Can we expect a Redesigned iMac or a Limited Edition because of this year's Anniversary?

[Dave245]

If that is what we are getting, I will take a hard pass. Might appeal to some, but I do not see the point? Maybe someone can explain its purpose to me. Backlit keys would be nice, but I doubt even that. They have had that technology in MacBooks/MacBook Pros for years and never brought it to the external keyboard.

It seems to me like the Touch Bar, the keys are said to change depending on the functionality, to me that sounds like the Touch Bar. This is back in 2016 so maybe Apple decided against it. Altho that reddit person did say 2018 but that reddit post is from last year (ie 2017) so it could either be delayed or cancelled.

It will be interesting to see what happens and if any of this turns out to be true, note in the screen shot i have taken below that it says *updated iMac peripherals DVT 2018 (whatever DVT means??)
[doublepost=1532697543][/doublepost]

What can they do with iMac at this point? Yes make the bezels thinner, but can they really make the chin smaller? The iMac is too thin imo, and I can't see them making a major or drastic change to the iMac when they just released the iMac Pro, that would have a negative affect on the iMac Pro, i.e., people are visual and it will look dated compared to the iMac.

I don't know, i'm just going off of what that reddit poster/thread was saying. See the screenshots i uploaded on a previous post and you may have you're own ideas/thoughts on what he meant.

 

[Juicy Box]

I swear, if they bring the touch bar to the iMac keyboard that will be the end. So unnecessary and wasteful.

I wouldn't mind if there was a touch bar keyboard for the iMac, but I would mind if there was not a normal keyboard option.

I personally find the touch bar to be gimmicky. I don't like the idea of replacing physical keys with touch keys for a keyboard, and I don't understand why they couldn't of added a touch bar above the top row of keys.

 

[cwanja]

I wouldn't mind if there was a touch bar keyboard for the iMac, but I would mind if there was not a normal keyboard option.

That is fair, I can align with that position. Just like how you can get a standard keyboard plus the number pad, at an extra $30 today. Just do not force me to have the Touch Bar although I love that you can use Touch ID on it. However, whenever (and if ever) I purchase an Apple Watch, I would use that to unlock my iMac. Or if we can get Face ID in the iMac.

 

[tomscott1988]

So what if they add a touchbar keyboard... you can use a different keyboard its a computer.... not a laptop with a built in keyboard.

I havent liked any of the apple pereferals since the mighty mouse and original chicklet keyboard. 1 im a 3D user so the magic mouse has no 3rd button click so navigating the UI is impossible, although the scroll ball in the mighty mouse gets full of gunk often. 2. I like the original chicklet keyboard they are so nice to type on.

People are so funny. OMG I WILL PUT MY FOOT DOWN IF THEY ADD A TOUCH BAR KEYBOARD! lol

 

[bluecoast]

I suspect that the next time we’ll see a redesigned iMac is when it goes to ARM.

So I’m betting 2021.

 

[tomscott1988]

What can they do with iMac at this point? Yes make the bezels thinner, but can they really make the chin smaller? The iMac is too thin imo, and I can't see them making a major or drastic change to the iMac when they just released the iMac Pro, that would have a negative affect on the iMac Pro, i.e., people are visual and it will look dated compared to the iMac.

Well I think the ACDs look far nicer than the current iMac... all glass with a small apple logo. There is a lot they could do design wise. My main concern is that it is a desktop... form should follow function. Make sure its cooled properly there is so much space to sort this as it is. Although the main difficulty is they use the same design internally as the 21 so the 27" ends up having far more dead space and the 21 is full to the brim. Drop the 21 and make a 24, 21 is so small these days and the 24 would give more room to expand cooling.

That is one reason the 5k wont get the iMac pro cooling... you couldn't fit it in the 21" doubtful they will spend the money deving 2 different internal designs.

 

[Juicy Box]

So what if they add a touchbar keyboard... you can use a different keyboard its a computer.... not a laptop with a built in keyboard.

People are so funny. OMG I WILL PUT MY FOOT DOWN IF THEY ADD A TOUCH BAR KEYBOARD! lol

Unless they have an keyboard-less option like the Mac Mini or Mac Pro, then the purchaser is paying for the keyboard.

