The Return of an Apple Cube... as an iMac?

[pbooktebo]

Cube Prices

Originally posted by bikertwin
Everyone's saying how expensive the Cubes were. Just how expensive were they?

Here's an excerpt from an apple history site (link at bottom)

Shortcomings aside, the Cube was a remarkable feat of engineering, crammed inside an elegant case. The Cube shipped to retail markets with a 450Mhz G4 processor, a 20 GB hard drive, a 56k modem, 64 MB of RAM, and Apple s Pro Mouse, for $1799. Another configuration was available through the Apple Store, with a 500 Mhz G4, a 30 GB hard drive and 128 MB of RAM, for $2299.


The Cube was not nearly the success that Apple had hoped it would be. The consensus was that Apple had misjudged the market, making the Cube an expensive "luxury" computer instead of a cheaper monitor-less iMac. In december the low-end configuration received a price cut to $1499.


In February 2001, The cube received a feature and price change. The low-end configuration was repriced at $1299. A "better" configuration was made available, with a CD-RW drive and 128 MB of RAM, for $1599. Finally, the high-end version got a 60 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, a CD-RW drive and an 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX video card, and sold for $2199.


The complete Cube page:
http://www.apple-history.com/frames/body.php?page=gallery&model=g4cube

 

[gwuMACaddict]

Originally posted by 1macker1
Blah @ a headless cube. They already have those, they called them Power Mac G4's and G4's. **might not be cubed shaped** but oh well.

exactly... all this talk about not needing an imac is silly... i think that this is a special edition something or other for the upcoming aniversary. the imac is the entry level consumer and the power mac is the prosumer. this can be a fun looking extravagance like the original cube

 

[imamacguy17]

Originally posted by BurntCalc
My money is that, if true, this isn't an iMac at all but a new device altogether. I just can't for the life of me think what that might be. Maybe it's a new Airport module. Or the famed X-Grid.

I made a similar suggestion when the cube went bust about the xgrid (didnt call it as such) but because of their cute handles on the bottem i thought that creating a hot swapable cluster machine that used the cubes inards network administrators would eat them up because if one machine goes done the entire network is still up and he/she just removes the machine makes the repairs and returns or just adds a new machine.

 

[whooleytoo]

Re: Market share and the $599 G4 Box

Originally posted by Tux Kapono
I find it strange that the iBooks are way less than the desktop iMacs. No wonder iMac sales are so bad - what's the point of buying one - really?

Personally, I don't like portables. Slow - for the price, poor keyboards - lack of key travel, smaller monitors. That leaves me with the eMac, which is bulky, cumbersome and ugly (IMO) or the PowerMacs - which are still too expensive, especially if you include the price of an Apple monitor.

That leaves the iMac as the only attractive option for a lot of people like me.

 

[Spades]

There's a niche for a cube like this somewhere. Over in the PC world, small form factors are doing well. Some people use them as desktops, but there's a good number of people using them for other things. I'm planning on getting an SFF PC myself to use as a server. If there was a Mac that fit the niche of cheap, small, and quiet (and headless) I would probably get that instead.

And if it happened to use a G5, you could build your own supercomputer at a fraction of the price Virginia Tech paid.

But, as much as I would love a cheap headless cube, it all depends on what's good for Apple.

 

[kristianm]

Originally posted by jayscheuerle
Just make it inexpensive.

Right, that would be apple.

The only people who are against a competitively priced Mac are the elitists who are into the Mac "lifestyle as the BMW of computers" thing. Get over it!!

Those people and Steve. Macs might not be expensive for what you get, but if you want a little less they are quite costly.

 

[PGant]

New iMac

I'm rather sceptical of all the speculation that Apple might be planning yet another new form factor for the iMac. Granted, there might be a limitation in the current design that prevents the installation of a G5, but I still think that the current shape is still too new to dump. Apple has spent a lot of money getting people to take notice of this design and it seems to have been selling well (notwithstanding market conditions). A spruce up may be in the works (I for one would like to see the headphone jack moved to the front of the base), but I think the Cube rumours are, at best, connected to some kind of special edition Mac...but this is just idle speculation on my part.

