The Future of iMacs

[jonpwnz]

remember a while back when we saw the patents for the touchscreen based mac that looked like an imac that folded down like it was supposed to be a touchscreen

Well, with the release of OSX lion it seems as if that is exactly where we are headed. Mac based app store. Interface similar to iOS. Imagine the possibilities. anyway. yeah......

 

[Icaras]

Nope. No touch screen for OSX.

 

[Joshuarocks]

I have a burning feeling that the iMac will eclipse very soon the Mac Pro. Once the iMac gets 4-8core based processors and thunderbolt, this will spell the doom for the mac pro. I do see Apple discontinuing the mac pro later in the future, give or take 2014.. Laptops, ipad, iphone are where Apple makes most if not all of their money.. the mac pro is a very niche of their profit..

So, the future will be bright for the iMac, but I expect within a few years the Mac Pro will be phased out.. just like the xserve before it.

 

[washburn]

Hopefully it never goes touchscreen

 

[JimMacFan]

I have a burning feeling that the iMac will eclipse very soon the Mac Pro. Once the iMac gets 4-8core based processors and thunderbolt, this will spell the doom for the mac pro. I do see Apple discontinuing the mac pro later in the future, give or take 2014.. Laptops, ipad, iphone are where Apple makes most if not all of their money.. the mac pro is a very niche of their profit..

So, the future will be bright for the iMac, but I expect within a few years the Mac Pro will be phased out.. just like the xserve before it.

I'm not sure I would agree with this. Remember, the Mac Pro gets the latest and greatest chip set while the IMAC lags behind. Mac Pro sells well and to a specific market that will always have the need for it. Better processors = better apps which are more consuming.

 

[300D]

Why would anyone want to lift their arm up and touch the computer? Touchscreens have no place in desktop computing.

Touchscreens work for the iphone, itouch, ipad and nano because its already in your hands.

 

[Transporteur]

Why would anyone want to lift their arm up and touch the computer? Touchscreens have no place in desktop computing.

Touchscreens work for the iphone, itouch, ipad and nano because its already in your hands.

+1!

Desktop touchscreens make absolutely no sense. Just image holding your arm up for 8 hours (a normal working day). I reckon that the majority of people aren't even able to hold their arms up for 5 minutes.

 

[mrzeigler]

+1!

Desktop touchscreens make absolutely no sense. Just image holding your arm up for 8 hours (a normal working day). I reckon that the majority of people aren't even able to hold their arms up for 5 minutes.

Yes, but sign me up for an OS that includes gesture recognition. I blame "Minority Report" for this geek fantasy of mine.

 

[carlgo]

There may be a touch screen "keyboard" that controls the main screen, but reaching out like operating an ATM is silly.

The Pro will get thinner and thinner until it finally disappears altogether.

 

[talkingfuture]

The patent from ages ago showed an iMac that folded down so that in touch mode the bottom of the chin would be on the desk and the whole thing would be inclined at about 20 degrees from the table. Which I think may be quite comfortable for some types of work. If anyone can make it work it is Apple. Still not sure if they will though. Ultimately an iMac with a decent mouse is good enough for me.

 

[Joshuarocks]

I'm not sure I would agree with this. Remember, the Mac Pro gets the latest and greatest chip set while the IMAC lags behind. Mac Pro sells well and to a specific market that will always have the need for it. Better processors = better apps which are more consuming.

Just watch.. its gonna happen.. eventually this day will come when the iMac will flex its muscles over the mighty mac pro.. Mac Pro only makes up maybe 1 percent-2 percent of total Apple sales.. heck.. the iphone, ipad make up about most of their bread and butter.

 

[YMark]

+1!

Desktop touchscreens make absolutely no sense. Just image holding your arm up for 8 hours (a normal working day). I reckon that the majority of people aren't even able to hold their arms up for 5 minutes.

+1 again. One other reason.... not sure about anyone else but I absolutely HATE finger prints on my monitor. Drives me crazy. Touchscreens on a desktop makes as much sense as a fish with a bicycle.

