“Apple’s popular line of iMac personal computers are about to undergo a substantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
“People familiar with the matter say the Cupertino-based Mac maker has called upon its award-winning design chief Jonathan Ive and his team to cut the fat from the the current iMac line and outfit a pair of new Core 2 Duo-based models in a form factor that will be both slimmer and sleeker than today’s offerings,” Jade reports. “For Apple, the impending iMac makeover will represent the first major industrial design overhaul to hit its flagship all-in-one consumer desktop line in nearly three years.”
It’s “uncertain is precisely when Apple intends to drop the new iMac line into market. It appears, however, the systems are tracking as hardware-side complements to the company’s next-generation Leopard operating system release which, based purely on conjecture, may not be ready until May at best,” Jade reports.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Adam W.” and “RadDoc” for the heads up.]
Hmmmm,
“A little price drop, now and then, is a good thing. Don’t you think?”
Price drop, revolution? Sometimes I get them mixed up. ref. The Hunt for Red October.
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great, we’re in the market for 2 more. I’ll just wait a bit then!!
My prediction is that iPhone look will find it’s way into other products.
Imagine iPhone aesthetic for iMac…black front with some gloss…stainless rounded rim around entire face…wicked thin….aluminum back and base.
Of course I *just* bought one. >.<
Man, I hope they don’t abandon the “sub-$1000” computer market like the article suggests. That’s not only where a lot of schools want to buy but also families who want a second computer for their kids. Plus, marketing wise, it should be pretty easy to “upsell” a $999 computer to a $1199 computer.
Just give us a few more options with the dang VIDEO card and most people wouldn’t care that Apple doesn’ have a “mid-tower.”
On the iMac, I’m guessing a display design more like the Cinema Display without the white chunk underneath.
And a fresh scent emitter in either Apple Cinnamon or Vanilla Breeze.
It’ll be as thin as a pencil like the nano, but fill your entire wall.
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(and smell like Apple Cinnamon)
How can you make the iMac any “slimmer” or “sleeker”?
“How can you make the iMac any ‘slimmer’ or ‘sleeker’?”
Move the optical drive to the base?
I am a fan boy.
But sometimes I wish apple would focus a little less on design and lower the price some.
God, I can’t believe I said that.
My iMac is gorgeous. But to raise the price or to keep it the same just so it can be 1/2 an inch thinner is not cutting it for me.
Apple, we need lower prices with the same power. I will buy pretty much anything you sell, but when talking to my pc friends trying to get them to change, they keep telling me the mac mini is still too pricey.
The base iMac should be below $900 and the base mini needs to be below $500. And by base models, not lower power versions.
I really want to buy my daughters imacs, but the base models are just too much still.
Looks like I’ll be putting off that 24″ model further pass the Leopard release date.
I was wanting an excuse, as I had a feeling they might be doing this.
OK, y’all excuse me while I hold my breath……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….is it here yet?(head slams on keyboard)
MW:coming…..?
DAMN! I just bought my 24″ iMac! That’s okay, it’s amazing!! My AppleTV shipped today! YEAH!!
Tommy Boy, that was exactly what I was thinking – I’ve had my iMac 1-1/2 years now, and it STILL looks beautiful to me.
Unlike the “iLamp”, whose design was fresha and exciting, but became a little stale or “dated” after a while, I was reading this thinking how they were going to make it “significantly” better..
But knowing Jon Ive, I wouldn’t bet against him on it.
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Maybe the whole computer will be the size of a thimble, with a projected hologram for a screen… but where would they put the CD drive?
Synthmeister,
Actually, there are lots of people who would LOVE to see a Mac midi tower. It’s not about price, but SIZE.
If you don’t want an all-in-one Mac the choices are extremely limited:
A.) A MacPro, which is physically HUGE and overkill in terms of expansion.
B.) A Mac mini which is underpowered, has NO expansion possibilities, uses a 2.5″ laptop hard drive and is crippled with the poor integrated Intel graphics card.
Some people NEED a high-end graphics card but NOT 4 drive bays and PCI slots and a case that takes up half the space under your desk… office space in NYC is at a PREMIUM, folks!
A mid-sized Mac with let’s say…
Two PCI slots (one for the graphics card and one extra)
One extra internal drive bay, for either an extra optical drive or hard drive
4 RAM slots
FireWire 800 and the usual array of ports.
$1200 – $1500 would be a good price point.
I do architectural design and know that for small design offices smaller boxes like this would be perfect.Yes, they might eat into MacPro sales a bit, but I bet they’d be hugely popular for people and companies that already have monitors and need powerful, yet reasonably sized machines.
I don’t want an iMac, a MacPro is too much/too BIG and the mini is a joke… so I use a MacBook Pro with an external monitor. I’d love a mid-sized mac and share the monitor with my MBP. I could leave rendering jobs to the midi and still work on the MBP.
We were having this same debate at a client’s office last week. They bought a couple of iMacs (to replace old eMacs) for the clerical staff and are waiting, reluctantly, for octo-core MacPros or maybe new MacBook Pros. Mac midis and Apple 23″ monitors would have been a no brainer.
I hope so….that Chiclet on a stick iMac design just did not excite me…
As far as price, I believe Apple has given up the notion of ever getting a large market share with its computers. It will go after the 5% of the market that is willing to pay a little more upfront for the design, coolness and OS.
So start saving your pennies, folks!
> sometimes I wish apple would focus a little less on design and lower the price some
Sometimes I wish they would focus a little less on design and lower the temperature some!
Your friends are cheap sobs who would just find an even cheaper PC. Never mind the fact that the PC will cost much more to own. Apple doesn’t (and shouldn’t) compete on price. They compete with quality from the hardware through the software, and anybody looking only at the price is not a potential customer.
Tell your cheap PC friends to stay away from the Mac. Mac users don’t need them or want them. They would be bad for the platform.
Apple could certainly make the iMac body thinner. Good point about the optical drive. They probably would have to go for a laptop drive for that. Having nothing but the monitor visible from the front would also be cool.
@Mr.Reese…
You are right on. You are describing just what I am hoping for. You left out one item though…
Give us Core2Duos in the mid-tower instead of the MacPro’s Xeons.
And one last thing: As THE company known for music, why doesn’t Apple supply keyboards with more robust multimedia control. I am amazed that five years after the intro of iTunes that I have to go buy a Microsoft or Logitech keyboard to fast forward or skip songs from the keyboard. How about a better keyboard Apple?
LEAVE THE CHIN!!!!!!!!!!
Spark, try Salling Clicker, much better than tacking ‘media keys’ onto a keyboard.
MW: volume. You can’t make this shit up.
Two Dual Core 2 chips inside an iMac? Holy crapola, that thing would fly…
If/when they do this, I’ll be the first in line to buy one.
Hopefully, for Rob Enderle’s sake, this one will be better designed for earthquakes and other natural disasters. Jobs knows we don’t want his family having to worry about all that broken glass anymore…
Put video inputs and tuner on it and you hace a flatscreen HDTV and computer in one..
Mr. Reese—
Hey, I agree with you, but I don’t think they are going to do that. However, a few more video card options would at least get us half-way there. (Not to mention a couple more Firewire/USB2 ports.) At least those options could be offered without having to crank up an entirely new line of Macs.