While most Macintosh sites have welcomed the new flat panel iMac, some Mac-only journalists, most analysts and other serious publications were not so impressed and some were actually seemed worried about Apple’s future. The main theme of their reviews is that Apple this time has done more damage than good with the extreme hype they spread, that iMac is not exactly what someone would call ‘revolutionary’, that pricing is not acceptable for the price cautious PC users especially when there is some resession in the global economy and that the Apple market share has shrank (and continues shrinking dangerously) to 2.9% of the desktop market since last year where it had 3.3%. Read the articles at BusinessWeek, ZDNet, C|NET, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News and Business 2.0. A good part of the Mac community was shocked because of no announcements whatsoever about the PowerMac line of computers and the corporate Apple market, but hope is still strong that new, G5 computers will be announced in spring. Update: Add ArsTechnica and I,Cringely to the opinion soup critisizing the “Jobs Distortion Field”.
Press Responds With Mixed Reactions to Flat-Panel iMac
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
>>A better idea would have been to incorporate the computer in the back of the screen, where it would be practically invisible That would make the thing abt an inch more fat than a LCD screen , smg like a Poewrbook standing on its side
That would be neat, hey Apple are you there- And then you could do away with wiring and stuff.<<
Steve Jobs (at the MWSF 2002 Key Note) had actually commented on this idea, and did a demonstration of cutting an already CRT equipped iMac and cut it in 2 (on a presentation slide) to show how ridiculous it would look, and he was right. His thought’s were everything on the new iMac so be true to itself, and that is what the end result has come to!
I think the new iMac is quite possibly Apple’s boldest step forward. The computer consumers they will make the most inroads with are the ones buying a family computer for the kids. And once those kids see this computer they will be begging for a Luxo Jr. on their desktop at home!
the new iMac’s specs. are almost identical to the PowerMacs. sure you can’t upgrade anything except for the RAM, but after using my 400MHz iMac for 3 years I can honestly say that but buysing a bunch of cheap RAM my iMac can keep up with my roommate’s new dell (which cost the same as my iMac). the only difference is the graphics card. the old RAGE 128 was pathetic when it came out, but the GeForce 2 in the new iMacs is very nice and can certainly hold it’s own for quite awhile.
The new iMac does not just have a new design. the haveing a G4 makes it quite a bit speedier, the GF 2 is great and the screen is not small. seeing it in person is amazing. I saw one at the apple store at mall of america and the screen is a great size (15″ CRT and 15″ LCD are NOT the same).
Also, for everyone saying that Apple can’t make it with just a pretty looking OS, what about iTunes, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto? just try and show me one PC that comes with such easy and useful software! there aren’t any, not bundled, not separate.
Apple’s tactic for selling more macs is not cost (Jobs has talked about this), it’s what you can do with a mac. That’s why Apple opened up stores, so people can see how much a mac can do
For some reason apple thinks that a 15″ monitor is adequate, it’s not, not for any serious video or image manipulation such as photoshop, I’m a photographer and filmmaker. I have owned four macs since I decided to go digital 6 years ago, my current stash is a PC an Imac 500dv and a G3 300 biege tower, (my workhorse) I run a dual monitor set up with a 21″ and a 17″ with my tower.
Quite frankly the Imac will run circles around my old 300, but I simply cannot work on a 15 monitor.
My Imac does allow me to add a monitor as does the new Imac, but guess what, in video mirroring mode only. What good is that to a professional.
That is an intentional marketing scheme by apple to force me to spend $1200-$2000 more for a tower with no more features than the imac with the Superdrive. And furthermore, the tower is less expensive to produce. It’s just a greedy larger profit margin for apple, I hate being stolen from, and I hate to be assumed an idiot.
Those PCs are looking better every day.
