I think that the current CRT iMac could stay around for a few years yet. The LCD iMac needs to get down to 999 too. However Apple has an opportunity to keep a reasonably spec'd CRT iMac in the line up, only thing is that at 799 and 999 it's a horrible deal, pricisely because it's outdated even before you buy it! If you strip out the digital hub stuff, arghh, that's even worse. What they need to do is offer a 599-699 CRT iMac with a reasonable G3 (700Mhz) small HDD (20GB) and slow CDrw (8-4-20). That's a computer people on a budget could buy to at least get their feet wet with the MacOS, but at the same time the firewire ports will at least allow them to add drive/camera options as they may need them. A complete experience, just slower and cheaper.
There's plenty of margin on those old iMacs. They could stand to lose some in the interest of expanding their market, and wetting consumer appetites for macs.
<strong>I think that the current CRT iMac could stay around for a few years yet. The LCD iMac needs to get down to 999 too. However Apple has an opportunity to keep a reasonably spec'd CRT iMac in the line up, only thing is that at 799 and 999 it's a horrible deal, pricisely because it's outdated even before you buy it! If you strip out the digital hub stuff, arghh, that's even worse. What they need to do is offer a 599-699 CRT iMac with a reasonable G3 (700Mhz) small HDD (20GB) and slow CDrw (8-4-20). That's a computer people on a budget could buy to at least get their feet wet with the MacOS, but at the same time the firewire ports will at least allow them to add drive/camera options as they may need them. A complete experience, just slower and cheaper.
There's plenty of margin on those old iMacs. They could stand to lose some in the interest of expanding their market, and wetting consumer appetites for macs.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't know what happened to my last attempt to post, so if it comes up with this post, please forgive the repetition.
Sorry for going beyond the scope of the cheaper LCD iMac topic to touch on education again, but...
psantora wrote: According to these claims you are saying that the CRT iMac will always be in the edu market... I mean a CRT will always be "not as cool to steal anymore" and not more functinal then an LCD. so why have *ANY* flat panels in the edu market (using your reasoning...)
Using my reasoning, yes, until LCD's are sturdy, ubiquitous, easy to repair, cheaper, etc., there will be a market for crt's in the classroom. Thanks for elucidating that. Making a $999 LCD iMac may be the way to go and if so go ahead and write a marketing plan for it, just don't rely on schools to bail you out by buying a million of them.
The Education market is no longer as simple as it once was and Superdriven LCD iMacs will have a place in some media labs and with teachers who could make use of them, but that isn't the bulk of the education market.
What I think Jobs should do is form the same kind of task force for education that he did with the iPod, and software like iMovie and iTunes, where they focused on elegant solutions to a need and started from scratch designing them. Make iApps for the crt iMac for education.
In this respect I would go against the idea of making "dumb" LCD iMacs and rather make "smarter" crt iMacs. Teachers are more sensitive to bad software than even the unwashed consumer masses. Why? Because they have to get all 30 kids in a room on the same page, some who don't have computers at home.
Apple still has alot to value add to iMacs for teachers. Imagine once digital cameras come down in price, scanners, iPods (student, mobile, auto-synching harddrives) and there is iPhoto and other apps to automate the time-consuming part of technology that makes teachers run screaming away into the practice football field....
If Apple could make the classroom as easy as it has made the home/den computer, then Dell would have only cheap computers to sell and a crt iMac would still be looking very good.
Comments
and iMac LCD with the bare neccessities will not sell. just like the 799 iMac was always the worst iMac CRT seller.
it's a a bad buy no matter how cheap you make it because its out dated the day you buy it
There's plenty of margin on those old iMacs. They could stand to lose some in the interest of expanding their market, and wetting consumer appetites for macs.
<strong>I think that the current CRT iMac could stay around for a few years yet. The LCD iMac needs to get down to 999 too. However Apple has an opportunity to keep a reasonably spec'd CRT iMac in the line up, only thing is that at 799 and 999 it's a horrible deal, pricisely because it's outdated even before you buy it! If you strip out the digital hub stuff, arghh, that's even worse. What they need to do is offer a 599-699 CRT iMac with a reasonable G3 (700Mhz) small HDD (20GB) and slow CDrw (8-4-20). That's a computer people on a budget could buy to at least get their feet wet with the MacOS, but at the same time the firewire ports will at least allow them to add drive/camera options as they may need them. A complete experience, just slower and cheaper.
There's plenty of margin on those old iMacs. They could stand to lose some in the interest of expanding their market, and wetting consumer appetites for macs.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Good points.
Sorry for going beyond the scope of the cheaper LCD iMac topic to touch on education again, but...
psantora wrote: According to these claims you are saying that the CRT iMac will always be in the edu market... I mean a CRT will always be "not as cool to steal anymore" and not more functinal then an LCD. so why have *ANY* flat panels in the edu market (using your reasoning...)
Using my reasoning, yes, until LCD's are sturdy, ubiquitous, easy to repair, cheaper, etc., there will be a market for crt's in the classroom. Thanks for elucidating that.
The Education market is no longer as simple as it once was and Superdriven LCD iMacs will have a place in some media labs and with teachers who could make use of them, but that isn't the bulk of the education market.
What I think Jobs should do is form the same kind of task force for education that he did with the iPod, and software like iMovie and iTunes, where they focused on elegant solutions to a need and started from scratch designing them. Make iApps for the crt iMac for education.
In this respect I would go against the idea of making "dumb" LCD iMacs and rather make "smarter" crt iMacs. Teachers are more sensitive to bad software than even the unwashed consumer masses. Why? Because they have to get all 30 kids in a room on the same page, some who don't have computers at home.
Apple still has alot to value add to iMacs for teachers. Imagine once digital cameras come down in price, scanners, iPods (student, mobile, auto-synching harddrives) and there is iPhoto and other apps to automate the time-consuming part of technology that makes teachers run screaming away into the practice football field....
If Apple could make the classroom as easy as it has made the home/den computer, then Dell would have only cheap computers to sell and a crt iMac would still be looking very good.