I would agree with most of what is being said here. The cube is still the coolest computer ever made by Apple - small, stylish, classy looking, and different. just a pity about those high prices.
Unfortunately, I don't see it making a return - it would be a bit embarassing for Apple I think - maybe they will return to the idea of the Cube somtime - in a way the have a bit with the iMac.
In the meantime, just put a 100Gb hard drive in your Cube, ge a processor upgrade, and stack it full of RAM - damn, I wish I had one!
Maybe the new PowerMac G4/G5 could be a cube shape... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> it's a cube, but we don't call it a cube...
[quote] Maybe the new PowerMac G4/G5 could be a cube shape... <hr></blockquote>
Apple would only do another Cube alongside another PowerMac, so I think your idea is unlikely, sorry. The PowerMac needs more PCI slots and expandability if anything - not less!
I would like to see a revivial of the cube. But, not exactly in the same form that it existed before.
I think that it might be a good idea for Apple to introduce a small tower, with an expandable AGP slot, (with enough room for as standard card) small form factor, easliy serviceable case, one optical drive bay, and maybe even a singel PCI slot. This model could use basically the same MOBO as the existing Powermac, except with the extra PCI slots removed, to save production costs.
The existing Powermac could then move up... Spec-wise and Price-wise. The Powermac could then be marketed as a high end workstation for video/3d, and the new cube could be a desktop for those that want more upgradability than and monitor size an iMac, but do not need the insane performance and expandability of the Powermac. The Powermac would also have to have much nicer specs to be marketed as a workstation... Two optical drive bays, 6 PCI slots, Heaps of Ram, Wicked graphics card, huge Hard Drive.
I think there may be a market for this... I know that I need a bigger screen than the iMac, but I don't really need any PCI slots. However, I just can't afford the current crop of Powermacs.
No doubt, the Cube is the most kickass computer Apple has come up with to date, in my opinion. I'm a PC convert, and the Cube is what did it for me.
Yeah, it's no secret that it was overpriced when introduced to the market. Right after they put the Cube "on ice" about a year ago, I came across one at a Circuit City, an open box deal, I talked them down to $699 and bought the sucker. I had my eye on them since they were unveiled, but they were just too expensive.
I just upgraded the video card to a GeForce2MX this week, and now with the powerlogix upgrades being announced, this machine could remain relevant for another couple of years!
I love the Cube design (count me in the camp that likes the Cube better than the new iMac design), and I'd like to see it come back someday in some fashion, but when they introduced the new iMac, I knew then that the iMac was really just the next iteration of the Cube, only this time they got the price right.
How many of you would've bought a Cube if Apple introduced an expandable chassis, which include two drive bays and two PCI slots, in a matching case? It would be connected via Firewire. I think if they had lower the price on Cube and add option of the chasis it would have sold very well. And those people who want to expand their system all they have to do is buy the chassis
<hr></blockquote>
Sleek design, non expandable mac =iMac!!
Powerfull machine with matching expansion chasis=Powermac!!
No offense, but I hate these "bring back the cube" threads!!! Nobody bought the bloody things!! They got hammered so much in the press for killing it, you will never again see the cube.
<strong>I would like to see a revivial of the cube. But, not exactly in the same form that it existed before.
I think that it might be a good idea for Apple to introduce a small tower, with an expandable AGP slot, (with enough room for as standard card) small form factor, easliy serviceable case, one optical drive bay, and maybe even a singel PCI slot. This model could use basically the same MOBO as the existing Powermac, except with the extra PCI slots removed, to save production costs.
The existing Powermac could then move up... Spec-wise and Price-wise. The Powermac could then be marketed as a high end workstation for video/3d, and the new cube could be a desktop for those that want more upgradability than and monitor size an iMac, but do not need the insane performance and expandability of the Powermac. The Powermac would also have to have much nicer specs to be marketed as a workstation... Two optical drive bays, 6 PCI slots, Heaps of Ram, Wicked graphics card, huge Hard Drive.
I think there may be a market for this... I know that I need a bigger screen than the iMac, but I don't really need any PCI slots. However, I just can't afford the current crop of Powermacs.
Anybody else in the same boat?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Agreed. The only way i see the Cube coming back is if the Towers move up to the $3000-$4000 Work station range. Then there would be a nice enough gap to bring the Cube back to fill the price gap. $2000-$2800. Only this time, you get a nice 17" LCD display.
<strong>I just upgraded the video card to a GeForce2MX this week, and now with the powerlogix upgrades being announced, this machine could remain relevant for another couple of years! </strong><hr></blockquote>
...whaddafah..? You can upgrade Cubes to GeForce2MX? Please, sir, elaborate..
