Would you upgrade your iMac 3, if you could?

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Lots of people suggest that one reason the current iMac hasn't sold well is that it can't be upgraded. For those of you in the consumer category; those who use their Mac for email and web surfing; iPhoto and iTunes;iMovie and iDVD; games and Garage Band; how many would actually do some kind of internal upgrade in your new iMac's life span, if given the options. It is assumed that RAM upgrades will always be a desirable option, so that's not included in this poll. Pros need not vote. We know you need to upgrade.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    xterra48xterra48 Posts: 169member
    This poll is skewed IMO.



    If indeed the emac drops(probable) then the imac should have a base model and should be the cheapest (Deskttop) way into the mac world, and the fact stands that most average consumers, hopefully soon to be switchers(which theoretically is the market apple is going for in the 3g imac, IMO if they don?t there crazy) don?t upgrade there current PC's. They are stuck in the PC world because every 3-4 years they go to dell.com or a store like best buy and get a new PC and do no upgrading in between (not even OS) (these people are just the fed-up simpletons Apple needs to attract to OSX). Im positave large PC makers have tons of research data to back this up. The tech savvy macists at AI want upgraders but the avrage people don't, and they wont be attracted by any upgradeability of the 3g imac.



    P.S. I oppose calling non-mac Computers "PC"s but oftentimes it is so much faster that I cant help myself
  • Reply 2 of 15
    One of the big reasons Apple doesnt sell as many machines as they could, is because there is no real gamer-mac. Lots and lots of PC's are sold only for gaming purposes, and most young people 15>, get theirs for this sole purpose.



    The iMac sucks for gaming, and the Powermac is too expensive. So giving the option of upgrading your graphicscard would enable lots of users to get a good gaming machine.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    gargar Posts: 1,201member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

    ...The iMac sucks for gaming, and the Powermac is too expensive. So giving the option of upgrading your graphicscard would enable lots of users to get a good gaming machine.



    or give people the same bto option as the powerbook has:

    128Mb GPU for 30 euro extra.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    xterra48xterra48 Posts: 169member
    Even if the young gamer crowd had expandable Graphics they still wouldent chose imac's for two reasons:

    1. "Macs o there slow they suck" The perception is so ingraned in that groupe of people that they will die saying that.

    2. many games have delays to the mac release or arent released at all, you can argue with that all.



    I don't forsee the young gamer crowd returning to Mac's anytime in the next 7 years.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by xterra48

    ...I don't forsee the young gamer crowd returning to Mac's anytime in the next 7 years.



    What about longhorn, the damnd OS is going to take 2 to 3 times the resourses of todays top 3-d games, and osx can run quite happily on a then-6-year-old-G4,and a g5 which will be in all models by then will play the games quite well, no doubt.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    I'm not to sure why you are so convinced that manufactures have data indicationg that most user do not uprgrade theri PC's. That simply is not the case and flys in the face of what can be seen in the retail world. Now I'm not to sure what the manufacture precieve to be an upgrade but it is rather self serving to have data that indicates that people buy new hardware instead of upgrading.



    Sure there are some people that don't have a clue as to what they could possibley do to thier machine. That is a very small number of people, you will find a much larger percentage that know they want something but don't know how to go about getting it. Maybe there is 30% remaining that handle the upgrades themselves and could be considered technically literate.



    As to the iMac there are a number of things that keep people form purchasing the machine. It is pretty obvious that the people who do purchase the iMac are not at all interested in upgrades. One of the things that has harmed the sale of the iMac is the difficultiy in upgrading the machine. Yeah that is only one of several severe issues with the machine but none the less significant.



    Now Apple could have a singnificant impact on the desire of many to upgrade by introduceing an iMac that is state of the art and thus minimize the need for upgrades. In other words deliver a machine with a NEW video card with a full complement of memory along with enough system memory capacity to properly run OSX. While the current iMac can be upgraded a bit system memory wise, the lack of capacity is significant.



    SO to answer the original posters question: sure I would upgrade the machine. That very well might be at the time of purchase or a bit later, except for one old laptop I have not owned a PC that hasn't been upgraded! It is fair to say that very few people don't end up upgrading their machine is some form or the other.



    Thanks

    dave





    Quote:

    Originally posted by xterra48

    This poll is skewed IMO.



    If indeed the emac drops(probable) then the imac should have a base model and should be the cheapest (Deskttop) way into the mac world, and the fact stands that most average consumers, hopefully soon to be switchers(which theoretically is the market apple is going for in the 3g imac, IMO if they don?t there crazy) don?t upgrade there current PC's. They are stuck in the PC world because every 3-4 years they go to dell.com or a store like best buy and get a new PC and do no upgrading in between (not even OS) (these people are just the fed-up simpletons Apple needs to attract to OSX). Im positave large PC makers have tons of research data to back this up. The tech savvy macists at AI want upgraders but the avrage people don't, and they wont be attracted by any upgradeability of the 3g imac.



