Rumor: Release of new iMacs may be delayed into 2013
After Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed last month that there would be a "significant shortage" of the newly redesigned iMac, a report on Wednesday claims manufacturing difficulties may push back the all-in-one's launch date into next year.

Citing a "commercial source," French language blog MacBidouille claims that production of Apple's new iMac models may not be ready (machine translation) for sales ahead of the lucrative holiday shopping season, speculating that the company's advanced welding process is to blame for the delay.
During Apple's quarterly earnings conference call, which was held shortly after the new iMac's debut, Cook said that there would be a "significant shortage" of the all-in-one, but declined to offer details on the matter.
The totally redesigned iMac was unveiled in October and features an advanced assembly technique called friction-stir welding, which uses high heat and pressure to "intermix the molecules of the two aluminum surfaces" to create a seamless joint. In order to achieve maximum thinness, the iMac's optical drive was removed, a design decision that has slimmed down other Apple products like the MacBook Air and the latest MacBook Pros with Retina display.
Adding to the already high difficulty of manufacture is the iMac's screen lamination process, which eliminates the 2mm air gap between the display and front glass seen in legacy models. In August, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the process is more involved with the 27-inch model and would cause supply constraints for the initial batch of machines.
Currently, availability of the desktop remains unchanged on the Online Apple Store, which shows November and December launch windows for the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs, respectively.

Citing a "commercial source," French language blog MacBidouille claims that production of Apple's new iMac models may not be ready (machine translation) for sales ahead of the lucrative holiday shopping season, speculating that the company's advanced welding process is to blame for the delay.
During Apple's quarterly earnings conference call, which was held shortly after the new iMac's debut, Cook said that there would be a "significant shortage" of the all-in-one, but declined to offer details on the matter.
The totally redesigned iMac was unveiled in October and features an advanced assembly technique called friction-stir welding, which uses high heat and pressure to "intermix the molecules of the two aluminum surfaces" to create a seamless joint. In order to achieve maximum thinness, the iMac's optical drive was removed, a design decision that has slimmed down other Apple products like the MacBook Air and the latest MacBook Pros with Retina display.
Adding to the already high difficulty of manufacture is the iMac's screen lamination process, which eliminates the 2mm air gap between the display and front glass seen in legacy models. In August, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the process is more involved with the 27-inch model and would cause supply constraints for the initial batch of machines.
Currently, availability of the desktop remains unchanged on the Online Apple Store, which shows November and December launch windows for the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs, respectively.
Comments
WHAT?!
Even I still have enough faith in New Apple that they wouldn't botch a frigging hardware launch like this.
And if so, what then? Is Mansfield out?!
I'm sure she was being honest in that she is expecting them any day now, but historically those that read tech forums will know well before Apple Store employees about most things Apple.
How often does Apple slip on company reported release dates? iTunes just slipped a month, but that's not a hardware product and they just canned Forstall. They've already said supply will be constrained but surely they wouldn't report a HW release if it wasn't a sure thing.
Yesyerday was samsung raising prices! Which was denied today.
This today.
And god know what tomorrow.
These reports have to be tripple checked before printed or it will remain the circus it is out there!
And those reporting will loose creadibility .
The web site still says available november for the 21" model and december for the 30" model. Of course it doesn't actually let you order either of them. We need two of the 21" iMacs, so hopefully this is just an unfounded rumor. I have a hard time believing they can't build any to ship in november, but the month is already half over.
We'll see, but I smell bullshit on this one.
The day they were announced I instead bought a refurb 2011 27" iMac with 256GB SSD (saving $600 from the previous price) and it's a pretty good deal. The only updated feature I'm missing is USB-3, but I can work around that.
(I almost always buy refurbed for a number of reasons; 1) the price is reasonable, 2) everything so far has been cosmetically perfect, 3) they're necessarily older machines which means the HW/SW bugs have been addressed, or proven to be problematic and thus avoided. The only trick is to understand the tech specs with an eye for what might or might not become obsolete in the future.)
When I looked the Apple store this morning "November" had been changed to "Coming Soon."
In the details it remains as November, but the front page for iMac has been changed to "Coming Soon."
I just checked it and it says "november" for the 21" and "december" for the 27".
Nah, everyone will still blame Forstall and claim Mansfield was still upset by the years of emotional torture.
I don't think they'll delay the release. They sell about 5 million Macs per quarter of which the iMac is about 25% so for the 1st batch, they should only need a month's supply = 5 x 0.25 / 3 = ~400,000.
If they have problems at that volume, they seriously need to rethink this whole welding thing. I personally don't get why they don't do what they did on the old iMacs and have the back detach from the screen. It doesn't look any worse than the bottom of the MBP and the only screws were in the base. You get incredibly easy access to the internals. You just unscrew the bottom and lift the back right off. No welding needed.
I work at a well-known computer retail store in the UK and this is what we have been told by Apple (and confirmed by our Apple rep who has had her sales target increased).
Guess we'll have to wait and see...
:smokey:
Originally Posted by mesomorphicman
And??? Isn't this the norm for Apple?? New product release - wait weeks to receive.
No, it's not the norm for Apple to not be selling a computer called iMac for a period now totaling a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of two months. Even in the past they always had orders available immediately. NOTHING now.
Originally Posted by Marvin
Nah, everyone will still blame Forstall and claim Mansfield was still upset by the years of emotional torture.
I'm gonna get a jump on that.