17" & 19" iMacs beginning in October?
<a href="http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=16695"; target="_blank">http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=16695</a>;
Yet another report on those supposed 17" and 19" LCD iMacs. I thought the first report was a typo, but here's the same info repeated again, this time by a different manufacturer. Looks like it's now CONFIRMED that the iMac is getting a sweet update this winter!
If Apple can get the 19" in at $2000, and then move the 17" down to all the 15" pricepoints, that would be awesome! The iMac would still be a bit pricey, but it would offer value unmatched in the Wintel world. Where can you buy a Wintel with a 17" LCD with all the features of the iMac for only $1200? You can't!
Also, this news suggests that Apple's having great success with the 17" iMac model, giving them more incentive to boost the display size. Finally, Apple is learning that when it comes to displays, size DOES matter!
MacNN report:
[quote]China Times has reported that Q-Run Technology has secured orders from Apple for 17- and 19-inch LCD iMac (we reported previously that Quanta would produce 17- and 19-inch iMacs in the third quarter). "Q-Run is currently on a test run for iMac, but delivery is due to begin from October... Monthly shipment is expected to exceed 10,000 iMac desktops in the initial stage [and] the PCs will be equipped with LCD panels provided by Samsung." [report in Chinese]<hr></blockquote>
If anyone can read chinese, then here's the original link:
<a href="http://ec.chinatimes.com.tw/scripts/chinatimes/iscstext.exe?DB=ChinaTimes&Function=ListDoc&From=2 &Single=1" target="_blank">http://ec.chinatimes.com.tw/scripts/chinatimes/iscstext.exe?DB=ChinaTimes&Function=ListDoc&From=2 &Single=1</a>
And here is a Sherlock 3 translation (thanks to Jaguar! )
[quote]? Litre i-Mac? ? In October leaves?
? Family bright/Taibei? ? ? Sea set? Under flag? Litre? Has met? ? Fruit? ? 17? And 19? On i-Mac table? ? ? ? ? ? In September? Beginning? ? In October officially leaves? Initial period? Moonrise? Quantity? Breach? ? Next year? Energy? Hopes gradually to enhance. This? Sea set? ? ? ? ? And outstanding person? The surface attacks? Once again by? The litre obtains? Fruit? ? On table? ? ? ? ? ? By? Company? Unfolds? ? Alloy mold? ? Makes the ability, not? ? Has? ? ? Takes the outstanding person to replace the labor i-Book? ? ? ? ? ? .
? Sea set? ? ? ? ? And the outstanding person and so on many companies, obtains? Fruit? ? 17? And 19? I-Mac? ? ? Hands over by? Time? ? Fruit? ? Replaces the labor? Litre? ? ? ? ? .
? Points out? ? ? ? Leaves in October? Matches? ? Tristar 17 and 19? The LCD kneading board, concentrates in the four seasons is crowded? . The legal person points out? Sea set? First half year namely? Takes i-Mac 15? ? ? But from beginning of this year kneading board? ? ? Also leaves? For not? Asks, the pain loses hundred? Yuan? ? However at the end of August? The kneading board sells? Walks slippery? Sea? Yu Jie? 17? And 19? ? ? ? Altogether? ? Gross profit slightly? Glides down, sells in the kneading board? Holds? Glides down and? In September is large? Under value, this? ? Fruit? ? ? ? Gross profit rate? Is higher than? Time.
? Sea set? ? ? Takes i-Mac on the table and? ? ? ? ? ? In the near future? Strength
Yet another report on those supposed 17" and 19" LCD iMacs. I thought the first report was a typo, but here's the same info repeated again, this time by a different manufacturer. Looks like it's now CONFIRMED that the iMac is getting a sweet update this winter!
If Apple can get the 19" in at $2000, and then move the 17" down to all the 15" pricepoints, that would be awesome! The iMac would still be a bit pricey, but it would offer value unmatched in the Wintel world. Where can you buy a Wintel with a 17" LCD with all the features of the iMac for only $1200? You can't!
Also, this news suggests that Apple's having great success with the 17" iMac model, giving them more incentive to boost the display size. Finally, Apple is learning that when it comes to displays, size DOES matter!
MacNN report:
[quote]China Times has reported that Q-Run Technology has secured orders from Apple for 17- and 19-inch LCD iMac (we reported previously that Quanta would produce 17- and 19-inch iMacs in the third quarter). "Q-Run is currently on a test run for iMac, but delivery is due to begin from October... Monthly shipment is expected to exceed 10,000 iMac desktops in the initial stage [and] the PCs will be equipped with LCD panels provided by Samsung." [report in Chinese]<hr></blockquote>
If anyone can read chinese, then here's the original link:
<a href="http://ec.chinatimes.com.tw/scripts/chinatimes/iscstext.exe?DB=ChinaTimes&Function=ListDoc&From=2 &Single=1" target="_blank">http://ec.chinatimes.com.tw/scripts/chinatimes/iscstext.exe?DB=ChinaTimes&Function=ListDoc&From=2 &Single=1</a>
And here is a Sherlock 3 translation (thanks to Jaguar!