 

[Spyriadon]

Just watch.. its gonna happen.. eventually this day will come when the iMac will flex its muscles over the mighty mac pro.. Mac Pro only makes up maybe 1 percent-2 percent of total Apple sales.. heck.. the iphone, ipad make up about most of their bread and butter.

It will never happen.
You have mobile GPU's in the Imacs and overall apple want to keep making them thinner meaning that a full size GPU will never be an option.
Also the heat issues with an core CPU would be huge your looking at 2013-1015
Before you get core CPU's in the imacs.

Also dont forget that the professional market has a high demand for mac pro's as do education establishments.

The mac pro isnt going anywhere.

 

[drambuie]

+1!

Desktop touchscreens make absolutely no sense. Just image holding your arm up for 8 hours (a normal working day). I reckon that the majority of people aren't even able to hold their arms up for 5 minutes.

A lot of industrial design and CAD work is now done using desktop touch screens, especially in automotive engineering. Touch screens are more intuitive, productive, and accurate to use. Also, they're more ergonomic than using a trackball, puck, or tablet. Of course, this requires high end precision touch screen displays, not the lower end consumer product that a touch screen iMac would be. High end Xeon workstations are commonly used for the computational work.

 

[Transporteur]

A lot of industrial design and CAD work is now done using desktop touch screens, especially in automotive engineering. Touch screens are more intuitive, productive, and accurate to use.

I'd like to see examples for that.

I worked for a construction company a couple of years ago and I can't imagine drawing a CAD model of a house with a finger. With a mouse you get 1 pixel accuracy, whereas a finger covers at least at 5 pixel square on high res displays.

I'm sceptical, but again, if you have examples/references for that, please share them with us.

 

[superfula]

Why would anyone want to lift their arm up and touch the computer? Touchscreens have no place in desktop computing.

Touchscreens work for the iphone, itouch, ipad and nano because its already in your hands.

Just a few short years ago, people were saying the same thing about cell phones. Touchscreen devices like the iPad were a joke. It's all about how something is designed, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if personal computers move toward touch screens in the future.

A lot of industrial design and CAD work is now done using desktop touch screens, especially in automotive engineering. Touch screens are more intuitive, productive, and accurate to use. Also, they're more ergonomic than using a trackball, puck, or tablet. Of course, this requires high end precision touch screen displays, not the lower end consumer product that a touch screen iMac would be. High end Xeon workstations are commonly used for the computational work.

Exactly. They are amazing with the correct implementation.

 

[MacHamster68]

the iMac was all about 1 cable to mains and nothing else to have a clean desk , the iMac is a consumer computer and not really suitable for people who really work wit large amounts of data , as no space inside for HDD's , no PCI slots , and sorry there are still people who dont want to clutter up their desk with all sorts of external things , i mean the MacPro takes 6 sata harddrives each with 1 TB , 4 in the standard HDD bays and another 2 in the optical drive bay if needed delivering then a sustained speed of 600MB/s in raid 0 plus another 2 pata drives in the optical bay

i already bought for my PowerMac G5 from maxupgrades the internal storage expansion assembly for 4 HDD's in the optical and 3 in the cpu bay plus PCIe sata controller plus the normal 2 makes 9 Hdd's with a sustained speed of 500MB/s how could that work with a iMac without cluttering up the desk with external HDD's and cables everywhere
so from that perspective of expandability the iMac can only be a bad compromise if you want less cables and wires on your desk , it already annoys me to have a external drive for time machine connected to the iMac

 

[DeaconGraves]

Just watch.. its gonna happen.. eventually this day will come when the iMac will flex its muscles over the mighty mac pro.. Mac Pro only makes up maybe 1 percent-2 percent of total Apple sales.. heck.. the iphone, ipad make up about most of their bread and butter.

I disagree, if only because there is always going to be a market for a "screenless" Mac and there's only so much computing/graphics power you can cram into a Mac Mini (obviously that power will increase, but there will always be bigger and better options that just won't fit in the Mini form.

