Apple's halts reseller orders for 17-inch iMac G5, inventory now limited
Apple Computer this week official shifted its PowerPC-based 17-inch iMac G5 offering to "End-Of-Life" status, tipsters tell AppleInsider.
Along with the shift in status, the company began informing resellers in the US that it would accept no new orders for the model. This suggests that Apple's inventory of the 17-inch iMac G5 model is nearly depleted.
The company will reportedly continue to accept individual customer orders for the computer through its online store "while supplies last." Beyond this, the 17-inch iMac G5 will only be available from Apple authorized resellers who hold remaining inventory of the computer at their respective locations.
While informing resellers of the change, Apple made no mention of the 20-inch iMac G5, suggesting it retains slightly more of these model's than the lower-cost 17-inch configuration.
Those customers still looking to secure a 17-inch iMac G5 at discount need to look no further than Amazon.com, which still retains supply of the model and is offering $125 back via a mail-in rebate.
Along with the shift in status, the company began informing resellers in the US that it would accept no new orders for the model. This suggests that Apple's inventory of the 17-inch iMac G5 model is nearly depleted.
The company will reportedly continue to accept individual customer orders for the computer through its online store "while supplies last." Beyond this, the 17-inch iMac G5 will only be available from Apple authorized resellers who hold remaining inventory of the computer at their respective locations.
While informing resellers of the change, Apple made no mention of the 20-inch iMac G5, suggesting it retains slightly more of these model's than the lower-cost 17-inch configuration.
Those customers still looking to secure a 17-inch iMac G5 at discount need to look no further than Amazon.com, which still retains supply of the model and is offering $125 back via a mail-in rebate.
Comments
i understand that there are lots of counter arguments to my bitchin' above (feel free to mention them)
that said, i empathise with apple's position and hope it truly is able to mitigate the risks and dissapointments of the transition while maximising the fun, easy to use, and exhilarating bits of Mac use. hmmm
Originally posted by sunilraman
so if i was someone making a living (say designing) using macs, now i'm faced with the slower (because of rosetta) imac core duo, or the powermac g5 tower which may be beyond my needs/budget...
If your Mac is your livelihood and you can't afford an extra $700 for the tower then perhaps you should wait a couple months for everything to go Intel native.
The real losers are going to be the schools (including universities) who want to put together a lab but for some reason depend on something running in Classic.
All in all, though, I don't think most people will care.
Originally posted by zunx
Are these the PowerPC or the Intel models?
It is the PowerPC G5 models which are being discontinued.
Originally posted by zunx
Are these the PowerPC or the Intel models?
PowerPC.
Originally posted by Booga
If your Mac is your livelihood and you can't afford an extra $700 for the tower then perhaps you should wait a couple months for everything to go Intel native.
That presumes that you've already got a Mac.
If I was to employ another designer at my place (ha!) then I'd need to buy them a Mac. It'll have to be a refurbished iMac G5 once the iMac is only available as Intel.
PowerMacs are nice but entirely OTT for us.
Originally posted by aegisdesign
That presumes that you've already got a Mac.
If I was to employ another designer at my place (ha!) then I'd need to buy them a Mac. It'll have to be a refurbished iMac G5 once the iMac is only available as Intel.
PowerMacs are nice but entirely OTT for us.
I assume that's because he (or she) would be using Adobe CS2 (or programs from that collection). These will probably go Intel in about 12 months. In the meantime, I am sure PPC machines will still be readily available. Heck, you might even save a big chunk of money by buying a second hand iMac G5 at half the price, as most people want the latest and greatest, and they feel the latest and greatest == Intel.
Of course, we here know that G5's will still work extremely well for years to come, but the general public doesn't. The sooner the mixed message of having two processors, the better.
Thankfully most see a familiar name in Intel and automatically buy that thinking they can run Windows on it.
Originally posted by Robin Hood
I assume that's because he (or she) would be using Adobe CS2 (or programs from that collection).
