New Year, New iMac???

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Other than a possible 30th anniversary mac, do you think there will be a new design of imac coming out?



If you look at it, the current iMacs were built to run on the old chips, they put Intel chips into them, do you think they will redesign the imac (externally) for Intel??



last years wow factor was the new intel chips, how about an amazing new design this time round?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by king_luis View Post


    last years wow factor was the new intel chips, how about an amazing new design this time round?



    Let's see:



    iMac G3 from factor: August 1998 -- January 2002

    iMac G4 form factor: January 2002 -- August 2004

    iMac G5 from factor: August 2004 -- now.



    The iMac G5 form factor is used in the Intel models as well. So, it seems that Apple leaves the iMac design unchanged for about 2.5 to 3.5 years. The current design is approaching the life span of the iMac G4 design. If Apple has the intention to change it this year, and in this MWSF in particular, is anyone's guess. There has been zero evidence up to now (unless I missed something) that a change is coming. They could very well leave it as is for one more year. Personally I give probability 0% for a change next week.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    I'm certainly hoping for a new form factor although I don't think it will happen. Were there hints this late in 2002 of the new iMac design that arrived with that MacWorld?



    Any chance for upgrades on Tuesday?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macaximx View Post


    Were there hints this late in 2002 of the new iMac design that arrived with that MacWorld?



    From what I can remember yes. Even the final design was seen somewhere as a mockup that no one could believe. The design change for the iMac G5 was announced by Apple itself, if you see what I am talking about.



    Quote:

    Any chance for upgrades on Tuesday?



    If you mean iMac update, I am afraid not. Of course if you are in the market for an iMac you can certainly wait two days.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    The design of the iMac changes by necessity raher than a regular timetable.



    > The inclusion of a flat panel display necessitated the design of the Sunflower iMac.

    > The need to lower the manufacturing costs of the Sunflower iMac necessitated the design of the current machine.



    Apple currently have an all in one design that is cost effective to assemble and flexible enough to accomodate a variety of screen sizes. There's still space for a 30" iMac if Apple wished to do so. Everybody loves the design of the iMac, and it's Apples best selling Macintosh ever.



    At most, I would imagine that we'll see a tweak to the design - perhaps the ability to lift the display off the foot and use it like a tablet computer for instance. Or perhaps the introduction of a special edition black model or a new visual design language. The internally painted 'Crystal' enclosure style is as old as the hills, and it must be more expensive to manufacture than a coloured plastic enclosure like that of the MacBook or iPod HiFi.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    socratessocrates Posts: 261member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Messiah View Post


    The design of the iMac changes by necessity raher than a regular timetable.



    st, I would imagine that we'll see a tweak to the design - perhaps the ability to lift the display off the foot and use it like a tablet computer for instance.



    You call that a tweak? Making the screen into a removable tablet would be a complete re-engineering job - it would involve putting in a battery for a start, which in itself would mean a complete internal redesign. Unless you mean a wired tablet - I can just see that being popular with the Apple branded 80 foot extension lead.



    It's completely pointless, and would significantly increase the cost of the machine. And who wants to carry around a 20inch wide, 2inch thick heavy white slab of a tablet anyway.



    What is it with the tablet rumours? At least they used to be semi-plausible, now it's like "I bet the next Mac mini will be a tablet, I bet the next cinema display will be a tablet, I bet the next iPod will be a tablet, Apple's bringing out a phone, I wonder if that will be a tablet too....?".



    If they made a decent tablet I'd probably be on of the dozen or so people who'd actually buy it, but I still don't believe it's on Apple's radar now or any time soon.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Socrates View Post


    You call that a tweak? Making the screen into a removable tablet would be a complete re-engineering job - it would involve putting in a battery for a start, which in itself would mean a complete internal redesign. Unless you mean a wired tablet - I can just see that being popular with the Apple branded 80 foot extension lead.



    It's completely pointless, and would significantly increase the cost of the machine. And who wants to carry around a 20inch wide, 2inch thick heavy white slab of a tablet anyway.



    What is it with the tablet rumours? At least they used to be semi-plausible, now it's like "I bet the next Mac mini will be a tablet, I bet the next cinema display will be a tablet, I bet the next iPod will be a tablet, Apple's bringing out a phone, I wonder if that will be a tablet too....?".



    If they made a decent tablet I'd probably be on of the dozen or so people who'd actually buy it, but I still don't believe it's on Apple's radar now or any time soon.



    It's not really that much of a leap. As for, a "complete re-engineering job"? Wow, the way you tell it it sounds like they're trying to put men on Mars. I've got news for you, most new products require some development. Apple could have stuck the Core processor in the iBook and have been done with it – instead they started from scratch and developed what is probably the greatest little laptop in the history great little Apple laptops – the current MacBook.



    It's widely acknowledged that the current 17-inch iMac is pretty much a MacBook on a foot sans the battery and the 2.5" HDD. These families use a laptop CPU, SO-DIMMs and the same GMA graphics chipset. You could argue that the iMac is already a tweak of the MacBook and vice versa. Remember - we're not comparing an iMac G5 and a PowerBook G4 here. Likewise, the fully blown iMac and the MacBook Pro are a variation on the same theme.



    Swapping the built-in power adapter for a battery, and swapping the 3.5" HDD out for a 2.5" HDD can't be that big a job – certainly not as big a job as moving from the iMac Sunflower form factor to the current iMac form factor, or developing an entirely new product like iTV. All that's left after you've swapped those parts around are some usability studies (which you can be damn sure they've been doing for years) and the design of the enclosure itself. Are you telling me that Apple can't take their MacBook and stick it on an aluminium foot?



    And who mentioned a 20" screen – methinks you went with the 20" in your post just to be even more ridiculous? A 17-inch MacBook Pro has a 17-inch screen, a 2.33GHz dual core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 200GB HDD and a SuperDrive – not to mention an iSight camera and all the connectivity you could ever want - and it's 1-inch thick?



    Have you ever held a 17-inch MacBook Pro in your hands? It would make a perfect tablet if the screen wasn't facing in the wrong direction. Simply take a MacBook, add a 15 or 17-inch screen and move the charger socket to the foot mechanism and you have a MacBook Tablet that becomes an iMac when you hang it on the charging foot. Or stick them on the wall by means of a custom VESA bracket and the hospital staff can simply pluck them from the wall and wander around with them. The keyboards of the computers that you find in hospitals have been identified as one of the main causes of the spread of MRSA in recent years. No keyboard = MRSA. And anything that can help diminish the risks of contracting MRSA right now is worth its weight in gold. The tablet concept isn't "completely pointless".



    And so-fucking-what if it significantly increases the cost of the machine – it's also significantly increasing the functionality of the machine as well. So now it's Apples fault because they aren't giving people something for nothing?



    You aren't really in a 'can do' frame of mind right now are you? Apple has a habit of showing-up people who say 'you can't do that because it hasn't been done before'.



    What's with the tablet rumours? Well it's just another form of customer feedback. Apple's customers are telling Apple what they should be developing. I'd buy a tablet like the one described above in a split second. Apple are in the fortunate (and rare) position that their customers actually tell them what it is they'd like to buy. Currently their customer base is screaming out for tablet, a phone and something headless that's somewhere between a Mac Pro and a Mac Mini. If they aren't already, Apples management should be listening rather than thinking that they know better. A 'Mac' would sell by the truck load right now... they wouldn't be able to manufacture the bloody things fast enough...
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