those are so beautiful I wish I had a reason to buy one
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Apple Announced the 24-Inch iMac Three Years Ago Today
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My use is perfectly met with the 24" iMac. Have had the M1 since it was introduced and love it.
I agree it’s a great value IF you don’t need a larger display. Having a M3 chip thrown in for good measure means it’s fast enough for most people.
Also it’s difficult to compare because there isn’t any other 24” retina displays out there.
You’d have to go up to a 27” retina display and Mac mini which doesn’t have M3 yet, but does have M2 Pro.
So then we’re no longer comparing apples to apples.
This is so frustratingly the Apple way to ’force’ you into upgrading. At the same time, it’s a pretty smart strategy from a Tim Cook, financial perspective.
I can’t help but think/hope the reason there’s are no M2/M3 Pro chips is that they’re holding it back for the 27 or 3O inch iMac coming later this year.
Aww give beleaguered cash-strapped Apple a break. They can't stretch their limited resources everywhere you know.
In what way? It's an impressive computer that was recently updated to M3.
Are we’re STILL waiting for that redesigned mouse with USB-C
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Beautiful design but imagine a slightly thicker wedge shape (or overall) with an easy-to-remove back and maybe 2-4 m.2 slots inside, so one could start with any amount of storage they like and upgrade to however much more they want/need over time... not at Apple exploitive SSD pricing 3-5X ABOVE market but using off-the-shelf m.2 sticks like the vast larger world of PCs can do.
Keep the M-series storage option too for anyone wanting to make a case of "fastest" or some special ability of Apple SSD vs. commodity SSD. Then users who believe could get the overall system installed on 256GB to 8TB Apple SSD (and pay way, wayyyyyyyyyy up for any upgrades that way) AND have up to enormous, additional storage "hidden" inside what might be imagined as a big MBair (wedge design) on a stick. Bonus to this: almost certainly no "unexpected ejections" for SSDs that are directly connected to the board... unlike the joy of that with some- but not all- external SSDs and HDDs we attach externally to any Mac since about Big Sur.
Yes, that wouldn't be a "shareholders rejoice!" bit of engineering but I have to think customers would go nuts for it. Long ago, a Jobsian Apple made an early iMac design with a plastic/acrylic white case, easily removed as one whole piece to not show any panels or visible screws, making accessing (& upgrading) the HDD easy enough for anyone to do it. Here's that oldie (fattened up more than this concept by it also building in an optical disc player and heat management to keep them ancient PowerPC chips cool enough)...
![iMacThenAndNow.jpg]( "iMacThenAndNow.jpg")
Imagine THIS iMac "wedge" concept with a bit of that kind of thinking... through a consumer instead of a shareholders lens.
And while this hypothetical, customers-first Apple engineering creation is being hatched, put a standardized input or two on it so that when the Mac guts obsolete it as a Mac, it could easily be repurposed as a monitor for the remainder of the screen life... again, like a Jobsian iMac as late as about 2010-11. Then, consumers would not be buying an overall "throw baby out with the bathwater" device when any one part conks or Apple decides to conk it by vintaging. Yes, that would be ANOTHER disappointment at the all-important "shareholders rejoice!" while jacking up the value proposition of the product for consumers. But maybe a more customer-focused Mac would sell in higher volume, making a little less profit per unit sold but more total profit on volume... so that shareholders could rejoice too.
But what do I know? I'm just an Apple consumer. Why care about me when there's shareholders to delight?
Keep the M-series storage option too for anyone wanting to make a case of "fastest" or some special ability of Apple SSD vs. commodity SSD. Then users who believe could get the overall system installed on 256GB to 8TB Apple SSD (and pay way, wayyyyyyyyyy up for any upgrades that way) AND have up to enormous, additional storage "hidden" inside what might be imagined as a big MBair (wedge design) on a stick. Bonus to this: almost certainly no "unexpected ejections" for SSDs that are directly connected to the board... unlike the joy of that with some- but not all- external SSDs and HDDs we attach externally to any Mac since about Big Sur.
Yes, that wouldn't be a "shareholders rejoice!" bit of engineering but I have to think customers would go nuts for it. Long ago, a Jobsian Apple made an early iMac design with a plastic/acrylic white case, easily removed as one whole piece to not show any panels or visible screws, making accessing (& upgrading) the HDD easy enough for anyone to do it. Here's that oldie (fattened up more than this concept by it also building in an optical disc player and heat management to keep them ancient PowerPC chips cool enough)...
Imagine THIS iMac "wedge" concept with a bit of that kind of thinking... through a consumer instead of a shareholders lens.
And while this hypothetical, customers-first Apple engineering creation is being hatched, put a standardized input or two on it so that when the Mac guts obsolete it as a Mac, it could easily be repurposed as a monitor for the remainder of the screen life... again, like a Jobsian iMac as late as about 2010-11. Then, consumers would not be buying an overall "throw baby out with the bathwater" device when any one part conks or Apple decides to conk it by vintaging. Yes, that would be ANOTHER disappointment at the all-important "shareholders rejoice!" while jacking up the value proposition of the product for consumers. But maybe a more customer-focused Mac would sell in higher volume, making a little less profit per unit sold but more total profit on volume... so that shareholders could rejoice too.
But what do I know? I'm just an Apple consumer. Why care about me when there's shareholders to delight?
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Value of this article aside - It's funny that even a computer that has been recently redesigned, it still looks like a device from 2012, and of course they will polish this turd and try to sell it to you like it is the best new thing ever created..
And?
They don’t need to upgrade every device, every year.
I’m sure you complain about lacklustre iPhone updates as well.
Family member's old 27" iMac from 2015 needs an upgrade soon. Cannot tell if this is a good replacement at all.