If you want a bigger market share, then lower your freaking prices.
jim hancock
With the knowledge of this moment thsi new iMac is the best computer that can be build (regarding the market for wich it’s ment for). Lets face facts: the 800Mhz G4 can only be beaten beyond a 1,6Ghz PIII. FireWire isn’t standard on most PC’s with a consumer-affordable price not to mention DVD-burning capacities. And of course standard TFT… And all that power in a nice looking case, far beyond the ‘gey box’ standard (despite all the effort from the PC-builders to ‘imitate’ the Apple ‘look & feel’). No way you can comparise this kind of stuff with a normal PC!
The next year the PC world will be anxious to copy this ‘idea’ and in their rush they’re gonna forget what made this machine so great; it’s a Mac! And beying a Mac is more than just the enclosure…
Compare this issue with woman. You’re standing in a bar and there are two woman in front of you. One is nervous about her make-up, must yell three times to catch the bartenders attention in order to get a drink, and can conversate only about ‘AsTheWordTurns’ and some coocking shows -that if you don’t want te get the conversation get stuck-.
The other woman looks gracious from a nature, immidiatly catch the attention of everyone -including the bartender- and you can actually talk with her in a nice way about almost anything -the few things she don’t know much about aren’t interesting anyway-.
With wich of the two woman do you want to have sex?
[Ger Nijkamp]
P.S: Female readers can read for ‘woman’ and ‘she’; ‘men’ and ‘he’. Still the same situation…
What kills me about these journalists is that they spin a story but not see their own bias. I have read many of the articles reviewing the new iMac, at least one journalist fairly admitted he was a Windows user, of course he gave a poor review of the new iMac. These guys do a lot of harm with their biased reviews. Every Windows user I meet seems to hate Apple. These journalists have a vested interest in seeing Apple fail. Why? because they cant account for their own feelings of inadequacy. As an example, take the accountant who doesn’t have a creative bone in his body. His girl friend drags him to the museum and she gushes over a Jackson Pollack or Kandinsky painting. The accountant doesn’t get it. To him the paintings looks like scribbles, and so he mutters something completely ignorant about how the paintings look like the work of a three year old child. My point is that these guys don’t understand the zealousness of mac users. ” Why spend more money, Get a PC.?” There is a reason why mac users love their computers, because their system works so harmoniously compared to Windows machines. To the Mac user, the computer is more than a tool, it’s a friend. It’s a great product with great service, one of the highest ranking companies in customer satisfaction in North America. I have a dual career, I’m a freelance designer and a Realtor. In my real estate office every one uses a windows machine. I’m always surprised at how the lemming mentality factors in so much in people’s daily lives. So many people have said to me they have a PC because everyone uses a PC, they don’t know better and so they will not even take the time to try out a mac. And yet, from the same people, I have heard story after story about their computers always crashing or about not being able to install a program and spending hours on the phone to tech support. Windows is so unnecessarily complicated. I use windows, both 98 and 2000. There is one real estate program that doesn’t run on a mac so at home I have to run virtual PC and at the office I use their computers, which of course are PC’s. I know first hand how boring and unfriendly Windows is. One post to this form made the comment that his Windows system runs smoothly because he has learned to make sure it does. So he is championing needless complexity and a needless learning curve. Jobs wants the computer to be simple and fun to use, something I don’t see other companies thinking about. Jobs has been successful in that idea and now he wants to show the world. These PC centric thinking guys don’t get the whole “Apple thing” and do damage buy knocking Apple. They’re only looking at the specs and the price and completely missing the point. The operating system runs circles around Windows when it comes to a majority of what most people use computers for. The operating system is not just easy, it’s fun to use. iMac computers are fun to use, talking about the whole package, from their looks (which a boring PC journalist probably doesn’t care about or worse, doesn’t understand what great design is or why it matters to many more creative people) to power to ease of use. Apple has a huge uphill battle, and not just worrying about Microsoft but all the lemmings who wont spend one hour of their life trying out a mac and that can’t understand why anyone would pay more for something that works better. Ever heard the phrase “greater than thee sum of it’s parts?” Apple needs to hype things up a bit to get momentum to knock over Goliath. Speaking of which, paying Madonna something like 1.5 mil to use that dumb song in their commercials, isn’t that just hyping things up a little?