 

[finelinebob]

Originally posted by Poff
A cube would be real cool.

That is the point, isn't it?

Seriously, tho, the several people I know who bought Cubes are, in some sense to me, the purest of the Apple purests in how they really didn't care about price or relative performance but were buying it purely for its asthetic value. None were disappointed by its performance then, and all of them (still using their Cubes!) remain happy with what they get out of them now.

If Ivy's design team is working on something new (including the Newton here), it'll be interesting to see just how different they can make it from the original a la clamshell vs sunflower iMacs.

I mean, a cube's a cube ... and the portions of the Cube that extended beyond that shape were made out of a clear material. Can a new design stay as "minimalist" and still be radically different?

 

[BobVB]

Re: Cobe form factor a bust - no!

Originally posted by ipiloot
I think, you're all wrong here. The cube form factor wasn't a bust. The problem with cube was the consumer group that it targeted - an upper end home user who are a very small majority.

Exactly! The original Cube without screen sold at powermac prices with little more than iMac configurability. They looked cool, but the majority of serious users wanted more options for expansion and conversely the iMac customer wanted first and foremost a low price- not possible with the price of the Apple LCD & the Cube in those days and one without the other was just not an option.

Today, a Cube (with screen) at iMac pricing would be hot - I'd probably get one as my kitchen computer. An iMac priced Cube with screen would sell like hotcakes.

 

[Hugh]

Old?

Originally posted by Trimix
ooops, i remember the first mac, am i that OLD ????

Nope not at all.. I go back to the days when the Apple // and the Apple //+ came out..

-Hugh

 

[jocknerd]

The current iMac is too expensive to produce

Apple needs a consumer line that can compete with the Dells and HPs of the world. The current iMac is a beautiful machine but it costs Apple too much to produce it. Thats why it can't compete with the low end PC's out there.

A cube would be the perfect replacement. Start it around $799 with a 1.6ghz G5 and 256MB of memory and a 40GB hard drive and a low end video card.

 

[imamacguy17]

price of imac vs ibook

the ibook is not actually i better deal. the imac in its lowest form is a better machine than the top of the line ibook and the top of the line ibook costs 200 dollars more than the entry imac. while i agree imac prices could easy drop 100 bucks it still is in the "right" range in terms of features. the emac compares to the 15 inch low end imac in screen size too.


just my $0.02

 

[primalman]

Originally posted by primalman
…But you are right to think that it was going against the proguct grid a little too early. I think that now is a good time to spread out a little...slightly. Actually it just completes the new grid:

Consumer Pro/Prosumer
High iMac PowerMac
Portable iBook PowerBook
low eMac [Cube-ish?]
server Xserve

what that chart should have looked like:

 

[snahabed]

I don't think Apple should introduce a headless iMac.

Apple should introduce a headless eMac.

The iMac needs to be the midpriced consumer all in one with the beautiful flatscreen and revolutionary arm. And it needs to be upgraded to a G5.

The eMac will be G4 for a long time to come, I'd imagine. Make a small G4 cube like people are saying... it surely could be a $500-$700 price point. Give it a couple PCI slots for some upgradeability. Give it a normal monitor connector to minimize the cost for switchers.

But don't kill off the iMac, which can stay in the 1400-1700 range as a G5/flatscreen combo.

 

[blueBomber]

if it is an anniversary mac, maybe it'll be biege and monochrome. OSX in B&W... hmmm....

 

[pgwalsh]

Re: iMac replacement would make great sense..

Originally posted by joshbuddy
the things that made the original cube suck so much are easily overcomable these days. Firewire and USB2 are both adequate technologies for expansion. You COULD build in a PCI slot, even an AGP slot to allow more expansion. SATA is great in terms of less cables blocking airflow, and even then, watercooling (if its even needed) could make a very quiet G5 cube for us....

