iMac Redesign Next Year

[fathergll]

I have a 2014 iMac with a 2TB SSD but ordered a 2017 when they were announced. I just came to my senses and cancelled that order because its obvious Apple will redesign the iMac in summer 2018 making the iMac Pro internals (aside from the CPU options of course) the standard.

What I'm trying to say is this 2017 iMac is a holdover for a better redesign next year with more ports, better ventilation, better speakers, HDR screens, etc.

Definitely worth waiting another year for that.

There is no way you will have a redesigned iMac in your hands by summer 2018. At the earliest it will be fall/winter of 2018 and I'm not even sure if that will happen. Trust me you will be waiting for a while either way. I am in the same boat as you with a 2014 iMac and I have been considering pulling the trigger on a 2017 model but I will probably wait it out which mostly likely means close to 2019 before anything different.

Depending on the benchmarks/thermal performance/sales I could end up getting a 2017 model though but I doubt it.
[doublepost=1497282917][/doublepost]

The cooling mechanism for one. No point cramming in high end graphics cards inside if they are just going to throttle due to overheating.

I would bet the house for the following;

• iMac Pro will be out for a long time without any refresh.
• The next iMac will be even slimmer thus challenging the engineering limits even more. Probably trying to come up with something that's going to make headlines like the MicroSoft Surface Studio did though to what extent is the $64,000 question

Apple will really make a point to differentiate the iMac and iMac Pro in the next few years both internally and visually.

 

[62tele]

I would think 2018 iMac would get minimal if any design changes. It would be nice if that reduced the size of the bottom "lip" (or whatever the bottom bezel area is called).
The space gray does indeed look cool. It would be a shame it was limited just to the iMac Pro.
As for the iMac Pro, is that really a huge market? I can't image a great many typical consumers shelling out $5K.
I really wish they would make the SSD configuration the standard for the 4K models and above.
[doublepost=1497283670][/doublepost]

I would bet the house for the following;

• Probably trying to come up with something that's going to make headlines like the MicroSoft Surface Studio did though to what extent is the $64,000 question

Headlines? The Surface Studio seems to appeal to a very limited audience. How many units do you think Microsoft sells?
(Note: I'm not saying it's a bad piece of gear or that it doesn't have utility.)
I don't really think desktops make many headlines these days.

 

[fathergll]

I would think 2018 iMac would get minimal if any design changes. It would be nice if that reduced the size of the bottom "lip" (or whatever the bottom bezel area is called).
The space gray does indeed look cool. It would be a shame it was limited just to the iMac Pro.
As for the iMac Pro, is that really a huge market? I can't image a great many typical consumers shelling out $5K.
I really wish they would make the SSD configuration the standard for the 4K models and above.
[doublepost=1497283670][/doublepost]

Headlines? The Surface Studio seems to appeal to a very limited audience. How many units do you think Microsoft sells?
(Note: I'm not saying it's a bad piece of gear or that it doesn't have utility.)
I don't really think desktops make many headlines these days.

It's a prestige product. It offers additional value to the brand besides direct revenue from it's sale.
As Forbes put it "It’s highly unlikely that 28-inch screened desk bound computer was going to set the retail world alight with sales. What it did do was set the critical world alight as people were willing to take another look at Microsoft, at Windows 10 and at the potential in the new hardware to be an effective tool."

Apple also is never going to set the retail world alight with sales from their Mac Pro line but they still insist treating it more than just a power computer which is why they insist on coming up with innovative designs like the 2013 Mac Pro when all most people really need or want is just powerful certified hardware to run OSX. Most people who talked about the Mac Pro never were going to buy one but it's free press for the Apple brand when they can come up with innovative designs(though that design ultimately proved to be a failure long term)

 

[Firebrand]

Yes there is a Mac Pro coming next year, but there will also be new iMacs & MacBooks.

Next years iMac will borrow the ideas from this years iMac Pro, + an even better display.

Who says there will be a new iMac (non-Pro) next year?

 

[jigzaw]

I have a 2014 iMac with a 2TB SSD but ordered a 2017 when they were announced. I just came to my senses and cancelled that order because its obvious Apple will redesign the iMac in summer 2018 making the iMac Pro internals (aside from the CPU options of course) the standard.

What I'm trying to say is this 2017 iMac is a holdover for a better redesign next year with more ports, better ventilation, better speakers, HDR screens, etc.

Definitely worth waiting another year for that.

Way too many assumptions in this post. I know you're just speculating but these possibilities are hardly obvious based on Apple's recent few years. Let's tackle the main ones, just for fun.

1. "it's obvious Apple will redesign the iMac in Summer 2018.."- I don't see how that's obvious at all, considering it's been well over a year and a half since the last iMac upgrade. I think it's just as likely 2018 sees NO NEW iMacs of any kind. It would be more in line with recent events (e.g. there was no 2016 iMac, and refresh cycles for iPads are also growing longer rather than shorter). So I would in no way count on ANY iMac in Summer 2018, much less a redesigned one.