Yes, another Mac fanatic.
Seems like the reviewer’s spelling capabilities are in a “recession” – she thinks it’s a “resession” and “has shrank” – somebody tell her what a past participle is.
I accept that Apple will never come anywhere near MS Windows, and that such an aim is unnecessary as well as unrealistic. But their current share is just not enough to the encourage the development of good original software for the Mac in large enough amounts. Yes, there will always be plenty of great software from Apple themselves, from inventive shareware developers, and eventually ports of most important PC software. But the Mac deserves more, much more if it is to be the vibrant significant computing platform it should be, and in which we can all take pride. Would you find a new games company set up to develop top quality games primarily for the Mac now as Bungie once did? Could you possibly develop any major new application primarily for the Mac as Adobe used to? For even the media business is not as dominated by the Mac as it once was, particularly the fields of web and multimedia design
So yes, market share is important and Apple must increase theirs. 10% is what they should aim for in the long term, but for the moment they must just start gaining marketshare. Otherwise the Mac is only half what it could and should be.
Why, can you spell Greek? Everyone is doing their best, but if you don’t like it, get the hell out of here and stop the whining.
Don’t worry my friend, since Apple has made Mac OS X cousins to the Linux Tribe. .. new apps will make their way, because UNIX and Linux folks alike want to be heard loud and clear! And if another OS platform is UNIX savvy (like our little Mac OS X is), then it’s nothing but clear skies (with some scattered showers:-)!
I think it’s a matter of people typing faster than they think… I make 99.9% typing errors here and other forums. I know I can read, write and spell, but this is just a forum… I am not writing a novel or anything so who cares… so leave Eugenia and the rest of us bad typers alone, will ya (perty please) :-
I’ve read all the posts and I’ve got a couple points. First, the iLamp is a brilliant design. The LCD on a stick gives lets you adjust for glare, sit in an easy chair with the keyboard in your lap, do email and watch TV. Whatever you want.
But, bright ideas aside, why does Apple aways build “almost a perfect computer.” For example-I’ve talked to a number of potential and current iMac owners. Main complaint is no removeable, rewriteable media. I think it is insane to advertise the think different and build to order concepts and then build an entry level computer with no floppy or CDR option for under $1000. Or even the option to add it when you order and bring the price of the base model over $1000, but less than the price of a faster model. Does this make sense to anyone but me? Sure you can buy a floppy for $60 but then it isn’t an all-in-one design, is it?
You have to strike a balance of form, function, price, and customer service. Think about how many people buy Macs because they hate PC’s. I want the entry level education iBook. I will accept the slower processor, but I won’t buy another PowerBook without CDRW. Why can’t I add it for $200 and for $1400 get a “perfect for me” PowerBook! Apple has a history of limiting itself. For example look at the slot impaired G3’s. Or PowerBooks with no expansion. These are just examples of what I see as a coporate attitude. Steve may know more about computers than I do but I know what I want. Why piss off your customer base when they love you!
I am a Mac Addict. I buy thrift store Macs and set them up for email for people who are afraid of computers. They work. Even eight year old PowerBooks like the one I am using now. But, I am a little worried about the Mac’s future. Why is Mac Addict magazine now a pamplet, what happened to the advertising base? My old MacWorld magazines are a half inch thick. Someone at Apple better worry about market share. Doesn’t matter how good the product if people don’t buy it you are gone. I know, I own a Triumph motorcycle, a Studebaker car, but I sold my Betamax…
Everything is made out to be doom and gloom for Apple, everytime a new product is shipped (funny, I remember doom and gloom, prior to any Mac I have owned, I had a Commodore Amiga… you want doom and gloom, the executive brass at Commodore made Gilbert Amelio look like Albert Einstein in comparison). The PC naysayers step out the door ranting, but don’t realize that marketshare isn’t significantly important. If it was, Mac OS X wouldn’t have as many developers pushing for it. More and more, developers are “ditching” the classic Mac OS with their latest software and moving to OS X. Do you honestly think OS X has the same level of installed userbase as Classic Mac OS? Think again if you answered “yes”. If anyone in the Mac sector that makes software “cared” so significantly about marketshare… would Office X for Mac OS X be carbonized “ONLY” to run on OS X? Hmmmm… I’d think not.
