Apple expected to offer more affordable 'budget' iMac next year

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  • Reply 81 of 200

    "Apple expected to offer more affordable 'budget' iMac next year"

     

    Now, where have I heard that before?

  • Reply 82 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by waldobushman View Post

     

    "Apple expected to offer more affordable 'budget' iMac next year"

     

    Now, where have I heard that before?


     

    I'm not sure...where have you heard this before?

  • Reply 83 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Eriamjh View Post

     

    But apple doesn't cater to the low end...


     

    eMac?

  • Reply 84 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac_128 View Post



    Let me guess, to lower the price, Apple will replace the aluminum case of the iMac with 5 colored plastic options with last years internals ...

     

    Considering how good those internals are today, and how well they would accommodate the needs of the classroom, why not? If they can do it for $300 ~ 400 less, even better. The original multi-color iMac reborn!

     

    Aside from education, there are a lot of people who are literally stuck with Windows (due to affordability) who would love nothing more than to work with OS X. I know two people who bought Minis, and use them plugged into their TVs. It isn't optimal. An all-in-one Mac in the $800 ~ $1,000 range would be a winner… certainly for schools, but also for lower-income folks who are currently stuck screaming profanities at the nightmare known as Windows 8...

  • Reply 85 of 200
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post

     

    It's true, making budget products hasn't worked out for Apple in the past. There's a difference between designing a product you would want to use, and *then* using all your skill to manufacture it as cheaply as possible, vs. trying to design a cheap product to begin with. The former usually works out a lot better!

     

    I personally think the iMac is very reasonably priced as is, especially the lower end one. If people still can't afford that, then get an iPad. Better to have an awesome tablet than a crappy PC...


     

    Exactly - and that is why the vocal residents around here are unable to understand that the SUCCESSFUL Apple has always been driven by design and NOT by profit - cheap production/excellent supply-chain control were always consequential to a priority to make great devices (and this principle applied to pretty much EVERYTHING, including the cheap iPod Shuffle) - until Cook stopped being a COO, that is...now all we hear is "budget" this and "cheaper" that.

     

    The always-insulting TS insists that the 5C is not a failure - of course "not", until you see how soon its prices are being cut (never happened in Apple's recent history) and how crowded its related inventories are...NO ONE cares about it, and emerging markets (including the impoverished US, by the way) will NOT benefit from its lower price, because there is no "lower price" to begin with.

     

    Alas, the crystal is broken now; and SJ is no longer around to return and perform a much-necessary clean-up again. 

  • Reply 86 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by brlawyer View Post





    Why don't you try to respond with arguments instead of insults?

     

    maybe he was feeling truly inspired…? :)

  • Reply 87 of 200
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    So do some proving, bucko.




    And this is the part where the resident troll conveniently disappears in the hope everyone will forget his wannabe-know-it-all predictions in the next few days.  Which of course, we will not. 

  • Reply 88 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by brlawyer View Post

     

     

    1 - It has, no matter how much you try to spin it otherwise;

     

    2 - It is the worst kind of budget, in fact - with a clear goal of reaching "emerging markets" even though it is as expensive as the iPhone 5 for them;

     

    3 - I did - if you can't see it that's a different matter.


     

    1. You alone say -- with absolute confidence and certainty -- that the 5c has "failed". Do you know Apple's internal strategy? Its sales numbers for the new handset? Whether or not the device is meeting Apple's expectations? No you do not. Maintaining good stock on them doesn't equate to failure. Assumption is not the same as fact. Get that?

     

    2. It's the 'second-tier' model. No different price or position than last year's second-tier model. Instead of continuing the iPhone 5 unchanged, they differentiated it from the top-tier model (and lowered costs) by changing the casing. Introduced something new and fun to the model line. You haven't touched one, obviously. They are neither "budget" nor "cheap" construction.

     

    3. Yours isn't an argument, it's "contrariness". If you can't see it, that's a different matter.

     

  • Reply 89 of 200

    You guys are forgetting this is just another analyst's rumor, and you're arguing over a hypothetical product.

  • Reply 90 of 200
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    andysol wrote: »
    The only tablets that sell well are the ones with DVD drives though.

