“The last time my personal world was exploding with new Mac users was back in the early 90’s when Apple introduced the low-cost, but eminently capable, Macintosh LC. Nearly all of my friends in college at the time had one and my family and extended family bought Apple Mac LCs as well. In those days it was great — everyone had a Mac! The world was good,” Anthony Frausto-Robledo writes for Architosh.
“When Apple introduced the first Mac LC (which stood for low-cost) the company sold 500,000 units within the first twelve months. Apple seemed to deliberately cripple the LC Macs so as to not take market share away from their more powerful professional computers. In hindsight they did a good job of this. One would not consider an LC to do the types of jobs you would do on a Quadra 700 or Quadra 900,” Frausto-Robledo writes.
Full article here.
the eMac is not an LC of the 21st century? of course it is
great price, G4 power, DDDR memory and super drive?
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/70503/wo/F47UeSecPqYx2Pt4Z3i1NZG5P8X/0.0.7.1.0.6.21.1.2.1.0.0.0.1.0
what do they expect? a 500 dollar piece of crap running os 9?
adam Jackson
mypersonalgetaway.com
Save the planet – recycle LCD panels with more than one Mac! Bring it on Steve.
How many times will this dead horse get beat. I see a story like this about once a month somewhere. Once and for all…There will only be a headless imac/emac when (or if) Steve Jobs ever gets good and damned ready.
I think it would be pretty neat to introduce a complete line of CUBE type Macs again, but this time let them be completely customizable like Dell, HP, and everyone else do. You choose the components in them allowing you to build a low cost or high end rig.
Then give a nice discount for an Apple CD if purchased at the same time
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I think it would be cool, and cater to the “GEEK” more.
Cheers
Adam Jackson:
… DDR memory? name one computer sold that DOESN’T use DDR memory. That’s like saying that a car coming with seatbelts is a feature.
Yeah, right…early 90’s, Windows still in its infancy (3.11), no Internet, no open source community so a market situation uncomparable with the current.
The author has no clue what he’s talking about. Apple needs to make margins on their products, which is much more healthy for them than selling machines on which they lose money or make small margins. Don’t need another Gateway2000.
Consider the eMac. The CRT on the eMac is a nice one, so let’s say it costs $50. I doubt it costs any more than that.
Thus, a headless eMac would cost $749. Not that big of a savings.
The problem with the emac is you can’t use a different monitor. If I have a LCD, which I do, I can’t connect it to an emac. Add that feature and problem solved. The emac needs an option for a better video card, appeal to gammers.
bring on the $599 cube
someone i know had their emac screen die and they hooked up a flat screen. don’t ask me how but i know they didn’t open it up or anything really technical.
anyway i think apple should sell a headless mac in case you already have a screen. why not sell it if people want to buy it??
but i would be more likely to buy a mac if it came WITH head
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The eMac, iBook, Powerbook, and PowerMac have all been updated since March. So a new iMac is due very soon, as its specs are behind even the eMac.
Will the iMac appear at WWDC? And if so, will it have a new design – even smaller? Will it break the $999 barrier? What else could be special about it?
Speculation earlier was for a 1.6GHz G5, especially since the PowerMac moved on to dual 1.8s at the low-end. But now it seems if the iMac retains its small (or smaller) form factor, then there will be no G5 (or even dual G4s) due to heat. So that leaves either 1.33 G4 or 1.5 G4. Nothing special to cheer about. And if its just a speed bump, why wouldn’t it have already been announced via press release (like the eMac and book bumps)? So there must be something special – a new smaller design, a $999 price, or what?
Or is there a new larger form factor design that could hold a single 1.6 G5 and maybe one PCI card? And might the rumored new DVI displays be for both the PowerMac and this new design?
Finally, having seen Airport Express, how will the iMac further Apple’s home network vision? Will the new iMac (or new design) have built-in WiFi or a built-in WiFi base station, or something else?
Something special is coming at WWDC! Just 10 more days to go!
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH kev nothing is coming from wwdc but fancy stuff no one buys and promises…all the cards are on the table hope springs eternal buy a mac now because what you see is what you ghet for 2 more years.
I made a ton of money on apple stock this year because I forgot about it, if i had been paying attention I would have sold it for a loss because this company does nothing right, has no consumer prospects, is the baliwick of one ego, and actually has only lost money for the last 2 years if you account correctly. I made enough money to buy a tricked out g5 with 2 big displays. Seems fair that the apple noodle i bought the stock from is buying my new computer. He probably just jumped back in at the top.
I would have bought an emac at the current price if I could get it “headless”. It’s a great machine but I don’t want a thing of that size on my desk since I would want a bigger monitor and/or a TFT that I can continue to use when I replace the computer… It’s such a shame that Apple wont put out a low price “headless” mac… I would have bought two by now, one for the office and one for home in addition to the PB G4, iBook G4, iBook G3 and powermac G4 that I already have…
I agree that this dead horse is beaten far too often and all is in Jobs hands, but when you get right down to it, Apple has nothing in the low end. I’m a recent switcher and I bought the eMac (thanx to a nifty scholarship) but no one is willing to try Macs as long as they might lose their ~$1000 investment. Nearly every person I meet and “wow” with my Mac inevitably comes to the conclusion that they are indeed “awesome”, but “I can get a Dell for $319”.
