Apple's 27" iMacs continue to face production issues - Page 3

It's after 5:00pm on January 30.  Still no update.

 

The chance of a January delivery is looking very, very slim.

 

Bummer.

I ordered the iPhone 5 the day it was announced, well, available for order her in the NL. Was going to take 4 weeks. Wow, that's the longest wait I ever had for an Apple product (well, ok, the new Mac Pro was also...different story as that wasn't announced). Here I was, waiting for the 5, and exactly like you I was loosing hope. I got an email from Apple and UPS the day before the deadline.

Come to think of it, they should've sent you word on the delay, because it doesn't look like...scrap that, 31 days. And they said Januari, no? So technically it's still feasible.

Ahh, optimism!

 

Feasible, possibly.  Last time I ordered through this shop, though, it took several days for me to receive the machine after it was shipped.  So, it could ship tomorrow and that would still be January...

 

- - - - -

 

Checked another site where lots of people are posting delivery status, etc.  Lots of CTOs seem to be going out this week, so again there is hope that mine is coming soon.

 

People who ordered after Christmas have had their orders updated to preparing for shipment/shipped.

Good luck.

Tomorrow will be the 21st day since I ordered. Still in processing but they said 3-4 weeks before shipping which means my arrival dates were given as Feb 8-15th.

Ordered November 30, was told it would be delivered in January.

 

Well, the last business day of January has come to a close and there is no update on my order.

 

Of course, no comment from Apple regarding the order. The guy at my shop was incredibly embarrassed that they had failed to fulfill on their promised delivery window. At least for their resellers' sake I think Apple could give some updates, because some of these people work very hard to sell and support Apple goods; it's sad to see them unable to give feedback to their customers.

I peruse the net and see other people getting theirs, including one guy who ordered two days after Christmas, almost four weeks after I ordered. Same configuration.  And lots of other 27s of various configurations being delivered this week that were ordered in early January.

 

 

The rollout certainly does not seem to be being conducted on a first order, first served basis.  Nor is there any explanation for the delay.

 

This was not Apple's best rollout.

 

Rant over.

Edited by Bergermeister - 1/31/13 at 4:19am

Ouch, that sucks. And is not good from Apple. I understand their secrecy policy, but there's also a customers need to get updates on the status of their order.
Edited by PhilBoogie - 1/31/13 at 2:07am

 

 

 

Just to be doubly sure, I will slip by the shop just before they close tonight.  

Edited by Bergermeister - 1/31/13 at 2:14am

Finally some action!

 

My order now shows "Preparing for shipment"!  

 

Missed the January delivery, but there was action in January, albeit right at the bell.

 

Shouldn't be too long now.

 

 

I hope!

Edited by Bergermeister - 1/31/13 at 4:24am

Isn't that where Americans say: "too close for comfort"?

How about you Solipsism?

 

 

It was quite in to the late afternoon/evening in Asia (where I live and the machines ship from) on the 31st.

I am honestly glad you now show preparing for shipment before I did.

This morning (1.5 hours before this date stamp) I received an email with a tracking number from Apple. My delivery date is slated for February 6 with an original date of Feb 8 to the 15th.


PS: If waiting for a $2500 computer is the most upsetting thing in our lives we are doing pretty well for ourselves.


edit: Just ordered my 32GB of 1600MHz DDR3 CAS9 RAM from Newegg.
Edited by SolipsismX - 1/31/13 at 1:08pm

 

True.

My last order update was premature.  They said another order went straight to preparing for shipment on the 30th; I thought that was mine.  

 

My order was in Processing on January 29 or 30.

 

It changed to preparing for shipment on February 1st.  According to the shop tonight, this means it will ship Monday or Tuesday (usually) and should arrive Friday Feb 9 or thereabouts. 

 

Ugh and good.  Finally I have a a rough timetable.

 

This was not the smoothest of rollouts, nor the fairest. 

Edited by Bergermeister - 2/2/13 at 5:29am

That is not good. They are supposed to be the best in this / the field, but a rollout like this stands out. And not in a good way, obviously. Also goes for first come, first served. That even seems odd to have happened at all. Well, at least Solipsism got his notification after you, so that was fair.

Ok, so, about a week. Well, I'd prepare my current Mac; clean out old junk, tidy stuff up in the finder and such. Enjoy it when you have it booting up. Nee, before: The Unpacking Experience!

 

 

The "old" iMac has been ready since January 1!  Actually, maybe since the day I placed my order...    

 

Only problem is the "ld" iMac had an SSD and HD whereas the new one "just" has a Fusion Drive.  The former is split, the latter is single.  I'll migrate the SSD and then drag and drop the HD stuff, I guess.