    P.S. I oppose calling non-mac Computers "PC"s but oftentimes it is so much faster that I cant help myself



  • Reply 7 of 15
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,561member
    Changing the hard drive is almost standard maintenance, not an upgrade.



    We've had several iMacs. If I had the option from Apple I would upgrade the motherboard or the entire computer base. That would get me a faster CPU, better GPU, better buses, possibly better ports (FW400 -> FW800, USB1 -> USB2), better sound options and possibly better technology all around.



    I would even like to upgrade the original iMac. I really like the size and the case design. It would be nice if Apple could make a new motherboard with a faster CPU and maybe a few other options.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by xterra48

    This poll is skewed IMO.



    If indeed the emac drops(probable) then the imac should have a base model and should be the cheapest (Deskttop) way into the mac world, and the fact stands that most average consumers, hopefully soon to be switchers(which theoretically is the market apple is going for in the 3g imac, IMO if they don?t there crazy) don?t upgrade there current PC's. They are stuck in the PC world because every 3-4 years they go to dell.com or a store like best buy and get a new PC and do no upgrading in between (not even OS) (these people are just the fed-up simpletons Apple needs to attract to OSX). Im positave large PC makers have tons of research data to back this up. The tech savvy macists at AI want upgraders but the avrage people don't, and they wont be attracted by any upgradeability of the 3g imac.



    P.S. I oppose calling non-mac Computers "PC"s but oftentimes it is so much faster that I cant help myself




    don't make blanket statements like that, it only weakens your argument.



    i would say that a lot of people never upgrade their machine beyond what it comes with, but from experience, it's a common question upon buying a machine, whether or not its upgradeable. it's onle of those things that people have heard is good and required, even if they never use it. with that said, i don't think it's rare at all for people to upgrade ram, hd, graphics card, optical drive or add a PCI card. these are not difficult installations and are common best buy purchases.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    lemon bon bonlemon bon bon Posts: 2,383member
    Agreed.



    People often want stuff they will never use...



    ie it's no excuse that the iMac 3G won't offer upgradeable graphics card, a decent price, flexibility...choice.



    Hopefully, Apple will have learned from the beating they took on iMac 2 to offer consumers what they want.



    Lemon Bon Bon



    PS.
    Quote:

    Apple also makes more money per unit on its Macs than its competitors, the report adds. "Two years ago, says First Albany Capital analyst Joel Wagonfeld, "the average selling price of a Mac was $154 higher than that of a Windows PC. Now it's about $400 higher."



    Something for iMac 3G to think about...
  • Reply 10 of 15
    jcgjcg Posts: 777member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Lemon Bon Bon

    ...People often want stuff they will never use...



    ie it's no excuse that the iMac 3G won't offer upgradeable graphics card, a decent price, flexibility...choice...




    And sales people use this "stuff" to sell more expensive and powerfull computers to consumers thant he consumers really need. A lot of people pay attention to the sales people becouse they are "techies" and know what they are talking about, and a good sales person WILL sell you more than you need and came in for. It would be interesting to see statistics of people who are replacing a computer that had no intention of buying a monitor when they went in for a computer and came out with a new monitor anyway.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by gar

    or give people the same bto option as the powerbook has:

    128Mb GPU for 30 euro extra.




    That would be a minor solution, but not a great one since a GeForce 5200FX (Or whatever is the standard in it) sucks big time!

    Quote:

    Originally posted by xterra48

    Even if the young gamer crowd had expandable Graphics they still wouldent chose imac's for two reasons:

    1. "Macs o there slow they suck" The perception is so ingraned in that groupe of people that they will die saying that.

    2. many games have delays to the mac release or arent released at all, you can argue with that all.




    But if even 1% doesnt have the opinion about 'macs are so slow!', thats a million more iMacs sold each year, so it would definately be worthwhile!
  • Reply 12 of 15
    cubistcubist Posts: 954member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by xterra48

    ... I don't forsee the young gamer crowd returning to Mac's anytime in the next 7 years.



    Gamers are all moving to consoles, and that trend is expected to accelerate as consoles get ethernet ports, better processors, graphics, etc.



    Games will only be a sideline on other machines, including PCs. Officially sponsored emulators will probably be the only way that most games will be playable.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    jousterjouster Posts: 460member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    What about longhorn, the damnd OS is going to take 2 to 3 times the resourses of todays top 3-d games



    No it isn't.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    regreg Posts: 832member
    We still have 2 iMacs, Bondi and Snow. Our kids use them for games and surfing and homework. For the better games they use PS2. We will upggrade those when they die.



    reg
  • Reply 15 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jouster

    No it isn't.



    From Microsoft Watch:



    "Microsoft is expected to recommend that the "average" Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today."
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