there are the rumors of LG working on a 24" 4.5K display presumably for Apple so perhaps this will be the "cheap' Apple consumer monitor if it makes it out of the lab and into the Store.
Considering the 27 iMac has not had a change in design for almost a decade, it was pretty cheap for component costs.
I think Apple just wants the average consumer to buy a 24" iMac over buy a Mac mini or wire a laptop into a screen. It's kind of the elegant uncluttered and "simple" option. Not saying that's actually what works for everybody, but considering how long they didn't sell a screen at all...
I don't think that's the case since, if were, Apple wouldn't offer display connections on either the Air or the Mini (that would mean the Mini was intended purely for server use, which I don't think is what Apple had in mind). Or, at the very least, they'd bury the fact that they can support external display(s) deep in the fine print, rather featuring, e.g., the Mini driving an external display prominently in their advertising:
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I mean prior to this they used to show the mini with a Pro Display XDR. Does that mean it was their consumer display? It has to be shown with a monitor.... Besides, a mini + keyboard + mouse + 4k monitor is almost as much as an iMac and provides a worse experience, why would the average consumer pick a mini when they could pick an iMac? They don't exactly run TV ads for Mac minis like they do with iMacs. It's for nerds like us who care too much about computers.
I think you misunderstood my point. I'm not saying b/c they showed a Mini with an XDR (if that was the case—I don't recall), that meant the XDR was considered a consumer display. I'm saying that, right now, their advertising shows the Mini with a display in consumer applications (home office, gaming). That contradicts your position that Apple doesn't intend the Mini to be for consumer use.
The problem is they don't sell a consumer-grade display, so the least expensive one they can show it with is the Studio, which costs more than the Mini itself—unless you compare the lowest ($1600) config. of the Studio display to the highest ($1800 max.) configs. of the Mini.
Whether a Mini+KB+mouse+$500 4k 27" monitor made sense vs. a 27" iMac back in 2020 (before Apple discontinued it) is an entirely different question, and has nothing to do with whether the Mini is intended for a pro or a consumer, since such considerations could apply equally to each. I personally agree if you're buying a desktop from scratch, the 27" iMac makes more sense. But suppose you're a consumer or pro who already has a KB, mouse, and (most importantly) external display(s) you're happy with? That person (who wouldn't be me—I got the 2019 iMac specifically b/c I wanted the 27" Retina display) might prefer a Mini.
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That might be welcome, though there were a lot of complaints among UltraFine buyers about LG's poor customer service.
However, I agree with Ross Young of DSCC, who said that the trend in the computer space is towards larger displays (IIRC, he mentioned 32" as an example). Thus I also think something in the 30" – 32" range would be a nice option for higher-end consumers wanting a generously-sized display. I personally would like to see a consumer-grade Retina 32". I find my 27" is too small; currently I've moved my Dock and Menu Bar onto one of my two side monitors to maximize the displayable area on my 27" central (5k) monitor; yes, I could show/hide the Dock, but I don't like that.
Not sure how the manufacturing cost should scale with display size but, if it's in proportion to area, a 32" would be 1.8x a 24".
Barring that, beta versions of Ventura appear to show support for the 32" Dell 8k, which would be a killer 32" display for coding and spreadsheet work, if Apple offers native 3x scaling. Still pricey but, at $4000, it's 2/3 the cost of a 32" 6k XDR with stand.
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I'm interested in the "Pro Display XDR 27 / Apple Studio Display Pro" that Ross Young says is coming someday with MiniLED and ProMotion, even though I shudder to think of the price (my guess will be $2999 as an XDR with the stand being extra or $3699 as an Apple Studio Display Pro with the base stand).
You will probably need to add a new M2 Pro or higher Mac to get Promotion too, as none of the M1 chips appear to support 5K at 120Hz. So it is really a very costly set of options. The current Studio Display will seem like a bargain then.
No sign of my VESA mount pre order improving either in UK, so far only tilt and tilt-height have improved.
Lots of apple stores seem to have consistent stock of Standard/Tilt and Nano/Tilt now. Still waiting on Tilt/Height though! (Context for those not in other thread: I have a bot that scans for apple stock nationwide)