Next-Generation iMac Chip, Stand, and Color Details Rumored Ahead of Apple Event

[CarAnalogy]

Lazy-ass company distracted making TV shows. With every other streaming app on Apple's platforms they should have stayed out of TV Show and movie business and focused on hardware products and cloud services. iMac is being left languished. iMac Pro should have been out a couple of years ago and iMac should have some ports, ffs.

A lot of replies are focusing on engineering and rightly pointing out that they likely have little to nothing to do with the movies.

But that's not the problem. The problem is Tim Cook specifically and the senior leadership more broadly can only pay attention to so many things at once. And the entertainment business demands a lot of attention. It's a big distraction from their core competency. A car is a more reasonable project, and I don't think they should make a car either.

Kind of like when Bezos decided it was more fun to go to Hollywood parties and make it a life goal to **** movie stars in space than it was to continue running the empire he had already won.

Hopefully it doesn't come to that but you can see the corrupting influence. I too wish they had stayed out of it.,

 

[iZac]

Serious question, there's no VESA mount version? It never occurred to me until this moment but that would be useful.

Funnily enough they have a dedicated page for the few people that order one. I feel like they tried to make it as ugly as possible. Perhaps it's just pure functionalism though. I remember on the old iMac, there was an adapter sold separately. You had to wiggle the stand out and unscrew something to actually detach it.

Buy 24-inch iMac with Built-in VESA Mount Adapter

Get an iMac all-in-one desktop computer with M4 chip when you trade in an eligible Mac for credit. Built for Apple Intelligence. Buy now.

www.apple.com

 

[TheNewLou]

From the sounds of it, this iMac was "delayed for 3 years" until they could get the internal (stand) design updated for, presumably, reliability increase & cost reduction.

Seems like it took a little longer than planned.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Funnily enough they have a dedicated page for the few people that order one. I feel like they tried to make it as ugly as possible though. Perhaps it's just pure functionalism though.

Buy 24-inch iMac with Built-in VESA Mount Adapter

Get an iMac all-in-one desktop computer with M4 chip when you trade in an eligible Mac for credit. Built for Apple Intelligence. Buy now.

www.apple.com

Jony Ive figured out how to say "I hate you" through a VESA mount. Or if it wasn't him, it's definitely from his school of design.

 

[k2k koos]

a black and a white iMac colour option would be nice too. A graphite colour (or a range of colour matching the iPhone Pro models) would be nice for future iMacs with an M3Pro or Max chipset ;-)

 

[Thisismattwade]

What about the Magic mouse/trackpad/keyboards? Would those need to be converted to USB-C at some point in the near future because of the EU regulations?

 

[Biro]

I could potentially be interested in another iMac. But it would have to offer an M3 Pro chip. And, really, 16 gb of ram should be the minimum for all Macs now.

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

The processor is still not the problem. Base 256GB storage / 8 GB RAM is the problem. They could ship it with the same M1 and bump it up to 512/16 and it would actually be a better upgrade for a computer like this. People aren’t using this to make movies. They’re using it to watch movies and keep a thousand Chrome tabs open and store their pictures. None of that needs a faster processor. All of it can use more storage and RAM.

My guess is they won’t start shipping 512/16 standard until about 2030.

You can choose your storage size up to 1TB. But I guess if you buy your iMacs from Best Buy, you are very limited on configuration, and it leads people to believe that is all that is available.

Apple Store or online, you choose what storage size you want. The slow 256gb SSD doesn't affect anyone that uses their cute little iMac to browse websites, check their email, and do simple accounting, listen to music, fire up a word processor, etc. And you can still edit movies, etc.

The beauty of the iMac is that you can add additional storage via thunderbolt and I (along with many others) have actually booted the Mac from an external SSD. Those of us that do buy the 256gb, attach a 4TB SSD and just boot from it. Our systems are faster and less expensive.