Other than SubEthaEdit, TextMate and the iLife/iWork apps, everything else is PowerPC and will be for some time. I couldn't get by without Photoshop/ImageReady and many web designers can't get by without Dreamweaver/Flash/Fireworks. Until Adobemedia get their act together the Intel Macs are a non-starter for most web design and development.
And please, nobody suggest I use the Gimp for image work.
I thought about taking the G5 back and getting the Core Duo model, but I decided against it primarily because of having to use rosetta until UB's come out, and then, I'm a college student! Would Adobe or MS charge me for the UB? I don't know ... probably so, meaning I couldn't afford it anyway.
For some people, the G5 is going to be perfect and get them through the next few years. I'll be sad to see the G5 go, but it's for the better. I only wish apple didn't rush the iMac to market. Now Steve has to deal with the people trying to disprove his benchmark claims and people upset that certain things aren't running as well. They should have waited until a few more people were on board with UB's. In any case, I'm glad the switch came and it makes you wonder ... is hell just a little bit colder???
Originally posted by AgNuke1707
I thought about taking the G5 back and getting the Core Duo model, but I decided against it primarily because of having to use rosetta until UB's come out, and then, I'm a college student! Would Adobe or MS charge me for the UB? I don't know ... probably so, meaning I couldn't afford it anyway.
I don't think we'll see universal binaries of Creative Suite, Macromedia's tools or MS Office until Adobe and Microsoft are ready to update their products in the normal cycle. So, it'll be part of the usual upgrade to CS3, Studio v9 and Office 2006/7.
What's in it for Adobe or Microsoft having to redo CS2, Studio8 (which is only just out) and Office2004?
Originally posted by aegisdesign
That presumes that you've already got a Mac.
If I was to employ another designer at my place (ha!) then I'd need to buy them a Mac. It'll have to be a refurbished iMac G5 once the iMac is only available as Intel.
PowerMacs are nice but entirely OTT for us.
You could by them a refurbished Powermac G5 1.8 with 17 inch LCD monitor for $1299. For about $200 more you could be OTT as well. You could buy them a Mac Mini, 17 inch monitor and a load of ram for much much less to get by for a couple months. There are plenty of folks still getting by doing professional work on G4's. You can buy refurbished iMac G5's for a while. You could hit ebay for goodness sakes.
Nick
Originally posted by trumptman
You could by them a refurbished Powermac G5 1.8 with 17 inch LCD monitor for $1299. For about $200 more you could be OTT as well. You could buy them a Mac Mini, 17 inch monitor and a load of ram for much much less to get by for a couple months. There are plenty of folks still getting by doing professional work on G4's. You can buy refurbished iMac G5's for a while. You could hit ebay for goodness sakes.
Nick
That's the point though. It'd have to be a refurb or second hand. I'm fine with that but I imagine many larger businesses aren't fine with it.
The cost of the machines were the least of my worries. Most companies not operating on the margins will think the same way. With a typical job flowing through the workplace going for $1,000, and an average of five of those jobs per week, per station, the cost of the machines are not significant.
Originally posted by melgross
It depends on how much money flows through the machine, and the person using it, who costs far more than the machine itself. When I had someone working PS on a PM, the PM would have cost me about $5,500 with the way we tended to load it (including monitor). But the person working it cost me upwards of $52,000 a year, plus medical care, insurance, etc.
The cost of the machines were the least of my worries. Most companies not operating on the margins will think the same way. With a typical job flowing through the workplace going for $1,000, and an average of five of those jobs per week, per station, the cost of the machines are not significant.
Most of my stuff at the moment is open source software development and given away for free. It's an interesting business model. ;-)
Originally posted by aegisdesign
Most of my stuff at the moment is open source software development and given away for free. It's an interesting business model. ;-)
I trust that you don't have the philosophy of losing money on every copy, but thinking that the more you give away, the more money you'll make.