The 1 GHz upgrades sound cool, but I don't want to lose the silent, fanless operation of my Cube.
I'd like a mid-range to low end system to come out. I don't care for all the bells and whistles in the Power Mac, but I would like to run a 1280x1024 to 1600x1024 resolution LCD moniter, and Apple doesn't sell anything for less than $1600 that can do that.
I'd take the G4 Cube, tip it forward so it is laying on its front, make it 16 inches high (an 8x8x16 inch form factor), add a 7" AGP slot, a 7" PCI slot, have the same sort of pull out assembly as seen in the Cube, hopefully fanless, and sell it in the $1200 range.
Then there were the frustratingly expensive non-options...dvd...no cdrw...cdrw but no DVD...Rage Ati and 450 G4...and then you had to buy the monitor
I was waiting for a cpu and graphics card bump that never arrived...
(...and if you look at the 'Superdrive' iMac now, in some ways its the machine I may have wanted the cube to be. With a 1 gig G4 and 17 inch monitor and a Geforce 4 graphics card? I'd start melting...)
I still look longingly at them (cubes) in the 're-sale' ads. £799? Not bad. If it got lower? If it's the G4 500 with Geforce 2mx with CDRW... I...I...
I think that I might begin to crack and cave in.
Waiting for the true king to the 'power'Mac throne leaves me Macless. Crazy, I know...
I thought and still do, that the Cube was Apple's finest looking and greatest engineered product to date.
Switch.
The irony for me, that now Apple is running their 'switch' campaign (which I think is superb, by the way, especially the web-site 'switch' tab and pages they have put online...) the Cube would have been just the machine to light the touch paper of such a campaign. Priced? TO GO!
An entry level Mac @ £499 inc Vat Cube would have flown off the shelves.
Specs? Who cares. Apple won't do a Cube for a while. But...given a successful retail operation...a re-introduction and re-targeted Cube may find its target audience. A great machine waiting for its 'home'.
Stick a 1 gig G4 upgrade in it (is this possible?), load the ram...hmmm...
<strong>Steve J. was quoted in an interview where he so much as "admitted" that the Cube was a mistake, but one in which they LEARNED from. I think their INTENTIONS were good, but it just didn't hit enough people's sweet spot.
They were looking to sell those to Designers... but this was "before" they started "listening" to what we REALLY needed. They tried to dictate what they THOUGHT we needed... but it turned-out that MOST designers needed a little or a LOT more flexibility... from upgrading a video card... to adding PCI cards for second displays, SCSI support, audio cards, etc. It was just poorly targeted. I doubt they will bring it back... or at least anything close to the previous spec's... it needed to be targeted to the pro-sumer that did not need expansion, but it's price-point exceeded the PRO Tower lines... it was just a big mistake. Oh well... live & learn.</strong><hr></blockquote>
People, get it right....Apple's original market for the Cube was for executives. Not consumers, not, not pro-sumers, and not Design/Production workers. It was a high priced, stylish computer that came to market just as the economy started to tank...thus the small market that they were hoping for wasn't there.
If Apple would have listened to the people on the boards, such as this one, then they would have come out with a G3 Cube for around $999 as a second revision...not $1299, and marketed it to consumers. They still would have sold more at the $1299, but that $999 gets the consumers attention, and brings them in the door....
People, get it right....Apple's original market for the Cube was for executives. Not consumers, not, not pro-sumers, and not Design/Production workers. It was a high priced, stylish computer that came to market just as the economy started to tank...thus the small market that they were hoping for wasn't there.
If Apple would have listened to the people on the boards, such as this one, then they would have come out with a G3 Cube for around $999 as a second revision...not $1299, and marketed it to consumers. They still would have sold more at the $1299, but that $999 gets the consumers attention, and brings them in the door....</strong><hr></blockquote>
Ummm... according to what I read recently... you are the one that is mistaken. Steve Jobs was "roughly" quoted as saying that the Cube was a "mistake" that they learned from... but he also mentioned that it WAS geared towards designers... but they underestimated the expansion needs of the designers that they targeted them for. They thought that the spec's that they built-in to them would be sufficient for *most* designers. (I'm extrapolating a lot here)
Anyhow... they may not have been *SOLELY* for designers, but they definitely were a MAJOR target audience for the Cube.
