[CaseCom]

As noted on MacNN's news page, Apple released a statement today:

"My keynote will focus on Mac OS X v10.1, the super-fast new version of Mac OS X, and our revolutionary new iDVD 2 software, which lets users create their own custom DVDs that can be played on consumer DVD players," said Steve Jobs. "This has been an incredible new product year for Apple, so we don�t plan to launch any new hardware products in Paris this year."

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/aug/21paris.html

Burned by those high expectations (and resulting disappointment) at MWNY...

[ 08-21-2001: Message edited by: CaseCom ]

[lee vieira]

Color me unsuprised

People have GOT to stop believing the LCD-iMac hype machine. It'll happen, but it won't happen soon. When will people understand that?

Nice work, Case.

--lee

[J.W. Pepper]

Well if it is true I am dissapointed as I have a whole office waiting for an upgrade. I guess they will have to keep on waiting.

The problem with recessions is they are self fufiling!

Every major PC compettitor has an LCD all-in-one. There is no excuse for Apple to delay. He will not have a Cube on his hand.

[Macintosh]

Apple will wait until the product is the best that it can be.

[vvedge]

sure, totally change the iMac 2 months after a minor speed bump that probably wont get all its orders filled by then..

Just like people wanting a new Rev of the iBook in MWNY... They barely started selling before they want a Rev.

[el chupacabra]

This has been an incredible new product year for Apple

This part makes me laugh

Ladies and gentleman, the world's first bonified nitwit : El Chupacabra!

That part makes you laugh, eh?

Well lets see what Apple did this year:

Titanium PowerBook G4
PowerMac 733 (finally broke the 500Mhz barrier)
SuperDrive
iDVD 1.0
DVD Studio Pro 1.0
iTunes 1.0
Final Cut Pro 2.0
iMacs w CD-RW
MacOS X 10.0 and four updates
iMovie 2.0 for OSX
AppleWorks 6.2 for OSX
iTunes for OSX
PowerSchool
iBook Dual USB
killed the Cube
17" LCD display
PowerMac 733, 867, Dual-800
Five Apple Retail Stores (one this weekend)
MacOS X 10.1
iDVD 2.0

... AND there is still four months left in the year.

Which part of "you're a nitwit" don't you understand?

[lee vieira]

Originally posted by el chupacabra:
<STRONG>

This part makes me laugh </STRONG>

You're kidding right?

Great new TiBook, great new iBook, and a much better tower line, all intro'd in 2001.

Only real hardware disappointment is the iMac line only getting minor improvements (sorry, I can't count CDRW since that was so overdue), and that'll change, if you're patient.

--lee

If Apple had to get rid of something, why not the iMac? The cube was so much better (They could have surely restructured the pricing and given a discount when bought with an ASD 15"). I mean, what is so appealing about a computer that has a built in cheap 15" shadow mask CRT, and still a non-upgradeable Rage 128 GPU, and not even based on a recent design? How can you do serious work with it? Of course it's not that bad on the big scale of things but Apple is supposed to be a company that makes luxury computers. This year they've done a great job with the PowerMac, iBook and PowerBook lines and really neglected the one with possibly the most potential. The cube had everything that people are waiting for in the iMac, so why dump it? Just because of poor sales?

[pscates]

There's nothing wrong with the iMac that a little redesign/updating won't fix. It's gorgeous, it's cool, it saved Apple's bacon, blah blah blah.

But several of the key features that garnered the most criticism from the get-go have STILL not been addressed.

What are the three most common complaints leveled at the iMac?

1. Screen size (the 15" has got to go!)
2. Video card (not by me, but you hear it quite a bit)
3. Lack of expansion/upgradeability (this is stupid...it's not SUPPOSED to be a pro-level infinitely tweakable machine in the first place!!!).

I completely ignore number 3, but items 1 and 2 have some merit. In addition to addressing that whole screen size/video card issue, just on cosmetics alone, a complete overhaul and redesign is something the iMac is screaming for.

I've said it a bunch of times at my UBB board of choice (the sadly missed AppleInsider...sigh...), but here's the deal: everyone who wants an iMac - in its current form and specs - already has one. I don't think this design, this screen size, this underwhelming video card, etc. is pulling in the newbies, PC converts and on-the-fence types as much as it was 1-2 years ago.

It's a bit long in the tooth and I for one can't wait until a new iMac is unveiled.

In my sordid little wet iDream it'll be iBook white, 15" LCD (native 1024x768 resolution...just like the 15" Studio Display; that's not asking too much for a consumer-level machine these days, is it?), 128MB base RAM, expandable to whatever (1GB? Okay...sure), USB, FireWire, Ethernet, AirPort, 56k modem (the usual suspects), ditch the built-in speakers (no serious music listener or audiophile has any respect for built-in speakers on computers...and since you're pushing the whole digital music/iTunes/mp3 thing, why not back it up by doing something cool like bundling those little Harman/Kardon "tennis ball" speakers in with the new iMac; better separation, better sound, more bass, etc. Just makes sense...bundle them with the iMac a la the G4 Cube when it was around...people will thank you for it and that's the one concession you can easily make to the whole "it doesn't have to be an all-in-one, does it?" crowd), a generous hard drive of NO LESS than 40MB.

Most importantly, take the best feature of the iBook and make it available for the iMac: a DVD/CD-R combo drive, for those who want one.

As a matter of fact, base the whole damn new iMac on the cool, simplified and logical way you're selling the iBook: one processor speed, a shared hard drive (that you can increase via BTO at the Apple Store), etc. BUT differentiate the line by the choice of optical drive.