Especially when the storage upgrade is bloody expensive. 512GB to 1TB is +$200 and 2TB is +$600!!
How do you guys use it? External storage via physical connections?
Especially when the storage upgrade is bloody expensive. 512GB to 1TB is +$200 and 2TB is +$600!!
How do you guys use it? External storage via physical connections?
Still waiting to update my 27in. I'm guessing my current one might be my final computer based on Apple comments. Oh well, I'm old so am not in the 13 year old target/TikToc audience.
The demographic you refer to wouldn’t be caught dead using any desktop - with the possible exception of gaming. Otherwise, it’s laptops and mobile all the way for this crowd. In fact, the gamers pretty much don’t use Macs anyway.
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It's been interesting to watch Apple's M-chip strategy unfold and evolve, by severing ties with Intel for it's processors and bringing it all in-house Apple has been able to derive its own cadence for product releases. I'll posit that since becoming "the dog that finally caught the car" that, to outward appearances, their product strategies seem scattershot.
Case in point, enough time has now passed, and enough product sales numbers have been made public, that we can all see that ditching their premier desktop offering, the all-in-one 27" iMac, and, er, "replacing it" with the PC-mindsetted "buy the components and put it together yourself" Studio/Studio Display has neither wowed the marketplace nor satisfied its now-abandoned "large iMac" user base. One for the "Hubristic Corporate Decisions" hall-of-fame "Let's Shoot Ourselves In The Foot" awards! LOL
And, methinks, that Apple created for itself a bit of a conundrum with these two decisions..."how do we market various M-series 28" and 32" iMacs while at the same time provide the same processors for Studio?". And, of course, the obvious answer has always been, place them both in the marketplace together and let your user base decide.
I've come to these boards often enough offering the perspective that Apple's release of Studio with no 27" M-series iMac to compete against amounted to nothing more than a "floatie-cuff" and "kiddy-pool" launch for Studio, so unsure of themselves that an Apple "PC-style put it together yourself" desktop would even be accepted or stand a chance at success with its AIO users. Something it has not.
From an investor's perspective, a company as large as Apple can certainly afford to absorb a year's-long string of sector revenue losses, but what no company should ever accept is the loss of its consumer user-base that accounts for those dollars.
I used the word "hubris" with deliberate consideration earlier, and when some corporate division exhibits such behavior as to lose long-cultivated users it becomes contingent on corporate leadership to "right that ship" in that division.
So now the "leak" is, "wait until 2025 for new 28" and 32" M-series iMacs because "desktop" division is merely in the "early stages"?". Ahahahah! Someone is talking to the press, and it isn't the Board. Maybe time to put your goggles down for a minute and put your "Skipper's hat" on and go have a chat down the hall with the desktop division, Tim? Ha!
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Bezels I don't care about, but the missing Apple logo on the chin seems like an odd choice.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
IMO: iMac “bigger” was “paused” because there wasn’t enough profit in it… basically too much overall value for consumers vs. the ever-increasing margin Apple seeks (traditional 36-40%, now above 47%).
So kill/pause iMac “bigger” and launch only the screen portion of it at former “whole iMac” pricing. Establish the pricing over a few years. Get fans rabidly defending it and recommending it as the one & only monitor for Mac buyers. Let a $2K monitor with stand option sink in as “normal.”
Then, roll out iMac “bigger” branded PRO at former iMac Pro (much higher) pricing (to meet/beat target margin). Obviously, under $2K pricing can’t make any sense with ASD pricing. So naturally, it must be priced much higher because “they put a whole Mac (back) inside.”
Shareholders rejoice! 💰💰💰
In response to the nice post from @JimmyG above, there's one thing that for me would have made all the difference.
That is if instead of the too "smart" Studio Display, Apple had made a large dumb display that was at least as good as a 27" iMac screen and around 40% cheaper than the ASD
That is if instead of the too "smart" Studio Display, Apple had made a large dumb display that was at least as good as a 27" iMac screen and around 40% cheaper than the ASD
Looks cleaner without the logo in my opinion.
At least it is powerful enough for work. And lasts for ages. My 2012 iMac is still going strong, and I haven’t done any maintenance to it yet.
Macbooks are good (especially fanless ones!) but you know… batteries. They age and can be defective at times
Plot twist: it never will. Who will buy Apple Studio Display then?
😃Ready to purchase multiple M-series 27" iMacs, should Apple decide to build them.
Instead of getting a little less revenue/profit than from selling me Studios+displays, they're getting zero revenue/profit by not offering a product the customer needs.
IMO the worst part is Apple has all the pieces necessary to make an outstanding 27" M-series iMac, could engineer one with minimal effort, and yet chooses not to. Even if the market is "minuscule" on their radar, it'll still profit more than their $10 billion car will.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Plot twist: it never will. Who will buy Apple Studio Display then?
iMac Pro priced like the former iMac Pro will make ASD with stand option look like a bargain. I suspect all the dreams of an iMac "bigger" at former iMac 27" pricing is dead & buried for the foreseeable future. BUT, I also suspect an iMac "bigger" will be resurrected... just with the ever-growing margin modern Apple seeks...
Whether many want an iMac bigger at PRO-branded pricing (again) is TBD. I think a lot of that love is in the relative value proposition of an < $2K iMac bigger vs. all other current options. If "starting at..." < $2K isn't resurrected too, I'm not so sure that big volumes will want iMac "bigger" PRO. Also TBD.
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They could do that but Apple doesn’t want to offer you a 40 percent cheaper option. The idea is to get you to pay more with each round of device updates. Your best options - assuming the Studio Display has been ruled out - is the aftermarket.