If there is a touch bar on the keyboard, it would be nice if there was a non-touch bar alternative in the BTO options.

Just like there was an alternative to the magic mouse that both you and I disliked, track pad or Apple (Mighty) Mouse.

 

[alien3dx]

Well I think the ACDs look far nicer than the current iMac... all glass with a small apple logo. There is a lot they could do design wise. My main concern is that it is a desktop... form should follow function. Make sure its cooled properly there is so much space to sort this as it is. Although the main difficulty is they use the same design internally as the 21 so the 27" ends up having far more dead space and the 21 is full to the brim. Drop the 21 and make a 24, 21 is so small these days and the 24 would give more room to expand cooling.

That is one reason the 5k wont get the iMac pro cooling... you couldn't fit it in the 21" doubtful they will spend the money deving 2 different internal designs.

im using 21 " dual monitor . If imac was a mac pro design should put as 24 " wide screen . That's why still a lot of people still using old dustbin and mac mini.

 

[macduke]

No... The vega 56 is optimized for 1440p let alone 5 or even 6 k...

The display is the main drawback for this machine, it makes normal tasks sluggish and as ive said time and time again pushing 15mp at 60fps needs something far more powerful than whats on offer. RX580... Vega 56... just not powerful enough to drive these displays properly.

I want a headless mac for this reason the UI of most programs stutters like mad just because of the screen resolution. Try final cut moving the display window, or any of the sliders in lightroom. None work optimally. So frustrating as the iMac is the only desktop thats relatively new...

Anyway what exactly will you do with a 6k display? There is no content available for it, you cant even watch netflix 4k on a 27" imac currently.

Its hilarious people asking for 120hz refresh rates and 6k. The iMac is a mid range machine and apple has never put anything but sub par mid range cards in them. Would be such a cr*p experience.

A powerful machine with a much more powerful GPU fair enough but it aint going to happen.

Sub par parts? Wasn't the iMac the first 5K display in a computer anywhere?

I had a 2017 5K iMac at work until I switched jobs in February. Never noticed the UI lagging and quite frankly the thing was a beast. As for the content I would watch at 6K, that's not the point at all. The point is having a larger screen area (31.5") at the same "retina" resolution. But if it does happen, it's much more likely to be on the Pro machine. As for whether or not it could happen, 5K is 14.7MP and 6K is 18.8MP. I feel like that's not a huge leap (like 1440 to 5K was). I'm not talking about gaming either, just using the computer normally for design, editing photos and videos, programming, virtual machines, etc. If I bootcamp then I could just run the game at a lower resolution. But even a Vega 56 beats the pants off an Xbox One X which can run 4K.

 

[jaybar]

I am getting tired of these type of threads. There is nothing more here than pure speculation. If you need a new iMac then purchase the latest one. If you feel you can wait for an undetermined amount of time ( one month,two months, six months, who knows) then do so. Why do we always look for consensual validation.

In the last few weeks I started a few threads regarding buying a new iMac. They were about what configuration and where to buy. They were not about when will there be a new iMac.

I also wonder about what percentage of people who perpetually wait for the latest specification, actually have work flows that require the latest specification. How much is wanting to say one has the latest versus needing the latest?

I ordered a 27 inch iMac with an i5 processor that was in the middle range. Our new machine has 16GB of RAM, the mid range graphic card and a 512GB SSD. WE don’t game and for the most part do non taxing stuff like internet, email, word processing, streaming music and rarely editing a photo. I doubt if a six or 8 core processor in the next release would yield much in the way of improvement for what we do.

I do wish the Apple Store sold iMacs with SSD drives, rather then having to order online.

Have a great day!

Jay

 

[tomscott1988]

Sub par parts? Wasn't the iMac the first 5K display in a computer anywhere?

