Looking at how Apple hardware has evolved over the last 1-2 years
This is not a prediction thread, which is why I'm putting it in current hardware. All I'm doing is looking at what Apple has done with their various product lines (iMac, iBook, PowerMac, PowerBook) in the past 1-2 years. And beyond that, we can always look into the implications of what has happened. If this discussion strays to a prediction thread then it should probably just be moved to Future Hardware, and I'm guessing that will happen.
Anyway, here it goes:
iMac - The iMac has improved by a huge amount on an industrial design level. The mediocre CRT has been replaced with a beautiful, sharp, adjustable LCD. The graphics chip has gone from 8-16 MB Rage 128 to a much better 32 MB GeForce 2MX. And of course, there's the G4 processor. Two years ago, the iMac was at 500 MHz. One year ago, it was at 700 MHz. Now it's still only at 800 MHz, and on the same bus too. That is somewhat balanced out by the advantages, but hopefully it'll gain some speed.
iBook - Two years ago, the iBook was still multicolored and heavy. It was at 466 MHz with FireWire and an optional DVD-ROM. One year ago, it was at 600 MHz with a combo drive. Now it's on a more efficient 700 MHz processor with much better graphics. Again, a small jump in MHz since a year ago, but there are a lot of other improvements that somewhat make up for this.
PowerMac - Two years ago, it was still stuck at 500 MHz, but soon afterwards it jumped to 733 MHz with 4X AGP, a 133 MHz bus, 1 MB of L3 cache, and a superdrive. Pretty nice revision. A year ago, it was at a dual 800 MHz, and now it's gone up to dual 1.25 GHz. I think the PowerMacs have shown the most improvement over the last year, jumping 450 MHz and gaining many other improvements. It may not be increasing at the rate the rest of the industry does, but it's still doing better than the rest of Apple's lineup.
PowerBook - Another case of minor MHz increase but major improvements. Many issues have been worked out, like heat dissipation. There's also the L3 cache, 133 MHz bus speed on both models, and higher resolution screen. They've only jumped 133 MHz in the last year, but at least they've gotten those other improvements that again somewhat make up for it.
So it looks like Apple has been doing a pretty good job of making their products better at least in theory, but in practice they need to just speed everything up a bit. Despite all the improvements to the iMac, it's still at the same 100 MHz bus/2X AGP that it's been stuck at for three years. All the rest of their products have gotten bumps in bus speed in the past year (133 -> 166 for PM, 100 -> 133 for PB, 66 -> 100 for iBook), but the iMac is still lagging behind in that regard.
Anyway, here it goes:
iMac - The iMac has improved by a huge amount on an industrial design level. The mediocre CRT has been replaced with a beautiful, sharp, adjustable LCD. The graphics chip has gone from 8-16 MB Rage 128 to a much better 32 MB GeForce 2MX. And of course, there's the G4 processor. Two years ago, the iMac was at 500 MHz. One year ago, it was at 700 MHz. Now it's still only at 800 MHz, and on the same bus too. That is somewhat balanced out by the advantages, but hopefully it'll gain some speed.
iBook - Two years ago, the iBook was still multicolored and heavy. It was at 466 MHz with FireWire and an optional DVD-ROM. One year ago, it was at 600 MHz with a combo drive. Now it's on a more efficient 700 MHz processor with much better graphics. Again, a small jump in MHz since a year ago, but there are a lot of other improvements that somewhat make up for this.
PowerMac - Two years ago, it was still stuck at 500 MHz, but soon afterwards it jumped to 733 MHz with 4X AGP, a 133 MHz bus, 1 MB of L3 cache, and a superdrive. Pretty nice revision. A year ago, it was at a dual 800 MHz, and now it's gone up to dual 1.25 GHz. I think the PowerMacs have shown the most improvement over the last year, jumping 450 MHz and gaining many other improvements. It may not be increasing at the rate the rest of the industry does, but it's still doing better than the rest of Apple's lineup.
PowerBook - Another case of minor MHz increase but major improvements. Many issues have been worked out, like heat dissipation. There's also the L3 cache, 133 MHz bus speed on both models, and higher resolution screen. They've only jumped 133 MHz in the last year, but at least they've gotten those other improvements that again somewhat make up for it.
So it looks like Apple has been doing a pretty good job of making their products better at least in theory, but in practice they need to just speed everything up a bit. Despite all the improvements to the iMac, it's still at the same 100 MHz bus/2X AGP that it's been stuck at for three years. All the rest of their products have gotten bumps in bus speed in the past year (133 -> 166 for PM, 100 -> 133 for PB, 66 -> 100 for iBook), but the iMac is still lagging behind in that regard.
Comments
[ 10-05-2002: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>
The most limiting factor for Apple right now in my opinion is the fact that they still sell so many computers with integrated displays and then toss in such cruddy graphics.
They screw ya on the memory but most will suck it up and shell out the extra cash. They can't advance the processor fast enough, but the advances there have moved beyond most people's ability to care.
The graphics card probably makes people feel screwed over more by Apple than any other part of the computer because we can see what they cost first hand and know what it would cost to upgrade them if we could.
It isn't so much that the iMac isn't a nice computer. It is that it is a computer with what everyone knows is like a $40 graphics card.. and they know to upgrade it to a geforce4mx would be like $40 more, but Apple charges huge amounts for these upgrades and you can't get around them.
On the PowerMac line to go from a Geforce4mx to a Radeon 9000 costs $94, more than I could go out and physically buy the card for and they still get to keep the original card to boot.
Nick