Now, the next stage to converse over. This pricing issue. I don’t see anyone ranting and raving about Bang and Oluffsen going under because their latest stereo is $15,000; do you? The PC naysayers are like the people that say “Bang and Oluffsen, what a rip-off… I can go buy this nice Technics ‘rack’ system that sounds as good for $3k”…. yes, and you’d have a big monstrousity that looks like every other rack system on the market, not a sleek, elegant system with speakers that are miniscule, and a front fascia with a vertically mounted CD player with doors that “move” as your hand approaches.
PC’s vs. Mac’s… similar philosophy. Also, it’s like buying a Ford Taurus vs. a BMW or Mercedes or Jaguar; all will drive you to work, but one’s frumpy, utilitarian, inelegant, and lacks the overall grace, fluidity, and visceral look and feel. Not to mention… one holds it’s resale value a lot longer (has a longer lifespan too) and the other… well it’s a buck of parts put together to reach mass sales volumes with no mindset of a future beyond 10 years and junkyard heaven.
The Mac isn’t about cost(s) persay. Granted we’re not dealing with the Bugatti (SGI) or the Rolls Royce (Sun) of computers; but then again… those are cars you put in a garage and leave for many months out of a year.
The Mac is more mainstream than a Sun or SGI, but far more regal than the look-a-like clone PC’s that still think adding other colors or panels to their old minitowers makes them more “stylish”. Show me a PC maker that has done anything revolutionary in casing design and you’ll note that ripping off Apple is all they’ve done. From the Korean-built iMac knock-offs (real innovation there… not!), to the blackened Dells, the grey add-on panels to the traditional white Gateways, the colored panels (choose your favorite iMac rip-off flavor) on Compaq desktops, to the translucent grey (Graphite anyone?) add-ons to HP computers. Do they have no shame? Are they that starving for innovative ideas that the “BEST” any of them can do is take a compact mini-desktop, turn it on it’s side, and toss it into a stand (Compaq)?
The funniest thing in all of this… the current Pro-desktop casing, after all of these years, is “STILL” the most stylish desktop out there. Hell, the thing was originally a blue and white G3 for Christ’s sakes (yet they’ve refined the look every so often to give it a cleaner, more enticing look… I still think the Quicksilver casing is the best yet)!! Year after year, Apple begins to push more and more boundaries, while the PC market lies saddled in their own standardized format hell that precludes them from innovating in product design (take a board that is the ATX format and try to do anything beyond what that board’s size allows without “SCREWING” your upgradability plan). If Dell took the IBM way out, and made a separated motherboard to fit it into an interesting casing, you’d throw everything PC in convention out the window. Confined to it’s own “standardized board” hell, there’s little option for a product designer within these companies to truly “innovate” like Apple can. Irony, these companies would be better off if they innovated, as few of your average Jane Does and Joe Johnson’s actually ever do much upgrading on their own; only the neophyte’s that climb inside their machines semi-regularly with their techno-savvy do so… which is why the “reality distortion” field exists as much in PC-dom as it does in Mac-dom. Few ever do their own upgrades… I have an aunt running (if you can call it that) a Compaq PC with a Pentium 100 processor and 16 MB of RAM still. You’d say that, that’s a hell of a lifespan but the fact is… the machine’s been so unbearable to use for so long that it’s nothing more than a glorified paper weight.
