Because they have newer younger customer base to appease to and cater to their demands, while loyal customers are considered used and discarded customer base with little to no value left.
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I love the 27" iMac. It should not come back.
- Thread starter redheeler
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I bought the 2017 iMac and now I regret it. It lacks mobility and a 27” display could last 3x due to less planned obsolescence
Couldnt agree more, still thats what happens when you put accounting over design - well done Tim & Co!
I don't regret getting my 5k iMac back in 2017. The display was gorgeous and it was the only real desktop Mac available at the time. Fast forward 6 years later and I am still reluctant to upgrade, in part because it still works, and the alternatives aren't cheap.
What else could you have gotten at the time?
I don't regret getting my 2015 iMac in the least. I do regret Apple getting rid of and not having target display mode work. Then again, even if Apple eh could make it work how many people think Apple would make it work, lol.
Yes, that's the limitation of the Studio Display for desktop users - its really designed as a deluxe laptop dock. Apple don't need a large iMac, they need a more affordable 220ppi display option alongside the Studio Display.
I don't think the USB hub adds much to the cost (its a pretty common feature on 3rd party displays anyway, and I guess most of the circuitry is already in the Thunderbolt chippery) and webcams are cheap, but the speaker system is surplus to many people's requirements (people even dabbling in A/V - i.e. quite a lot of higher-end Mac users - are going to need an external audio interface and proper studio monitors). I've used an iMac long enough to know that while Apple's built-in speakers are incredible compared to anything else built into a display, that is a very, very low bar.
Also, it wouldn't have been rocket science to come up with some way of mounting a Mac Mini behind the display or on the back of the stand (which you can probably do if you get the VESA-only model and a third party bracket) or - for that matter - including a VESA mount as standard.
The other large, unnecessary expense is the super-slim power supply (look at the teardowns) that is only there in order to provide enough power for a MacBook Pro.
Personally, I like a dual display setup - for which two Studio Displays would be extra wasteful!
Dell do a 6k 32" - it's... cheaper than the Pro XDR (and not full-matrix HDR).
Where I worked (until recently) my colleagues and I used MacBook Air or Pros plugged into large displays. That was back when iMacs offered significantly more powerful chips than laptops. Now, with Apple Silicon, there's only a minimal performance difference, if any, so laptop+display is even more compelling - which is probably why the Studio Display is designed more for laptops than desktops.
A barely 3 year old computer should not be doing that… still have warranty on it? Maybe do a refresh MacOS install?
Ah gotcha! That’s vastly more complex than my setup! I did have a Pegasus32 4-bay RAID DAS which was hidden, but I recently removed that and just use an 8-Bay Synology NAS in a separate closet.
It’s definitely harder to organize the cables nowadays with all the components separated, but it’s not impossible! Just need the right combo of equipment, desk/location, etc. It seems to me that the more complicated setup you have, the more likely you need a carpenter friend to make a custom desk that allows you to have the custom shelves/power/cable routing/etc underneath. But yeah that gets back to your point where there’s still a market for the iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac Pro to SIMPLIFY the experience.
probably nothing better than that. i remember searching 27” displays in 2017 and there were none on the market. I should have got a laptop, moving in a whim during the lockdown was cumbersome. I’m buying my (probably) last computer this week.
Word.
Apple should encourage and enable more people to go/afford that route.
(But I still love my Studio Display as it is ;D).
I agree to a certain extent. I love the 27" iMac and would probably buy another one if offered. I'm a huge fan of the all-in-1. But like you said, if Apple offered a lower cost monitor (with a camera) to go with the Mini/Studio Pro, that would make that option much more palatable. But otherwise, I love everything bundled into 1 package. I'm a video editor and need 2 displays, and the 27" works beautifully next to another 27" display. As my desk is already overrun with cables and wires, any device that can eschew any of that is welcome!
Decluttering has gotten a lot easier with the advent of wireless accessories, for sure. It also helps a LOT to use monitors that have speakers, mics and webcams built in. Back maybe 10 years ago I had a Mac Mini setup that was kind of awful because my monitor was super basic and I had to run cables for speakers and a mic and a web cam.
...and that's the thing. I too bought an iMac in 2017 largely because, at that point, the Mac Pro Trashcan and 2014 Mini were a joke. The 2018 Mini had drawbacks too (expensive for what it was and feeble GPUs) and when the 2019 Mac Pro appeared it was priced out of most people's range.