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
Apple NEEDS a $500-$600 entry level system so that once people see how great Mac OS X is, they will inevitably think “Imagine what I could do with a PowerMac G5″…
It makes sense. Once Jobs makes people realize that Macs are what they truly want out of a computer, they will inevitably shell out the cash for a powerful one.
The iMac was supposed to be the low cost Mac. Today’s iMac starts at $1299, runs to over $2000 for a marginal performing computer with a S-L-O-W system bus and a CPU that cannot even take advantage of it’s more expensive DDR memory. At the same time, most home PCs are running less than $1,000.
The G5’s are fairly priced but the G4 iMac is an overpriced paperweight. The eMac is OK, but about $100-200 too expensive and has the same limitations.
The iMac needs a modern CPU and a price drop, really bad…right now.
the eMac HAS LOTS OF PROBLEMS!
1) its $100 over the current competitive price mark.
2) it doesn’t support other monitors (BIG PROBLEM)
3) it assumes a specific sized monitor
4) its ugly, admit it, its ugly….
get a cube out there for $700 and we’re in business!!!!
Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe Apple does not want to enter the low-cost market? And this whole “headless iMac” thing needs to become extinct like the dinosaurs. If you want a separate computer and monitor, buy a G5.
Headless Mac…NOT…won’t happen…get over it.
And thank god Apple doesn’t play in that low-margin niche.
Apple doesn’t need/want the low-balls that niche attracts!!
jadis, that is brilliant. We haven’t been chatting all day just to hear an ignoramus like you tell us what is happening NOW.
Frank, there are 2 kinds of mac desktop buyers, the ones that buy g5s and have state of the art, and the rest that buy laughable computers that pass as works of art. Andy Warhol and Steve Jobs……..ever see them together?
A small headless computer at a reasonable price would make good sense for expanding into the business community. The guts of an eMac in an easily opened case so you could upgrade easily would do the trick nicely. I think it would make good business sense for Apple to do this.
right jack and they wont do it because they never want to compete directly with wintel. They have no stones. Niche product works fine for them, and the brown nosed mac lovers, most of which are using old stuff and dreaming of a new g5 theat costs too much, say its the way it should be because steve says so.
NO STONES. he will give another dozen speeches over his lifetime, drink in the applause, and die knowing he was no better than sears, or roebuck, in the end.
For $319 at Dell, you get a 2.4GHz Celeron, FreeDOS OS, 256MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive, CD-ROM, 10/100BaseT Ethernet, 6 USB 2.0, 3 PCI slots, mouse, keyboard, and a printer. The cheapest Dell 17″ monitor is $100.
If you switch to Windows XP Home, the price goes up to $462. (You also get WordPerfect, Money, SonicRecord Now, Dell Jukebox, Dell Picture Studio, Photo Album Starter Edition.) Plus $100 for the monitor.
If you add the cheapest speakers, DVD-ROM, and a 56k modem, the price is $552. Plus $100 for the monitor, for a total of $652. What’s still missing relative to the $799 eMac is Firewire, 32MB of dedicated video memory, WiFi antennas, and slots for Bluetooth and WiFi. But since the PC has three PCI slots, it can add Firewire, Bluetooth, and WiFi cards so that’s a wash.
So arguably the basic price difference is $100. But the eMac has the full OS X vs. XP Home. (XP Pro is $70 extra.) The eMac has iLife, Appleworks, Quicken, and some other stuff, vs. WordPerfect, Money, and really cheap multimedia software. ($30 to upgrade to MS Works suite and $80 for upgrade to Picture Studio Combo, Paint Shop Pro, Photo Album Premium). Definitely no GarageBand lookalike in that group.
The reality is that the cheapest Dell Windows system with 17″ monitor is $652. For $150 more, you get Firewire, dedicated video memory, and much better software with the eMac.
Go ahead, do the comparison yourself. Maybe you can find a cheaper comp with eMachines/Gateway.
Perhaps Apple does not want to ‘dilute’ the brand name by offering a low-cost (low feature) option. They want to make sure that everybody who uses a Macintosh gets a consistant, positive experience.
Maybe they should spin off a separate company (such as Toyota has done with Scion), to build and market low end, low cost Macintosh compatible computers. These would have a different brand name, would be expandable/upgradable. They would ship with either MacOS X or Linux.
Expand the market, but don’t dilute the Apple name…..
By the way, the Dell comparison above was to a 2.4 GHz Celeron. A 2.66GHz Pentium 4 is another $70.
Many of you carp about the G4. But I still use a 3 year old 667MHz G4 Powerbook (as well as a 2.8GHz Pentium Dell notebook) and its still way faster than any crappy Celeron.
Mark G., that is why CEO of Apple is not after your name.