I had a 2017 5K iMac at work until I switched jobs in February. Never noticed the UI lagging and quite frankly the thing was a beast. As for the content I would watch at 6K, that's not the point at all. The point is having a larger screen area (31.5") at the same "retina" resolution. But if it does happen, it's much more likely to be on the Pro machine. As for whether or not it could happen, 5K is 14.7MP and 6K is 18.8MP. I feel like that's not a huge leap (like 1440 to 5K was). I'm not talking about gaming either, just using the computer normally for design, editing photos and videos, programming, virtual machines, etc. If I bootcamp then I could just run the game at a lower resolution. But even a Vega 56 beats the pants off an Xbox One X which can run 4K.

I didnt say sub par parts I said mid range. Dont know what your doing but lightroom UI lags like no tomorrow on an RX580 and vega 56 on the 27" 5k displays even using older files like 5DMKIII let alone 50mp files. Zooming to 100% with a 5DMKIV on the i7 27" 2017 iMac takes 3 seconds to render. If you are editing a wedding or an event of 500 images zooming once to 100% for each image adds 50 minutes to your workflow. Yet attach a 27" ACD and its like butter. Too much resolution, 15mp at 60fps when your changing exposure etc like watching paint dry add some geometry and lens corrections its a futile experience imo.

The view port in final cut is also laggy, try changing the size of it just annoying.

Horses for courses depends what your used to. The fact is that 5K display would be a lot more useful with a higher end card. The original 5K imac UI was almost unusable even the mac os menu bar was laggy.

 

[macduke]

I didnt say sub par parts I said mid range. Dont know what your doing but lightroom UI lags like no tomorrow on an RX580 and vega 56 on the 27" 5k displays even using older files like 5DMKIII let alone 50mp files. Zooming to 100% with a 5DMKIV on the i7 27" 2017 iMac takes 3 seconds to render. If you are editing a wedding or an event of 500 images zooming once to 100% for each image adds 50 minutes to your workflow. Yet attach a 27" ACD and its like butter. Too much resolution, 15mp at 60fps when your changing exposure etc like watching paint dry add some geometry and lens corrections its a futile experience imo.

The view port in final cut is also laggy, try changing the size of it just annoying.

Horses for courses depends what your used to. The fact is that 5K display would be a lot more useful with a higher end card. The original 5K imac UI was almost unusable even the mac os menu bar was laggy.

You literally said sub par mid range in your quote. Anyway, yeah the original 5K was laggy. But the newer ones were fine. Are you sure you don't have something wrong with yours? I was editing 42MP photos from my Sony a7R III in Lightroom on my 2017 5K iMac just fine. The one I ordered had an SSD and not a fusion drive. Could it be a fusion drive issue not bringing up the images fast enough?

 

[cwanja]

I am getting tired of these type of threads. There is nothing more here than pure speculation. If you need a new iMac then purchase the latest one. If you feel you can wait for an undetermined amount of time ( one month,two months, six months, who knows) then do so. Why do we always look for consensual validation.

In the last few weeks I started a few threads regarding buying a new iMac. They were about what configuration and where to buy. They were not about when will there be a new iMac.

I also wonder about what percentage of people who perpetually wait for the latest specification, actually have work flows that require the latest specification. How much is wanting to say one has the latest versus needing the latest?

I ordered a 27 inch iMac with an i5 processor that was in the middle range. Our new machine has 16GB of RAM, the mid range graphic card and a 512GB SSD. WE don’t game and for the most part do non taxing stuff like internet, email, word processing, streaming music and rarely editing a photo. I doubt if a six or 8 core processor in the next release would yield much in the way of improvement for what we do.

I do wish the Apple Store sold iMacs with SSD drives, rather then having to order online.

Have a great day!

Jay

I probably am in that grouping of the bolded section of your quote above, but I am doing it for a few reasons. 1) I do not want to a new computer, with aged internals. 2) I am more technical and plan to do some "heavier" workflows items on it, but will not be an everyday thing. 3) I do not need to say I have the latest, I just have the capability to wait for the latest as none of the workflow / things I desire to do are pressing today. They are all pet projects I have been putting off in my near 10 year old MacBook Pro.

I am replying to these threads and keeping up with them as they are enjoyable to speculate and think up the possibilities.

Do you get tired of the speculative iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch threads as well?

 

[jaybar]

Yes I do.
[doublepost=1532713277][/doublepost]It’s more the buy or wait aspects.