Ummm... according to what I read recently... you are the one that is mistaken. Steve Jobs was "roughly" quoted as saying that the Cube was a "mistake" that they learned from... but he also mentioned that it WAS geared towards designers... but they underestimated the expansion needs of the designers that they targeted them for. They thought that the spec's that they built-in to them would be sufficient for *most* designers. (I'm extrapolating a lot here)
Anyhow... they may not have been *SOLELY* for designers, but they definitely were a MAJOR target audience for the Cube.
- Scott</strong><hr></blockquote>
Found it... I used a little liberty in my translation. I translated "Pros" as Design Professionals... just MY thought... anyhow... here's the paragraph I was referring to:
[quote]While Apple's track record for design is impressive -- it's the only company to have won D&AD Gold Awards four years in a row, according to Sanghera -- it's not without flaws, a point even Jobs is willing to concede when it comes to the Power Mac G4 Cube.
Admitting the company "made a mistake" with the Cube, presuming pros would rather have a small computer than an expandable one, Jobs is upbeat about the experience. "But, you know, if we don't make a mistake like that every once in a while then maybe we're not trying hard enough. Mistakes are the result of innovating." <hr></blockquote>
...As I recall, when Apple released the Cube its stated market was for the Executive market. They may have looked for other revinue, but the original price point of $1799 for a 450mhz CPU was not priced for the design market whe a 400 mhz tower was at $1499-$1599, and a dual 450 mhz tower at $1999-$2199 (not sure of the exact starting price at the time). However manager's, and executives who want design, and power...and need to save desk space were an ideal market for a computer which Apple could charge a premium...
Powerfull machine with matching expansion chasis=Powermac!!</strong><hr></blockquote>
yeah! apple had to rethink the market real quick after they released the cube.
but threads like these show that the cube is still alive.
hell, there are trabant-fanclubs out there!
(east-german 2-stroke cars from the past)
but my cube is different.
[quote]No offense, but I hate these "bring back the cube" threads!!! Nobody bought the bloody things!! They got hammered so much in the press for killing it, you will never again see the cube.<hr></blockquote>
if you hate the thread - skip it.
i stopped to predict what moves apple will (or will not) take in the future.
Apple doesn't have room for another cube in their lineup. They have decided that ALL consumer computers should be all-in-one deals, which isn't so bad now that the eMac has a 17" CRT. If Apple offered iMacs with different display sizes, then it would be a lineup that pleases everyone.
If Apple were to sell another "headless iMac", then nobody in their right mind would buy the all-in-one iMac, because 3rd party LCD displays are so damn cheap. Apple would lose money for sure.
Right now Apple's got the best consumer lineup they've had in years. It is not a good time to bring back the cube, and like I already said, if anything, the current imac IS a reincarnated cube.
Comments
Jet
Unfortunately, I don't see it making a return - it would be a bit embarassing for Apple I think - maybe they will return to the idea of the Cube somtime - in a way the have a bit with the iMac.
In the meantime, just put a 100Gb hard drive in your Cube, ge a processor upgrade, and stack it full of RAM - damn, I wish I had one!
<strong>Hey, anyone got a cube they wanna let go for cheap?
Jet</strong><hr></blockquote>
<evil> One MEELION DOLLARS! </evil>
Apple would only do another Cube alongside another PowerMac, so I think your idea is unlikely, sorry. The PowerMac needs more PCI slots and expandability if anything - not less!
I think that it might be a good idea for Apple to introduce a small tower, with an expandable AGP slot, (with enough room for as standard card) small form factor, easliy serviceable case, one optical drive bay, and maybe even a singel PCI slot. This model could use basically the same MOBO as the existing Powermac, except with the extra PCI slots removed, to save production costs.
The existing Powermac could then move up... Spec-wise and Price-wise. The Powermac could then be marketed as a high end workstation for video/3d, and the new cube could be a desktop for those that want more upgradability than and monitor size an iMac, but do not need the insane performance and expandability of the Powermac. The Powermac would also have to have much nicer specs to be marketed as a workstation... Two optical drive bays, 6 PCI slots, Heaps of Ram, Wicked graphics card, huge Hard Drive.
I think there may be a market for this... I know that I need a bigger screen than the iMac, but I don't really need any PCI slots. However, I just can't afford the current crop of Powermacs.
Anybody else in the same boat?
Yeah, it's no secret that it was overpriced when introduced to the market. Right after they put the Cube "on ice" about a year ago, I came across one at a Circuit City, an open box deal, I talked them down to $699 and bought the sucker. I had my eye on them since they were unveiled, but they were just too expensive.
I just upgraded the video card to a GeForce2MX this week, and now with the powerlogix upgrades being announced, this machine could remain relevant for another couple of years!