I don't exactly regret buying an iMac - I got 5 years of good use out of it and, yes, the display is lovely, but I would still have rather had a modular system with a matched pair of 4k displays (which I now have courtesy of the Studio). It's now a white elephant - I could find a use for the display (or easily re-home it), I could find a use for the computer part (stick Windows or Linux on it, tuck it under my desk and KVM it to my current monitors), but having them welded together and interdependent is a pain.
Some people bought 27" iMacs because they were exactly what they wanted - which is nice - but others bought them because they were the only viable desktop offering from Apple at the time, which is not a good basis for a product.
The problem now is that a lot of people who would have bought an iMac will now be better served by a MacBook + large display combo or a Mini/Studio plus a free choice of displays.
Plus, I've got a ton of stuff plugged into my Studio, at which point an all-in-one makes the clutter worse rather than better.
You should definitely throw out everything you buy every few years because "the world has moved on". Keep up with the joneses good citizen, make sure you're buying whatever you think everybody else is buying, early and often. It will keep you young and sexy and fill your life with happiness.
I had the larger old iMac at work a few years back, and was delighted that IT had upgraded the RAM and stuck in an SSD just before it landed on my desk. Nice computer!
I don't see why Apple can't offer the current iMac in two sizes, even if they disappointingly keep the base specs and ports of the smaller one. It would hardly hurt them to offer two sizes- maybe 24 and 28"?
I don't see why Apple can't offer the current iMac in two sizes, even if they disappointingly keep the base specs and ports of the smaller one. It would hardly hurt them to offer two sizes- maybe 24 and 28"?
They don't want to cut into sales of the Studio display… it's all calculated to get you to pay more.
Stop being dramatic. 4K macOS looks fine, and definitely better than 2k. It’s up to the buyer whether full retina is worth an additional $1000.
I would love to see Apple’s sales numbers on the studio display. I can’t imagine they’re selling 1/10 as many as the 27” iMac.
Good post agree with the logic. I had one of the first McIntosh’s in the mid 80s 128K with a system disk!. Lol currently using a currently using a 2015 27 inch iMac with upgraded ram and external solid-state Drive. Works pretty good but I don’t know how much longer it will hold up. originally I was upset they weren’t issuing a 27 inch iMac. But have recently changed my view to support getting a monitor that could be reused with upgraded technology later. So now I’m in the mini or studio Line of thinking for now. Thanks for the post.
Pre-pandemic, in the office, they had dual displays for basically each PC. (And I had two PCs at the time, needed it for my then current job role, so I had four monitors on my desk.) Post-pandemic, in the office, they’ve got us all on thin clients (it’s flex seating now) with single displays (but they’re definitely larger displays than I was working on pre-pandemic).
I generally keep Outlook open in the background, I prefer not to check email constantly. I’ll check into it every so often during the day, especially at natural breaks in my work. Of course, we also use IM for a lot of our conversations, which reduces the need to live in email. In my current job role, a single display works quite well for me.
I get that. The Studio Display is a lobotomised old iMac sold to people at the price of an iMac.
The M3 iMac is better than many give it credit for. The base M3 with 16GB and it outperforms the best 2020 Intel iMac available as well as the M2 MacBook Pro.
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The iMac has always been cutting edge. Maybe you have no memory of desktops from 1997. Intel Celeron processor anyone? The iMac blew those out of the water. So no, the iMac has always been a powerful machine. Even the original iMac display was a better display than anything people had in their homes to that point.
Further, all Macs have AirPlay now and so a new computer can be used with the iMac. This replaces target display mode from the pre-retina 27” models (although I will concede target display mode was better as it was a hardware integration rather than with software)
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I don't know how many macbooks I will go through while I own and use an Apple Studio Display as my home external display, but I do know that it offers the utility of letting every macbook in the house take advantage of it.
I imagine I will probably get a 15in MBA at some point but that is far off horizon as a 13in M2 MBA owner. Very likely the ASD will still be the display that future computer hooks up to but who knows...
I imagine I will probably get a 15in MBA at some point but that is far off horizon as a 13in M2 MBA owner. Very likely the ASD will still be the display that future computer hooks up to but who knows...