Just upgrade the SSD. Sad move on Apple's part for putting a slower SSD for ONLY the 256gb SSD - especially when they tout speed, quality, etc. Cat is out of the bag. Buy 512gb or larger.

 

[Schizoid]

Exactly, and I was about to write that! I don't care about the new iMac if it still has 8/256.

How dare you! - Tim allowing the base Mac to be actually useful?! pfft never...
They'd rather charge users $400 for something that costs Apple 50 cents to add.

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

I could potentially be interested in another iMac. But it would have to offer an M3 Pro chip. And, really, 16 gb of ram should be the minimum for all Macs now.

It will come with the M3

My partner has a MacBook Air, M1 with 8gb of memory. It runs better than Windows with twice as much RAM.

That being said, she did run out of memory (she is a college student online) when running her Chrome browser with well over 30 tabs. Chrome (Edge has it built in) has a utility to put to sleep unused tabs and after installing that, she has never run out of memory and her system runs just fine.

When I bought it for her, it was either 16gb memory and 512gb SSD or 8gb memory or 1TB SSD. I'm glad I chose the larger SSD.

It would be nice, though, minimum memory 16gb for everyone! But hey, 8gb - she isn't running out of memory and she dogs that MacBook Air and it isn't no slouch, either!

 

[sw1tcher]

Lazy-ass company distracted making TV shows. With every other streaming app on Apple's platforms they should have stayed out of TV Show and movie business and focused on hardware products and cloud services.

Right, that lazy-ass company should have just stayed out of the entertainment business and left that $2.2 billion they made this year on the table.

Last I recall Apple doesn't report what Apple TV+ revenue or profit (or even subscriber numbers) is, so how do you know Apple TV+ made $2.2 billion?

The last report I read suggests Apple TV+ actually loses between $1 billion and $2 billion per year.

Apple May Have 40 Million Subscribers for Streaming TV Service, Analyst Says

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that Apple has between 20 million and 40 million paying subscribers, generating between $1 billion and $2 billion of annual revenue.

www.barrons.com

Apple so far has provided few financial details about Apple TV+, the company’s upstart streaming video service. Apple doesn’t disclose any data about subscriber totals, financial performance, or content spending, which makes it hard to evaluate how the service is doing. To help fill the vacuum, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi stepped up Monday with some informed guesstimates on how Apple TV+ is faring against its much larger rivals.

Sacconaghi estimated that Apple has between 20 million and 40 million paying subscribers, generating between $1 billion and $2 billion of annual revenue. That’s not much for a company generating revenue of close to $400 billion a year, but he thinks the service is valuable for strategic reasons.

The Bernstein analyst thinks Apple is spending north of $3 billion a year on content, including new programming and sports broadcasting rights, which suggests Apple is losing between $1 billion and $2 billion a year on the service.


And this was before Apple paid $85 million and $250 million per year for streaming rights for MLB and MLS games, respectively. Broadcasting live sporting games tend to be a loss leader. Amazon reportedly lost hundreds of millions during their 1st year of Thursday Night Football. DirecTV lost about $500 million a year on NFL Sunday Ticket. Alphabet/YouTube is expected to lose millions as well, now that they acquired NFL Sunday Ticket rights.

 

[Oestreich Dieter]

Are people really upgrading Macs and iPhones every year? There has to be a revolutionary upgrade each time? People complained iPhone 15 pro was boring.....I bought that after having an iPhone X for 6 years, so it was a MASSIVE upgrade for me. Same with Macs, if you are getting a new Mac every 5 years, then you should be good to go with the new capabilities. If you need a new Mac every year and are complaining its not too much different than the Mac from two years ago, then you have problems....

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

Exactly, and I was about to write that! I don't care about the new iMac if it still has 8/256.

All manufacturers offer that as a base. Chromebooks, Windows, etc. In fact, used to be 4gb memory and 64gb SSD. Best to stick with a Chief Tablet until they do better!!!!!

