The “Headless iMac” is a fantasy, Bill Palmer assets for billpalmer.net.
Palmer writes, “Look at what we’re left with here. All the discussion [about Apple] now centers around a theoretical product that doesn’t exist, never will exist, never had any chance of ever existing…and yet now, this non-existent entity is the center of attention of the platform. So guess what happens when Steve Jobs gets up there on stage in January and doesn’t launch this non-existent product? That’ll be the story — that the headless iMac didn’t happen. And what about all the actual, real-world, legitimate products that he does announce that day? They’ll either be swept under the rug entirely, or they’ll be pooh-poohed in comparison to a fantasy product that never existed.
“In other words, this false rumor has quite possibly already destroyed any chance that Apple had of making a splash at MacWorld Expo,” Palmer writes. “But the bottom line is that we’re left with a worthless Mac Web for the next month, but that’s just the beginning of the problems. You see, because the “headless iMac” rumor sounds good in theory until you actually spend five minutes dissecting it, the rumor is getting picked up rather quickly by mainstream news sites. Being reported as a done deal, for that matter. So now we’ve got these false expectations crawling all over the news wires, and the whole world is now under the false expectation that this false rumor is actually going to happen. And unbelievably, some idiot Wall Street analyst has gone and reported it as fact, meaning that the fate of Apple’s stock price now hinges on this BS rumor as well.”
Palmer looks at what he think actually will happen at Macworld Expo and concludes, “…when you stop and realize that there will likely be a few less Switchers in 2005 as a direct result of this phony ‘headless iMac’ rumor, you’ll want the dweeb who fabricated it hanging from a tree as badly as I do.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Palmer’s been very clear on his stance: the “Headless $499 iMac” is a fantasy. If this rumor turns out to be false, Palmer will stand proudly while ThinkSecret and AppleInsider will get their just desserts. And vice versa, if this rumor proves true. Hopefully, Apple will somehow emerge from all of this relatively unscathed, regardless of what they announce at Macworld. MacDailyNews’ stance, as always, is that this is a rumor only. Nothing official has been stated by Apple either way regarding this “Headless Mac” rumor. We’re waiting until Steve Jobs’ January 11th Keynote Presentation at Macworld Expo to see what Apple has to announce for real and reporting on what other media outlets are writing and saying about Apple, as usual.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Rumored $500 ‘Headless Mac’ could double Mac market share, boost share price – January 01, 2005
Analyst: Budget $499 Mac doesn’t make sense for Apple Computer – December 31, 2004
Apple’s rumored $500 ‘Headless Mac’ more wishful thinking than fact? – December 31, 2004
Quick glances back at 2004 and ahead to 2005 – Happy New Year from MacDailyNews! – December 31, 2004
Apple’s next great idea: gearing up to take a big bite out of the mass computer market – December 30, 2004
Rumored ‘Headless iMac’ would be radical departure from Apple’s usual high margin strategy – December 30, 2004
Piper Jaffray: ‘Headless iMac would appeal to many potential Windows to Mac switchers’ – December 30, 2004
Headless iMac for $499? Please, Apple, let it be true! – December 29, 2004
RUMOR: Apple to debut $499 ‘headless iMac’ at Macworld Expo on January 11 – December 29, 2004
Inexpensive ‘Headless iMac’ could hook Windows users who love their iPods on Mac OS X – December 29, 2004
I’ve been intrigued to read some of the mainstream news sites talking about this story.
They report the rumours of $500 iMacs, but temper the story by pointing out last years false rumours about $100 iPods.
It’s amusing to see that Reuters don’t remind you of those previous false stories, but maybe Reuters hope that we’ve forgotten that it was they who last year announced $100 iPods as a fact, while others were only reporting it an unconfirmed rumour.
Obviously Mac fans know that Apple would never actually confirm an announcement in advance, but Reuters saying that they had is quite enough to make it as good as a fact for lazy reporters.
If you read a lie in enough articles, it could appear to be the truth.
Actually, it was Think Secret who started the $100 iPod rumor. http://www.thinksecret.com/news/mwsf04apple.html
Think Secret have far from a 100% record as far as rumours go – and when they get the rumour right they often get the details of the rumour (coloured iPodMini scroll wheel) completely wrong.
The way this rumour was presented i.e. first you get sugar, then a few days later you are told sugar is infact iWork, etc. etc. is a classic sign of an invented rumour, designed to keep site traffic up over a period of days – if true their “source” would hve told them the lot on day one.