2. "...making the iMac Pro internals the standard."- That's even a bigger leap. Why would Apple establish a new Pro line for iMac starting in December just to drop the price and make it the "standard" only 6 months later? I can already hear the howling of those who dropped 5K for an iMac Pro in December if in July all the same internals were made available in a new standard iMac starting at $1799. I would think they will go forward with the iMac and iMac Pro being two different products. Also judging by how infrequently they update Pro computers, I expect this 2017 iMac Pro to be around for a couple years before they upgrade it.

If you're good with your 2014 for the foreseeable future, then yes you're in a good position to hold out and see what happens next year, but you should resign yourself to being okay waiting as long as 2 years or even longer for the next big iMac.

 

[jigzaw]

If this 2017 iMac is the final one in it's form, then THAT'S THE ONE TO GET since it has been honed and refined to perfection. The next big "proper" redesign will basically be a beta, honestly, as 1st-gen Apple products usually are.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

The iMac Pro has been redesigned. It looks like the current iMac, but in space grey. If there was going to be a new look for iMacs on the horizon the iMac Pro would have it.

If Apple were to change the design of the iMac next year, it would make the Pro look dated immediately. That would hurt sales terribly, and given the poor reception of their last redesign of the Mac Pro, it's highly unlikely they'd do that.

I think the current design is here to stay.

I'm not sure what people are hoping for with a re-design anyway. Change for change's sake isn't what Apple do. Thinner bezels, and removing the 'chin' won't be a huge change. I don't think slimmer matters that much for desktops, especially when the iMac is already so slim.

 

[Mikael H]

I'm not sure what people are hoping for with a re-design anyway.

This. The iMac is a beautiful piece of kit as it is. Not that it should never change but I simply don't get the (sometimes loud) people who seem to equal a lack of case redesign to a lack of hardware updates.

//Says the guy who still connects his rMBP to an (in my opinion beautiful) Thunderbolt Display at work.

 

[paulryp]

I don't think we will see a reboot until 2019 now. Lets honest its pretty perfect as it is.

 

[theluggage]

its obvious Apple will redesign the iMac in summer 2018

Possible - but far from obvious.

They're going to want to keep a clear distinction between the iMac and the iMac Pro to justify the price and the "pro" tag, so don't expect too many Pro features to "trickle down". I doubt the non-pro will move away from high-end mobile graphics, for example.

The one feature of the iMac Pro that is likely to get handed down is even less upgradeability than the existing 5k - so forget getting a third party upgrade to 24GB for less than the official 16GB unless you want to take a pizza cutter to your new machine. That might be something that you don't want to wait for.

Thing is, most of the improvements I can think of for the iMac aren't high-tech and could have been done at any time if Apple were inclined: better adjustability of the stand, front/side USB (and SD) ports for pen drives etc. option of a 28 or 30" screen (currently enjoying using a 28" 4k, even though its a cheap'n'cheerful one with poor colour), ability to (officially) upgrade the SSD (flap, oink!)...

Well it's obvious Apple is using the space gray color as part of the exclusiveness of the iMac Pro. That machine doesn't ship until December and it would seem clear they'll let that be part of it's appeal for much of 2018 if not longer.

I suspect that Apple could relent on that after a "decent interval". It was a good wheeze for a pre-launch with a (possibly dummy) machine that you could look at but not touch and would otherwise have been indistinguishable from a regular iMac. Longer term , it's hard to imagine that the sort of customer prepared to pay $5000-$10000 for a Xeon/ECC (if you don't know you need that, you don't need it) iMac will be too bothered about colour exclusivity.

 

[MistrSynistr]

I am not sure its the iMac that gets a new design. I think its still the Mac Pro that changes in 2018. Really, what needs to change in the current iMac other than at most shrinking some bezel space?

Can you explain to me why they did not do this 2 years ago, or last year, or this year? Seems strange. Either they are lazy or there is a legitimate reason to have the bezels that big.

 

[Mikael H]

Can you explain to me why they did not do this 2 years ago, or last year, or this year? Seems strange. Either they are lazy or there is a legitimate reason to have the bezels that big.

How about "not shrinking the case even more, causing even less airflow across hot components" for a reason?

Sure you could counter with "increase display size to shrink the bezels", but then again a substantial amount of Apple customers already swore at them for the price hike when retina display macs started shipping, and I don't think it's likely an even larger hi-DPI/hi-color screen would do anything to mitigate that.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

the current design with its thick screen bezel looks a bit long in the tooth.

 

[shaunp]

I'd be interested to see how they will redesign it. Thinner? Then use the reality distortion field to move the internal components to an external box and give it some wanky name Compute Hub. They can then make the Compute Hub thicker and modular, but so long as the screen remains thin it will be the thinnest iMac ever...

Please take this post with a large dose of sarcasm