The iMac line - since last summer - has gotten so convoluted and crammed with specs that it's hard for even a die-hard iMac freak like me to keep up with, much less some soccer mom or grandparent standing in the store trying to figure out what in the hell model to purchase.

If I could buy a 15" LCD iMac with all the above features at about 800MHz (again, completely reasonable seeing that it currently tops out at 700MHz and the next logical step up would have to be...) AND a DVD/CD-R combo drive like you have on the top-of-the-line iBook, that would make the PERFECT consumer desktop.

Think about it: what COULDN'T you do? FAST G3 for the crowd that needs it, plenty of hard drive, plenty of RAM, FireWire, USB, watch movies, burn music, burn data, play games, go online, etc.

And all in a nice, sleek spiffy updated package. Make the machine I've just described and watch it fly off the shelves at levels unseen since 1999-2000

[tomatohead]

The one consumer appealing technology that Apple currently has, but which is not available in its consumer lines is the ability to author and burn DVDs.

While LCDs are nice, they don't fundamentally allow you to do anything new with the computer.

I know that to do the DVD burning you need the following:
1) a superdrive (which is $400 more than a CD-RW drive on a G4)
2) a G4 processor, (which at lower speeds is widely available and must be cheap given the absence of demand for it)
3) iDVD (or iDVD 2 by september).

The update I'd like to see for the imac is therefore simply a higher end, more expensive config that has a G4 and Superdrive and bundles in iDVD. That's $500 or $600 more worth of true value, wheras an LCD, even if only $300 to $400 more, doesn't make the machine do anything else new.

My $.02

[rogerkylin]

Tomatohead.

I'm with you. I've told myself for several months now, my next computer WILL have a superdrive, and my wife tells me a tower is too much...

therefore...


imac+superdrive...I'm waiting.

[georgius]

Originally posted by rogerkylin:
<STRONG> imac+superdrive...I'm waiting.</STRONG>

I think you could be waiting a long time. The SuperDrive is more suited to Pro machines. A slot loading (although currently not slot loading ) combo drive would better suit the iMac. Its not as expensive as the SuperDrive, and many consumners don't need to burn DVDs...not yet anyway.

Play it cool

[pscates]

I couldn't agree more, georgius. I'd love to see the DVD/CD-R combo drive offered on ALL of Apple's computers, not just the iBook and the G4 Quicksilver (which is a BTO option for $150 if you go to the online Apple store...check it out).

The "iCrowd" are more apt to want to simply burn CDs and watch a movie or two. I'm not willing to spend $2100 for a Super-Drive equipped iMac.

If you're someone that absolutely HAS to have a DVD-burning, Super-Drive equipped Mac, then you don't even need to be looking at iMacs to begin with. Grow a pair and get a G4 already

I was really shocked that this last round of revisions to the iMacs (MWNY) didn't offer a DVD/CD-R combo drive model or option. I find it kinda funny that only the consumer laptop and the pro tower have this option, and not the consumer desktop and pro laptop (where it makes just as much, if not more, sense).

Must be that whole slot-loading thing, huh? Are there not slot-loading DVD/CD-R combo drives in existence? If not, how about someone please INVENTING ONE? Thanks!

[xyber233]

Fine. I'll give Apple the benefit of the doubt. All I'm saying is this new iMac better be worth the wait. Knowing Apple, it should be incredible.

[neutrino23]

Originally posted by &lt;firefly&gt;:
<STRONG> ...The cube had everything that people are waiting for in the iMac, so why dump it? Just because of poor sales?</STRONG>

ROTFLMAO

Companies go under, investors lose their money and people are fired "Just because of poor sales".

[lee vieira]

Originally posted by neutrino23:
<STRONG>

ROTFLMAO

Companies go under, investors lose their money and people are fired "Just because of poor sales". </STRONG>

Bingo. The iMac outsold the Cube 25-1 in the Cube's final quarter.

Yet Cubeheads keep insisting that Apple should've dumped the iMac in favor of the Cube...it just boggles the mind

--lee "why I am a mod still, when I resigned long ago?" vieira

[ 09-02-2001: Message edited by: lee vieira ]

However, at the first press conference after MWSF 01, Apple said, that we could see a superdrive in the imacs in "early 2002", the things become cheaper every day, so let's do some maths:
January 14: Superdrive: $4000
January 15: Superdrive and High-End G4: $3500 (buy a superdrive and get the computer for free!
January 16 in the market: Superdrive: $800
MWNY 01, July 01: Superdrive: Superdrive and middle G4: $2500
September, Superdrive in the market: $400
boys, if Apple releases a new iMac in November (which is likely, trust me), the superdrive will not be over $300, so they could easily throw it in the bynow-overpriced high-end iMac. However the G4+ would increase mpeg2-encoding a lot, but OS X and a G3 900 should do it too. The other iMacs probably get a combo-drive as they also become cheaper and cheaper, at least the ones for desktops.

Steve

[CaseCom]

Originally posted by lee vieira:
<STRONG>

--lee "why I am a mod still, when I resigned long ago?" vieira

</STRONG>

Lee, looks like you finally got your demotion, too! Congrats

[lee vieira]

Originally posted by CaseCom:
<STRONG>

Lee, looks like you finally got your demotion, too! Congrats </STRONG>

I know! Its so cool

Not to be mean to MacNN, but if they gave us even a very small stipend to mod, things'd be better, and you might have more mods sticking around. Ah well.

--lee