    /s
    Yep. We keep hearing how tablets are killing the PC but yet Apple is somehow doomed because they're phasing out DVD drives from their products. Which tablet again ships with a DVD drive? And no I'm not talking about convertible Ultrabooks that have a touch screen.
  • Reply 91 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by alienzed View Post



    Why Apple 'slimmed down' a big honking desktop machine that NO ONE looks at from the side is beyond me. I can understand removing the CD/DVD drive from the portables, but it's a frickin' imac and people still need to read CD/DVDs, especially on these desktop models.

    Apple's tendency towards crippling the specs of their machines over form factor isn't always a desirable thing and although I have a 2 year old imac, I can say right now that I won't be upgrading to another iMac. If I wanted laptop components and laptop specs, I'd buy a laptop, stop skimping on the power, some of us need it!

     

    They aren't skimping on power at all! I have a 27" 4-core i7 iMac running at 2.8Ghz, 8GB of RAM, a Terabyte drive internal, a small 4TB raid array external.… it runs all my "power user software" just fine! (Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, plugins galore.) A few 3D games too, quite handily (World of Warcraft, Homeworld 2). 

     

    Oh, but... did I mention I bought mine in early 2010?

     

    The CPU/GPU and other internals have only gotten faster and much more powerful and efficient since then. For the same or even lower price than I paid for mine! 

     

    You say they are skimping on performance because they dropped the internal optical drive? Buy an external drive! Use it when you need it. I've used mine all of four times this year. Didn't really NEED to either. My next iMac can be without the drive, and that'll be fine. I'll just buy one if/when the need arises again, which is likely to be never.

     

    Change is hard, I know. I've been moving with this modernization tide for over a decade now, and it can be rough sometimes. It's well worth it though. I have freed myself from the bondage of technology. It's smoothly integrated into my daily life now, and I have tons of free time as a result. Thanks to Apple for that!  Managing optical discs is just one less thing I worry about. Seriously!

  • Reply 92 of 200
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member

    Wow, a lot of big, brave words about the "failure" of the 5C only days before earnings are announced.

     

    I am preparing a nice crow pie.  It will be served after Apple announces record iPhone sales, and some simple math concludes that at the very least, the 5C is a solid product performing well above last year's 4S at this time.

     

    My only question will be, would the 5C bashers prefer to eat their crow pie hot, or cold?  Your call.

  • Reply 93 of 200
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    brlawyer wrote: »
    Exactly - and that is why the vocal yet benighted residents around here are unable to understand that the SUCCESSFUL Apple has always been driven by design and NOT by profit - cheap production/excellent supply-chain control were always consequential to a priority to make great devices (and this principle applied to pretty much EVERYTHING, including the cheap iPod Shuffle) - until Cook stopped being a COO, that is...now all we hear is "budget" this and "cheaper" that. 

    The always-insulting 28,568-post idiot up there (as if number of posts meant anything, of course) insists that the 5C is not a failure - of course "not", until you see how soon its prices are being cut (never happened in Apple's recent history) and how crowded its related inventories are...NO ONE cares about it, and emerging markets (including the impoverished US, by the way) will NOT benefit from its lower price, because there is no "lower price" to begin with.

    Alas, the crystal is broken now; and SJ is no longer around to return and perform a much-necessary clean-up again. 

    Not sure if you're just being obtuse or what, but which Apple executives have been throwing around words like "budget" and "cheaper"? NONE of them have. It's the same Wall Street analyst and tech press nonsense we've always heard about Apple. Actually it's you throwing around stuff as if its fact when its clearly just your opinion.

    And how convenient that Steve Jobs died just as the iphone was really taking off sales wise. It allows the clueless to claim Steve didn't care about making money, when that's absolutely not the case.

    As far as retailers discounting the 5C, so what? Apple sells their products at Walmart so the idea that it tarnishes the Apple brand to have one of their products discounted is just pretentious bullshit. Perhaps Apple designed and priced the 5C to allow for retailer discounting. And when one does it others will follow suit because they all want the sale.
  • Reply 94 of 200
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 512ke View Post

     

    Wow, a lot of big, brave words about the "failure" of the 5C only days before earnings are announced.

     

    I am preparing a nice crow pie.  It will be served after Apple announces record iPhone sales, and some simple math concludes that at the very least, the 5C is a solid product performing well above last year's 4S at this time.

