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Who is the iMac G5's target market?
- Thread starter bentley
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Take off the dark glasses.bentley said:
Who wants the iMac G5. Well, for startes, someone who wants more than a MacMini can offer but doesn'tneed the full flexability of a PowerMac.
Someone who has a very limited area to keep a computer in. Someone who doesn't want the clutter of having the computer seperate from the display and the extra cable(s) that would be in use, including a second power outlet. (Although I strongly recommend that computers be kept an good surge supressors.)
The iMac G5 takes up less desk space than a MacMini plus screen. Come to think of it, the iMacG4 is pretty effecient on desk space as well.
Remember everyone has different needs and esthetics.
Why does GM produce 96 models when all they really need is one for the low end and one for the high end? Everybody's needs are different.
I love the eMacs and iMacs as that is what I have owned the last 3 years. Form follows function but its a tight race. My computer sits out in an open area and it is important for me not to have power cables galore along with speaker and video cable strewn about. Both provide excellent performance for the dollar. The iMac is more powerful than the mini and is cheaper than the Powermac.
And contrary to popular belief, it is also very upgradeable. I upgraded my 1GHz eMac with the ATI 7500 and PC133 memory to 1.25GHz with ATI 9200 and DDR333 memory for only $100 which I later upgraded to a 1.6GHz G5 with nVidia 5200FX and DDR400 memory with a 533MHz FSB and SATA HDD for another $100. All thanks to the amazing resell value of Apple computers.
I love the eMacs and iMacs as that is what I have owned the last 3 years. Form follows function but its a tight race. My computer sits out in an open area and it is important for me not to have power cables galore along with speaker and video cable strewn about. Both provide excellent performance for the dollar. The iMac is more powerful than the mini and is cheaper than the Powermac.
And contrary to popular belief, it is also very upgradeable. I upgraded my 1GHz eMac with the ATI 7500 and PC133 memory to 1.25GHz with ATI 9200 and DDR333 memory for only $100 which I later upgraded to a 1.6GHz G5 with nVidia 5200FX and DDR400 memory with a 533MHz FSB and SATA HDD for another $100. All thanks to the amazing resell value of Apple computers.
I know an architectural studio who just bought a couple of those... they did some upgrading though, but not sure what.
The iMac is a very cool desktop and powerfull enough for most tasks. It's not a killer renderer I guess, but you can do 3D-modelling, photo editing, even video editing on it easily... and much more cheap and elegant than a PowerMac.
The market will be anyone who has around 1500$ to spend on a nice desktop and prefer quality to quantity.
A
The iMac is a very cool desktop and powerfull enough for most tasks. It's not a killer renderer I guess, but you can do 3D-modelling, photo editing, even video editing on it easily... and much more cheap and elegant than a PowerMac.
The market will be anyone who has around 1500$ to spend on a nice desktop and prefer quality to quantity.
A
The iMac is an excellent middle-purpose office machine, and an excellent machine for people at home doing movies, digital pictures and graphics work.
Once you get into the realm of heavy-duty Photoshop batches, intensive rendering duties or intensive photographic post-processing work, the PowerMac enters the picture.
I love my iMac 1.8 at work, but it does have it's limitations. I got it because it offere the best compromise of performance, desk space and cost when compared to the PowerMac.
It's a broad market.
Once you get into the realm of heavy-duty Photoshop batches, intensive rendering duties or intensive photographic post-processing work, the PowerMac enters the picture.
I love my iMac 1.8 at work, but it does have it's limitations. I got it because it offere the best compromise of performance, desk space and cost when compared to the PowerMac.
It's a broad market.
Basically, I will not purchase the mini because it has only one RAM slot, weak video (even compared to the current iMac), slow 4200RPM 2.5" hard drive and the need for unsightly cables. Also, since I refuse to pair a $1000 display with a $500 computer, I will end up with a ho-hum Dell display on my desktop instead of the elegantly designed iMac.
The mini appeals to quite a few of the people who before were left to choose between the iMac and eMac but the targeted market for these Apple all-in-ones remains strong. Just read any thread about whether to get the iMac/eMac or a mini or the threads about the eMac being discontinued and you will see what I mean.
The mini appeals to quite a few of the people who before were left to choose between the iMac and eMac but the targeted market for these Apple all-in-ones remains strong. Just read any thread about whether to get the iMac/eMac or a mini or the threads about the eMac being discontinued and you will see what I mean.
There's a substantial performance difference between a 1.25 G4 (at the low end) with its slow FSB and a 1.8 G5 (at the "high end"). I'd imagine playing around in iMovie or GarageBand a user would immediately notice the difference.
Also, I think the neatness of the iMac (internal LCD, internal speakers, internal power block) would appeal greatly to any design-conscious users - not many of those are Mac users... 😉
Also, I think the neatness of the iMac (internal LCD, internal speakers, internal power block) would appeal greatly to any design-conscious users - not many of those are Mac users... 😉
whooleytoo said:
Actually, a PM G4 with a good HDD, vid card and lots of RAM will come real close, but they don't make em' anymore! 😀
A low cost iMac G5 is a great solution when you don't need the power or expandablity of the PowerMac line.
I manage our prepress department, and we are currently running some iMac and eMac G4's in our preflight area. We'll be upgrading those machines to iMac G5's in the next few months. Actually, these G4's are adequate in preflight, but we have a few older (@400MHz) G4 and G3 boxes I want to phase out, so we'll put new iMac's in preflight and redistribute.
I might even be able to get rid of this 400MHz G3 sitting on my desk.
I manage our prepress department, and we are currently running some iMac and eMac G4's in our preflight area. We'll be upgrading those machines to iMac G5's in the next few months. Actually, these G4's are adequate in preflight, but we have a few older (@400MHz) G4 and G3 boxes I want to phase out, so we'll put new iMac's in preflight and redistribute.
I might even be able to get rid of this 400MHz G3 sitting on my desk.
Not having lots of extra monitors laying around, if I were to buy a new Mac, it would almost certainly be an iMac. By the time you add a nice 17" LCD display to the Mac mini, you're getting up into iMac price territory, and you still end up with a much less powerful machine than the iMac. Not to mention the fact that the iMac G5 just looks so nice...