Why is the iMac listed as "Mid-product cycle"?

[MEGrubb]

I find it a little ridiculous that they've listed the iMac as neutral on the buyer's guide. The iMac is 90 days old and it's mid cycle? The last one was over 500 days, why wouldn't this still be listed as green? I haven't seen any rumors for new iMacs that might trigger this classification, either.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I saw that as well. Ridiculous.

 

[deconstruct60]

I find it a little ridiculous that they've listed the iMac as neutral on the buyer's guide. The iMac is 90 days old and it's mid cycle?

Because the buying guide indicators are not very precise. Never have been.

The buying guide's default heuristics start waving off buyers months ahead of time. (i.e., the MBP is red and on a yearly update cycle there are almost 3 months until it would be revised and available. It is likely going to be longer than that; July) That means mid cycle should go live even before "mid cycle". It is really closer to "middle 50% of lifecycle" than the midpoint. Roughly 3 months green , 6 mid , 3 red if though it was going to be a 12 month gap.

The last one was over 500 days, why wouldn't this still be listed as green?

because it is just an estimate the last one doesn't count. For lack of anything better it using the average lifecycle to predict the next arrival of the iMac. That is 335 days right now. Less than a year. Which is unlikely.
More likely it will be in October and they will actually ship in October this time. Defacto less than a year, but announce dates are probably pretty close to 365 days around +/- 30 days ( so the average isn't too far off but the -30 has a ripple effect of turning off "green" a bit earlier given availability problems. )

I haven't seen any rumors for new iMacs that might trigger this classification, either.

It can be overridden but I was under the impression that it is an automated system that just recalculates based on its guessing heuristics.
It isn't a reduction of rumors into a number.

 

[Mac32]

Well, there is a good possibility that the iMac could get a small upgrade 4-5 months from now, with a slightly faster Haswell CPU. If so, I seriously doubt Apple will make any other significant changes, maybe the newer WiFi technology will be implemented. Nothing that's making me loose any sleep... My guess is that late 2014 is the next big update for the iMac. Then we could see a significant GPU upgrade, and possibly a retina model. Personally I think the development of desktop CPUs is going to slow down in the next few years, as Intel tends to become lazy when they have no real competition, and the main focus nowadays seems to be on ultrabook and laptop CPUs.

 

[gCloud]

Strange, ipad mini still green too

 

[TRAV9614]

The Haswell desktop CPUs come out in june, so I bet there will be a iMac refresh in june or july.

 

[forty2j]

The Haswell desktop CPUs come out in june, so I bet there will be a iMac refresh in june or july.

Nah. It would be like releasing a new car model mid-year because there was a new spark plug. Haswell has nothing desktop wants; new iMacs will wait for something worth putting in them (new GPUs, 802.11ac, etc)

 

[Nermal]

Strange, ipad mini still green too

As noted above, it's all calculated automatically. As there has only been one Mini release, the "days between updates" is currently infinity, so 130 days falls within the threshold for green.

 

[0111587]

This computer is half year old for crying out loud! That's almost a thecnical Dinosaur!

 

[Kutuzov]

The Haswell desktop CPUs come out in june, so I bet there will be a iMac refresh in june or july.

This made me LOL. People said the exact same thing about Ivy Bridge technology... since it was coming out in May, surely Apple will release a new iMac in April 2012, they said. That estimate was more than half a year off...

 

[AQUADock]

This computer is half year old for crying out loud! That's almost a thecnical Dinosaur!

On what planet is 90 days half a year, because it isn't earth.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

On what planet is 90 days half a year, because it isn't earth.

Bravo. Well said and nicely expressed.