Apple developing new Mac for education
Exclusive: Apple Computer is working feverishly on the design of a new Macintosh computer that the company hopes will strengthen its position in the education sector when it goes on sale later this year, AppleInsider has learned.
The new low-cost PC, which will act as a replacement for Apple's now defunct eMac line, appears to be on track to catch the latter half of the 2006 educational buying season.
Based on a series of proprietary checks, it's believed that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is aligning component suppliers for a manufacturing ramp of the computers that it plans to initiate around the September timeframe.
Technically, this means that Apple's much anticipated professional line of Intel-based Power Mac computers -- expected to make their debut this summer under the "Mac Pro" moniker -- won't be the last of the company's PC offerings to make the transition from PowerPC to Intel chips.
In keeping true to its roots of designing educational Macs as plug-and-play solutions, people familiar with Apple's product roadmap say the company is building the new Mac around an all-in-one enclosure. Though unlike the eMac, which employed cumbersome CRT-based displays, the new educational computer will follow a design pattern similar to the company's LCD-based iMac Core Duo desktops, these people say.
The departure away from CRT displays and towards pricier flat-screens means that Apple will have to carefully balance its component costs and shave as much as possible off the computer's bill-of-materials if it plans to hit a home run with educational institutions.
Although the Mac maker said its U.S. educational channel sales increased by approximately 16 percent during the first quarter of 2006 compared to the first quarter of 2005, the company has come under tremendous competitive pressure in the sector over the last several years.
"Uncertainty in this channel remains as several competitors of the company have either targeted or announced their intention to target the education market for personal computers, which could negatively affect the company?s market share," Apple has repeatedly stated in regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Although the company believes it has taken certain steps to strengthen its position in the education market, there can be no assurance that the company will be able to increase or maintain its share of the education market or execute profitably on large strategic arrangements."
But just as Apple's is expected to incur increased costs associated with transitioning its educational Mac to more modern technologies, the computer's new industrial design is expected to eliminate some of the financial complexities of the eMac. One of the pitfalls Apple discovered while building the unwieldy CRT-based Mac was that its bulbous enclosure quickly became one of -- if not the most -- expensive part of the computer to manufacturer.
In using its new iMac design as a blueprint for the eMac replacement, Apple will also save on freight and packaging costs that will result from the computer's substantially smaller footprint and lighter weight . It's also believed that the Mac will borrow industry standard components already employed by Apple's Mac mini and MacBook line of consumer PCs, enabling further cost reductions.
In April of 2004, the last time Apple introduced a major revision to the eMac, it priced models at $799 and $999. While pricing for the new educational Mac has yet to be determined, it should fall well below the company's low-end consumer iMac offering, which fetches $1299.
It's still unclear whether the computer will be made readily available for purchase by the average consumer.
When Apple introduced the eMac as a low-cost alternative to the flat-screen "sunflower" iMac in April 2002, it initially restricted sales to educational buyers. However, demand for the computers amongst consumers proved to be so strong that a month later the company made the educational Mac available to the general public.
On October 12, 2005, shortly before the computer met its ultimate demise, Apple once again restricted sales to educational institutions and returned to its "E is for Education" marketing scheme that had been attached to the product from its inception.
After exhausting much of its remaining eMac inventory to educational buyers later that year, Apple began offering its higher-margin all-in-one iMac as a replacement for the eMac. The company plans to continue to offer the iMac to its educational customers until the new Intel-based eMac successor makes its debut in the fall.
The new low-cost PC, which will act as a replacement for Apple's now defunct eMac line, appears to be on track to catch the latter half of the 2006 educational buying season.
Based on a series of proprietary checks, it's believed that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is aligning component suppliers for a manufacturing ramp of the computers that it plans to initiate around the September timeframe.
Technically, this means that Apple's much anticipated professional line of Intel-based Power Mac computers -- expected to make their debut this summer under the "Mac Pro" moniker -- won't be the last of the company's PC offerings to make the transition from PowerPC to Intel chips.
In keeping true to its roots of designing educational Macs as plug-and-play solutions, people familiar with Apple's product roadmap say the company is building the new Mac around an all-in-one enclosure. Though unlike the eMac, which employed cumbersome CRT-based displays, the new educational computer will follow a design pattern similar to the company's LCD-based iMac Core Duo desktops, these people say.
