Yeah I am pretty disappointed it does not have FireWire 800...I will no longer get an iMac now. How does Apple expect developers to make products for it if they do not put it on the consumer models?
[quote] The PR says "Spring iMacs" so I bet there will also be "Summer iMacs." Obviously this is a transition time for the iMac...the 15" inch, no 802.11g, no DDR, GeForce2 MX...<hr></blockquote>
Careful Eugene, or you'll have to move this thread to Future Hardware!
Agreed. Apple isn't very confident in FW800. Even 1 port would be nice.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't think it's a confidence thing, more practicality and common sense.
I think it's called product segmentation; the way Apple probably perceives things, FW800 won't turn up on consumer devices, such as DV cameras, for some while and indeed, if ever.
If you face facts, the iMac is a consumer machine and therefore only gets FW400 until product and market pressure demands otherwise - this provides differentiation between the pro markets and the consumer markets, and protects the sales of the pro equipment while protecting the price points of the consumer models.
<strong>Yeah I am pretty disappointed it does not have FireWire 800...I will no longer get an iMac now. How does Apple expect developers to make products for it if they do not put it on the consumer models? </strong><hr></blockquote>
Tell what you can do now with FW800? What kind of FW800 devices are available? What you could do with FW800 in consumer machine like iMac?
Well, color me surprised at everyone's responses. They seem like good prices to me, at least relative to what they were before. Why would anyone expect a sub-$1000 iMac when they have eMacs in that range? I dunno, I was expecting a speed bump and price drop, nothing more.
<strong>Um Cos FW800 is a "Pro" interface and what exactly would an iMac owner do with it? (esp as you still cant buy any FW800 periferals)</strong><hr></blockquote>
Come on man put down the "Marketing" Materials. Pro interface Geez I guess us lowly consumer don't need anything that goes beyond the bare essentials with Apple despite paying a premium.
[quote]Tell what you can do now with FW800? What kind of FW800 devices are available? What you could do with FW800 in consumer machine like iMac? <hr></blockquote>
Does Future Proofing mean anything to you. I need my computer to last 3-4 years. There is NO upgradeablity on the eMacs and iMacs they need to be feature complete from the get go. Apple laid an egg here.
All in all the prices are "ok" nothing that makes you think Apple will ever break out of being a niche player. Guess some of us got our hopes up high...too high.
I'll wait for Airport Extreme and FW800 before I purchase.
Well I wouldn't be opposed to Apple changing their pricing scheme so that the iMac and eMac don't intersect... that's what is going on now. Still, basically all they did was drop the Combo model in price by $100, while also getting rid of the low end. The high end is pretty alright, but come on... we waited 13 months for THIS?! Complete disappointment. I mean, is Apple trying to lose sales or something? I just don't get it.
It was just to good to be true. The run lasted from last novembers rollout of new Powerbooks and iBooks, to last weeks upgraded Power Macs and displays. That was a whopping span of three months of tentative good vibrations coming out of Cupertino. Today Apple opted for a head on collision with a brick wall and the result was anything but good.
What is this? One year after the introduction of the FP iMac all they can muster is a relative minor upgrade of the specs. Yes, I know, the captious minded will surely find something, but in the big picture this amounts to no more than; same shit, same wrapping, more expensive and thus losing its appeal faster than you can spell "No Switch".
Memo to Steve: You had the chance, but blew it. BIG TIME. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
How much more expensive is it to put FW800 on EVERY new mac?
There are already FW 800 hard drives, this is not something which should be a 'pro' feature.
Dual monitor support, maybe, L3 cache, ...maybe, but FW800 needs to be present on all new machines if apple wants to establish it as a new standard...
Just like USB2 is not considered a pro feature.
Sure there are not many devices that support it now, but in 12 months? Why should i be limited in not so distant future?
Why they can equip their new machines with airport extreme and not that
And another thing, bluetooth..
If u want it to be internal, u have to specify it at the time u place your order, can't be added later...
(not even an option on 15")
My point is: If apple comes out with new technologies, why not to stand behind it all the way..?
I'm using 1ghz tibook now, and i was considering getting iMac for my home, but i don't want any USB adapters, and i do want FW800, because i'm sure new 15" ALBooks will have it as well, so after i upgrade my tibook, i would like to be able to share my devices..
Oh and how does this move protect power mac sales?
It doesn't make sense.
not to mention that 12" PB should have it too, as is part of what apple advertises as 'pro' notebook family.
The whole optional internal bluetooth seems very silly to me. Either include it standard, or have an option for a USB Bluetooth adapter. But putting it internally limits it to one machine, $50 per machine you put it on. If you get a USB adapter, it'll cost $40-$50 and you can use it on any machine.
I suppose built in bluetooth makes much more sense for a laptop where you want as many components to be internal as possible. But on a desktop? I don't see the point unless it's standard equipment.
Well, regarding FW 800, one thing that I would want it for today is faster FireWire target disk mode! Really, I use this all the time for backups and large data transfers (even though I have a wireless network in the house; target disk mode kicks Airports ass all over the place!).
The increase in transfer speed to/from the iMac would be a very welcome addition to the unit.
Additionally, you can't just look at today's devices and say "what good is FW 800!". I bet within 8 months we see a FW 800 RAID solution and other hungry devices.
And finally, FW 800 can chain devices over much larger distances (100 m???), and since ethernet over FW is a reality now, FW just became a viable home nethworking/LAN option!