 

[sublunar]

No, in my view we should not expect a redesigned iMac or Limited Edition because of this year's anniversary. Here's my view of why:

- Despite all the talk about how the iMac is overdue a redesign, the fact that Apple launched the iMac Pro with the existing chassis design (albeit with a color change) tells us that Apple is okay with the current chassis design.

- I think it's unlikely that Apple would launch the iMac Pro - a very expensive computer - and then shortly afterwards launch a redesigned non-Pro iMac and risk angering the "pro" customers that bought the iMac Pro, especially at a time where there is increasing negativity towards Mac from the "pro" community.

- I don't see why there would be a business case from Apple's perspective for doing the work to redesign the iMac and retool the manufacturing process, as I don't think the iMac design as it is would be damaging iMac sales. (Or to put it another way: there is no need to redesign it.)

- If the iPhone - which is by far Apple's biggest and most successful product - didn't warrant any celebration of its anniversary, or a Limited Edition, then I don't see why the iMac, which plays a comparatively minor role in Apple's line-up, would warrant it.

All points I will agree with there. Any future redesign can be put off ahead of investigating potentially the use of FaceID on a next generation iMac.

I think it's more likely that that 27" iMac adopts the existing iMac Pro internal chassis arrangement (and could remain silver only to differentiate). The loss of easily expandable RAM for users would be more profitable for Apple and could lead to higher average selling price for the 27" line.

if there's a redesign going they could do something with the 21.5" iMac line which currently doesn't have a 'Pro' counterpart but would this logically include FaceID where both 27" versions don't?

What about releasing a 24" 4k 'Pro' iMac?

More likely for a range redesign is the 2019 or 2020 Macs especially depending on where they fall following the arrival of the modular Mac Pro.

As for the iPhone, you could consider the iPhone X as a leap ahead in the same year as a regular iPhone upgrade in the 8 by the same token that the iMac pro sits atop the iMac 27" range. I wonder how much cannibalisation has taken place between the two ranges though.

Equally, the 21.5" iMac is surely going upmarket if the base model goes Retina to make the entire iMac range retina. There will be intense interest in the choice of CPU for the base model whether that model is retina or not as it could provide clues for the ultimate spec of the Mac Mini.

This is in as much as the 21.5" range going from 4 core CPUs to 6 core (6 thread) CPUs where using most mobile CPUs in the base model iMac would leave us with 4 core, 8 thread CPUs.

The nearest analogue to the 2017 base 21.5" iMac would be an i3-8109U CPU which is 3Ghz, 2 cores, 4 threads unless they decide that a i5-8400 plus AMD Pro 550X is a better spec.

 

[tomscott1988]

I agree to an extent.

The question to me is why would apple update any of their previous designs? There has been much shorter iMac design refreshes in the past that are updated as a matter of course. Just because they are still ahead doesn't mean it cant be improved. It used to be the case that apple would update designs to continue to pull further ahead of the competition.

Its all well and good saying stick the iMac Pro cooling system in, it is better than the 5k but its still not amazing by any stretch of the imagination. Especially with these i7 and i9 chips, they dont run cool. The rule of thumb is more heat bigger heatsink. The heatsink of the iMac pro is still relatively small, especially when its not just cooling the CPU but the GPU also. In any standard PC the surface area of OEM heatsinks on a CPU and GPU is at least double. Theres a reason GPUs are massive.

Although it cools the iMac pro, on full load it will still throttle. The cheese grater mac pro on the other hand... never did because look at the surface area of the the heatsink and it had thermal zones which were THE best on the market for a long long time, twin fans etc etc when apple actually cared about cooling.

You could also give the machine a clean, they get very dusty. Many reasons for high temps of the iMac is because dust builds and the machine temps can rise 20-30deg because it cant adequately cool itself meaning it will throttle more and in some cases over time the fan will fail. The fact you cant open it to perform basic maintenance is frankly a joke and basically means you buying a product that will fail because it is a design flaw.

The iMac pro is an expensive machine, it will be on 9-5 all day every day for most businesses it will get full of dust. If you blow the dust through the exhaust there is no escape it will cover all the rest of the components. The fact apple doesn't shield the iMac Pro power supply so if you so wanted to do this routine maintenance on your £5,000 machine you are at risk of death because the power supply holds charge for months and if you touch it... absolutely ridiculous.

