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Low PowerMac 1.42 Stock
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Don't call me baby. Ever.
Granted, but If Panther really is 64-bit and was pushed back a month before it's initial public view AND Apple has 64-bit pre-production 970s wouldn't it make sence for them to at least show what Panther can do on a 64-bit platform?
Easy, Nick. It's just an expression. Sorry -- didn't mean to get your undies in a twist pattern.
look down the road
In the long run it doesn't matter if the 970 is released June 28,2003 or Dec 28, 2003, these chips and motherboards will be much better than the present systems. The 970 may not be the holy grail, but the road map for the Power series desktop derivitives looks very good because IBM is using the same chips in their new desktops. Think German federal government, Russian federal government, US$7-9 billion and linux.
A hint - Germany and Russia no longer use MSWindows on their governmental computers and US$7-9 billion is what IBM got paid to do the conversion.
Ibm is in desktops for the long haul and Apple will ride their coattails.
970 now 980, 990 etc. Be happy, don't worry.javascript:smilie('')
In the long run it doesn't matter if the 970 is released June 28,2003 or Dec 28, 2003, these chips and motherboards will be much better than the present systems. The 970 may not be the holy grail, but the road map for the Power series desktop derivitives looks very good because IBM is using the same chips in their new desktops. Think German federal government, Russian federal government, US$7-9 billion and linux.
A hint - Germany and Russia no longer use MSWindows on their governmental computers and US$7-9 billion is what IBM got paid to do the conversion.
Ibm is in desktops for the long haul and Apple will ride their coattails.
970 now 980, 990 etc. Be happy, don't worry.javascript:smilie('
')Only two weeks to go, and Apple has still 4 WWDC sessions to fill tuesday morning:
http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/tuesday.html
These must be placeholders for a yet unannounced technology.
If the 970s aren't ready in volume--which they weren't supposed to be until September--then Apple can't ship 970 macs yet. It's nothing to do with them being smart or not, or not WANTING to ship them sooner.
And if new CPUs for PowerMacs can't come until late summer/fall, then Apple may well need to bump the G4s a little between now and then. They may not be great sellers, but simply standing still with the current Mhz for half a year isn't a great idea either.
If higher-MHz G4s are available as a stopgap, and 970s just aren't ready, then Apple should sell new G4s for a few months. That's not ideal, but the company will survive until IBM can provide the chips.
I'd love to be surprised by the 970 being ready in volume early, but it will be just that: a surprise!
And if new CPUs for PowerMacs can't come until late summer/fall, then Apple may well need to bump the G4s a little between now and then. They may not be great sellers, but simply standing still with the current Mhz for half a year isn't a great idea either.
If higher-MHz G4s are available as a stopgap, and 970s just aren't ready, then Apple should sell new G4s for a few months. That's not ideal, but the company will survive until IBM can provide the chips.
I'd love to be surprised by the 970 being ready in volume early, but it will be just that: a surprise!
Um, no. As the PR said, Apple is sending developers home with a (pre-release) copy of Panther, just like they did last year with Jaguar.
970's probably aren't included in the pass price, though, unfortunately
Low stocks of machines are almost as good a predictor for new macs as my grandpa's trick knee going out is for bad weather... Storms a brewin' Betty, get the hogs in the barn!
It's pretty important to have 64bit hardware if you are going to be developing for a 64bit OS. So all the ifs together now: if Apple is going to release 64bit machines this year, ideally they are going to want to get them in the hands of developers at the same time or before they give developers a seed of said 64 bit OS. So if Panther is in fact the 64bit-aware OS, it makes sense they would release the machines at WWDC. Sure you could run a 64-bit virtual-machine and run a copy of Panther on it... but thats not very elegant... or fast...
Another possibility that I haven't seen mentioned is that Apple might not have a full-production run available. It's possible they could release the first couple-thousand of these machines only to developers. Get them started on the apps while they ramp up production.
My thoughts on what will happen at WWDC regarding new machines and beyond:
- Apple introduce new 970 based machines at WWDC
- These are immediately available at WWDC to registered developers, so they can 1:Get to grips with Panther, 2:Get to grips with the new architecture/processor.
- Joe Public (non-registered developers) can pre order their machine for shipping in early Sept by which time they will come preloaded with 64-bit optimised Panther. This give Apple the biggest marketing edge ever, the first supplier to use a 64-bit processor in their desktop machines along with being the first to supply a fully optimised 64-bit OS for general use.
Lots of mileage to be had.
Also by delaying shipping til Sept, it buys everybody some time, IBM (to produce a healthy stockpile of processors), Apple (to monitor the initial demand by preorders, to tidy up Panther, build a reasonable level of inventory), developers (to tune & take advantage of new developments in HW & SW)
- Apple introduce new 970 based machines at WWDC
- These are immediately available at WWDC to registered developers, so they can 1:Get to grips with Panther, 2:Get to grips with the new architecture/processor.