There's still a huge portion of Apple's market that are video and photo professionals that need to be able to use other monitors and need something with a bit more "zip" than a Mac Mini. This portion of the market also pays a ton for Apple's high end software like Final Cut Pro. It may not be Apple's bread and butter any more, but it would be extremely silly to cut that entire market out of its profits.

 

[freeman727]

I have a burning feeling that the iMac will eclipse very soon the Mac Pro. Once the iMac gets 4-8core based processors and thunderbolt, this will spell the doom for the mac pro. I do see Apple discontinuing the mac pro later in the future, give or take 2014.. Laptops, ipad, iphone are where Apple makes most if not all of their money.. the mac pro is a very niche of their profit..

So, the future will be bright for the iMac, but I expect within a few years the Mac Pro will be phased out.. just like the xserve before it.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1108650/

Similar idea for the iMac.

 

[Joshuarocks]

It will never happen.
You have mobile GPU's in the Imacs and overall apple want to keep making them thinner meaning that a full size GPU will never be an option.
Also the heat issues with an core CPU would be huge your looking at 2013-1015
Before you get core CPU's in the imacs.

Also dont forget that the professional market has a high demand for mac pro's as do education establishments.

The mac pro isnt going anywhere.

I meant by 2020 A.D.

 

[5th]

Touch screen isn't going to happen by any year.

Its available in the aftermarket if you want it that badly.

 

[lotones]

Yes, but sign me up for an OS that includes gesture recognition. I blame "Minority Report" for this geek fantasy of mine.

It looked cool in the movie, but realistically having to wave your arms around just to access data would be tiring and inefficient, especially when it would just be faster just to use a trackpad.

I think once you get larger than a notebook a touchscreen is impractical. Maybe up to a 21.5" touchscreen would work in some cases, like a kiosk or media jukebox, etc, but I don't think touch would ever work on a 27" screen. It takes so much less effort to move my finger across a trackpad than it would to lift and move my whole hand across the monitor

Once the novelty of the touchscreen wore off it would be a PITA to use the computer.

 

[themac23]

B.S.

It won't happen and truthfully it's a stupid idea to begin with.

 

[miamijim]

Touchscreens on a desktop are a terrible idea, your arms would kill you.

It only works on handheld devices.

 

[MacHamster68]

it is not only on handhelt devices where a touchscreen makes some sense , it works in museums and some shows too , but for at home on a computer , i dont think it makes any sense

but indeed i agree all the features in lion that come from iOS and some new features in iLife 11 would work with a touchscreen iMac out of the box , but i guess that's what the magic trackpad is meant for
and like so many i think touchscreens work on small screens better ,
so the max size where it makes a bit of sense would be the iMac 21.5 and maybe on the MacBook 's , just because thats the screen sizes other pc makers offer touchscreens for , but even there the use is restricted ,sure you could open itunes and select your favorite song with a touchscreen or look through your iphoto collection , maybe even read a book by turning over the pages on the display ....
but as i not even like the glossy glass in front of the iMac display , imagine how horrible that looks with hundreds of fingerprints on , you then spend more time with cleaning then using the iMac

...and whats so wrong about having to use a mouse nowadays or the magic trackpad for that matter

aaah .. i know it what thats all about , with a touchscreen the iMac could possibly become cheaper, as apple could deliver it without keyboard and mouse as you certainly have no use for a keyboard and mouse if you got a touchscreen or ?

having said all the above, i heard that you can actually use a iPad to fully control a iMac , means you can replace your keyboard and mouse and if you got a trackpad you can replace that too, all with just one device ...the iPad ..somehow it seems i just found something the iPad could be of real use for ...ok a quiet expensive keyboard and mouse/trackpad , but it seems to work and there it is your external touchscreen for the iMac... hey apple what about a cheaper version of the iPad that only functions as bluetooth keyboard and mouse/ trackpad ...i offer £200 for that then