     

    My only question will be, would the 5C bashers prefer to eat their crow pie hot, or cold?  Your call.


     

    They'll all slink away back into their Android holes and hide when the facts and hard numbers are announced.

  • Reply 95 of 200
    Originally Posted by alienzed View Post

    Why Apple 'slimmed down' a big honking desktop machine that NO ONE looks at from the side is beyond me.

     

    Oh! Here, I’ll help you catch up to it.

     

    See the angle of the curve of the iMac’s casing? Notice it’s about, oh… 5-10*? Sounds a little like a keyboard. Dunnit? It does. And what do we put on a keyboard? Our hands, yes? Strange, then, that the iMac’s shape would lend itself to a keyboard aesthetic. Unless… we’re meant to touch our iMacs.

     

    But that’s silly. Bringing the iMac down to a keyboard’s angle to touch the screen? An iPad, sure, because it has great glass covering the screen to touch, but not the…

     

    Well. Look at this. The iMac has had glass covering its screen since 2007.

     

    And I said this EXACT thing six years ago. Apple is taking desktop computers multitouch. They’ve been working at it for years now, both in hardware and software. And it’s coming to fruition soon.

     

    The iMac has gotten thinner. And thinner. And glass over the screen. And thinner. And now it’s thin enough to SET STRAIGHT ON A DESK and we’ll touch the darn thing. But lo, the software. It’s still cursor-based, right? Wrong! Wait, no, right… you’re right. 

     

    BUT. Look at it. Every new OS X release brings us a step closer to multitouch. Every new release makes icons larger, finger-size, makes the UI more touch-friendly. And the day will come that we’ll be begging Apple to let us touch OS X. And that day will be followed by OS XI, a UI and UX designed to be touched. No more mouse, but desktop software-level depth and interaction.

     

    *THE DEGREE SYMBOL, WHICH WAS TYPEABLE NOT TWO WEEKS AGO, HAS NOW BEEN OVERRIDDEN AGAIN BY HUDDLER’S STUPID CUSTOM COMMANDS. COME ON.

     

    …people still need to read CD/DVDs, especially on these desktop models.


     

    [who?][citation needed]

     

    If I wanted laptop components and laptop specs, I’d buy a laptop


     

    So buy an iMac. You’ll get desktop components and desktop specs.

     
    Originally Posted by tribalogical View Post

    eMac?

     

    Education is “low end”? Aww. :( 

  • Reply 96 of 200
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post

     
    You can even get blu-ray drives for less than $100. Plug it in when you need to use it, unplug it and store it away when you don't.


    AFAIK you can only author Blu-ray on a Mac through Compressor app or through Toast Titanium, but playing Blu-ray movies  is only possible through virtualization or Windows in bootcamp, etc. Please update with links if this is no longer the case.

  • Reply 97 of 200
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

    AFAIK you can only author Blu-ray on a Mac through Compressor app or through Toast Titanium, but playing Blu-ray movies  is only possible through virtualization such as Windows in bootcamp, etc. Please update with links if this is no longer the case.

     

    I remember there being Blu-ray playback software released for OS X a few years ago, at this point.

     

    As to authorship, doesn’t FCPX do it now? DVD Studio Pro does, but that’s discontinued.

  • Reply 98 of 200
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    sflocal wrote: »
    And this is the part where the resident troll conveniently disappears in the hope everyone will forget his wannabe-know-it-all predictions in the next few days.  Which of course, we will not. 

    brlawyer is a broken record of Anti-Apple doooom™.
  • Reply 99 of 200
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    mstone wrote: »
    AFAIK you can only author Blu-ray on a Mac through Compressor app or through Toast Titanium, but playing Blu-ray movies  is only possible through virtualization or Windows in bootcamp, etc. Please update with links if this is no longer the case.

    I haven't tried them, but there are a handful, I think.

    Here are two:
    http://www.macblurayplayer.com/
    http://www.bluray-player-software.com/
  • Reply 100 of 200
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    mstone wrote: »
    AFAIK you can only author Blu-ray on a Mac through Compressor app or through Toast Titanium, but playing Blu-ray movies  is only possible through virtualization or Windows in bootcamp, etc. Please update with links if this is no longer the case.
    I think you're right. I guess my point was optical drives are super cheap these days so if someone really needs one they're cheap to buy an easy to use.
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