Then there is the difference between the 21 and the 27, the 27's internal design is determined by the 21. If they decided to increase the size to 24 it would give the designers a lot more room to play with not only with thermals but come on its 2018 21" is so small these days. 20" started to be the entry level size back in 2007!!! 11 years ago and its been an option since 2004 on the G4 iMac... before that 17" there isnt a huge difference. Its time for more value out of these things. The 21" is even worse in terms of its completely sealed and being such a poor option.

At the end of the day this design was conceived 6 years ago what was relevant then, doesn't mean it is now.

IMO there are lots of problems with the iMac, whether you care to admit it or not. There is a huge amount that can and should be improved, not only to make it a better performing computer... they arent cheap... but also environmentally and sustainability. Its a joke that these machines have such a high level of product obsolescence simply because they arent designed to be maintained, even if you buy apple care it only lasts 3 years then your on your own.

One of the main reasons I haven't ever bought one. Having a sealed machine that has high temp components in a crampt space with inadequate cooling is just a recipe for failure and lack of usability that small changes can make a big difference. To add insult to injury they add really poor performing thermal paste and there are whispers across the industry about the grade of the CPUs too...

At the end of the day this whole product obsolescence including ram, SSD, Graphics Card soldering then the machine being sealed with glue. Not only is it bad from an environmental point of view because if something goes wrong like the keyboard in the Macbook Pro essentially the half the machine needs replacing instead of one key. The direction is wrong. I dont understand why people think its ok... its a joke really.

The iMac pro may sell well for a high end machine but sales will pail compared to the standard product I dont think the iMac pro is a consideration to a new design its the hardware people want, if they need it they will buy one. The main difference is that the new 6 core i9 chips with adequate cooling would compete with the base iMac pro at a significant reduction of cost making the iMac pro even more niche. Its already niche for most. Server hardware and ECC is not necessary it adds cost and the i chips perform better for manytasks. Those W chips are essentially i9s anyway...

There is plenty to go at to make a new design. Not only to make a product that is more sustainable but also ensuring the life span for a general consumer who isnt apart of a larger company with a 3 year turn around schedule. To the average person buying a computer they will last 5 years if not longer, its a shame that the machine will essentially choke itself because there is no way to maintain it, yet if you took it to a shop to sort the labour would probably make the machine a write off anyway.

At the end of the day its the consumer that suffers and completely agree with Louis Rossman when he would say:

Apples marketing has instilled into people that Apple is a utopia, if anything goes wrong it has to be the users fault, users deny their own experience when something goes wrong, when Apple is in the wrong. It must be their fault, they are using it wrong, your running it too hard, you got a dud, these products arent for this...

The keyboard in the Macbook pro is a perfect example, graphics cards in iMacs, iPhone 4 antena... your holding it wrong! The blatant arrogance is laughable.

Macrumors are full of these people on both sides of the fence. Apple has made lots of dud products and they certainly arent perfect. They cant bend the laws of physics and its time for a change from apple.

At the end of the day, its still a computer its PCBs, printed boards, capacitors, CPUs, GPUs etc etc there is no magic its essentially a bespoke PC with an Apple logo and a better OS. Because its bespoke doesnt mean its perfect.

I hope that law changes to stop apple and other companies to continue to do this.

 

[Lammers]

All points I will agree with there. Any future redesign can be put off ahead of investigating potentially the use of FaceID on a next generation iMac.

I think it's more likely that that 27" iMac adopts the existing iMac Pro internal chassis arrangement (and could remain silver only to differentiate). The loss of easily expandable RAM for users would be more profitable for Apple and could lead to higher average selling price for the 27" line.

if there's a redesign going they could do something with the 21.5" iMac line which currently doesn't have a 'Pro' counterpart but would this logically include FaceID where both 27" versions don't?

What about releasing a 24" 4k 'Pro' iMac?

More likely for a range redesign is the 2019 or 2020 Macs especially depending on where they fall following the arrival of the modular Mac Pro.

