Will Apple Bring Back a Larger iMac? Here's What the Latest Rumors Say

[michelg1970]

Why not make a clever display that you can use as a display with extended hub connections but it has a slot in which you can just slide the new mini Mac Mini and you have an iMac without all the extra cables?

For the "just display" option you would pay a bit more (because of the Mini mounting option), but it gives you the option to refresh your "iMac" by replacing the mini Mac Mini and just keep the display (#more sustainable).

But hey, this remark comes from someone who said in the mid 80's when I was 14 yo and when CD's were rising, why not to put this digital info on a chip rather than on a rotating disc....

@TimCook: call me for other great ideas

Edit: you could even make a range of three display sizes (21, 27 and 32 inch) with the same option and/or partner with a 3rd party to jointly offer this functionality and still provide the same user experience. Good for Mac sales and the eco-system as it entices upgrades (of the minis) rather than people holding on to their expensive (iMac) screens if which the screens are still great but the internal computer outdated....

 

[mariocapo]

Right, that's why I said it was a pain. I didn't say anything about a converter box.

DockLite - Juicy Crumb Systems

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Can others ask them to do the 27” 5K iMacs next? They said they’re considering.

 

[icanhazmac]

“I don’t like them therefore Apple should stop selling them to those who do”

Very reductionist response. I listed pretty solid reasons for my opinion yet you chose not to address them... 🤔. I even offered up a way to improve the platform but you chose not to address that either. You couldn't even be bothered to offer a reason why you like AIOs.

Care to express an opinion or just complain about mine? We are here to discuss topics aren't we?

 

[Chuckeee]

I wonder how well the 24" iMac sells. Based on this forum, you would assume no one likes the product or has bought it. But Apple continues to make it, has updated it to M3, and plans to updated it to M4. It comes in several colors and customizable configurations. This seems like a product that is successful.

Supposedly the 24" iMac is the best seller Mac desktop by a significant margin. More the Mac mini and Mac Studios combined. But not even close to the the sale volume of laptops.

The amount of floor space occupied in an Apple store is also a good indication of the current iMac as compared to the other Apple desktops.

 

[whitby]

Macrumors keeps scratching this particular itch because they know that there is a market (how big no one knows) for another 27" or bigger iMac. However we are no further forward. We have no idea whether Apple are actually planning on releasing one and meanwhile we can only pontificate about Mini/Studio Display and Studio/Studio Display options to replace the 27" iMac.

I think Apple missed the point about the iMac. It was an AIO that provided a competent solution which needed a keyboard and mouse and that was it. No wires draped across the desk. Easy to move if need be etc. The Mini and Studio with Studio Display versions are a mess of wires in comparison and nothing like as convenient. Anyway I, for one, am in the midst of a decision about what to do to replace my 2020 Intel i9 27" iMac and have posted elsewhere about my thought processes. Biggest issue is that the Studio is due for an M4 upgrade but probably not until mid next year by all accounts.

But, and this and big but, if Apple do want to release an M4 or better 27" iMac AIO, then I would probably be first in line for one (or nearly).

 

[mark63303]

I don’t see this happening. Macs are a shrinking portion of Apple’s total revenue, and MacBooks make up a large portion of those Mac purchases. ROI isn’t there on desktops.

 

[upthetoffees]

A lot of strange comments here.

The 27 inch imac was to be seen in thousands of film/graphic/music studios. It was all that was needed to make .. professional results. The Imac pro was even better but we are now in the apple M1 cpu era.

It seems obsolete now, as it has not been properly updated in over 5 years and has not seen the woomph apple has with its CPUs and new arch. To suggest that those were old and now one should go imac and buy the nice looking (its what we had in imac) yet gimped apple display with a mini.. well, no?

Apple loves money. Mac mini or studio plus the apple display will not cut it for most. Therefore here it is:

27 imac with M4
32 imac pro with M4

In next few weeks.

 

[ellpee]

More nonsense from Gurman/Bloomberg getting undeserved attention. Again, they have no reliable sources at Apple or anywhere else.

 

[tomtad]

I don't get the point to an iMac. It locks you into your computer and monitor as a set. A monitor with a Mac mini, or, as I do, a laptop makes more sense to me.

It costs the same as a laptop but comes with a big screen

 

[asdfjkl;]

And for crying outloud bring macOS out of the stone age and fix the scaling issue.

+1

 

[asdfjkl;]

And for crying out loud bring macOS out of the stone age and fix the scaling issue.

Fixing the scaling issue would also make pairing a monitor with a Mini or Studio a much easier job. Right now you either go with 1440p or a 5K monitor. Anything else is a compromise. There is very little choice in 5K monitors, too.

 

[Timpetus]

Folks just need to get used to the idea of buying your own monitor for a a mini or studio. You can get much better monitors for less money than what Apple sells with the Studio Display.

