Wishful Thinking: WWDC Debuts New Apple Mid Market Display

[jukkhop]

A consumer monitor might not make sense for Apple. But a mid-market monitor around a $2000-$3000 price tag would.

I don't think a $1000 price tag is possible because that is already swallowed by the price of the panel itself. It would need to be at least $2000 to be profitable for Apple.

The XDR rumours came well in advance, so sadly I have to say there is zero chance of a new display being announced at WWDC.

 

[- rob -]

Apple was believed to be out of the monitor business, I believe most of the reporting from that was based on a tweet from Nilay Patel that is now deleted for some reason.

I'm not sure how one could say Apple is out of the monitor business when the company not only just released a Pro standalone display with two different types, and a brand new custom monitor stand.

 

[- rob -]

The XDR rumours came well in advance, so sadly I have to say there is zero chance of a new display being announced at WWDC.

I missed these, can you link me to one/ some?

 

[jukkhop]

I missed these, can you link me to one/ some?

Happy to. This macrumours news arcticle is the earliest source I was able to quickly find. So that's April 2017, more than 2.5 years before the actual product was released. But I remember even before that there were rumours. Speculations were off the charts.. 8K, OLED, etc.

 

[- rob -]

Happy to. This macrumours news arcticle is the earliest source I was able to quickly find. So that's April 2017, more than 2.5 years before the actual product was released. But I remember even before that there were rumours. Speculations were off the charts.. 8K, OLED, etc.

Ah well that is discouraging. The thread does have wishful thinking in the title. :/

 

[jukkhop]

Now that I think about it, I wouldn't write off a new display announcement just yet.

Just because there are no rumours doesn't mean there is nothing. There is always a chance that Apple will surprise everyone.

 

[- rob -]

Now that I think about it, I wouldn't write off a new display announcement just yet.

Just because there are no rumours doesn't mean there is nothing. There is always a chance that Apple will surprise everyone.

They managed to keep Swift secret—this isn’t a new language and maybe hardware is harder to hide. I’d like to see a rundown of all the stuff Apple has been able to keep secret until announcement in the past decade.

My reasons for speculation have nothing to do with supply chain leaks and everything to do with product gaps and synergies.

I also like this because theories based on or after actual leaks aren’t very speculative.

 

[- rob -]

Welp. Wishful thinking does not make it so!

 

[syndr0me]

Man, it all feels a bit silly now.

 

[jukkhop]

I think a new mid-market display this year is still within the realm of possibility. If Apple is trying to hit a lower price point with the new ARM Macs, a lower-cost standalone display makes even more sense if anything.

 

[- rob -]

I think a new mid-market display this year is still within the realm of possibility. If Apple is trying to hit a lower price point with the new ARM Macs, a lower-cost standalone display makes even more sense if anything.

I agree. It makes sense Apple would re-use what was learned designing the XDR. Also, Mac Mini is now more important as part of the Arm transition--the entire Mac line will be under a microscope for the next few years.

And Apple is missing a core accessory to support Mac Mini.

I am still not sure about the stand. Apple would want to offer the Pro stand as an option, but package a cheaper one in that can be removed so the pro can be attached.

Perhaps a regular one could be included with an upgrade to the pro stand. Here's a revision of the product proposal with a later release date and revisions to the options portion:


—


PRESS RELEASE
October 31st, 2020
Apple Unveils New 27-inch 5k Retina Cinema Display

Features

• 27 inch IPS display
• 5120 x 2880 @ 60Hz
• Built in HD video camera, microphone and speakers
• One Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), three USB-C
• True Tone
• standard stand
• Power cord (2m), Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro cable (2m)
• Polishing Cloth

Standard Glass - $1999
Nano-texture Glass - $2799

Sold Separately

• Pro Display Stand (same as XDR) ($699 upgrade)
• Vesa Mount Adapter ($199)
• Apple Care 3-year ($250)

---

Edit to add formatting

 

[jukkhop]

LG UltraFine 5K Display 'Currently Unavailable' From Apple

Apple is sold out of the $1,300 LG UltraFine 5K Display, which is listed as "Currently Unavailable" from the online Apple Store and is...

www.macrumors.com

Maybe.. just maybe.

 

[- rob -]

LG UltraFine 5K Display 'Currently Unavailable' From Apple

Apple is sold out of the $1,300 LG UltraFine 5K Display, which is listed as "Currently Unavailable" from the online Apple Store and is...

www.macrumors.com

Maybe.. just maybe.

I saw this and thought the same thing. All of the reasons are itt. The XDR, (which I ended up going with), is out of reach for most people.
Even the “standard glass” configuration of the theoretical mid-market Apple display above at $2k is more than most are used to paying for a display.

That said there is a professional class that has limited options in the 4K+ area and I suspect a lot of IT budgets for home-based equipment could be shifting right now.

What I don’t get though is why Apple would stop selling the 5k Ultrafine. I think this product actually helps prop up the pricing on an Apple entry in the market. Also it serves as a demonstrably “less good” option to show the fit and finish of an Apple product in this category.

 

[- rob -]

Wanted to top this in light of the new 27" 5k offering a nano-textured glass option upgrade for $500. The base model is $1799.

I still think a stand-alone mid-market display could be shipped, simply to support the Mini and laptop line without cannibalizing iMac which is a different use case.

