iMac As An All-In-One Is Done
In lieu of the recent eMac update, it has become apparent to me that the all in one iMac form factor is a fading memory. The iMac of yesterday was a gorgeous all in one bubble shaped, cuddly computer with an attractive price point and great features for any needy consumer. The iMac of today is sort of like a small house on an expensive property, not really worth it if you dont just looove the view (or something like that).
The eMac is the only all-in-one desktop that Apple will be selling in the future. The reason I believe this is simply because it has a price that has room to move lower, where the iMac will only get higher in price as it gets newer LCD's and compnents like the G5 and such.
For cost effectiveness and possibly even wiping out AIO desktops altogether, Apple might as well do a Cube type computer again. Hell, any sort of desktop that does not carry an outrageously high price point and has the ability to be basically expanded would foot the bill. I fear that Apple sometimes gets extremely ambitious with its industrial design, while this is good most of the time, this methodology leads to revenue problems because high end products dont always sell as well as many would think. For example, my dad was shocked when I told him the iMac has not been selling well, he thought that by its looks alone it has been selling, but more and more people are looking beyond ergonomic solutions (actually most people have always looked at just the technical side of things).
A G5 tower, exactly the same PowerMac G5 that is being sold, would do the trick. Once the new PM's are upgraded at WWDC, why not drop the iMac line as we know it and rename the low end PowerMac the iMac G5? Apple doesnt have to reinvent the wheel, they just need to get an affordable and "consumer desired" computer on the shelves. Just because Steve wants to move his screen around with the touch of a finger, doesnt mean everyone wants or even cares about that. Selling a standard does indeed become arrogant at the point where it is just not bringing in enough money and not enough units are being moved. Just make a Mac that appeals to everyone and is in reach of many, just like the original iMac!
The magic of the original iMac was not its AIO form, it was that it delivered what people wanted at a reasonable price, and in a compelling overall package. I want to see something similar happen again, but updated to the needs and desires of today's consumer.
The eMac is the only all-in-one desktop that Apple will be selling in the future. The reason I believe this is simply because it has a price that has room to move lower, where the iMac will only get higher in price as it gets newer LCD's and compnents like the G5 and such.
For cost effectiveness and possibly even wiping out AIO desktops altogether, Apple might as well do a Cube type computer again. Hell, any sort of desktop that does not carry an outrageously high price point and has the ability to be basically expanded would foot the bill. I fear that Apple sometimes gets extremely ambitious with its industrial design, while this is good most of the time, this methodology leads to revenue problems because high end products dont always sell as well as many would think. For example, my dad was shocked when I told him the iMac has not been selling well, he thought that by its looks alone it has been selling, but more and more people are looking beyond ergonomic solutions (actually most people have always looked at just the technical side of things).
A G5 tower, exactly the same PowerMac G5 that is being sold, would do the trick. Once the new PM's are upgraded at WWDC, why not drop the iMac line as we know it and rename the low end PowerMac the iMac G5? Apple doesnt have to reinvent the wheel, they just need to get an affordable and "consumer desired" computer on the shelves. Just because Steve wants to move his screen around with the touch of a finger, doesnt mean everyone wants or even cares about that. Selling a standard does indeed become arrogant at the point where it is just not bringing in enough money and not enough units are being moved. Just make a Mac that appeals to everyone and is in reach of many, just like the original iMac!
The magic of the original iMac was not its AIO form, it was that it delivered what people wanted at a reasonable price, and in a compelling overall package. I want to see something similar happen again, but updated to the needs and desires of today's consumer.
Comments
The magic of the original iMac was not its AIO form, it was that it delivered what people wanted at a reasonable price, and in a compelling overall package. I want to see something similar happen again, but updated to the needs and desires of today's consumer.
Absurd. Obviously you didn't sell the orginal iMacs when they hit. People LOVED the AIO easy setup.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Absurd. Obviously you didn't sell the orginal iMacs when they hit. People LOVED the AIO easy setup.
Don't be so insulting with your "absurd comments" because the original iMac did owe a lot of its success to the AIO form, but that wasnt the whole deal. Today, the computer is no longer a verging concept and so difficult to comprehend, if not because of the effectiveness of the older AIO's and laptops. Now it is no longer necessary to force AIO's down people's throats because a 15-20 inch LCD just costs too much money. I would personally be more in favor of Apple using CRT's in the iMac to bring its price down, rather than place a total marketshare dwindling LCD in the AIO. But then again, why not rid of a display altogether? It would make sense, if it were just a marketing ploy. Apple could sell a desktop minus the display and then sell a display separately, one which would be intended to go along with the desktop but not forced with it. This way Apple could pull a Dell and say $699 and mean $1299.
Something different has to be done, that much is obvious to anyone from analysts to high school students like me.
