“The tech world is abuzz with reports that Apple is preparing to introduce an inexpensive personal computer, with a price tag below $600… To some observers, the introduction of such an inexpensive PC, priced at less than half of Apple’s current crop of iMacs, is more wishful thinking than fact. For one thing, Apple’s design aesthetic has been moving away from the clunkyness of separate screens and hard drives,” Suzanne Kapner reports for The New York Post.
“The company’s line of eMacs, for instance, combine the screen and hard drive into a single unit for as little as $799, raising questions as to the actual savings a cheaper ‘headless’ iMac would provide once the cost of the screen is included. Moreover, the rumor mill tends to work over time in the tech world ahead of Apple’s expo. Last year at this time, for instance, speculation swirled that Apple would unveil a $100 iPod, but that bit of gossip never materialized. Still, analysts said, there are compelling reasons for Apple to introduce a more affordable entry level PC, not least of which is the popularity of the company’s iPod digital music player, which crossed over this holiday season from an item favored by techies to one with mass appeal,” Kapner reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If this is just a rumor someone made up, it’s now taken on a life of its own. Certainly Apple, even if they weren’t planning such an entry-level machine, are right now taking notes about the wildfire spread of this story and people’s reactions to the possibility of just such a Mac being available.
It’s true this wouldn’t be cheaper than an eMac once you buy the screen. But there are a lot of people out there who can’t afford a Power Mac but want to re-use their current monitor. Or be free to upgrade the monitor in the future without also paying for a new computer.
Yep, we all remember the phantom $99 iPod that was guaranteed to be coming…and we’re still waiting. The Mac rumor sites will have their credibility totally destroyed forever if this $499-599 Mac doesn’t come to pass on January 11th. All of their asses are on the line.
the “healess imac” is the low end g5 they sell for $1400, it has exactally the same specs as the imac g5. and you could probably find a 15 inch crt for less than $200-300, so the theorectical $500 mac would cost less than an emac , even after buying a comparable monitor.
Monitors are the only thing in the computer world that haven’t radically changed in the past 15 years. Anyone can purchase a monitor at a flea market for less than $20 and it would work with this rumored system. Making a headless low-end would be just the ticket.
This dose of truth brought to you by the word “earth”.
No.. the meaning is the trick for them having a fully equiped PC to just connect a little Apple Mac-box on to the excisting monitor and mouse.. !
They get to know the Mac and buy a 100 % Apple Macintosh G5 next time..
The furor over the prospects of a $500 Mac do not represent anything but Mac fans interest and fodder for Tech writers and Mac sites during this post Christmas, pre New Year timeframe. It’s a slow period out there with not much to write about. As I’ve said elsewhere, if Apple comes out with a low end product it will most likely be $599. Remember everybody saying the iPod mini would be $199? 10 Days.
I’m seriously doubting this rumor. It always rears it’s ugly head just prior to Macworld, and there’s just no logic to it. I just don’t see how removing a $50 CRT from an eMac makes it magically $300 cheaper. And unless they make this box so you can’t do much upgrading to it, so you’d be forced to move up to a better Mac if you wanted to do more, I don’t see any feasability in it for Apple. I just don’t believe in this rumor. I’ve pointed out to my friends dozens of times that even buying a cheap $500 Dell system costs them up to $1000 over the first year, total, what with add-ons, software purchased to do the things thy want (similar to my Mac) and to protect the system (annual subscriptions to McAfee or Norton’s), and of course, the inevitable repair costs to scan and remove Spyware, Adware, Viruses that will get into the computer anyhow. People will SAVE money buying a “more expensive” Mac than they will buying the initially ‘cheaper’ Dell/Hp/Compaq. A cheaper “headless” Mac just doesn’t make sense. They’ve already got the better long term solution.
Bring back the Cube!
I hope it is true and I agree that the fact that this rumor has been taken up by so many people might send a message to Apple. I just don’t know enough about their bottom line to know if it is technically feasible from a monetary standpoint but I do know that if they do it, it will increase their market share and once people get exposed to OS X and all it’s advantages I think they may become “Mac People” and continue to buy higher end Macs in the future. It could be used as a loss leader so to speak.
Sure the rumor mill got the some of the details wrong last year about the new iPod, but that that is ignoring the fact that they got it right about there being an iPod mini.
Makes me wonder if they got half of the details right this time. I’m not ready to dismiss it all together.
Once again the rumor mills will cause Apple no end of grief. All has not said one word about such a computer, but if it does not appear, the nutjobs will start screaming about how Apple has betrayed them again, and go around telling people you can’t trust Apple.
So who starts these rumors? People who care? Or people who want to hurt Apple? Or who are tyring to manipulate Apple’s stock prices? Rumor mongers want to know! Film at eleven.
do people remember how greatly the cube failed?
Although if it was only $500…. yeah, why not just sell old cubes for $500? lol, thats probably what they are planing to do and we’re making it into such a big thing.