 

This is the first time I will be able to use TB for target mode, so it will nice to see how fast it is!  The it's off to speed comparisons but my old machine has 8GB RAM and the new one 16, so it might not actually be a fair test (two major apps benefit from RAM)!

Mine is in Alaska at this point. Just a hop through Canada and then down two states to get to me. Slated for Wednesday but I hope I get it sooner. CAS 9 RAM from Newegg arrived today.

Seeing files being copied over in TDM is something else!

I was going to ask if you made sure that RAM would be in your possession before the iMac, so good to read this. Then again, the new iMac wouldn't be useless without it - lol.

Enjoy gents! I might just read your Unpacking Experience right here.

 

 

Coming from a MBP that is a couple of years back you are in for a royal treat, indeed.  

 

I'm just moving up from a 2011 iMac, so the difference probably won't be so dramatic, except for the screen, of course.  I am hoping that there will be a good boost to rendering power; my new 20112 Mac mini rivals the 2011 iMac despite being very different in specs.  As the 2012 iMac is new architecture, it could show a good speed boost.

 

I have a FW800 drive serving as a Time Machine disk.  The new iMac doesn't have FW800 so I will be using an adapter.  It will be interesting to see if it will work chained to my other TB disks or if I will have to connect it directly to a TB port...  

I imagine so. Almost 4x as many pixels and over 4.25x the display area should make using Xcode much easier, not to mention all the performance improvements over a 2010 13" MBP. My last excuse for not buckling down and creating an app will be removed. I have 11 ideas for Mac and iOS apps written down in detail but no ability to code them. This is my version of being Helen Keller except in my case it's one aspect of expression and laziness that is preventing me from doing it.

Memphis, TN which is only slightly closer to me than Anchorage, AK.

 

It's funny how they happens, isn't it?  Hubs and such. 

 

Sadly, I can't follow my order as I didn't place it with Apple.  For all I know it's still at  the North Pole being painted by elves.

 

Will try asking my shop today, but I think their system only shows status, not location as they aren't as crazy as we are.

I'm not too keen on tracking my package (although I did look up the distance difference between my location as compared to how the crow flies for Anchorage and Memphis but I catalog that under geography) but I have the Delivery Status widget on my Dashboard that does a periodic check and will send a notification if something changes.

 

 

Perhaps the people who received their shipment before yours had a configuration that Apple was able to build more quickly than yours? For example, let's say Apple had a problem procuring 3TB HDD's. Everyone who ordered the 3TB fusion drive would have their shipment delayed and people who ordered the 1Tb fusion drive would be ready to ship immediately. You think Apple is going to sit there and wait for the 3TB fusion drives to arrive so that they can deliver to the people who ordered beforehand so they can be "fair" about the delivery process?

 

Apple has the most efficient supply chain system in the world but Tim Cook can only do so much. He can set up the system to be the most efficient but it's up to manufacturers to execute. You may have the best basketball coach in the world, but he can only put the players in the best position to win. It doesn't mean he's going to win, it just means he's the best at putting people in situations to succeed. At the end of the day, it's up to the players to execute. I'm guessing in this case, the players failed to execute some friction welding to the screens which caused delay. Blame the players, not the coach or organization.

Edited by White Lotus - 2/3/13 at 6:14pm

Something along those lines has certainly happened in the past couple years. I think it was BTO models with certain capacity SSD cards in a Mac notebook or perhaps the SSD+HDD setup (pre-Fusion Drive) in a previous iMac. Regardless, you'd choose that BTO option and your time to ship would increase with that option.

In this case it appears that it's because he's using a 3rd party retailer instead of going directly through Apple. He's supporting local vendors which is admirable but that does come with the possibility of not getting serviced as quickly as going direct.

My order is a 27" high-end default build with the only BTO option being the 3.1TiB Fusion Drive.

To cover all bases both of us did have word about our orders processing about the same time despite my order being placed nearly 6 weeks after his. This could be a coincidence or it could be a result of what you stated and they now have enough supply of a component we both use to fulfill both our orders. That said, I would bet against that as this is falling well within my promised delivery time.
Edited by SolipsismX - 2/3/13 at 7:08pm

 

 

Did you read what I posted?  I saw online people with the exact same configuration receiving theirs.  I like Apple as much as anybody, but they didn't do this rollout as well as they could have.  Whatever the hiccup was (or hiccups were), I hope they get it sorted out before the next launch.

Edited by Bergermeister - 2/3/13 at 9:45pm

It has shipped.  FINALLY!!!

 

Shipped today and the shop said "by Monday", with Friday looking good.  Two days to ship within Japan, so it depend on customs.