- Joe Public (non-registered developers) can pre order their machine for shipping in early Sept by which time they will come preloaded with 64-bit optimised Panther. This give Apple the biggest marketing edge ever, the first supplier to use a 64-bit processor in their desktop machines along with being the first to supply a fully optimised 64-bit OS for general use.
Lots of mileage to be had.
Also by delaying shipping til Sept, it buys everybody some time, IBM (to produce a healthy stockpile of processors), Apple (to monitor the initial demand by preorders, to tidy up Panther, build a reasonable level of inventory), developers (to tune & take advantage of new developments in HW & SW)
And drivers... since I'm still looking for a 64 bits kernel able to run kernel extensions (.kext in Mac OS X) in 32 bits mode (for instance AIX requires 64 bits kernel extensions when run in 64 bits mode).
We will probably not see a lot of apps ported to 64 bits, they could be recompiled to fit the 970 instruction sheduling/caches size but still stay 32 bits apps.
Some very optimized apps that pick a different AltiVec code whether they run on a 7400 or a 745x would need some tuning...
Apple sell off
I posted this in another thread, but thought it might go down well here as well:
It looks like Apple are trying to reduce inventory across the board (all the items I looked at were between $200 - 400 less than current AppleStore prices). The only items not listed are 12 & 17" PB 1.42 PM and 17" iMac. If my assumption is correct, then the reason these items are not on sale is because they are selling well and Apple is assuming that they can clear the chanel at current prices.
I posted this in another thread, but thought it might go down well here as well:
It looks like Apple are trying to reduce inventory across the board (all the items I looked at were between $200 - 400 less than current AppleStore prices). The only items not listed are 12 & 17" PB 1.42 PM and 17" iMac. If my assumption is correct, then the reason these items are not on sale is because they are selling well and Apple is assuming that they can clear the chanel at current prices.
Local SoCal Mac inventory
I did a quick look see at the local inventory in SoCal while tracking down a USB to parallel cable on Wednesday.
CompUSA in Burbank = ABUNDANT stock of Macs
Apple Store in Northridge = Abundant supply
Apple Store in Glendale= Abundant supply
MacMall/Creative Computers Santa monica= Abundant supply
Fry's Burbank- moderate supply of Powerbooks, Abundant supply of PM.
So, in the Los Angeles region, there seems to be no supply issues. Maybe some vendors ahve a problem with distribution, but the major retail players in this area have plenty of stock. The folks at Fry's said sales have bee stagnent on the Powermacs and slowing on Powerbooks. iMac are lower than last summer but still 1 to 2 units a day. They said its common to not sell a Powermac for a week at a time. (They sell 25 to 45 PCs a day and more on weekends).
I did a quick look see at the local inventory in SoCal while tracking down a USB to parallel cable on Wednesday.
CompUSA in Burbank = ABUNDANT stock of Macs
Apple Store in Northridge = Abundant supply
Apple Store in Glendale= Abundant supply
MacMall/Creative Computers Santa monica= Abundant supply
Fry's Burbank- moderate supply of Powerbooks, Abundant supply of PM.
So, in the Los Angeles region, there seems to be no supply issues. Maybe some vendors ahve a problem with distribution, but the major retail players in this area have plenty of stock. The folks at Fry's said sales have bee stagnent on the Powermacs and slowing on Powerbooks. iMac are lower than last summer but still 1 to 2 units a day. They said its common to not sell a Powermac for a week at a time. (They sell 25 to 45 PCs a day and more on weekends).
nice post, but the powermac figures are no surprise, come on a 1 gig for $1500 bucks. G4's are way overpriced. Maybe a new machine may help but this is why they need a new machine or rather CPU. g4's at 1 gig aint getting it done. Now how about a 1.8 ghz 970 imac. that would get it done, oh yeah forgot cant be as fast as the powermac game again.
Most of the smaller places I've checked have little to no stock. Towers AND PowerBooks. Order from Apple online and they're listed as Same Day. Unless you BTO, then it changes to 1-3 days or more. I wouldn't be surprised if CompUSA still has a large stock. The local one here in Tacoma still has older Macs listed as new. Like 700 MHz iBooks and eMacs.
I have way too much time on my hands lately.
I have way too much time on my hands lately.
PowerMac 1Ghz & dual 1.25 Ghz
Apple Store sweden willl not ship 1Ghz & dual 1.25 Ghz PowerMac untill 3-5 weeks but dual 1.42Ghz are still shipping.
Could this mean that there is a production stop on all current PowerMacs but still have some dual 1.42's to clear out?
Apple Store sweden willl not ship 1Ghz & dual 1.25 Ghz PowerMac untill 3-5 weeks but dual 1.42Ghz are still shipping.
Could this mean that there is a production stop on all current PowerMacs but still have some dual 1.42's to clear out?