)[quote]? Litre i-Mac? ? In October leaves?
? Family bright/Taibei? ? ? Sea set? Under flag? Litre? Has met? ? Fruit? ? 17? And 19? On i-Mac table? ? ? ? ? ? In September? Beginning? ? In October officially leaves? Initial period? Moonrise? Quantity? Breach? ? Next year? Energy? Hopes gradually to enhance. This? Sea set? ? ? ? ? And outstanding person? The surface attacks? Once again by? The litre obtains? Fruit? ? On table? ? ? ? ? ? By? Company? Unfolds? ? Alloy mold? ? Makes the ability, not? ? Has? ? ? Takes the outstanding person to replace the labor i-Book? ? ? ? ? ? .
? Sea set? ? ? ? ? And the outstanding person and so on many companies, obtains? Fruit? ? 17? And 19? I-Mac? ? ? Hands over by? Time? ? Fruit? ? Replaces the labor? Litre? ? ? ? ? .
? Points out? ? ? ? Leaves in October? Matches? ? Tristar 17 and 19? The LCD kneading board, concentrates in the four seasons is crowded? . The legal person points out? Sea set? First half year namely? Takes i-Mac 15? ? ? But from beginning of this year kneading board? ? ? Also leaves? For not? Asks, the pain loses hundred? Yuan? ? However at the end of August? The kneading board sells? Walks slippery? Sea? Yu Jie? 17? And 19? ? ? ? Altogether? ? Gross profit slightly? Glides down, sells in the kneading board? Holds? Glides down and? In September is large? Under value, this? ? Fruit? ? ? ? Gross profit rate? Is higher than? Time.
? Sea set? ? ? Takes i-Mac on the table and? ? ? ? ? ? In the near future? Strength
Comments
I was going to help my mother buy a new iMac in November (for her birthday) since she is still using a 5 yr. old iMac 233. (going strong!)
But now maybe I should wait until after MacWorld SF if these iMacs don't appear by late oct.
I'd love to get her the 17" screen version for a lowered price!
<strong> <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
You're just jealous that you didn't see this first!
:cool:
:-P
We wont see another iMac update until MWSF.
<strong>no way a 17in iMac can get down to $1200. If it did though, you could not make enough of them.</strong><hr></blockquote>
mabey thats the idea. flood the market with imac's. steve did say that he wants apple to double their current market share in the next 5 years. he didnt say he'd be making money on all those computers.
[quote] Q-Run is currently on a test run for iMac, but delivery is due to begin from October... Monthly shipment is expected to exceed 10,000 iMac desktops in the initial stage <hr></blockquote>
This doesn't mean Apple will be shipping in October, only that Apple's supplier will be shipping in October. It could be that Apple will begin stockpiling these new iMacs in later October so that they can declare "immediate availability" when new models are announced, and avoid the supply snafus that plagued the G4 iMac's introduction earlier this year.
As for when Apple plans on announcing these new iMacs, why must they wait until MWSF? Since being introduced at MWSF02, the iMac hasn't gotten a single update, that makes it 9 months, which is about as long as Apple typically goes between updates. The 17" iMac is a new model, but not an update.
Apple has two options: Introduce the 19" iMac as a new model, or take this opportunity to revise the entire iMac lineup. I think Apple will opt for revising the whole lineup since the iMacs are due for an update. Furthermore, with 15", 17", and 19" LCD iMacs, there will have to be a major shuffling of price points in the lineup.
The 15" LCD will probably remain as a low end iMac, and we'll see prices continue to drop to make room for a new high-end model:
15" LCD iMac:
800 MHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
128 MB RAM
40 GB HD
CD-RW
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1199
15" LCD iMac
800 MHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
40 GB HD
Combo Drive
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1399
15" LCD iMac
1 GHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
60 GB HD
Superdrive
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1599
17" LCD iMac
1 GHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
80 GB HD
Superdrive
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1799
19" LCD iMac
1 GHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
80 GB HD
Superdrive
Radeon 9000 64 MB
$1999
<strong>The report says:
The 15" LCD will probably remain as a low end iMac, and we'll see prices continue to drop to make room for a new high-end model:
15" LCD iMac:
800 MHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
128 MB RAM
40 GB HD
CD-RW
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1199
15" LCD iMac
800 MHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
40 GB HD
Combo Drive
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1399
15" LCD iMac
1 GHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
60 GB HD
Superdrive
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1599
17" LCD iMac
1 GHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
80 GB HD
Superdrive
GeForce4 MX 32 MB
$1799
19" LCD iMac
1 GHz G4, 133 MHz FSB
256 MB RAM
80 GB HD
Superdrive
Radeon 9000 64 MB
$1999</strong><hr></blockquote>
JD, I like your thoughts on the high end, but your low end has way too many models. There's no reason to revamp the motherboard, all they have to do is lower prices and keep pumping them out as is. If Steve wants to get serious about Holiday market share and at the same time tell Gateway where to shove their Profile, then he'll do this:
Three iMac screen sizes, three models. Nice and simple, nice and clean.
