The New iMac: One Thing Too Many
The new iMac has it all. A G5 Processor and a stunning design. It is fascinating to look back at the evolution of the iMac design. The first, now famous, Bondi Blue iMac with its futuristic all-in-one design. Next the cube-like-base with a unique swivel arm holding a beautiful flat screen display. Now the display has become the computer, held by an elegant stand that also functions as an arm. Notice a trend? Everything revolves around the display.
The new iMac is a perfect machine for someone who wants it all, a computer and a display. But a lot of us have old monitors around and, believe it or not, are not obsessed with the clever integration of CPU and flat screen. For too long now Apple has not provided consumers with a computer without a display. For someone who wants to surf the web, check email, and organize his or her photos a G5 desktop is overkill. And for that same person who could be switching from a PC they probably just want a CPU to plug their current monitor into. Paying a premium for a flat-screen monitor with the CPU (albeit cleverly) integrated into a flat screen is money wasted.
I don’t mean to put a damper on the wonderful new iMac which, on screen anyway, looks like a winner. But Apple needs to look far back to the tradition of the Performa line. They were great machines that offered a slightly stripped down version of their more powerful cousins. And they didn’t come with a monitor.
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This iMac has one major weakness; its graphics card.
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB of DDR SDRAM simply is not good enough for such a cool looking computer at this price point.
Look at how they describe it
[url=http://www.apple.com/imac/graphics.html]http://www.apple.com/imac/graphics.html[/url]
“And then theres the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64MB of DDR SDRAM. Its a combination that delivers unparalleled 2D and 3D graphics performance and an immersive, photorealistic gaming experience with three times the frame rate of previous-generation processors.”
Anyone with any computer knowledge knows that 5200s are bargain basement, previous generation technology which provides mediocre performance. The description above is misleading advertising.
A computer like this deserves at least a 5600 with 128MB RAM.
I believe that the iMac is not meant for the upgrade and reuse monitor crowd, but it is targeted as the media centre console at home for streaming your itunes music and working with your digital photos and videos. And it is the acceptible machine in the living room (you can even put it up a wall if you like).
If you want a new machine without a screen, order a G5 machine. That’s targeted at the same poweruser.
One problem is that instutions that have very tight budgets, schools in particular, will opt for the machine that can give them the most bang for the littlest buck. For this reason alone, more schools are opting for PC clones instead of Macs. If Apple made a montior-less Mac at a $500 price point, more schools would be willing to incoporate them into thier labs. Even priced at $799 or $1299, Apple machines often budget-busting machines.
“If Apple made a montior-less Mac at a $500 price point, more schools would be willing to incoporate them into thier labs. Even priced at $799 or $1299, Apple machines often budget-busting machines.”
The eMac came out precisely because of that reason Keith. I disagree about monitorless - schools do not mind all in ones, they just don’t want to spring for flatscreen AIOs.
The new iMac is fine. It takes up very little space…likely has a great looking LCD and a capable graphics card. It’s nice to have a G5 now in the consumer champion of Macs. This means more G5 optimized software. I’m not buying this rev because I’m still saving but I’ll be happy to plunk down the money for the next revision. If gaming was all that important to me I’d probably just build a PC do so or buy a console. I think this computer will be popular.
Apple has never been a company that’s had success on low-margin, half-solution products.
Why is no one saying: “Why doesn’t Apple offer the iMac without Mac OS X?” Then they could drop the price by $129 and you can install Linux. Its the same concept: Mac OS X is built for the hardware and vice versa. Its the value of the whole package, that always outweighs the value of components. And it’s sticking to that philosophy thhat creates wonderful products, and not trying to hit every market segment.
Sure Apple is missing out on some sales, but its been very clear that those sales exist outside Apple’s market. Why comment that they should do this or that when it clearly does not fit Apple’s direction?
As for the headless iMac, for it to be useful it should also be expandable. Once you get there, you immediately leave the realm where the mass-market user to which the iMac is targeting.
The video card is not that great, but honestly - the RAM is a larger issue than the video card (the general consumer may never ever use its 3D capabilities). Try using just Safari for an extended period of time with 256MB. I think Apple assumes the consumer will buy with RAM incentives or price shop (where Apple doesn’t compete) which is probably a bad assumption.
It’s funny you mention the Performa - I used that at my first intern position. The good ol’ pizza box. That was the era a couple years before Steve Jobs return, when the Apple product line was in complete dissarray. They streamlined the products into 4 distinct groups, and a single line within each.
Consumer Desktop
Pro Desktop
Consumer Portable
Pro Portable
and were able to target markets more effectively, probably redusing costs and increasing sales along the way.
“Why is no one saying: “Why doesn’t Apple offer the iMac without Mac OS X?” Then they could drop the price by $129 and you can install Linux.”
NVidia doesn’t release Linux drivers for PowerPC, so you’d be stuck with 2D software emulation, possibly even 16-bit color. A real waste of a good screen.
I think Apple should allow other people to build cheap, uninspiring headless boxes that will run Mac OS X, AS SOON AS piracy of their software is made impossible.