The specs of the 17 are exactly what I had hoped for; 1GHz and a 133MHz bus might tempt me to replace my Cube. But the 15? Bah. If the cheapest iMac is now $1,299 and still has a 100MHz bus, I'm glad I got my mom a CD-RW model for Christmas (got it for about $1,050 at MacWarehouse, including an extra 512MB of RAM; not a bad deal considering today's pricing). Apple should have kept the CD-RW model and priced them at $1,000, if they weren't going to change the motherboard on the low end anyway.
Looks like their strategy was to take a bunch of leftover 15" 800 MHz Superdrive iMacs, move the superdrives into all the eMacs they'll sell at the new $1299 price point, and put combo drives into the 800 MHz shells. Oh, they decided that it was only worth $100 less than before too. And they also decided that it should still be saddled with a GeForce 2MX.
There is nothing here pushing me to upgrade or to get my family and friends to switch.
I was disappointed when Apple did not add USB-2 to the laptops and towers. Now they make you pay a lot more for bluetooth, airport extreme and NO Firewire2.
I guess they are trying to make more of a difference between iMacs and the towerline. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
If Apple can not push the processor envolope right now why not the other parts.
Comments
Careful Eugene, or you'll have to move this thread to Future Hardware!
<strong>
Agreed. Apple isn't very confident in FW800. Even 1 port would be nice.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't think it's a confidence thing, more practicality and common sense.
I think it's called product segmentation; the way Apple probably perceives things, FW800 won't turn up on consumer devices, such as DV cameras, for some while and indeed, if ever.
If you face facts, the iMac is a consumer machine and therefore only gets FW400 until product and market pressure demands otherwise - this provides differentiation between the pro markets and the consumer markets, and protects the sales of the pro equipment while protecting the price points of the consumer models.
<strong>Yeah I am pretty disappointed it does not have FireWire 800...I will no longer get an iMac now. How does Apple expect developers to make products for it if they do not put it on the consumer models?
Tell what you can do now with FW800? What kind of FW800 devices are available? What you could do with FW800 in consumer machine like iMac?
<strong>Um Cos FW800 is a "Pro" interface and what exactly would an iMac owner do with it? (esp as you still cant buy any FW800 periferals)</strong><hr></blockquote>
Come on man put down the "Marketing" Materials. Pro interface
[quote]Tell what you can do now with FW800? What kind of FW800 devices are available? What you could do with FW800 in consumer machine like iMac? <hr></blockquote>
Does Future Proofing mean anything to you. I need my computer to last 3-4 years. There is NO upgradeablity on the eMacs and iMacs they need to be feature complete from the get go. Apple laid an egg here.
All in all the prices are "ok" nothing that makes you think Apple will ever break out of being a niche player. Guess some of us got our hopes up high...too high.
I'll wait for Airport Extreme and FW800 before I purchase.
It was just to good to be true. The run lasted from last novembers rollout of new Powerbooks and iBooks, to last weeks upgraded Power Macs and displays. That was a whopping span of three months of tentative good vibrations coming out of Cupertino. Today Apple opted for a head on collision with a brick wall and the result was anything but good.
What is this? One year after the introduction of the FP iMac all they can muster is a relative minor upgrade of the specs. Yes, I know, the captious minded will surely find something, but in the big picture this amounts to no more than; same shit, same wrapping, more expensive and thus losing its appeal faster than you can spell "No Switch".
Memo to Steve: You had the chance, but blew it. BIG TIME. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
As I and others have said, the iMac is a perfect trojan horse. An opportunity to really get people to switch to a Mac.
While sub $1000 prices were probably unrealistic, the low end should be $200 less.
The only thing good is that my 15"iMac is still worth something!
There are already FW 800 hard drives, this is not something which should be a 'pro' feature.
Dual monitor support, maybe, L3 cache, ...maybe, but FW800 needs to be present on all new machines if apple wants to establish it as a new standard...
Just like USB2 is not considered a pro feature.
Sure there are not many devices that support it now, but in 12 months? Why should i be limited in not so distant future?
Why they can equip their new machines with airport extreme and not that
And another thing, bluetooth..
If u want it to be internal, u have to specify it at the time u place your order, can't be added later...
(not even an option on 15")
My point is: If apple comes out with new technologies, why not to stand behind it all the way..?
I'm using 1ghz tibook now, and i was considering getting iMac for my home, but i don't want any USB adapters, and i do want FW800, because i'm sure new 15" ALBooks will have it as well, so after i upgrade my tibook, i would like to be able to share my devices..
Oh and how does this move protect power mac sales?
It doesn't make sense.
not to mention that 12" PB should have it too, as is part of what apple advertises as 'pro' notebook family.
[ 02-04-2003: Message edited by: piwozniak ]</p>
PowerMac has FW800 etc...
I suppose built in bluetooth makes much more sense for a laptop where you want as many components to be internal as possible. But on a desktop? I don't see the point unless it's standard equipment.
The increase in transfer speed to/from the iMac would be a very welcome addition to the unit.
Additionally, you can't just look at today's devices and say "what good is FW 800!". I bet within 8 months we see a FW 800 RAID solution and other hungry devices.
And finally, FW 800 can chain devices over much larger distances (100 m???), and since ethernet over FW is a reality now, FW just became a viable home nethworking/LAN option!
There is nothing here pushing me to upgrade or to get my family and friends to switch.
I was disappointed when Apple did not add USB-2 to the laptops and towers. Now they make you pay a lot more for bluetooth, airport extreme and NO Firewire2.
I guess they are trying to make more of a difference between iMacs and the towerline. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
If Apple can not push the processor envolope right now why not the other parts.