Sounds to me like ThinkSecret is going for the advertising $$ with extra site traffic.
As far as MDN goes it is a fence sitter, pure and simple. Spineless.
The Apple Keyboard and Mouse alone cost $100, so are we saying they can make money out of a $400 computer?
Could it be that the cheap iMac and iWork are nothing more than red herrings created by Apple’s attorneys in order to flush out the sources of the leaks for which they’re suing the rumor sites? Nah, surely not…
What this rumour has proved is this – switchers are poised for an “affordable” mac. We all know PC users who used to cite MANY reasons for sticking with a platform/OS they hate more and more but now only cite one reason – cost.
A headless Mac which would remove this last stumbling block would se Mac and more to the point it’s FAR superior OS start to eat up a market share. Either for PC switchers or just for the final realisation of Jobs’ “digital hub” vision. Stuck in a living room running through a TV, connected to the net via Airport Express, buying songs from the iTMS etc…
It can only be a matter of time even if not just yet.
And whilst I’m here, if people want to keep using the “BMW” analogy, they do sell a “compact” – cheap enough to get people into the marque in the hope they’ll stay with them when their budget increases.
If bad press could kill Apple they would have been dead long ago. Look at the death knell counter. Also look at the 100 dollar iPod Mini Rumor. The price of the Mini was cause for lots of people saying it would fail miserably after the let down of the higher pricing. Did it?
I don’t know – I’m a little unsure of the whole thing. If this product is genuine, it’s pleasing to see Apple finally taking a different stance and looking at avenues of growing the customer base while presumably sacrificing margins to do so. Its a good time to capitalise on the unpleasantness of Windows viruses and spyware, the lagging ‘Longhorn’ and the success of the ipod.
Maybe Q88 is designed to supplant the emac. Maybe Think Secret and Appleinsider wanted to stick it to Apple in light of Apples lawsuit and started their own ‘rumour’.
Conspiracy theories. Guess we’ll know soon enough.
I like Bill Palmer’s stories. I sent him an email, which I said, the rumor helps put the pressure on Apple to deliver inexpensive machines, even if the machines are not in this Expo’s cards.
I have hardly ever read so much bullshit in my life.
1) There will be NO cheap headless Mac. Forget it. Apple does not have the company culture for it, the capital structure for it, the manufacturing prowess for it, or anything else. The business of mass producing a cheap, headless Mac is the realm of Dell, and it takes utterly different DNA to even think of doing that.
2) Speculation about demand for that is just that – speculation, and by people who have no clue … none … as to the business fundamentals involved here. ‘I think’, ‘It appears’, ‘My assumptions are’ …. all bull.
3) Speculation of the ‘damage’ to Apple for a product that won’t exist and hyped by the hyenias in the Applesphere is utter horseshit. When you see that it WILL NOT be announced there will a shrug from the same know-nothings, and adulation at those things they do announce.
Steve Jobs must … must … be laughing his ass off at this assinine speculation going on.
Nonsense-
“Steve Jobs must … must … be laughing his ass off at this assinine speculation going on.”
Perhaps… however this rumor has gotten a lot more positive reaction than negative, although there is still a strong presence of negative reaction it is clearly out weighed.
(see other computer websites if you don’t believe me.)
If I was SJ (I would kill to just be working for him) I would be in a tough spot. If i did build this thing, I would be laughing, but with glee.
Laughing because I knew once again I had pleased everyone and delivered an incredibly superior product to a market that sorely needs it.
If I hadn’t built it, I would not be laughing. I’d be kicking myself… the majority of Apple fans have just raved about how brilliant it will be when i release a product I don’t have… The industry that I have labored to help, I have let down…
An old add once read:
Macintosh. Finally, a computer for the rest of us.
If Macs truly are the BMW of computers, they have let down that original dream. No longer are they the computer for the common man…
I buy Apple for the principle (not just their superiority product). They build things simple so that everyone can use it. It is hypocritical, down right against the philosophy, if you then don’t build one that everyone can afford.
(magic word is Time, as in, Once upon a time Apple started the computer revolution, and I pray they don’t abandon it)
People have been pumping cheap Macs for a long time, a reincarnated Newton PDA, an Apple phone …. on and on.
Go read ‘The Innovators Dilemma’ by Clay Christensen and learn something. Apple is incapable of making a cheap, sucessful headless Mac. They would fail hugely.