 

[maxfromdenmark]

Lazy-ass company distracted making TV shows. With every other streaming app on Apple's platforms they should have stayed out of TV Show and movie business and focused on hardware products and cloud services. iMac is being left languished. iMac Pro should have been out a couple of years ago and iMac should have some ports, ffs.

It makes sense now. Since all those screenwriters were on strike in Hollywood it resulted such a mess with Apple Pencil. Go back to the desks lazy donkeys 🤣

 

[AlixSPQR]

I understand your point, but what do you want? 16/512 base config keeping the same old base price?

Rumors have said 12 GB Ram base config, and maybe 512 storage config.

Yes.

How dare you! - Tim allowing the base Mac to be actually useful?! pfft never...
They'd rather charge users $400 for something that costs Apple 50 cents to add.

I suppose they will.

All manufacturers offer that as a base. Chromebooks, Windows, etc. In fact, used to be 4gb memory and 64gb SSD. Best to stick with a Chief Tablet until they do better!!!!!

I've OCLP-wriggled in Sonoma on my mini Late 2012, it works alright. I'll wait for 16/512.

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

Last I recall Apple doesn't report what Apple TV+ revenue or profit (or even subscriber numbers) is, so how do you know Apple TV+ made $2.2 billion?

The last report I read suggests Apple TV+ actually loses between $1 billion and $2 billion per year.

Apple May Have 40 Million Subscribers for Streaming TV Service, Analyst Says

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that Apple has between 20 million and 40 million paying subscribers, generating between $1 billion and $2 billion of annual revenue.

www.barrons.com

Apple so far has provided few financial details about Apple TV+, the company’s upstart streaming video service. Apple doesn’t disclose any data about subscriber totals, financial performance, or content spending, which makes it hard to evaluate how the service is doing. To help fill the vacuum, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi stepped up Monday with some informed guesstimates on how Apple TV+ is faring against its much larger rivals.

Sacconaghi estimated that Apple has between 20 million and 40 million paying subscribers, generating between $1 billion and $2 billion of annual revenue. That’s not much for a company generating revenue of close to $400 billion a year, but he thinks the service is valuable for strategic reasons.

The Bernstein analyst thinks Apple is spending north of $3 billion a year on content, including new programming and sports broadcasting rights, which suggests Apple is losing between $1 billion and $2 billion a year on the service.

If Apple TV+ is losing a billion or two per year, it's only because it's a relatively new service and face it, the first year basically was a turn-off. Second year, as well. When I launched Apple TV+, I was dumbfounded by the miniscule content offered. But then, they started producing hit movies/shows and it's really taken off. It's hard for all streaming services initially. There is a lot of infrastructure and the struggle with attracting/creating content.

I imagine that 2023 year and beyond it should be making a profit year over year, if they continue with content creation. A lot of their content doesn't take off for a while. They did start using Twitter, so I think that is helping them.

They have a movie coming to the theater: In Theaters: Killers of the Flower Moon, which you will also be able to see on Apple TV+

 

[sbarton]

Awsome computer for your grandmother or anyone 14 and under. Oh and youtube creators, photographers, and music producers.

 

[aberdeenmeadows]

Are people really upgrading Macs and iPhones every year? There has to be a revolutionary upgrade each time? People complained iPhone 15 pro was boring.....I bought that after having an iPhone X for 6 years, so it was a MASSIVE upgrade for me. Same with Macs, if you are getting a new Mac every 5 years, then you should be good to go with the new capabilities. If you need a new Mac every year and are complaining its not too much different than the Mac from two years ago, then you have problems....

Depends on your needs, hobbies, etc. I agree with Macs - they should actually last you ten years between upgrades if you take care of them.