Eric-
I like your post. May the conspiracy theorists live long.
Still… I can’t help but feel that part of this is true, its just not as good as we’re all making it out to be.
(magic word is coming, as in, there will be rejoicing with the second coming of apple) (have I said that already?)
The difference is when you put all the pieces together, a $99 hard drive iPod technically was not possible (and still isn’t) to produce. An inexpensive headless mac IS! It may not be as small as rumors make it out to be (making something compact cost money) but is certainly possible.
You don’t need to advertise it, just put it in the back of the shop and those who want it will come. Those who don’t know should be directed toward he G5 iMac’s and eMac’s.
I could definitely see Steve bring back the Cube, but iMac stylized: White, with a grey Apple logo, and a G4 chip powerful enough to run Tiger without straining, using the same material as the iMac G5…
But think about it, what a perfect trojan horse would that be to bring more windows users to the Light side, especially when you consider that this beast would be riding the mighty iPod wave…
I got a strong feeling about that guys… 10 more days.
Remember, Apple recently spanked ThinkSecret and AppleInsider…are they now getting revenge by posting this bogus rumor before they close down???
Notice no follow up from ThinkSecret and AppleInsider? They are too busy laughing their asses off on this one as Macheads work themselves into a frenzied lather!
first, It is just dumb to think that thinksecret would screw up its almost perfect track record to get revenge. This computer is eminantly possible considering the profit margins apple makes on the emac. without the monitor and with smaller profit margins this “headless imac” could easly be 499$ and even if they cant make money on it the loss leader buisness model has been very sucsessful, just ask sam walton.
mrme118: “just ask sam walton.”
Walmart sells upteen zillion products.
Apple? 50, 100?
“the “healess imac” is the low end g5 they sell for $1400″
The low end Power Mac G5 is not the ‘headless iMac’ that people have been looking for. It still has the same massive, bulky case as the other Power Mac G5s. Apple should have offered a smaller, scaled down case for people who want G5 power and the ability to choose their own monitor, but don’t need all 3 PCI slots or all 8 RAM slots. They could have made the case 1/3 the size and called it the Power Mac Express, similar to one of the small Shuttle PCs at
http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SN95G5.asp
Notice that even though the case is small, it still has room for a standard sized optical drive along with a normal sized AGP and PCI slot. This is what the G4 Cube should have been, and what a “headless iMac” could be.
“Once again the rumor mills will cause Apple no end of grief.”
Very well said Eric. If this rumor proves unfounded, the armies of pinheads, led by their generals, the analysts, will drag Apple over the coals for daring to ignore their wishful thinking. That being said, if ThinkSecret was wrong, the fact that there is so much buzz about this putative Mac should be a “wake-up and smell the opportunity” moment for Apple.
Personally, I’m far more interested in ThinkSecret’s new assertion that Apple will introduce a productivity suite called iWork, which supposedly includes Keynote 2 and an application called “Pages”, possibly a word-processor with spreadsheet functionality.
I think everyone is missing the obvious here.. The target market for this product is going to be the corporate one, it gives large corps. a way to “switch” at the same cost as their usual annual upgrade/maint. budget
My prediction… Look for Steve to announce a low cost cMac (corporate/cheep) and at the same time announce an order from a large (Fed-Ex type) corporation.
I don’t know of any department that replaces their computers every year. Usually, a newly purchased computer is expected to last 3 or 4 years minimum. But Mac OS X keeps getting more processor and graphics intensive with every release, and Microsoft Office keeps getting more bloated. So a bare bones system with a bottom line G4 processor and near zero hardware upgradability (except for memory) may suffer the same fate as the Cube, even if it does have a pretty looking case.
The comparison to the $99 iPod is interesting; the rumour sites got the price wrong but they did predict a new model of iPod that was smaller and cheaper.
This time they are misleading their readers by calling this a ‘head-less iMac’. The iMac is an all-in-one G5 system and there is no way Apple would sell something just as powerful for less than the price of its current low-end eMac models. Not unless the eMac gets a G5 and the iMac gets a big price drop.
Personally I think this device will be a DVD and hard drive recorder, intended for the television. With 3.5′ hard drive capacities being what they are today, there is no reason why such a device could not be used for managing your iTunes library and for recording video on it. With built-in wi-fi it could also send audio streams to Airport Express units around the house.
In short, this device would be for entertainment, not business. If you want a cheap Mac you should save your money for an eMac.
Remember Steve said the Cube would possibly make a return appearance after he killed it (good idea, high price at the time). It all makes sense to me. How better to attract a wintel customer than to offer them a Mac for $499. No need to make OS X for Intel or use Intel or AMD chips. Stick with IBM and offer switchers a replacement for their aging Windows tower (bring your own monitor).
The digital hub plan will still be succesful in 2005 for Apple.