Hopefully, you charge for service?
Originally posted by aegisdesign
I don't think we'll see universal binaries of Creative Suite, Macromedia's tools or MS Office until Adobe and Microsoft are ready to update their products in the normal cycle. So, it'll be part of the usual upgrade to CS3, Studio v9 and Office 2006/7.
Exactly. I'm not buying, "We'll see Photoshop et al. Universal in a few months." Regardless if Adobe cares or not, if their code isn't inside Xcode it will take time. Hell even if it was some of their code in Photoshop I'm sure is ancient stuff.
If anything this will show how real Adobe's commitment is to Mac. Yes they make a lot of money off Mac users, but then you have the removal of Premiere.
Still, I'm not expecting CS3 or CS2 i386 by Spring. One of the reasons I jumped on a dual-processor G4 upgrade for my work computer
Originally posted by IonYz
Exactly. I'm not buying, "We'll see Photoshop et al. Universal in a few months." Regardless if Adobe cares or not, if their code isn't inside Xcode it will take time. Hell even if it was some of their code in Photoshop I'm sure is ancient stuff.
If anything this will show how real Adobe's commitment is to Mac. Yes they make a lot of money off Mac users, but then you have the removal of Premiere.
Still, I'm not expecting CS3 or CS2 i386 by Spring. One of the reasons I jumped on a dual-processor G4 upgrade for my work computer
What's interesting about all of this is that even Mathamatica, which was demoed during the dev conv, to great public acclaim, is not yet available as a universal binary!
They have both 32 and 64 bit versions available for the MacPPC machines.
And, that was supposed to have been easy!
Originally posted by aegisdesign
Most of my stuff at the moment is open source software development and given away for free. It's an interesting business model. ;-)
That is an interesting business model. What do you like to give away?
Several times you have mentioned how you liked the internal design of the earlier G5 iMacs. Those are the first ones introduced with the 'display is the computer', with nVidia 5200 gpus, and with the ddr 400 RAM, right? Some times we refer to a revision A, and I think that must mean the one that came after the first model, as how could it be a revision, if it is the first model? Anyway, those are the ones you liked the internal design on, righto?
1) The overwhelming majority of creative users on the Mac side use PowerMacs. The minority are on PowerBooks. A small fraction use iMacs or iBooks. Only their second largest installed base even has the possibility to upgrade to Intel at the moment. Thats a lot of work (I believe that they have to move to Xcode) to appease a fairly small number of customers that will be upgrading in the timeframe before CS3 is released.
2) Adobe's efforts right now are concentrated on merging their and Macromedia's products. I think we will see the value of the Creative Suite rise significantly within the next two revisions. Imagine the combined strengths of Imageready and Fireworks, Illustrator and Freehand, GoLive and Dreamweaver, PDF and Flash. Wouldnt you want them to bring us more value than to waste time updating programs that wont be used by many? Rest assured, CS3 and all its variants will be Intel native.
I realize that there will probably be a short gap in time between the time that the PowerMac replacements come out and CS3 is released, but I would venture that this will hurt Apple more than customers, since many will postpone their upgrades until CS3 is released. Besides, I wouldnt be too thrilled about a version 1 product...
3) Why do people even bother bringing up Premiere as an issue with Adobe's loyalty (loyalty is a bad word really, its all about money anyway) to the Mac platform?
Premiere has had an overwhelming amount of competition since Final Cut was released, even on the PC only side there has been fierce competition. At the time, Avid and Media 100 were covering the high end and Premiere had the low-mid end. When Final Cut was released at a similar price, with more features and an arguably better workflow, Premiere sales on the Mac plumited. Even when Adobe made Premiere more competetive, it was too late, Final Cut was dominating and Avid Express was covering the rest of the market. It made no sense for Adobe to continue to sell Premiere for the Mac in such a market.
At any rate, I just wanted to add another perspective that was not quite so harsh for Adobe : )