Current 15" Combo LCD iMac
price reduced to $1299
Current 17" Superdrive LCD iMac
price reduced to $1699
New 19" Superdrive LCD iMac
1600x1024/1Ghz/256/100/Geforce4MX64
$1999
Current 15" CD-RW LCD iMac
Discontinued
Current 15" Superdrive LCD iMac
Discontinued
Admittedly very aggressive pricing, but man would it give the Switch campaign some teeth and Wall Street would love it too. For those who say there's too big a gap between the 15" and 17" models, the $1099 Combo eMac and $1499 Superdrive eMac fit in very nicely. Actually while you're at it, drop the Combo eMac down to $999, kill the G3 CRT iMac and you've got a no compromise, no dead wood consumer desktop line for the Holidays.
$999 Combo eMac
$1299 Combo 15" LCD iMac
$1499 Superdrive eMac
$1699 Superdrive 17" LCD iMac
$1999 Superdrive 19" LCD iMac
[ 09-28-2002: Message edited by: Ensign Pulver ]</p>
<strong>
Three iMac screen sizes, three models. Nice and simple, nice and clean.
Current 15" Combo LCD iMac
price reduced to $1299
Current 17" Superdrive LCD iMac
price reduced to $1699
New 19" Superdrive LCD iMac
1600x1024/1Ghz/256/100/Geforce4MX64
$1999
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Those prices you've got seem a bit low. You have the 17" iMac dropping $300...that's an awful lot, even the $200 drop in price I have for the 17" model is a bit much.
I do think the mobo needs some tweaking, since the current FSB in particular is far too dated, and new video chipsets would be a welcome addition for anyone interested in gaming. Since these iMacs are stuck with the same GPU their entire lifespan, they should start out with as good a video chipset as possible. Apple would be wise to make these new iMacs ready to play Doom 3 out of the box, and without at least a GeForce4 MX 32 MB video chipset there is little chance of this FPS being playable with any eye-candy turned on.
What I like about my lineup is that there are three superdrive models:
Superdrive iMacs:
15" 1600
17" 1800
19" 2000
This is a good straightforward part of the lineup and it drops the price of a superdrive iMac by $200, putting it within reach of even more consumers.
Then I had two non-superdrive iMacs, a CDRW model and a Combo drive model, but you're right about it being too crowded a lineup. To simplify it, the CDRW model could be axed in favor of offering a single Combo drive model.
Combo Drive iMac:
15" 1300
The eMac shores up the low end while LCD displays remain too expensive to offer a $1000 LCD iMac. Here's my revised lineup taking into consideration Pulver's criticisms:
1000 17" CRT eMac Combo drive
1200 15" LCD iMac Combo drive
1400 17" CRT eMac Superdrive
1600 15" LCD iMac Superdrive
1800 17" LCD iMac Superdrive
2000 19" LCD iMac Superdrive
I'm listing this lineup with the assumption that the eMac will drop in price by $100. There's no excuse for the low-end eMac to be priced at 1100, Apple needs to drop BOTH eMac models by $100 to make them more competitive. CRTs are so cheap nowadays that Apple could offer them for free with Powermacs and it wouldn't even affect their margins.
This lineup fills up the 1000-2000 price range very well AND it provides good options below $1500. Based on the original iMac's popularity, we know that the sub-1500 price range is a sweet spot for Apple and with this lineup they have good offerings in this range, both CRT and LCD, and even a superdrive CRT Mac. That's what Apple needs to do if they want to go after Wintel users....price Macs to have good value. It's ok to cost more as long as it's obvious to the consumer that the Mac offers more and is a better value.
<strong>Not going to happen... yet. 15" iMacs are still in large quantities at warehouses around the world. (In case you haven't heard, PC sales - even Gateway, are not breaking any records.) The discontinuation of manufacturing of the 15" iMac is due to the fact that sales have not met predictions. The 17" iMac is in short supply. Apple will not have enough to fullfill all orders until early December. Prices will not come down on LCD screens until next year. But if the past is any indication, demand will again outstrip supply and prices will start to creep up by the end of 2003. (This happened in 2001). Apple cannot produce a fully-loaded 17" LCD iMac for sale at a $1200 price point. You want a cheap LCD computer buy a Gateway. Why, oh why, doesn't anybody get it around here? The name of the game for them is profitability. If they play the numbers game they will be out of business.</strong><hr></blockquote>
LCD prices tend to operate in a two year cycle due to the way the industry operates. I'd expect prices to drop through 2003 and into early 2004 as 5G plants come online before they pick up again. Then again depending on the analyst you pick some will say they expect price to remain flat through 2003 due to higher than expected demand. Personally I'm of the belief that LCD companies are getting enough new production up.
It really wouldn't surprise me to see Apple almost entirely drop the 15" LCD early next year.