As for the iPhone, you could consider the iPhone X as a leap ahead in the same year as a regular iPhone upgrade in the 8 by the same token that the iMac pro sits atop the iMac 27" range. I wonder how much cannibalisation has taken place between the two ranges though.

Equally, the 21.5" iMac is surely going upmarket if the base model goes Retina to make the entire iMac range retina. There will be intense interest in the choice of CPU for the base model whether that model is retina or not as it could provide clues for the ultimate spec of the Mac Mini.

This is in as much as the 21.5" range going from 4 core CPUs to 6 core (6 thread) CPUs where using most mobile CPUs in the base model iMac would leave us with 4 core, 8 thread CPUs.

The nearest analogue to the 2017 base 21.5" iMac would be an i3-8109U CPU which is 3Ghz, 2 cores, 4 threads unless they decide that a i5-8400 plus AMD Pro 550X is a better spec.

I would say it's very unlikely that Apple would launch a redesigned 21.5" iMac (with or without Face ID), and not do the same for the 27". So in my view it's either both or it's neither.

I also think it's unlikely that Apple would do a 24" 4K 'Pro' iMac. First, they dropped the 24" screen size in 2009 and I doubt they would undo that (as it would be tantamount to admitting it was a mistake). Second, they already have 4K in the 21.5" screen size, so 4K at 24" would look *worse* at the same seating distance because the pixels will be bigger. Third, everything on screen on a 24" will just be larger than on the 21.5", so what's the point - there would not be more screen real estate. Fourth, I believe that if Apple thought there was a market for an iMac Pro in a smaller screen size than 27" they would have done that already with the 21.5". Finally, my recollection is that Apple indicated that the iMac Pro was a stop-gap product to tide over the "pro" community until the new Mac Pro arrives; so it's unclear if there will be any new iMac Pro products.

As for whether the 21.5" goes retina-only, I think it depends on what that does to the price point. I expect Apple may want to preserve a low-end iMac option for the education market, and other markets that buy that option. Same applies to taking it upmarket more broadly; the low-end iMac serves a purpose in the line-up.

 

[tomscott1988]

24" wasn't dropped because of popularity it was replaced by the 27", 21 was still seen as a decent size and 27 is pretty big. Big difference between 21 and 27, I would say 21 is small by todays standards.

When the 21 and 27 was released 32" was the standard size for a TV now its the smallest with 46" now being the standard.

TBH is there a case to keep the 21 around? Its base config is probably the worst experience in the mac ecosystem because it runs purely on a spinning disk. The only mac product with one and HS isnt designed to run on a HDD. The performance is woeful. Once you add some upgrades your at the base 27 with all it offers over the 21 its a far better buy for 90% of people.

Do people with that budget even buy iMacs anymore? Would they buy a laptop instead?

The quad macbook pros have muddied the water somewhat.

I dont think there will be any more iMac pro products this will be a one hit wonder product, otherwise they would have made a bigger deal of it. Its also a difficult product to continue to update because Xeons dont improve like the i series do. The W chips are also quite an odd line of CPUs.

IMO the iMac pro was a response that was implemented quickly to fill the pro space because apple was completely missing from it. Hence the amount of problems reported across macrumors and the absolute mess that is the support channels for this hardware. Its a parts bin special that has all the issues of the consumer machines in a package that costs far more and support is sub par for a product of its caliber.

 

[Fishrrman]

The question:
"Can we expect a Redesigned iMac or a Limited Edition because of this year's Anniversary?"

The answer:
Probably not.

It would be nice if they released an iMac with updated internals.
But even that may not be forthcoming until early next year.
I wouldn't mind being proven wrong on this prediction.

 

[Firebrand]

Just because they are still ahead doesn't mean it cant be improved. It used to be the case that apple would update designs to continue to pull further ahead of the competition.

You might have forgotten about software updates ;-)

But I feel your pain.

 

[Lammers]

24" wasn't dropped because of popularity it was replaced by the 27", 21 was still seen as a decent size and 27 is pretty big. Big difference between 21 and 27, I would say 21 is small by todays standards.