I agree with you. In addition I think at the time of the first cube people were still in to big fast computers that could put anything into and forever expanding. Today I think people want something small and quite.

 

[greenstork]

Re: Lets hear it for the mac 128...

Originally posted by jncrow
There are probably a few of us that remember the first mac and our gui (grapical user interface) when our friends were fumbling around in DOS.

Let's hear it for the first mac....

I used to play Net-Trek at our school computer lab. It must have been one of the first multi-player games, what ever happened to that.

 

[sethypoo]

I personally hope that Apple, if they do interduce a cube, keep the form factor of the iMac that they have right now.

They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they got rid of the current hemispheric shape and *built in flat screen*. It's that swiveling flat screen that draws people to the iMac.

The iMac has also always been a all-in-one system. To completely do away with the screen and give people a cube would be breaking tradition and just stupid.

Not every new Mac user or person interested in buying a Mac will have an extra monitor around.

I hope that Apple does the smart thing and keeps the flat screen design they have now. I just can't see a flat screen poking up from a cube looking "good".

 

[sethypoo]

Re: Re: Lets hear it for the mac 128...

Originally posted by greenstork
I used to play Net-Trek at our school computer lab. It must have been one of the first multi-player games, what ever happened to that.

I just downloaded Oregon Trail. Anyone remember playing that in elementary?

Oh, the memories.

 

[iMeowbot]

The missing product from Apple's product grid is obviously the PowerPod, designed especially for the professional gnutella leech. The cubic enclosure will contain 5 terabytes of storage, Superdrive, dual G5s running a port of the Newton OS, network port, built-in 9-inch color TFT, dock on top to feed the included special edition iPod, and a VGA port so you can plug in your 15" Packard Bell monitor with the fuzzy picture and C:\> burned into the top left to watch selections from the new iFlicks store.

 

[mrsebastian]

holy **** the rumor mills are running in overdrive! somehow i'm not buying this cube thing, but i do think there is a possibility that apple will change the imac's form to be similar to the cube in concept. i guess apple could simply offer bundles which would include a box (cube?), keyboard and mouse (wireless?), and a choice of display size to go with it.

 

[Tux Kapono]

Do the math

The more expensive pro line PowerMacs are outselling the less expensive consumer line flat-panel iMacs 2:1. Just research Apple's financial reports.

Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Conclusion: The flat-panel iMacs are simply too expensive (at $1300, about twice as much as it needs to be, seriously) to be consumer models, and the eMac is a big, ugly toy.

Prediction: I'm confident Apple will solve this now that Steve's got his cube/flower pot fetishes out of the way. Apple has now hit the tipping point in being more valued for its software than its hardware - it's time to build simple inexpensive machines to run them.

 

[sethypoo]

Re: Do the math

Originally posted by Tux Kapono
The more expensive pro line PowerMacs are outselling the less expensive consumer line flat-panel iMacs 2:1. Just research Apple's financial reports.

Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Conclusion: The flat-panel iMacs are simply too expensive (at $1300, about twice as much as it needs to be, seriously) to be consumer models, and the eMac is a big, ugly toy.

Prediction: I'm confident Apple will solve this now that Steve's got his cube/flower pot fetishes out of the way. Apple has now hit the tipping point in being more valued for its software than its hardware - it's time to build simple inexpensive machines to run them.

At the same time, not getting ride of their great pro line models.

 

[Tim Flynn]

I throw some more fuel on the fire ...

The G4 PowerMacs have (had) a very fluid shape. Curves abound !
The current iMac has curves, the bread dough drop, one big curve.

The G5 Powermacs are much more squarish. Lots of straight lines with rounded corners.
So the industrial designers maybe on a "trend".
So a cube shaped iMac does sound plausable

oh and fans are ok, the machine just needs to be quiet (G5 are)

 

[iPC]

What if it is offered as the standard iMac style, as well as headless? That is one thing that is missing from the Apple product line right now... decent priced (~$800) headless (no monitor) box.