And what does Apple gain?
I can only see:
-selling older machines for high prices
-selling machines to people that wanted better specs but have to "make do" with what's available (aka frustrating the buyer).
Not to defend Apple (I am one of the frustrated wannabe buyers after all), but the
Osborne effect is around the corner. Of course for Apple it would be much less powerful, but if let's just pretend for a second they say "the new iMac will be released on October 2nd" and nobody, literally, buys the current 2011, they'd be left with a solid month of no sales. It's not a matter of stock, after all they are said to have a five-day stock turnaround so they could sell those as refurbished and still at least break even. It's the lost revenue that would make a dent, albeit small.
Now the iMac has been rumored for well over six months, ie. the first consistent rumors were about them coming with Ivy Bridge. If sales had stopped, or dropped sharply, since that moment in time, it would have been a fairly big dip. Basically only those who urgently needed a computer would have bought, and the others would have waited. I'm actually pretty sure that even those who needed a computer would have waited if possible: we've seen that there are at least several people in this very thread that are doing exactly so (I think I'm the one with the oldest iMac, 2006, doing so.)
On the other hand, such long delay is frankly hard to understand. Are they making a brand new, redesigned iMac that hovers on an air cushion and has a 3D retina screen that doesn't require glasses, comes with 2 TB SSD built-in, has facial recognition, built-in GPS and LTE, 10 Thunderbolt ports, 16 USB3 ports, 3 x HDMI in/out/thru, and has Steve Job's "one more thing" instead of the "bonnnng" sound when you turn it on? Cool, neat. But since it's taking so frigging long why not release a stopgap "mid-2012" iMac at the WWDC with Ivy Bridge and slightly better graphics? And they did know it'd take so long, this is clearly a deliberate marketing choice (and that's why I fail to understand it): if these alleged screen lamination issues have popped up in July, it means that it started production in July. Had production started in April, say, they would have had them in April.
What's terrifying is that it took them TEN MONTHS to solve the production issues with the white iPhone 4 (introduced and promised on June 24th 2010, it was made available on April 28th 2011), so exactly what are we looking at here?
It's surreal that there seems to be no plan B: if issues persist, delay the tentative release for the new wonderful iMac (after all nobody knows what the schedule is) and quickly stick Ivy Bridge and perhaps better graphics into the current iMac design. They don't even have to paint the USB ports blue like PC makers do.
I'm still hoping for a silent refresh immediately before or after the Sept 12th even. After all that's a Wednesday, so it may very well that something new pops up the day before.
In any event, pun intended, this is all very frustrating. Maybe I should really get a 2011 refurb, convince myself that I will never need USB3, and be done with it.