And for crying outloud bring macOS out of the stone age and fix the scaling issue. Windows has been able to do this for over 10 years.

Can you? I researched for months to find another 5K option that I would trust for our photography business. Ended up right back where I started, because every single other 27" 5K monitor had at least one issue that was a dealbreaker. Oh well, it's a business expense and I fully expect it to last 10+ years...

 

[CarAnalogy]

Given Apple's continued refusal to create a 27-inch Apple Silicon iMac, I'd put the release date for the 32-inch iMac as sometime between the release of Half-Life 3 and George RR Martin publishing The Winds of Winter.

At least it'll be before Rothfuss finishes his book.

 

[entropys]

I think Apple kit releasing a large iMac is a good thing.

Once you get to larger monitors, the user expectation for it to last longer and operate independently from the computer, increases.

It’s also more sustainable. Throwing away a 32” monitor when the computer technically is working, or vice-versa, feels…perverse.

The only issue right now is the lack of an affordable Apple monitor, which means that users have to ditch the Apple aesthetics and features.
I would love to see a sub-$1000 monitor that is more in line with today’s competitor specs and radiates the Apple look and feel.
For their more expensive offering I would then demand - as a consumer - 120-144Hz refresh rate, excellent color reproduction and well backlit, and a Thunderbolt 4 dock integrated, plus a decent Web Cam.

A dell U2723QE or U3223QE comes close, but with a thunderbolt port and higher refresh rate as well to meet your Wishlist. To get to that price point you need to accept 4K. I would keep the webcam seperate. Apple hasn’t done well there lately.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Please, just let the iMac (and all AIOs) die. The monitor will almost always outlive the computer. The only way I would ever buy or support an AIO is if there were a way to use it as a monitor once the computer part is useless or if the computer part could be swapped. Imagine you bought a M1 iMac and could swap the computer card for an M4, that would be bliss.

Edit: Conversely, should the monitor die, you could swap out your computer part into another monitor.

That's actually a great point and probably something that will probably lead us to seeing the 24" iMac get discontinued within five years or so:

As convenient and as good of a deal an AIO can seem, the fact that you're never upgrading a single component without replacing the entire thing goes very much against Apple's increasing efforts to appear as a "carbon neutral" brand.

iPhones, MacBooks and iPads will all continue, despite also being AIOs, just in a different formfactor.

Apple will put its efforts into making those more repairable instead of doing more AIO Macs. And Apple will probably double down on Mac displays and start broadening the lineup with more budget options (and even more premium ones than those we have now).

Better and more Apple-made displays is what we need, not more iMacs.

 

[entropys]

It's fixed scaling, either doubling of 1440p for (5K) or on the laptops it was doubling of 1280x800 for the 13" i dont remember the others.

On windows you can set the UI scaling to any percentage you want without a performance penalty.

Most displays are 4K and there are issues on Mac.

Yes, a major display problem for Macs. the other being lack of MST support.

 

[KDNYC]

An ASD and mid tier Mini costs $2,298, slightly more than a similar spec 27” iMac in 2017. Most can find the ASD for $1300-1400 on sale. If you want the all in one, the iMac offers a smaller form factor and no added expense for kb/mouse, but with a 5-7 year supported lifespan.

The ASD can also be marketed to laptop users.

it’s the lack of target display that upsets 27” iMac owners. But an integrated, clean setup with an external 5k in a standard size is a no brainer.

 

[alexandr]

I don't get the point to an iMac. It locks you into your computer and monitor as a set. A monitor with a Mac mini, or, as I do, a laptop makes more sense to me.

It appears you do get the point of an iMac, maybe it's just not for you.

 

[subjonas]

I honestly don’t think Apple would’ve said anything if they intended on bringing it back.

Exactly my thought. Apple almost never discusses future plans at all, so for them to break silence and explicitly tell people the 27" AS iMac (or larger AS iMac, whatever their exact wording was which the Verge never gave us) is not coming and to buy a 24" iMac or Mac + display, you know they're not playing games. You can bet they're not gaslighting and actually planning to surprise people a little later with a slightly larger than 27" iMac and say "haha we fooled you into spending money on something you didn't really want, but you can't blame us because we didn't lie--it's not a 27 inch just like we said". That would be the most sophomoric business move ever.

Also we can't nitpick the wording of Apple's quote and say they only meant 27" specifically, because there is no word-for-word quote. All we have is the Verge's report which doesn't give a quote but merely reports it second-hand, and second-hand communication is often imprecise and sometimes sprinkled with inference.

So the most sensible response is to take the reported core message at face value--that message being that people need to make their near-term purchase decisions knowing that a larger AS iMac isn't coming for any foreseeable future.

 

[rp2011]

I don't think an iMac makes sense today other than perhaps the lower-end consumer market where the 24" are positioned at. And even then, it seems improbable that there would even be a market for those.