 

There was another customer there collecting his 27", 3.4GHz, standard RAM, 1TB Fusion.  Ordered three days after I did, so way back on November 3rd or 4th.  The shop said they had "heard" that the 3TB configuration was causing delays, but I've seen lots of 3TBs delivered already...  

 

Now I can try to find a buyer for my old iMac... missed one guy by ten days.  

Edited by Bergermeister - 2/4/13 at 1:14am

Hoorah! So, Wednesday or Thursday. Better clear out the weekend appointments!

In Los Angeles which means it could theoretically get delivered today but I'll still maintain my expectation for Wednesday.

Just got word it's at my local FedEx facility. Not sure if that means it'll be delivered today but delivery tomorrow, 3 days ahead of the earliest stated time, seems more likely than them holding it until Wed.

Taking a day off to be at home for this, I presume? I would - this is big. Going from a 13" to a 27" you are going to love the 'real estate'. It will make your whole computing workflow different when behind the iMac (3 Word documents side by side...if you use Word lol)

One word of advise: boot it up 'as is' and not upgrade the RAM just yet. If there's anything wrong from either supplier it is so much easier to determine which one. (not to spook you out, meant as friendly advise)

My plan is to benchmark it before and after it gets used. I also want to see how the different RAM latencies affect overall benchmark performance. Any suggestions besides Xbench?

Sorry, no. I just read upon all there is to when purchasing something and then go for the most expensive option because that usually is the best. Well, not literally, and it has to be somewhere within my range.

I would run a RAM eating application as a test, something like Photoshop or Parallels. Just to see if something it faster than before an upgrade. Totally unscientific, but real world experience goes a long way.

As long as you follow the scientific method it's valid. A large enough test can tested with a stop watch by hand that can be accurate within a second. AnandTech uses this method all the time.

If it turns out not to improve the performance in any meaningful way I might just return my CAS 9 RAM to Newegg. It does cost nearly 3x as much as the CAS 11 RAM of the same speed and size.

A valid thing to say. Though I must say I never actually believed a test would be accurate if a stopwatch is used. Won't make a whole second difference, but many millieseconds? Easily, from just pressing the stopwatch. I've tried to time something with my iPhone build in app, but came to the conclusion it would never be accurate. Obviously it could be if I hit the start and stop button with the same offset.

Hmm, that is a price difference. Not the world, but still.

edit: did bump across these 3:

• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
• http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/
• http://www.optilabs.eu/en/blog/detail/mac-memory-test-how-to-test-your-mac-os-x-ram

On vehicle for delivery today. Sorry, Berg, you deserve to get yours first but I'm very excited to be getting mine today.


Yeah, I'll use the AHT (Apple Hardware Test) for the RAM. Use it for all new RAM. I recommend everyone do this as RAM that appears to be working fine may not be fine. Better to know sooner rather than later.

Exited you should be. Humble, you already showed that earlier.

lol I am anything but humble, but I do have a strong desire for wanting to things to be fair, even-handed and unbiased, which may or may not balance out my lack of diffidence.

First round of test with the standard 8GB ran have been run. Have installed the 3rd-party RAM with the lower latency and running the AHT on it to see if it passes. Will run the rest of the tests and post any relevant info in a few hours.

I will say that the access bay for the 27" iMac is very slick. The nicely system I've ever seen on a PC. Unfortunately I would be unable to explain well but I will say that I wouldn't mind walking the most techtarded person through a RAM upgrade over the phone.

I also noticed there is a Kensington lock port on the back below the power adaptor plug. I thought I was going to have to loop a bike lock through the hole in the back.

I also received my iMac today! =D Happy Happy Joy Joy! Screen is huge. Delivery date was supposed to be after 4:30pm on Thurs. I came home for lunch hour from work and all of a sudden Mr FedEx is at my door! Huge box, I already know what it must be. I can't believe it's so soon!

 

Well, I tried to run the Apple test as mentioned above and my computer passed. I don't know about any other benchmark. I'll Solypsism do them.

 

My default brightness level is just below the half way point. Is this the way it should be? What is every one else running at?

I ran Geekbench 64-bit with the 8GB as 2x4GB, 16GB* (2x8GB) and 24GB (2x8GB, 2GB) RAM. The result was no difference in performance between any combination of RAM. I did verify that my 27" 3.2GHz Core-i5 iMac with 1GB GPU and 2x4GB RAM did ship with CAS 11 RAM and that the RAM I received from Newegg was CAS 9.

Unfortunately this was the first time I had ever used Migration Assistant so I when I ran into an issue with my new iMac's username setup being the same as on my MBP I deleted the screenshots and other data. Huge gaffe on my part.

Unless my method was flawed I don't see a need for a consumer to pay nearly 3x as much for lower latency RAM that doesn't show any marked improvement in performance.