[NewsPoster]

Retailers are reporting shortages of stock on 27-inch iMac models ahead of a rumored mid-September press event supposedly revolving around next iPhone model. Checks with local Apple stores, brick-and-mortar as well as online retailers and other outlets show that third-party resellers are not able to replenish or are completely out of stock.

None of the stores contacted saw any shortage on the 24-inch iMac models, and Apple Stores in New York, Florida and San Francisco all reported existing stock on 27-inch models. Retailers like Best Buy, Futureshop and Amazon, however, said they had little or no stock at all of the larger iMac, especially the top-end model. Many independent shops reported no stock of 27-inch iMacs at all, and no assurance that they could get more. An upgrade of the iMac (all models) to Intel's Ivy Bridge chip is inevitable, but has been oddly missing following the announcement of similar updates to Apple's portable line. There have been rumors of a Retina-quality display or a redesign for the iMac that could explain the delay, but the former possibility would be prohibitively expensive (though, like the Retina MacBook Pro, Apple may opt to offer it as a premium option), and the latter speculation lacks any supporting evidence. An iMac sporting Ivy Bridge processors is referred to in internal files inside OS X Mountain Lion, along with a future Mac Pro. The line is historically "overdue" for a refresh, having last been upgraded in early May of last year -- over 200 days beyond it's typical 270-day refresh average. The next iMac, whenever it finally appears, is likely to drop the optical drive, another hint discovered by researchers poring over Mountain Lion's minutia. Apple has said before that it intends to move beyond the superdrives in favor of streaming, downloading and uploading content. Any new model is also very likely to use faster RAM to complement the improved processor, include Bluetooth 4.0 and may switch to using at least some flash storage drives as default options, leaving the larger traditional hard drives for advanced users.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by NewsPoster 

None of the stores contacted saw any shortage on the 24-inch iMac models

That's remarkable, because the 24" iMac was discontinued years ago.

[ggirton]

"leaving the larger traditional hard drives for advanced users."


the more advanced the user, the better they can handle the large, traditional drives

[iphonerulez]

I'm definitely not looking forward to the disappearance of optical drives from desktop computers. DVD media is my main back-up media for downloaded content. However, I'd only need one optical drive to do my back-ups so even if Apple doesn't install optical drives in their desktops, I'd still manage. I'm not ready to give up optical storage just yet. Apple's disdain for optical storage is a bit puzzling. I could see if Apple made NAS servers to sell to consumers, but it doesn't, so what is Apple really gaining by dumping optical backup solutions. Apple's decisions don't bother me since there are always alternatives, but I'd really like to understand their viewpoint. I'm not quite ready to depend on cloud storage and have no intention of ever storing multi-terabytes in the cloud.

[P]

Removing the optical doesn't really matter for the iMac - just buy an external and put it on the desk. It makes more of a difference for an MBP.

[Eug]

In fact, that's what I do now, even though I have an iMac with built in burner. Why?

1. I have an old region free optical drive that can burn DVD+R to mimic DVD-ROM. Plus it's faster than laptop burner like in the iMac anyway.
2. I sometimes archive data to Blu-ray, so I have a separate Blu-ray optical drive. It's also faster than the iMac's laptop burner.

So, I only rarely use the internal drive... and even less now, since I use optical media in general a lot less than I used to.