“Apple has updated its iMac for certain educational and institutional customers at the Apple Store,” Electronista reports.
Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, Parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
“A 21.5-inch model is available with a dual 3.1GHz Core i3 and a modern AMD Radeon HD 6750M for graphics, instead relying on reduced storage and memory, along with the slight processor drop, to bring the price to $999,” Electronista reports. “The design trims memory to just 2GB of RAM and storage to a 250GB hard drive.”
Read more in the full article here.
And they still sell the white MacBook
The first multicolored IMac was revolutionary.
This is …”meh”
I was hoping more on a iPad esque for education.
Imagine an IPad with a centtal docking unit that houses a mouse , keyboard and CPU/GPU .
With AirPlay multiple user can make use an share a central
Screen . That is for education and interactive .
And FUN !!
dumb ass apple. I just helped a small school setup their new “old” education iMacs yesterday. They bought a lab full of $899 Core 2 Duo 20″ iMacs after trying to figure out a way to afford the base model 21.5″ Core i5 (which goes for $1,149 to schools). They felt bad about buying old technology, but it was either that or PCs. Now, in fricken August, when schools all over the place have just received and opened the 20″ iMacs, Apple releases this model — a month earlier to at least announce this model was coming, and they’d have a lot fewer pissed off schools.
I am watching Apple make the same mistakes in schools they made in the late 90s. Microsoft understands the marketing advantage in getting kids using PCs in schools, Apple needs to constantly re-learn it.
but that’s because PC’s need a lot more service. As one told me, “We always recommend PC’s because they break! It’s called jon security!”
At first I thought you had a typo. But now I get it, “jon security” because the toilets are full of these crappy “highly serviceable” PCs.
You are right. While they are at it Apple should announce all upcoming price changes, new models and back to school specials going forward to the year 3000.
Well, he is right that the timing could have been better – schools are back in business this week and next week, so most of them have already made their purchases and gotten them set up. Would have been great if they could have launched these a month or so earlier.
These are still a great offering for the education market, and I can see many schools picking these up.
I could see many schools picking them up — if their budgets hadn’t been slashed to the bone.
They need to sell an iMac that is more easily serviceable for the technicians. The biggest obstacle our district is having at staying a mainly Mac environment is how easy it is to service a Windows box.
another good point. That’s about the only thing the older edu iMac has over the newer one, a hard drive that is not proprietary. Apple’s re-commitment to education and industry standard parts came with Steve Jobs and the iMacs in ’98, followed by the eMacs. Maybe this is a sign of Jobs losing influence?
HS: you’ve been suckling on the gubbamint tit too long pal, in the real world companies make a profit. Apple doesn’t owe you jack.
I agree, Apple doesn’t owe Education anything. I think I was pretty clear that this is dumb marketing. I have seen the effect that using nice Macs in schools has on the number of kids asking for MacBooks to take to college. And, no ‘gubbamint t*t” for me, I work in non-public education. But nice try, Boris.
If you’re not being paid from government funds, my sincere apologies sir. And it’s Mikhail, not Boris.
You think it’s profitable to discourage business with unnecessarily difficult service requirements?
Instead if making an easily serviced piece of crap that requires service all of the time, Apple makes a quality device that is not easily serviceable, but requires much less service. I prefer the latter strategy, having spent the majority of my computer years frustrated with the former.
But service will be needed, especially with hundreds of different users (and abusers) like at a school. Nobody in their right mind would purchase a computer with no expectation of having to service it. And it isn’t easy to bring multiple iMacs to a genius bar. What’s wrong with option 3 – a quality device that is easily serviceable? It’s well within Apple’s realm of expertise, I’d like to think
So dual core (but fast) i3, instead of the quad core i5 in the usual $1199 low-end iMac. Same graphics hardware, but with half the RAM and internal storage. Seems like a good config for education customers. Apple should remove the optical drive for purchase-in-bulk customers who run things over a network, and drop the price to $899 per unit (for 20 or more).
Just checked the education page at the Apple Store (I’m on staff at a California university), and this new $999 config does not show up. Am I missing something?
They won’t be available to individuals, only for institutions (even on the Education store). You would need an Authorized Purchaser login to see them.
Mac mini and a generic monitor is cheaper and a better computer.
That’s actually a very good point. I’m not sure if there is an additional institutional discount on Mac Minis (I’d imagine so bought in volume), but even if not, a Mac Mini and a cheap LCD monitor would be less money and better spec’d (aside from the monitor, of course, which isn’t that important in a classroom setting – a decent monitor will do fine).
i agree. I support a classroom with macs, and the mac minis are a lot easier to maintain, because they can be swapped out unobtrusively (i take them back to my shop, where my tools are). I just keep cloned spares handy.
Nathan, just curious if the minis are secured or mounted in some way? That would be my main concern with doing that instead of using “much more difficult to abscond with” iMacs. Thx.