The departure away from CRT displays and towards pricier flat-screens means that Apple will have to carefully balance its component costs and shave as much as possible off the computer's bill-of-materials if it plans to hit a home run with educational institutions.
Although the Mac maker said its U.S. educational channel sales increased by approximately 16 percent during the first quarter of 2006 compared to the first quarter of 2005, the company has come under tremendous competitive pressure in the sector over the last several years.
"Uncertainty in this channel remains as several competitors of the company have either targeted or announced their intention to target the education market for personal computers, which could negatively affect the company?s market share," Apple has repeatedly stated in regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Although the company believes it has taken certain steps to strengthen its position in the education market, there can be no assurance that the company will be able to increase or maintain its share of the education market or execute profitably on large strategic arrangements."
But just as Apple's is expected to incur increased costs associated with transitioning its educational Mac to more modern technologies, the computer's new industrial design is expected to eliminate some of the financial complexities of the eMac. One of the pitfalls Apple discovered while building the unwieldy CRT-based Mac was that its bulbous enclosure quickly became one of -- if not the most -- expensive part of the computer to manufacturer.
In using its new iMac design as a blueprint for the eMac replacement, Apple will also save on freight and packaging costs that will result from the computer's substantially smaller footprint and lighter weight . It's also believed that the Mac will borrow industry standard components already employed by Apple's Mac mini and MacBook line of consumer PCs, enabling further cost reductions.
In April of 2004, the last time Apple introduced a major revision to the eMac, it priced models at $799 and $999. While pricing for the new educational Mac has yet to be determined, it should fall well below the company's low-end consumer iMac offering, which fetches $1299.
It's still unclear whether the computer will be made readily available for purchase by the average consumer.
When Apple introduced the eMac as a low-cost alternative to the flat-screen "sunflower" iMac in April 2002, it initially restricted sales to educational buyers. However, demand for the computers amongst consumers proved to be so strong that a month later the company made the educational Mac available to the general public.
On October 12, 2005, shortly before the computer met its ultimate demise, Apple once again restricted sales to educational institutions and returned to its "E is for Education" marketing scheme that had been attached to the product from its inception.
After exhausting much of its remaining eMac inventory to educational buyers later that year, Apple began offering its higher-margin all-in-one iMac as a replacement for the eMac. The company plans to continue to offer the iMac to its educational customers until the new Intel-based eMac successor makes its debut in the fall.
Comments
iMac Mini is coming up
15"/17" iMac Mini, no frills computer
17" ->19"
20" ->21"
and one more
24" iMac
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060526-6923.html
Originally posted by shanmugam
sounds like
iMac Mini is coming up
15"/17" iMac Mini, no frills computer
That would interest me greatly, I would love a cheap(ish) Intel Mac desktop.
Originally posted by shanmugam
15"/17" iMac Mini, no frills computer
17" ->19"
20" ->21"
and one more
24" iMac
There isn't much to the iMac as it is, what do you think you would strip? It could go without the iSight, remote and Bluetooth, and a 15" screen but is that enough to get it down to the price of the old eMac?
Are there any 19" or 21" widescreen displays? Usually 19" and 21" screens are 4:3.
and here is my prediction for whatever mac that is:
17 inch widescreen
1.66ghz core solo
40gb HD
integrated video (well this is pretty obvious)
512mb ram
no wireless tech
slot loading combo drive
for price of $799
looks like a cross between the orignal imac g5 and the current slimmer imac
17"
anywhere from 80-120 3.5" 7200rpm hd
intel gma 950 graphics
1.66 core duo
2gb ram max (512 2x 256 standard)
no isight
no bluetooth
no wireless?
799-899
edit: oh yeah and the base will be plastic instead of imac/cinema display aluminum, but still probably the same design and sturdy.
Core Solo's save virtually nothing, and OS X multitasks so smoothly on multiple cores: the reason the MacBook is Core Duo exclusive too. It makes for a low cost great upgrade in user experience, always something Steve's picky about.
It sure would put a nice polish on the halo effect they have now... maybe make an iPod core for an ultra low cost computer. Basically an iPod nano that docks with a small functional keyboard and tablet styled screen. That would be one heck of a winner.
