titantiger

docno42 said:

titantiger said:
And I pointed

docno42 said:

titantiger said:
But I am the customer for it.  I've owned three

StrangeDays said:

fastasleep said:

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titantiger said:

fastasleep said:

titantiger said:

mike1 said:

titantiger said:

Put another way, the base Mac Mini is $699.  Pair it with a nice $300 LG 4k display (24") and an Apple keyboard and Mouse and you're only at about $1150.  Same M1 chip, same 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.  But more ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and even the ability to swap out the screen as a bonus if you wanted to later.  Add a webcam for $100 and you're still $50 under this crippled iMac's price point.

You clearly aren't the customer for this, so please spend your money elsewhere.

But I am the customer for it.  I've owned three iMacs since 2002.  I'm not asking for something unreasonable, or even something that is in line with what Apple has offered in the past.  The entry level consumer iMac at $1299 has never involved these kinds of petty compromises.  It makes no sense in light of the specs for the Mac Mini for instance.

There's no need to get pissy about valid criticism.  These are artificial feature removals that are a step backward from what the entry level, non-education iMac has offered in the past.

Did you consider the fact that it’s an entirely new industrial design and larger screen and doesn’t use a 4200rpm hard drive or any number of other features that would make it more difficult to reach the same price point of the previous low end model with all the features of the higher specced models? It’s not uncommon for newer improved models to come out at higher prices to recoup development and component expenses and later drop as those things improve. It’s not a new thing. 

I did consider it.  The 2020 iMac 21.5 had 8GB of RAM, 256 SSD (not a spinning hard drive) and only a slightly smaller screen for $1099.  The new design is nice but not $200 nicer when you remove that many ports and can't even be bothered to include an ethernet jack on a desktop computer.  

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Most people have zero use for an Ethernet jack.

Do these doorknobs not realize the Ethernet jack is in the power brick, using 1 cable to snap in rather than 2? It has ethernet. 

fastasleep said:

titantiger said:

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fastasleep said:

titantiger said:

docno42 said:

titantiger said:
Far from nonsensical.  The issue is, the $1299 price point didn't used to be the crippled K-12 version.  A version like that was in the $1000 range.  When you got to 1300 bucks it didn't have goofy trade offs like only two USB ports and no ethernet jack.  Hell, even the base Mac mini has a damn ethernet jack, 2 USB ports in addition to the 2 Thunderbolt ones, and even an HDMI.  So it's perfectly reasonable to question the specs for the price on this new iMac.

I don't know what country you live in but in the western world things have been getting more expensive over time for the past 40 years.  And it's accelerated in our COVID blessed world thanks to the now blindingly obvious gross, continued overreaction to the China virus.  The base mini lacks a screen, speakers, bundled keyboard/mouse, etc. so it's hardly an equal comparison.

Speaking of costs raising over time - I was unwrapping some stuff wrapped in newspapers from the mid 70's and cars costing $30K plus today were around $1500 then.  Thank decades of successful central planning for this "feature".  

And I pointed out in the very next post that the M1 Mac Mini with the same exact specs on RAM and SSD storage can be paired with a nice 24" 4k LG monitor, Apple keyboard and mouse and still come out $150 less.  Add in webcam and speakers and you're still at or under $1299 and you have the versatility of more ports (including HDMI) and the ability to upgrade the screen to 5k or a larger size later.  I don't think inflation on the Mac line jumped 20% from the release of the M1 Mac Mini til now.

The mini is in same old enclosure as the Intel 
model. The display is 4.5K, not 4K. It’s got a new logic board, cooling system, and audio designs. You can’t pretend like these aren’t factors. 
 

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Which while it may justify a price increase, does not justify an increase while removing 4 ports, the SD slot, and ethernet.  

Because you’re making up component costs in your head to calculate the value of the product. As has been discussed many times over, the sum of component costs has nothing to do with development and manufacturing costs. You have no idea how they calculated these choices, and are making yourself angry over an imaginary metric that you concocted on your own. That
seems unproductive.