“So Apple won’t be delivering its next-generation iMacs in time for the early school season? Is this delay really worth all the panicked headlines, fret, and a hefty trim in the stock price? I don’t think so,” Seth Jayson writes for The Motley Fool.
“Sure, I’ve argued in the past that Apple’s stock has gotten a bit frothy, but I’m willing to cut Cupertino a little slack on this particular stumble. After all, Apple has a tiny, but loyal following in the computer market. To judge by the angry email that flows my way whenever I criticize Jobs and Co., most Mac fans would crawl over a mile of gravel and broken glass in order to get their new machines
Wow. He thinks we’d only crawl a mile for a new Mac?
Okay, he actually said “OVER a mile” – but that’s still pretty easy, considering the prize.
what is a P/E ratio?
Price/Earnings.
Penis/Envy
It’s the hot G5 chip, even going to 90nm, it’s still hot.
New iMac line is going to sport watercooling, like the Dual 2.5 Ghz does.
The Powerbook G5 will sport it as well, but that’s been the most difficult, don’t expect those anytime soon.
Back to sweeping the floors at Cupertino and listening at doors, I’ll keep you all informed.
By the way visit
http://teammacosx.homeunix.com/
Thanks
Yep, gotta get earnings up or stock price down to a P/E ratio the market is comfy with.
The real problem is that the iMac line hasn’t been selling. Last quarter, I wrote about the fact that Apple’s real sales savior wasn’t a computer at all, but the iPod. What I didn’t have time to mention then was that the iMac sales has been the firm’s preeminent laggard, with sales dropping 20% for the first half of the year.
By contrast, high-end PowerMacs saw a 21% rise, PowerBooks surged 32%, and iBooks notched a 26% gain. Can the new-generation iMac turn this around? Perhaps, but since Apple’s other products are better sellers, it should be no hardship for the firm to push them for a few weeks until the new iMacs come online.
The iMac was either too expensive to make, or Apple thought the design merited a premium price consumers weren’t willing to pay. The design may have been brilliant, but the little white dome doesn’t inspire confidence in the machine — a bit too cutesy. Maybe there’s not enough market for a small-form Mac that isn’t a portable. Consumers want a container with a hatch that provides one degree of expandability more than Apple provided, even if they won’t use it. Could Apple have overdesigned the Cube and iMac?
My suggestion would be to move the gender pointer of the consumer line more in the masculine direction. Less form, more power and one degree of expandability more than provided so far. For a start, metal would help.
Here’s where I think Apple went back to in designing the new iMac. Or where I think they should’ve gone. Still cool after all these years … the 20th Anniversary POMONA. Now tell me you don’t like it.
i don’t like it…just kidding
it’s looks great, it’s design is exactly what an imac needs for a strong boost of sales, stylish but strong and powerful, though it does looks a bit sony-ish
but i doubt the new imacs will be in silver, as all the i-(imac & ibook) represents white and all the power(powermac & powerbook) represent silver.
Pomona discriminates against right-handed people.
Yes ‘Less is More’ – that’s almost a summary of my opinion … almost.
There’s the little matter of a choice of colours.
Apple gave the consumer that choice twice – the original iMac and the iPod mini. Have any products in recent Apple history sold better?
I concur with Charko,
we have an iMac DV-SE in our living room, it fits perfectly. I try to argue in favour of an eMac to replace it, but my wife finds the white plastic less than appealing. A choice of colours would do the trick.
>it looks a bit sony-ish
Yeah, I meant using the design as a starting point, not a solution. The iMac does double duty — the mid-price desktop for home AND enterprise. I’d put the support staff on a down-scaled derivative of the eMac and the execs on a derivative of the Pomona. The execs want a “power look” a cut above what the secretary pool is running.
The last iMac was a great design — functional but almost too cute. Apple should apply some actual market research rather than rely on internal “plans.” The cheapest way to do it would have been to make the low-end iMac white and the higher end some other non-candy color. And puh-leeze adhere to some reasonable power to price relationship.
Less is more,
>>The execs want a “power look” a cut above what the secretary pool is running.
What about a 15″ or 17″ Powerbook, sitting on a stylish acryl stand with a keyboard, it’s the perfect computer for the exec office.
Yeah — PB15 is probably the best PB ever made. If I could afford a third Mac I’d get a PB15, but I need my body-board-sized screen. PBs are not a problem; the question is why didn’t the iMac do better than it did — there are a number of opinions I wanted to hear from the MDN community.
Toyota was once a small part of the US market and GM was over twice as large as Ford, Chrysler, & American Motors combined. This year, Toyota passed Ford (it passed Chevrolet earlier) and became the #1 line of autos in the US. It took years and a lot of self-destruction by GM, but it has a way of happening.