When the 21 and 27 was released 32" was the standard size for a TV now its the smallest with 46" now being the standard.

TBH is there a case to keep the 21 around? Its base config is probably the worst experience in the mac ecosystem because it runs purely on a spinning disk. The only mac product with one and HS isnt designed to run on a HDD. The performance is woeful. Once you add some upgrades your at the base 27 with all it offers over the 21 its a far better buy for 90% of people.

Do people with that budget even buy iMacs anymore? Would they buy a laptop instead?

The quad macbook pros have muddied the water somewhat.

I dont think there will be any more iMac pro products this will be a one hit wonder product, otherwise they would have made a bigger deal of it. Its also a difficult product to continue to update because Xeons dont improve like the i series do. The W chips are also quite an odd line of CPUs.

IMO the iMac pro was a response that was implemented quickly to fill the pro space because apple was completely missing from it. Hence the amount of problems reported across macrumors and the absolute mess that is the support channels for this hardware. Its a parts bin special that has all the issues of the consumer machines in a package that costs far more and support is sub par for a product of its caliber.

I didn't say it was dropped because of popularity. And in fact the specific reason doesn't really matter. The point is that Apple decided in 2009 that 24" was not a size it wanted to offer an iMac in any longer. And I find it hard to believe that Apple would decide in 2018 that it's going to undo that and start offering a 24" iMac again.

In terms of whether there is a case to keep the 21" around, the fact that Apple has kept it in the line-up suggests that it sells in enough volume to justify its existence. Certainly I gather it's particularly popular with schools - and there are people on these very forums who own or buy this model. Price is a very important factor in product purchase decisions.

I think Apple openly said the iMac Pro was a quick stop-gap measure. But I struggle to understand your comments about it being a "parts bin special" with "sub par" support.

 

[tomscott1988]

I think Apple openly said the iMac Pro was a quick stop-gap measure. But I struggle to understand your comments about it being a "parts bin special" with "sub par" support.

The fact its a £5k starting machine yet it still cant be repaired, only certain apple stores and there are barely any authorised centers like have you been burying your head under a rock...

Any repair has a 2 week wait minimum because there are still no parts available as Apple is worried they will get out into the world. You just have to have a look at how its been designed internally its obvious its not meant to even be repaired.... the powersupply has no shield... they hold charge for months and if you accidentally touch it you life is genuinely at risk. Most of these units have to be sent away for repair as they need specialist repair that Apple obviously doesn't trust its geniuses with, which is even more ridiculous.

Also if the board goes although the ram and CPU are not soldered yet they will replace the lot... so no wonder the lead times are so long, those CPUs arent exactly commonplace.

Im a photographer and graphic designer, I work for a large media group in Manchester, we were looking into getting 15 into the studio. Apple couldn't guarantee turn around for repair so basically advised we buy more machines... the spec we were looking at were £9k a pop, £135k in total. We have used mac pros for years and never had an issue, we have on sight tech support that also cover hardware as we have a suite of workstations and servers, the fact these things are almost impossible to fix even the most simple faults...

We have had lots of issues with ECC ram for example there are currently 15 mac pros in the office every one has had at least one stick of ram fail in the 6 years since purchase. Its a nice and simple, swap it out and continue working... the iMac pro you cannot do that... its a joke. Essentially means you cant just get on.

Because they are on for 8-12 hours per day they get full of dust, like they are really nasty and need to be cleaned out on a regular basis. Can you do that with an iMac pro... no. If you blow the dust back through the vent it will cover the internals, basically the same issue as every iMac ever made. They suffocate themselves over time and standard routine maintenance like cleaning cant even be done... they will run slower and slower over time until a component gives up because of heat. Xeons run hot and the time they are on every day...

Like that might be ok for a consumer that might use it 2 hours per day but machines that are running roughly 60 hours per week...

Apples idea of a solution is spend another 9k lol! There are no loan machines while these are being fixed and if the machine dies that T2 chip makes it very difficult to get data off it. 2 weeks to a company is a stupid amount of down time.