Apples main problem is how to overcome the limitation of a AIO computer. Namely, graphic upgrade capability perhaps easy HD replacement. In my experience there where two distinct types of users.
User A- seeks to buy new CPU and use as much existing technology from their current system. Bottom line kind of person.
User B- Type of person that replaces things in their entirety even if the previous equipment works fine. They are the ones that buy new monitors, Printers and CPUs at the same time.
Thus User A hates the iMac and eMac because it doesn't meet their bottomline requirements
User B doesn't care because they had planned to replace the monitor anyways.
Initially I didn't think i'd meet many "User B" shoppers but suprisingly I met quite a few.
My suggestion to Apple is to keep an AIO unit but lower the cost of entry for a Tower design with AGP/upgradeability
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
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I would personally be more in favor of Apple using CRT's in the iMac to bring its price down, rather than place a total marketshare dwindling LCD in the AIO.
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Something different has to be done, that much is obvious to anyone from analysts to high school students like me.
When the iMac first came out it was just about as fast as the fastest PowerMacs (the iMac was using a 233MHz PowerPC 750 on a 66MHz buss while the Powermacs had either a 233 or 266MHz PowerPC 750 on a 66MHz bus) and they sold very well.
Now the iMac gives you way less then half the power of the fastest PowerMacs, and they are not selling well. I wonder why...
It might have been ok two years ago, but by todays standards a 1.25 GHz G4 on a slow bus is a joke, and the current iMac is in such a need of an update that it just isn't funny anymore.
I kind of wonder if the whole desktop/laptop dichotomy with computer designs is outmoded. I wonder if Apple has something that doesn't quite fit in either category up its sleeve.
Same old argument here, but I can see a place for the AIO (home users). Whether or not the "iMac" is the name plate for the machine, only time will tell.
Originally posted by Rhumgod
AIO is not dead, just suited to a different market than Messiahtosh is thinking, I reckon. Rather than kill the AIO, I think they need to introduce a low-end desktop, something that can penetrate the corporate market, but not in the immediate future. Apple's enterprise division, if there really is such a thing
Same old argument here, but I can see a place for the AIO (home users). Whether or not the "iMac" is the name plate for the machine, only time will tell.
As a home user, I would never buy an AIO for the same reason that I would never get a TV with built in vhs/dvd, What if you want a bigger display, and then a better card to drive it, this concept is a pro consept but home users like it too, the market that apple seems to totaly ignore is the catagory I fall into, "prosumer" not a pro per-se but the prosumer wants/needs something with a little more umf than the iMac. the base G5 is a great prosumer platform, but it is way over priced for the bus speed, the fact that it has 1 proc and that it can hold half the ram of it's bigger brothers.
Lop $400ish off the single chip PM and bingo, the perfect prosumer price point. they may not make as much per unit as they do now but they would widen their custemor base by attracting the fence sitters who still use windows but dread every second of it and dont want to venture off into linux land.
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
A G5 tower, exactly the same PowerMac G5 that is being sold, would do the trick. Once the new PM's are upgraded at WWDC, why not drop the iMac line as we know it and rename the low end PowerMac the iMac G5?
The cost of goods on the G5 tower is too high to allow it to be deployed as a low-end machine. To deliver a G5 system to a low-end price point they are going to have to re-engineer it. I expect we will see this by year's end, possibly much sooner. I won't even hazard a guess as to whether it will have a display built-in. Really they could design one new low-end motherboard and use it in both a modular and AIO product.
The iMac is not going anywhere. The refresh to the eMac only means that the iMac will be refreshed soon, if not totally revamped. Apple and the AIO design have gone together since before 1984, and will continue to do so for a long, long time.
The thread will degrade into the same useless "headless iMac"/"xMac" debate that's been going on all over, with he same tired and very incorrect arguments being made about why the iMac needs to loose the monitor.
So let me make a few quick points to rebut the inevitable statements by the headless iMac crowd:
1) Yes the iMac is underpowered and overpriced right now. Apple basically admitted as much during the last conference call. This does not mean that the iMac design, or the AIO concept, is critically flawed. It means Apple needs to boost performance and figure out how to reduce the manufacturing costs. I for one believe that this is one of Apple's major priorities right now, and I expect to see a new iMac for close to $1000 in a few months or sooner, possible with a G5.
2) Remember the Cube? Good. Allow me to reintroduce you to the "headless" Mac. Can we stop calling it the "headless iMac" now? The Cube had everything that the headless crowd wants (with the possible exception of a PCI slot, but that's just crazy talk. Get a PowerMac then. sheesh). The problem with the Cube was price. Again, Apple just needs to figure out how to make it cheaper. Maybe they can get rid of the expensive molded polycarbonate exclosure.