 

[theluggage]

I think Apple missed the point about the iMac. It was an AIO that provided a competent solution which needed a keyboard and mouse and that was it. No wires draped across the desk. Easy to move if need be etc. The Mini and Studio with Studio Display versions are a mess of wires in comparison and nothing like as convenient.

1. Mains cable to the display.
2. Mains cable to the Mac
3. Video cable from Mac to display. Fork out for a Studio Display and that does half-decent sound, mic & webcam too.

Three wires! All tucked away behind the computer and display. Oh, the humanity!

Now, I prefer a wired keyboard and a proper Ethernet connection - but that was the same with an iMac, too.

For many, the 27” was simply a larger iMac to perform productivity work.

Then you have the creative crowd who didn’t need the internal expansion of the Mac Pro, but wanted a powerful Mac and a large display.

...then you have the third group who wanted a powerful headless desktop Mac that let them choose their own displays, which Apple refused to make after 2013, so had no other choice than buy an iMac. The Mac Mini got knobbled in 2014 (and even the 2018 was held back by a joke of a GPU) and by 2015 it was clear that the trashcan was a dead end. The 2019 Mac Pro was priced way out of most people's range. Those are the people who have bitten Apple's hand off to buy Mac Studios and M2/M2 Pro Minis.

The 24" iMac is possibly a worthy successor to the original iMac (and certainly harks back to that design) - but that always lived alongside relatively affordable desktop towers. The concept of 27" iMac as the only midrange desktop Mac was an aberration that only lasted from about 2015-2020.

In a perfect world, Apple would make a Mac Studio and a large-screen iMac so people could choose - but Apple don't seem to get out of bed for anything that ships less than a million units per year. Of course, that's more understandable these days when the vast majority of customers want laptops and there's no longer much perfromance advantage to a desktop now they're all using the same range of processors.

I think a big part of the Studio/Mini + Studio Display "plan" is that the Studio Display can also be sold as the ultimate MacBook docking station (it certainly wasn't designed to be part of a multi-screen desktop setup or any "studio" doing audio work).

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

More nonsense from Gurman/Bloomberg getting undeserved attention. Again, they have no reliable sources at Apple or anywhere else.

While I have appreciated some of the stuff Gurman has revealed in the past, he's really been watering down his appeal by seemingly never declining to comment on anything.

What he said here is not information on anything other than the fact that he has no info on a 27" iMac whatsoever. He's literally and blatantly beating around the bush.

The reality of this products is that nothing is leaking from Apple or suppliers/partners because there is no 27" iMac in the pipeline whatsoever.

The redesigned mini has been leaking for several years and is launching soon.

MR, Gurman and all the others need to stop talking about it. This is just spreading false hope for its fans.

 

[diggy33]

While I have appreciated some of the stuff Gurman has revealed in the past, he's really been watering down his appeal by seemingly never declining to comment on anything.

What he said here is not information on anything other than the fact that he has no info on a 27" iMac whatsoever. He's literally and blatantly beating around the bush.

The reality of this products is that nothing is leaking from Apple or suppliers/partners because there is no 27" iMac in the pipeline whatsoever.

The redesigned mini has been leaking for several years and is launching soon.

MR, Gurman and all the others need to stop talking about it. This is just spreading false hope for its fans.

It’s for the clicks!

 

[KDNYC]

Apple has always been in the crosshairs of critics who second guess every move they make. Just because tech blog forums want a large screen iMac doesn’t mean the market does. The 24” iMac is perfectly fine for everyday use by the average consumer. Apple left the display market years ago and the printer market decades ago. Oh, and they also made cameras too. The two displays they now have are for users who have need for them. A Mac Mini with a decent third party display (whatever the size) is all that is needed. A large screen all-in-one will just cause more enmity when the internal hardware falls behind and can’t be upgraded. Then that 32” all-in-one will become an albatross around the user’s neck. And Target Display Mode is history, not coming back.

Don’t forget their router/Time Machine capsule! That thing was so reliable.

Since Apple has done high ticket displays, I can see the company consider a larger pro line display if they can make it work with Studio. It’s the build quality and integration that makes people buy them. A larger iMac just makes no sense. Buy a little shelf for the rear, stick the mini on and pretend one has an iMac, and in 5 years they’ll be happy they did it this way.

 

[rafark]

Very reductionist response. I listed pretty solid reasons for my opinion yet you chose not to address them... 🤔. I even offered up a way to improve the platform but you chose not to address that either. You couldn't even be bothered to offer a reason why you like AIOs.

Care to express an opinion or just complain about mine? We are here to discuss topics aren't we?

I prefer iMacs because it’s just one cable and one power button. The simplicity and elegance of that setup cannot be replicated with a traditional computer + monitor combo.

But event if i didn’t like them I wouldn’t want Apple to stop selling them.