Of course… many of you don’t care. Then again, that’s why people drove squared off Volvo’s in the mid-80’s, or lookalike GM cars. To them pricing is the issue (I own one of those lookalike GM’s myself)… and for that, it doesn’t really matter in terms of anything what Apple will do, their mind is made up because the Mac is “different”. Hmmm… they “Think Different” is more like it.
From the way the OS responds, it’s tactile feel, right down to the beautiful detail of a touch-sensitive button on an LCD, the space conscious, cord-conscious, and svelte sleek “different” casings that look otherworldly. This is Apple, and this is why you don’t get it. Because it’s not for you.
Now before I have an onslaught of PC fanatics of the third order going off, Osama Bin Terrorist-style on me; sitting right next to my Newer Tech upgraded PowerMac 9600 (only a 400 with a 1 MB backside cache but it feels a lot more spritely than my PC or hell… even my buddy’s PC’s that are twice as new… as in 900 Mhz -1.4 Ghz AMD’s), I have a home-built (by myself) PC running Windows XP. The Mac, running 9.1, is still a better machine in almost all counts. XP is the first version of windows with an interface “worthy” of looking into, but it’s so far from the elegance of Mac OS X it’s not even funny. Where XP advanced over 2000 was in ways it’s Luna candied shell “ripped-off” Apple’s Aqua interface. The point… you can’t polish a turd, but you can sure spray paint and stick a piece of green candy on it that says “Start” to it to make it look a bit more appealing.
In the end though… it’s still rotten at it’s core, manages memory nowhere near as well as any variation of Unix (Yes, I’ve used Irix and Solaris over the years as well), and has many of the same glitches Windows has always known (inherently) creep up in some fashion or another.
Like, when set as an Admin account in XP (think a variation on ‘root’), web pages on my particular machine after a trip to Ohio where I tapped into a major network infrastructure “automagically” altered permissions to an unchangeable state in certain areas. For example… launching any website with a Javascript openWin; yields “NOTHING”. Nope, window doesn’t open. Okay, go to the Start menu… press “Search”. Nothing. It worked fine before the trip to Ohio with it. But… oh so stable, ’til the memory leak brings it crashing down. OS X, XP is not… it might have some of the same harrowing permissions quirks (only real problems with OS X in my opinion… as any complaints over “slowness”… funny, my 375 Mhz. G3 8500 ran Mac OS X 10.1 faster than my 400 PII runs XP which if the Mhz. myth isn’t true… then I guess XP is slower than a sled dog pulled by chiahuhua’s), but at least if it had a decent “usable” GUI convention system underneath it could have some excuse. If this XP is Experience… then I guess it’s time for Microsoft to quit hiring the “wet behind the ears” crowd.
OK All you people who think the Mac’s are the best designed machines but are too expensive, help us out. Jump in there one time. Just once! Buy a Mac. You will not be sorry. And by doing so, you would help double or triple that market share and drive down the manufacturing cost! Put your money where your mouth is. How much do you think a Dell or A gateway machine would cost if they only made 500,000 of them? Thats right.
I have been a loyal user of macintosh since my first computer. When my brother goes on his pc, and it crashes I laugh. Anytime I have to use a pc I get frustrated, because they are so slow and worthless, I feel like destroying the computer. But lets face it, even though macintosh is superior to all windows operated systems, they wont be able to compete until they lower the prices of apple computers and LOWER SOFTWARE PRICES. I try to buy a game at compusa and it cost 40.00 for a game that was made in 1997. Thats all.
the new imac is a great computer and priced decent (for now). Hopefully prices will go down in the next year. For an all in one machine with an LCD screen that is flexible, you can’t complain too much. The PC all in one computers with LCD screens, don’t come with as many features and you can’t rotate and move the screen like you can with the imac. The imac line needed a new look. It’s a little odd, but it will grow on people. That’s exactly how the original imac was when it came out. If Apple sold the imac with no screen, it wouldn’t be an all in one anymore. Maybe down the road, Apple will have a detachable screen (that would be cool), but for now I think it is a big improvement from the original imac. It needed a new look. As far as their marketing strategy goes, they have to hype it like they did or no one would be intererested. That’s how marketing is! Hype, hype, hype!!! If Apple put out a computer that is so feature rich, what would they do for the next imac. That’s just my opinion. Have a nice day!