3) Just because you don't like the iMac doesn't mean it should go away. I, and many others, happen to think that the iMac is an incredible piece of work. It's ergonomics are far superior to any other computer out there. It has a market, it's just not you. There's nothing wrong with you wanting a computer that fits your needs, but you don't have to try to turn the iMac into that computer.
4) The iMac brand is incredibly valuable and Apple won't soon get rid of it. The iMac started the 'i' thing, and until recently with the iPod and iTunes was Apple's most recognizable brand. It would be dumb to just toss away that investment.
5) Apple has stated that they won't play in the low, low end market. This can be debated as to whether or not it's a good move. Apple apparently believes that they can't make a quality low-end computer at competitive prices and make money. Many companies, like HP or IBM, loose money on their low-end machines and try to make it up with peripheral sales. Apple may one day decide to try this strategy, but they aren't now. This basically rules out a $500 box for the moment. Seeing how many PC companies are really struggling right now, maybe it's not a bad idea. However, the new eMac seems to me like a nice option for a low-end Mac, the price is really not that much more than a low-end PC and you get a lot more.
So here's to any one who wants to see the Cube return. That's the best bet for a cheap desktop, tower, "headless iMac", or whatever. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Cube 2 this summer. We'll see.
S
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"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." - Thomas Jefferson
I could see them replacing the current iMac with a 17" iBook ... or maybe just putting in a graphics card/video out that will allow thte use of larger monitors/resolutions (not just mirroring).
Just my 2-cents, of course ... but if the iBook offered true external monitor support, I'd buy that over an iMac.
We're relatively close to being able to composite and apply effects on multiple real time video streams over a typical net connection. Once this is possible on a typical consumer PC, there are only a few more domains that require greater processing power. Extremely large simulations of things like weather, natural language processing, and object recognition in video streams are perhaps the most demanding potential future uses.
However, as a information reference/management and communication tool, computers have nearly reached the "good enough" point where form factor becomes more important than speed and expandability.
The time for All-In-Ones is not past, the era is just in its infancy.
The problem with the original iMac became the monitor. 14" viewable curved in a 17" flat world. It was holding the product back and no update of the internals could change that. Enter the LCD iMac. It was all about how to put an LCD into the hands of a consumer Mac user. Remember, there was no such option at the time which was also holding Apple back. The iMac 2 was all about the monitor. Everything below the neck was an afterthought... and still is. No matter what they do to the iMac 2, it will still be all about the monitor. It is the first computer that people would like to have for the monitor and not the computer. That equation has to change. It is an inherent problem with any type of all in one device. None of the components will be very good, just good enough. That won't cut it for a $2K desktop computer.
Originally posted by TKN
I actually think the eMac would be a better choice to lose the monitor. It would then be a much better corporate/education machine. The iMac should move to single G5s and the PowerMacs all doubles (or more!)
I agree. The eMac is the affordable machine. Apple coming out with a headless eMac would not surprise me at all. CRTs are going away, not LCDs.
My guess is that the next iMac will have a wider price range than today. A 15" model with a 1.5GHz G4 could sell for the "magic" $999, with a 20" model 2.0GHz G5 at around $1999 and the 17" somewhere in between.
When the eMac was upgraded, we all expected the iMac to be released shortly thereafter. Since it wasn't, some felt that that meant the G5 iMac must be coming; others, like Messiahtosh apparently, think that it's being discontinued. The latter is very unlikely; the LCD iMac is pretty much iconic for Apple these days. A G5 iMac has got to come out, and it has to have a good processor and good graphics. It seems to be taking a long time, but that's typical of Apple as well. Be patient.
What did they want from a computer that their old ones didn't do well? Easy:
They wanted to use a word processor (my mom bought the Office bundle, my mother in law uses Appleworks) and spreadsheet program. My mom needed PowerPoint. My mom needed to use a specific type of grading software (she's a teacher) and the title was available for the Mac.
They both wanted to surf, e-mail, and chat.
They both wanted to watch DVDs and use iTunes.
They both wanted the simplest way to get to those applications and the files created in those applications.
They both wanted to be insulated, somewhat, from Windows specific viruses and spyware (both of which they had problems with in the past).
But use wasn't the only selling factor. Both had an "idea" of what a computer should do and how it should function. The AIO design fit their mental model.
Each time I brought my switchers to The Apple Store, when I showed them the iMac and the eMac they had the same reaction, they feeling that the design of the computers made sense. That belief that the computer was like a TV and that the guts of the thing were behind the screen and not somewhere else (like on the floor or the desk near the monitor) fit their mental model of what a computer should be. Their reaction to the iMac was the same as the eMac.
In the end both chose the eMac over the iMac solely because of price.
They are both thrilled with them.
As long as there are switchers and potential switchers out there the AIO factor will have some appeal. But they aren't meant to be supercomputers, Apple already makes excellent desktops and laptops for that. The AIO factor also reinforces the simplicity of the OS user experience too.