I also think this might be good news for pricing on a presumptive display. Here's an updated prediction based on the iMac release:

PRESS RELEASE
October 31st, 2020
Apple Unveils New 27-inch 5k Retina Cinema Display

Features

• 27 inch IPS display
• 5120 x 2880 @ 60Hz
• Built in HD video camera, microphone and speakers
• One Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), three USB-C
• True Tone
• standard stand
• Power cord (2m), Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro cable (2m)
• Polishing Cloth

Standard Glass - $1299
Nano-texture Glass Version- $1799

Sold Separately

• Pro Display Stand (same as XDR) ($699 upgrade)
• Vesa Mount Adapter ($199)
• Apple Care 3-year ($250)

 

[satchmo]

Wanted to top this in light of the new 27" 5k offering a nano-textured glass option upgrade for $500. The base model is $1799.

I still think a stand-alone mid-market display could be shipped, simply to support the Mini and laptop line without cannibalizing iMac which is a different use case.

I also think this might be good news for pricing on a presumptive display. Here's an updated prediction based on the iMac release:

PRESS RELEASE
October 31st, 2020
Apple Unveils New 27-inch 5k Retina Cinema Display

Features

• 27 inch IPS display
• 5120 x 2880 @ 60Hz
• Built in HD video camera, microphone and speakers
• One Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), three USB-C
• True Tone
• standard stand
• Power cord (2m), Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro cable (2m)
• Polishing Cloth

Standard Glass - $1299
Nano-texture Glass Version- $1799

Sold Separately

• Pro Display Stand (same as XDR) ($699 upgrade)
• Vesa Mount Adapter ($199)
• Apple Care 3-year ($250)

Are you suggesting a standalone display with nano-texture glass would be $1799?
Isn't the just announced base model going for that exact same price?
Why would anyone buy just a monitor when they can get a complete iMac?

 

[syndr0me]

I don't suppose they brought back Target Display Mode?

 

[- rob -]

Are you suggesting a standalone display with nano-texture glass would be $1799?
Isn't the just announced base model going for that exact same price?
Why would anyone buy just a monitor when they can get a complete iMac?

I had that previously, my revised figure is $1299 for normal. This is actually lower than I thought Apple would price it at but the new iMac pricing sort of puts downward pressure on the price.

I wouldn’t want it this high, but I think Apple would start it at least this high.

 

[syndr0me]

I don’t care about the monitor, I want a Mac Mini with those specs to connect to my XDR.

 

[- rob -]

I don’t care about the monitor, I want a Mac Mini with those specs to connect to my XDR.

I compared my 2018 3.2ghz 6 core 12 thread mini with the high end i7 3.8 iMac 2020 8 core 16 thread and the two year old mini outperforms the new imac on many of the single core areas.

Here's the comparison

On multicore, the new iMac has some pretty solid improvement maybe averaging 26-30% higher scores.

Do you think that's a massive jump? I'm not a pro on performance comparisons--but would this be because of the higher clock rate and just more cores?

I realize the raw geekbench scores don't really show off the speed of the experience, which results in part from the integration Apple does on its machines. Also that GB needs many more benchmarks on these models to get a good average.

I think my mini beats the base model of the new iMac in almost every geekbench test:

2018 mac mini versus base 2020 imac

 

[syndr0me]

I compared my 2018 3.2ghz 6 core 12 thread mini with the high end i7 3.8 iMac 2020 8 core 16 thread and the two year old mini outperforms the new imac on many of the single core areas.

Here's the comparison

On multicore, the new iMac has some pretty solid improvement maybe averaging 26-30% higher scores.

Do you think that's a massive jump? I'm not a pro on performance comparisons--but would this be because of the higher clock rate and just more cores?

I realize the raw geekbench scores don't really show off the speed of the experience, which results in part from the integration Apple does on its machines. Also that GB needs many more benchmarks on these models to get a good average.

I think my mini beats the base model of the new iMac in almost every geekbench test:

2018 mac mini versus base 2020 imac

That's honestly way closer than I would have expected, especially considering the CPU in the iMac is a desktop class.

In all sincerity, I'm not really considering buying another Intel mac. I'm set for now, and very curious to see what their full ARM offering looks like. In particular, curious about what they do with GPU. Maybe the ARM mini won't have a gimped GPU?

 

[- rob -]

That's honestly way closer than I would have expected, especially considering the CPU in the iMac is a desktop class

Me too, they could be inaccurate. but those benchmarks were linked in this MR post.

I’m also very satisfied with my mini, though I just took it up to 64gb.

I also will be very likely to be getting an Apple Silicon machine next. Probably to replace my 2018 MacBook Air.

Graphics performance is probably the most interesting open question for the architecture shift.

I’m particularly curious about whether desktop class Apple Silicon will be able to serve as a local machine learning hub to support less powerful Apple products.

 

[retta283]

24" and 30" 16:10 monitors at a reasonable price would be absolutely fantastic, I miss the Cinema Display line.

 

[jukkhop]

Would love it if iMac went 16:10.

The Ultrafine 5K is still unavailable. You could of course argue that it's because panels are going to Apple for iMac assembly. Still, feels like something new is around the corner.

 

[DesertNomad]

a later release date and revisions to the options portion:

PRESS RELEASE
October 31st, 2020
Apple Unveils New 27-inch 5k Retina Cinema Display

Features

• 27 inch IPS display
• 5120 x 2880 @ 60Hz
• Built in HD video camera, microphone and speakers
• One Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), three USB-C
• True Tone
• standard stand
• Power cord (2m), Apple Thunderbolt 3 Pro cable (2m)
• Polishing Cloth

Standard Glass - $1999

If this comes to pass, I'd buy 2 of them - maybe 3.

 

[DesertNomad]

Are you suggesting a standalone display with nano-texture glass would be $1799?
Isn't the just announced base model going for that exact same price?
Why would anyone buy just a monitor when they can get a complete iMac?

Because I want my Mac to be a laptop so I can take it with me but hook it up to 2 large screens at home. My 15" MBP has a 27" Thunderbolt and 30" Apple Cinema Display hooked to it.