With computers, I used to upgrade when a new OS was released. Back in the days, you couldn't simply do an in-place install and the new OS wasn't quite compatible with the hardware. Today, I don't have to upgrade the computer - since the OS does a beautiful in-place upgrade. So maybe 5 years on some, ten years on others.

iPhone - my provider provides me with enough incentives to upgrade to where it doesn't cost much more or in this case, I am being paid $29 a month to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. My bill went from $156 to $98 - they knocked off another charge - hence the $58 savings.

iPhone is important to me, because year after year, the camera does improve. I have a Nikon Z5 with one lens that has a good range coverage. In the past, I would spend thousands on photography equipment (as a hoby) so now, with the improvements of the iPhone, I am getting a lot better results photo/video wise. The 15 allows me to switch between all three lenses which in the past, you only could switch between the two, depending on which one you started out with. Frustrating. The android is even worse as it is dependent on the crop size as to what zoom level you got. Ulatrawide not available on the android for some crop settings (Z Fold 5).

 

[dandeco]

Black bezels or gtfo.

So?

 

[erikkfi]

Maybe take those bold colors that are only visible on the back of the unit and give the whole machine that color so you can see it when you're sitting at it. And make the bezels black.

 

[Adelphos33]

I don't get the complaint about the white bezels - they look great with the colors. I wouldn't mind a darker color option with dark bezels, but please keep the white bezels with the brighter colors.

 

[deconstruct60]

An evolutionary step would be if it came with a height adjustable stand as well as, the seemingly expected M3 chip.

Height adjustable 'for free' ? I wouldn't hold my breadth on that. Overlap with the stand mounting tech that the Studio Display uses so can get a fix by a similar height stand for an extra $200-300 (and a VESA mount for $100-200 ). That would be more like Apple's style.

It is likely either to get better economies of shared components with the Studio Display or lower the manufacturing costs ( automated or less install time or both. ) . The height would be a secondary side effect of improving revenues/margins.

If the mount point has been failing at rates they didn't anticipate , then more likely it is just a fix.

 

[theluggage]

It is kind of funny that Apple allows customers to order this *one* computer in so many configurations (five or six colors, all matched with color matched accessories, choice of two kinds of keyboards, etc) while not offering remotely similar customization/options for other products.

Well, the "small" iMac is the spiritual successor to the original iMac, so just thank goodness that they don't do a version in 101 Dalmatian spots or flower power - and its Also Apple's entry in the "furniture" market so I guess people will get them to match their wallpaper and curtains.

As for keyboards - AFAIK its now the only Mac that comes bundled with an external keyboard/mouse.

Plus, the larger desktops probably sell in far smaller quantities (esp. the higher RAM/SSD versions) so offering multiple colours would make for harder logistics (how many of each colour do you make, which colours do you stock in Apple Stores?).

The iMac looks like a bit of a design "dead end" (and maybe Jony Ives' last stand) - remember, a few years back, the rumours were that the M2 MacBook Air was going to follow the same "design language" - with white bezels and a similar choice colours - but that didn't really happen. A bunch of other 24" iMac design features also dead-ended: like the magnetic power cable and ethernet in the power brick - rather than turning up in the Studio Display or the Mac Studio.Mini where you might have expected them...

 

[VisceralRealist]

This headline had me worried they were going to make the stand a separate $1000 purchase 😂

 

[theluggage]

Considering the target market for iMac... what much more is anyone going to do with an M3 iMac compared to an M1 iMac?

At some stage, Apple are going to want to stop making M1s. Later down the road, they're going to want to stop supporting the M1, which they can't really do until 5 years or so after they stop selling M1 iMacs and MBA. Once M3 comes out the M1 MBA could well be dropped (maybe replaced by the M2 MBA as the entry level, making room for a M3 MBA).

The iMac has already skipped a processor generation - much longer and its going to start looking badly out-of-date and unappealing to new purchasers, even if existing users aren't going to be rushing to upgrade.

That said, I would be very surprised if the M3 iMac is the headliner at this event - the "scary fast" tagline all but promises new 14/16" MacBook Pros (the same slogan was used for the M1 Pro/Max MBPs) - giving the iMac the "exclusive" on the M3, when its the MacBook range that is the Mac's real breadwinner would be just bizarre.