Apple is maturing OS X at just the right time as Microsoft seems to be stalled on development and discontent is building in the IT world. The PPC G5 and future families are well ahead of Intel & AMD’s 64-bit offerings. Apple is proving with iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iPod, and AirPort/AirPort Express that it can diversify it’s product base and serve the larger market. Expect to see iSight Windows software and maybe Safari for Windows in the not too distant future.
The Apple of today is not the Apple that lost the OS Wars, it is a dynamic and creative enterprise on the cutting edge of digital media and our more ever networked computing world. All of the emerging technology bases and current issues in IT (Windows insecurity) have been, and are being taken care of. The P/E ratio is a little ahead of the curve, but Apple is a definite buy.
Sell at your own risk…
Toyota sold to the mass market; Apple sells to a niche market; but yes, Apple has a strong product and Microsoft is doing a “GM.” Yet people bought hordes of Fords and GMs when they were putting out their worst product in terms of design and quality.
Also, there’s an extra switching inelasticity because of software and OS knowledge.
Less is more
Yes, I like it. But I’d also like it to fold up all neatly and easily for transport. Not necessarily as a portable, but as an easily moveable, computer with a DVI connector for an additional monitor. Oh yes, some degree of expandibility is important also. I think Apple is mistaken to think that consumers do not need or want to add internal cards. I’d like a TV card in mine for example.
By the way, I like the current iMac design, too, and the machine I was trying out at the Apple Store recently had plenty of power. So why don’t I buy one? Because I’m torn between a consumer portable and a desktop. The G4 iBook is a fine machine in all but one crucial respect: no DVI port to support Apple’s beautiful flat panel monitors so I can use it at the desktop. Should these monitors be reserved just for professional customers?
If Apple were to bridge effectively the gap between a desktop and a laptop consumer machine, I’d buy one.
Further Thoughts on iMac Design
The 20th anniversary Mac might be a good starting point for an easily moveable machine. Suppose the back had a lower panel that folded down for access for expansion? And the front center panel below the screen could fold down to reveal the keyboard. This panel would also contain slot-loading CD or DVD drives in its top edge, so they are invisible when the panel is folded up. The sides of the case should contain USB and Firewire and other ports for easy access for attaching peripherals.
Color choice is imporant. The original 20th Anniversary Mac was far more impressive in photos than in actual physical presence. At least the one I saw once was a sickly gold-bronze color that I find very off-putting. And it seemed much larger and more cumbersome as well.
What stock problem?
The price recovered much of the overnight loss on Friday:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AAPL&t=1d&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=dell,msft,gtw,^IXIC
Wall Street always initially overreacts to AAPL bad news. Apple is both a fast growing newcomer (iPod) and a juggernaut (Mac) – not faultless maybe (near faultless with Jobs at the helm) but a 25 year old company (older than Dell, Gateway) that in some respects dominates the industry. Sure the P/E ratio is not so good but is supported by insurance of $4.5B in the bank.
Maybe the 25th Anniversary iMac, eh? (drools, wipes) and just one more thing, I wouldn’t mind seeing a CD, DVD, or even Maria Sharapova spin [transparent covers].
ugly piece of shit Po-moan-a
sounds like toy-yo-ta
crap, utter crap
Considering that Apple’s stock was constantly climbing since last month it is no surprise that it now falls. All it took was a little bit of bad news and the iMac shortage is it. Now if all those people who trade in shares react to bad Apple news we can assume that they will also react to the good Apple news. A new product announcement, Dual G4 iMacs or next-gen iPods, will propably result in the Apple stock’s price going up again.
On a slightly different topic, I do not think that G5 cooling issues are the reason for the next generation iMac’s delay. We do not know for sure that the iMac will use the G5 processor, a new graphics chip could be hotter than the CPU and maybe the new screens were unavailable in sufficient numbers. I am only assuming that the next iMacs will be major revisions and so most of the technology in them will be new, thus it could be any component that is causing the delay.
I don’t see the real problem as the education market is mostly iBooks and eMacs – some may want iMacs but not in great quantity nor in great rush. Speculation can be endless.
Love your post … and was amazed about the TAM prototype pics! I own three TAMs, and it is absolutely the finest Mac made (I also own a Cube, which is also stunning, but the TAM is my sentimental favorite).
The B&O system in the TAM is BY FAR and still today the best audio system integrated in a computer … bar none.
Love your post … and was amazed about the TAM prototype pics! I own three TAMs, and it is absolutely the finest Mac made (I also own a Cube, which is also stunning, but the TAM is my sentimental favorite).
The B&O system in the TAM is BY FAR and still today the best audio system integrated in a computer … bar none.