You can defend Apple and the iMac pro to the end of the earth but in a real world business setting that relies on these machines day in day out its far far from ideal. Instead we bought dual xeon HP Z series workstations not only are they cheaper they are more powerful and you can put quadros in them... we also have a lot of very expensive Eizo monitors which we mated with them so saved even more money.

In terms of a parts bin special, if they weren't worried about loosing the pro marker they would have made a proper pro workstation not put pro parts into a consumer box that has product obsolescence built into it everywhere you look. If they had made a decent job of the last mac pros thermal system they could have swapped the CPUs out and put some newer graphics cards in.

Instead the options you have as a pro is 6 year old hardware at stupid prices or an iMac Pro that performs well that is very difficult to repair leaves you with a long state of downtime that our technicians cant work on.

This is not a unique case, many businesses with this sort of need work like this and just shows how out of touch apple is with the pro market place.

At the end of the day Apple isnt eutopia, its a ******* computer and every other Pro company in the market place either has 24 hour on sight support and replacement hardware programs. That's why you pay the premium and that is the service you expect. These arent consumer machines yet they have been built into consumer boxes and the support is exactly that, consumer. It assumes you can wait and can afford the downtime. Not acceptable.

Its even worce if you need one of these as a small business, as a main workstation machine... everyone should have a back up machine but how many small businesses can justify another 9k for a backup... Which is exactly why loan machine programs exist and on site support. Not in the Apple ecosystem.

 

[Ifti]

I am getting tired of these type of threads. There is nothing more here than pure speculation. If you need a new iMac then purchase the latest one. If you feel you can wait for an undetermined amount of time ( one month,two months, six months, who knows) then do so. Why do we always look for consensual validation.

In the last few weeks I started a few threads regarding buying a new iMac. They were about what configuration and where to buy. They were not about when will there be a new iMac.

I also wonder about what percentage of people who perpetually wait for the latest specification, actually have work flows that require the latest specification. How much is wanting to say one has the latest versus needing the latest?

I ordered a 27 inch iMac with an i5 processor that was in the middle range. Our new machine has 16GB of RAM, the mid range graphic card and a 512GB SSD. WE don’t game and for the most part do non taxing stuff like internet, email, word processing, streaming music and rarely editing a photo. I doubt if a six or 8 core processor in the next release would yield much in the way of improvement for what we do.

I do wish the Apple Store sold iMacs with SSD drives, rather then having to order online.

Have a great day!

Jay

Good points.
I think for most its getting the best bang for your buck.
ie, why spend XXXX amount on a machine that has a year old components, when an updated machine with faster, better components may be around the corner, and cost the same? That's the way I see it, although I'm in no huge rush to buy one. I just don't see the point in buying last years model when we know at least a spec bump is round the corner (unless you really need a system for work purposes of course).
Comes down to personal situations - some who NEED a computer should just go ahead and purchase. But otherwise at this point it does make sense to wait a while if you can afford to do so.
IMO of course.

 

[tomscott1988]

Good points.
I think for most its getting the best bang for your buck.
ie, why spend XXXX amount on a machine that has a year old components, when an updated machine with faster, better components may be around the corner, and cost the same? That's the way I see it, although I'm in no huge rush to buy one. I just don't see the point in buying last years model when we know at least a spec bump is round the corner (unless you really need a system for work purposes of course).
Comes down to personal situations - some who NEED a computer should just go ahead and purchase. But otherwise at this point it does make sense to wait a while if you can afford to do so.
IMO of course.

Exactly, its not always about whether the machine is simply 'enough'. These products arent cheap and will last an average consumer 5-8 years so why wouldnt you want the latest and greatest especially when the 8th gen CPUs are the biggest updates for apple hardware since 2012... it can literally be a 50% performance increase.

So my question is why would you buy old hardware... for many it wont be a new purchase it will be replacing an older piece of apple hardware, unless its bricked or has died then most can probably wait, if you cant then I suppose the iMac pro is an option. iMacs are more niche than Macbook pros I would speculate the majority of people purchasing would be upgrading not buying for the first time.

 

[Brian Y]

TBH I'd be surprised if the current iMac chassis can adequately cool the new intel chips.

I have the current top end model, and under moderate load the fans go crazy - and that's with the majority of the GPU work offloaded to the eGPU