Originally posted by rminkler
I don't see why people are anticipating the removal of wireless networking. It probably costs apple almost nothing to get wireless with all the other intel chips that they would be ordering
Almost nothing is not nothing. It could cost $2. To ship and fit the part could cost another $8. That equates to $40-$50 dollars by the time it reaches the end user.
I'd see it as more likely that this machine would be released NEXT May with what would, at that point, be a super-cheap Core Duo while everything else went Core 2 Duo.
The Pentium 4 also chews up a lot more power and generates more heat. Apple also doesn't need a Core Duo, at least not in the base model.
A realistic possibility for the eMac replacement, if it were to be released today:
1.66 GHz Core Solo
- 17" widescreen display with glass cover
- 512 MB of RAM
- 80 GB 3.5" drive
- Combo drive
- GMA950 graphics
- $699
1.66 GHz Core Duo- 17" widescreen display with glass cover
- 512 MB of RAM
- 160 GB 3.5" drive
- Superdrive
- GMA950 graphics
- $899
The glass cover's reason is obvious: younger kids love to poke at screens, and that would be an accident waiting to happen with an LCD.As for the 3.5" hard drive, it would make the Mac mini look bad but is probably necessary for cost reasons.
Also, in either system I think the omission of Airport, Bluetooth, the Apple Remote and the iSight would be necessary (moreso the wireless chipsets than anything). Like it or not, Apple has to face especially cutthroat pricing in the education market. I think Apple would need to trim every last bit of non-essential hardware. The cost could still be higher than what I listed above.
The shape we can't really speculate on properly. It could be near-identitical to the iMac; it could involve a cheaper, bulkier stand; there could be no stand at all. It depends on how worried Apple is about cost or students tipping the systems.
However, I see an all Core-Duo line. I think the Mini will be bumped to both models with a Duo late this summer, and I expect the Macbook and MBP to go Merom (if only for the battery life), so there's no reason not to see a Core Duo. But what about a low clocked Conroe? I mean, if the heat works out (and a lot of people think it will for the iMac), a Conroe would be a great choice, because they range from 1.86 GHz to 3.xx (EE stats not out), and the low end ones are cheapish, while still a strong desktop chip. And that's prolly what Apple's competing against.
Originally posted by Commodus
backtomac:
The shape we can't really speculate on properly. It could be near-identitical to the iMac; it could involve a cheaper, bulkier stand; there could be no stand at all. It depends on how worried Apple is about cost or students tipping the systems.
One really has to wonder about the form here. A nice thing about the eMacs was that they were rather theft resistant due to sheer bulk. I can't picture what these new Macs would look like.
The Pentium 4 also chews up a lot more power and generates more heat. Apple also doesn't need a Core Duo, at least not in the base model.
He's not talking about the Pentium 4. He's talking about the Pentium D which is a part of the Intel Centrino platform. This is the processor the Core series of processors borrowed a lot of ideas from. The pentium D is far more powerful than the P4 with less power consumption and heat. It's a mobile processor.
I think that using the Pentium D wouldn't be a bad idea. The prices have been slashed and the processors are darn good. Education is not all about power, its the right mix of power and price with more emphasis on price.
You say it yourself here..
Like it or not, Apple has to face especially cutthroat pricing in the education market. I think Apple would need to trim every last bit of non-essential hardware. The cost could still be higher than what I listed above.
The Core processors are much more expensive than the pentium D for a much lower performance increase when you consider the applications education users are going to be using.
And the Yonahs were nothing more than transitional CPUs, their usage designed to get Apple through a period of virtually zero PPC sales until the next-gen Intel architecture came along?
but gonna happen. Apple is always about education...
6/6/06...steve will bring something out, he's a numerologist. check all his releases all the way back to the $666 Apple I.
Component-wise I'm betting on the same technology as the Mac mini with a 15-inch LCD included.
eMac Core Solo with 1.5Ghz/512MB/Combo Drive/Airport/Bluetooth/Integrated Graphics at $899
eMac Core Duo with 1.66Ghz/1GB/Super Drive/Airport/Bluetooth/Integrated Graphics at $999