I love the Cube design (count me in the camp that likes the Cube better than the new iMac design), and I'd like to see it come back someday in some fashion, but when they introduced the new iMac, I knew then that the iMac was really just the next iteration of the Cube, only this time they got the price right.
How many of you would've bought a Cube if Apple introduced an expandable chassis, which include two drive bays and two PCI slots, in a matching case? It would be connected via Firewire. I think if they had lower the price on Cube and add option of the chasis it would have sold very well. And those people who want to expand their system all they have to do is buy the chassis
<hr></blockquote>
Sleek design, non expandable mac =iMac!!
Powerfull machine with matching expansion chasis=Powermac!!
No offense, but I hate these "bring back the cube" threads!!! Nobody bought the bloody things!! They got hammered so much in the press for killing it, you will never again see the cube.
[ 06-13-2002: Message edited by: BobtheTomato ]</p>
Maybe instead of square casing they'd make it round and even throw in a display for good measure
<strong>I would like to see a revivial of the cube. But, not exactly in the same form that it existed before.
I think that it might be a good idea for Apple to introduce a small tower, with an expandable AGP slot, (with enough room for as standard card) small form factor, easliy serviceable case, one optical drive bay, and maybe even a singel PCI slot. This model could use basically the same MOBO as the existing Powermac, except with the extra PCI slots removed, to save production costs.
The existing Powermac could then move up... Spec-wise and Price-wise. The Powermac could then be marketed as a high end workstation for video/3d, and the new cube could be a desktop for those that want more upgradability than and monitor size an iMac, but do not need the insane performance and expandability of the Powermac. The Powermac would also have to have much nicer specs to be marketed as a workstation... Two optical drive bays, 6 PCI slots, Heaps of Ram, Wicked graphics card, huge Hard Drive.
I think there may be a market for this... I know that I need a bigger screen than the iMac, but I don't really need any PCI slots. However, I just can't afford the current crop of Powermacs.
Anybody else in the same boat?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Agreed. The only way i see the Cube coming back is if the Towers move up to the $3000-$4000 Work station range. Then there would be a nice enough gap to bring the Cube back to fill the price gap. $2000-$2800. Only this time, you get a nice 17" LCD display.
Well, i can dream anyways....
<strong>I just upgraded the video card to a GeForce2MX this week, and now with the powerlogix upgrades being announced, this machine could remain relevant for another couple of years! </strong><hr></blockquote>
...whaddafah..? You can upgrade Cubes to GeForce2MX? Please, sir, elaborate..
The 1 GHz upgrades sound cool, but I don't want to lose the silent, fanless operation of my Cube.
I'd take the G4 Cube, tip it forward so it is laying on its front, make it 16 inches high (an 8x8x16 inch form factor), add a 7" AGP slot, a 7" PCI slot, have the same sort of pull out assembly as seen in the Cube, hopefully fanless, and sell it in the $1200 range.
Then there were the frustratingly expensive non-options...dvd...no cdrw...cdrw but no DVD...Rage Ati and 450 G4...and then you had to buy the monitor
I was waiting for a cpu and graphics card bump that never arrived...
(...and if you look at the 'Superdrive' iMac now, in some ways its the machine I may have wanted the cube to be. With a 1 gig G4 and 17 inch monitor and a Geforce 4 graphics card? I'd start melting...)
I still look longingly at them (cubes) in the 're-sale' ads. £799? Not bad. If it got lower? If it's the G4 500 with Geforce 2mx with CDRW... I...I...
I think that I might begin to crack and cave in.
Waiting for the true king to the 'power'Mac throne leaves me Macless. Crazy, I know...
I thought and still do, that the Cube was Apple's finest looking and greatest engineered product to date.
Switch.
The irony for me, that now Apple is running their 'switch' campaign (which I think is superb, by the way, especially the web-site 'switch' tab and pages they have put online...) the Cube would have been just the machine to light the touch paper of such a campaign. Priced? TO GO!
An entry level Mac @ £499 inc Vat Cube would have flown off the shelves.
Specs? Who cares. Apple won't do a Cube for a while. But...given a successful retail operation...a re-introduction and re-targeted Cube may find its target audience. A great machine waiting for its 'home'.
Stick a 1 gig G4 upgrade in it (is this possible?), load the ram...hmmm...
Lemon Bon Bon
<strong>Steve J. was quoted in an interview where he so much as "admitted" that the Cube was a mistake, but one in which they LEARNED from. I think their INTENTIONS were good, but it just didn't hit enough people's sweet spot.