Cheerleaders of course are reading posts and know-nothing Wall Street analysts and using that as prima facia evidence that this idea would be successful.
It WOULD NOT. It WOULD FAIL. But thankfully, it WILL NOT HAPPEN.
Give Jobs that much credit.
I would rather see an updated eMac than a cheap-Mac that is under-powered. Such a Mac would give PC zealots another reason to say that ‘Macs are slow’. Besides, if price is the main criteria for someone buying a computer then they can always get something cheaper that would run (or walk) Windows XP.
You can have a cheap Mac today by buying an eMac or an iBook. Considering all the hardware and software that is included with those, the prices are very good. If you buy a cheaper PC then you deserve to pay for all the upgrades that will be necessary when components start to fail. In the end, Macs are better value and more reliable.
You can have a cheap Mac today by buying an eMac or an iBook
—
First of all… when was the last time you saw an eMac ad.
Let me refresh your memory…
Never. PC users do not know about the eMac unless they accidentally wander into the gloomy ‘Mac’ corner of Best Buy…
The iBook is sweet..but no one would imagine it’s affordable stickerprice.
And neither of these ‘solutions’ covers the ‘use your old monitor’ angle.. which makes Mac swapping similar to PC swapping.
I really hope there’s a reason Apple doesn’t offer a 15, 17 inch flatscreen on their website.. hopefully we’ll see those babies in a few days
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />.
Again.. talking about software is just not where it’s at.. these are switcher systems.. If PC users knew about Mac software, they wouldn’t be PC users.. you have to appeal to THEM.
We know Macs are a better value.. this Mac would be interesting in that, pretty much intentionally, no one would ever get one, and then 3 years later get another one..
They would get one and then if they liked it.. check out what else Apple offers.. and probably spring for the iBook or the iMac next.. The iBook is such a great deal.. there’s a reason they’re selling like crazy.
amazon.com/computers iBooks flood the Top Sellers list.. wow.. (No Dells allowed, I know..still)
The point would be a cheap cheap cheap license of OS X. I mean.. that’s what really matters, right?
If Apple thought these rumors were damaging to it’s stock price or reputation it would take steps to put them down NOW! They have done it before.
Palmer’s article is no more factual than the rumors are.
The eMac sucks. It is a giant, heavy CRT brick.
Apple does not advertise because all its ad budget (except ipods) has been invested in its stores. No money for ads, money for store rent. They figure their stores are enough advertising. (Wrong of course.)
And interesting I do not see any PC owners in this forum saying they will be the icheapoMac…
And interesting I do not see any PC owners in this forum saying they will be the icheapoMac…
—
Hrm.. Pick another website like engadget or something that isn’t called MACdailynews
Furthermore.. you just made up some crap about why they can’t afford to advertise. My point was that lack of advertising meant that pretty much no PC users know of such a thing as an $800 Mac. Your little tangent basically said that the eMac is FUGLY.. which.. is… totally irrelevant… Most computers are ugly. Especially the ones that sell in high volume. They’re computers.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000607025261/
Read. Think. Respond.
I actually think we’ll see eMac prices drop to around $599 sooner than we’ll see a cheap screenless iMac at $499. In fact, I’ll even bet that’s what will happen. And another thing…Apple’s naming schemes for their computer development projects were always much more clever than that. “Q88”?! Wouldn’t it have been more in line with their culture to name it the “Hendrix” or the “Rolling Stone”? “Q88” sounds like a Microsoft project name. That or some form of livestock.
You spend too much time surfin�the web in search for apple stuff.
Find a new religion.
Nonsense-
“The business of mass producing a cheap, headless Mac is the realm of Dell, and it takes utterly different DNA to even think of doing that.”
How much DNA does it take to repackage a current (eMac) motherboard?
Granted, yanking parts from other products and reselling them as something new is hardly the winner’s way (think General Motors), but for a bottom-end Mac it might be “good enough”.
Either way, we’re only days from seeing what Apple’s current DNA can do.
I am buying a headless mac on day one they go up for sale… and yes, I am using a winbox right now
As an aside here are some cheap displays that I have heard other people say good things about:
http://www.formac.com/p_bin/
Apple computer’s headless mac will be the home run of 2005! Mark my words…and this Palmer dude sounds like he’s on too many painkillers. Somebody get the poor fool some help!