They were looking to sell those to Designers... but this was "before" they started "listening" to what we REALLY needed. They tried to dictate what they THOUGHT we needed... but it turned-out that MOST designers needed a little or a LOT more flexibility... from upgrading a video card... to adding PCI cards for second displays, SCSI support, audio cards, etc. It was just poorly targeted. I doubt they will bring it back... or at least anything close to the previous spec's... it needed to be targeted to the pro-sumer that did not need expansion, but it's price-point exceeded the PRO Tower lines... it was just a big mistake. Oh well... live & learn.</strong><hr></blockquote>
People, get it right....Apple's original market for the Cube was for executives. Not consumers, not, not pro-sumers, and not Design/Production workers. It was a high priced, stylish computer that came to market just as the economy started to tank...thus the small market that they were hoping for wasn't there.
If Apple would have listened to the people on the boards, such as this one, then they would have come out with a G3 Cube for around $999 as a second revision...not $1299, and marketed it to consumers. They still would have sold more at the $1299, but that $999 gets the consumers attention, and brings them in the door....
<strong>
People, get it right....Apple's original market for the Cube was for executives. Not consumers, not, not pro-sumers, and not Design/Production workers. It was a high priced, stylish computer that came to market just as the economy started to tank...thus the small market that they were hoping for wasn't there.
If Apple would have listened to the people on the boards, such as this one, then they would have come out with a G3 Cube for around $999 as a second revision...not $1299, and marketed it to consumers. They still would have sold more at the $1299, but that $999 gets the consumers attention, and brings them in the door....</strong><hr></blockquote>
Ummm... according to what I read recently... you are the one that is mistaken. Steve Jobs was "roughly" quoted as saying that the Cube was a "mistake" that they learned from... but he also mentioned that it WAS geared towards designers... but they underestimated the expansion needs of the designers that they targeted them for. They thought that the spec's that they built-in to them would be sufficient for *most* designers. (I'm extrapolating a lot here)
Anyhow... they may not have been *SOLELY* for designers, but they definitely were a MAJOR target audience for the Cube.
- Scott
<strong>
Ummm... according to what I read recently... you are the one that is mistaken. Steve Jobs was "roughly" quoted as saying that the Cube was a "mistake" that they learned from... but he also mentioned that it WAS geared towards designers... but they underestimated the expansion needs of the designers that they targeted them for. They thought that the spec's that they built-in to them would be sufficient for *most* designers. (I'm extrapolating a lot here)
Anyhow... they may not have been *SOLELY* for designers, but they definitely were a MAJOR target audience for the Cube.
- Scott</strong><hr></blockquote>
Found it... I used a little liberty in my translation. I translated "Pros" as Design Professionals... just MY thought... anyhow... here's the paragraph I was referring to:
[quote]While Apple's track record for design is impressive -- it's the only company to have won D&AD Gold Awards four years in a row, according to Sanghera -- it's not without flaws, a point even Jobs is willing to concede when it comes to the Power Mac G4 Cube.
Admitting the company "made a mistake" with the Cube, presuming pros would rather have a small computer than an expandable one, Jobs is upbeat about the experience. "But, you know, if we don't make a mistake like that every once in a while then maybe we're not trying hard enough. Mistakes are the result of innovating." <hr></blockquote>
[ 06-13-2002: Message edited by: Scott F. ]</p>
...As I recall, when Apple released the Cube its stated market was for the Executive market. They may have looked for other revinue, but the original price point of $1799 for a 450mhz CPU was not priced for the design market whe a 400 mhz tower was at $1499-$1599, and a dual 450 mhz tower at $1999-$2199 (not sure of the exact starting price at the time). However manager's, and executives who want design, and power...and need to save desk space were an ideal market for a computer which Apple could charge a premium...
<strong>Sleek design, non expandable mac =iMac!!
Powerfull machine with matching expansion chasis=Powermac!!</strong><hr></blockquote>
yeah! apple had to rethink the market real quick after they released the cube.
but threads like these show that the cube is still alive.
hell, there are trabant-fanclubs out there!
(east-german 2-stroke cars from the past)
but my cube is different.
[quote]No offense, but I hate these "bring back the cube" threads!!! Nobody bought the bloody things!! They got hammered so much in the press for killing it, you will never again see the cube.<hr></blockquote>
if you hate the thread - skip it.
i stopped to predict what moves apple will (or will not) take in the future.
If Apple were to sell another "headless iMac", then nobody in their right mind would buy the all-in-one iMac, because 3rd party LCD displays are so damn cheap. Apple would lose money for sure.
Right now Apple's got the best consumer lineup they've had in years. It is not a good time to bring back the cube, and like I already said, if anything, the current imac IS a reincarnated cube.