BTW, for those that complain on the new iMac’s size for it’s screen… a 15″ LCD is widely regarded as the equivelant to a 17″ CRT in sizing. So for Mr. Designer complaining about the iMac’s sizing… this machine should suit you perfectly well considering you said you worked on a 17″ CRT (I have a 17″ CRT and even I would do well on the iMac).
LCD’s and CRT’s are measured differently, and a 17″ CRT (16″ viewable usually) stacks up well against the wider aspect ratio of LCD’s (Plus there’s the whole “shadow mask” on a CRT that makes the viewable area actually closer to around a 15.5). Besides, the iMac isn’t really designed for your market (that’s why they call the desktops the “Pro-line”) although the irony is… it’d work very well in that regards for you, in a very economical outlet to purchasing a G4 desktop with the 15″ LCD (costs more in the end and takes up a lot more space that could be used for a drawing tablet).
Hmmmm… wierd, that < / b > tag didn’t close the “bolding”. LoL Fascinating…
I’m not worthy… I’m not worthy!!! I am going to print this out and frame it, what a masterpiece! I am speechless :-] What a killer piece of writing this has been (no pun intended to the PC crowd). But I enjoyed every inspiring word this post dished out! OUCH!!!
Sorry I just had to say;
“BRAVO!.. BRAVO!..”
Sure I am annoyed with Apple. I am going to have to buy a stinking PC for my wife to work at home. I want Apple to grow. There are so many stories. I bought my dad a PowerBook 140 for $25. He was 75 years old. In a week he had made a Claris database for his Hay Moisture Tester sales. We have since upgraded but the point is that this guy who started farming with a horse mastered a computer in like two days. We tried to switch him to a PC because there is no Ag software availible for the Mac. No way! Much Pain and suffering! We got him a better PowerBook and Filemaker Pro. He wouldn’t accept a desktop model!
My friend has some sort of top line PC that he paid a forture for from a local computer hack. I could print to his HP printer with my PowerBook 1400, a garage sale converter cable, and the generic printer driver. He couldn’t even start the PC cause he forgot to turn the printer back on. People put up with this!
You can argue about speed spec and hardware all day but the only thing that counts is if you can use it! I’m sure a sharp PC person can have a wonderful and fast PC, but I know your average Joe can just screw one up so bad you can’t use it. He could kill his Mac as well it is much harder to do. Plus you can just put a new system on.
Considering I couldn’t get within ten feet of the iMac at the Tyson’s Corner Apple Store this weekend, I’d say people are again complaining just to hear themselves complain.
Brochures were flying out of the holders as fast as they could be put in it, and the question I kept hearing wasn’t “How fast is the CPU” or “How much memory does it have”, but “WHEN CAN I PICK MINE UP”
This sucker is nice. I’ll be getting one, even if I just did build an Athlon box. I only wish I could return the Athlon system (hard to do when it’s parts from different companies), as I know once the iMac arrives it’ll get little use. I can’t burn DVD’s on it, and it cost me nearly $1500 to build. And that’s without a flat screen!
The iMac isn’t about computer specs, it’s about the whole entire experience. That experience can’t be matched by any other machine, at any price.
The truth of the matter is most apple users do not want apple to increase its market share. The quality of pc-users is frighteningly low. Apple is like a jag or Lexus. While the wintel users just think cheap, cheap, make it cheaper, oh ya and more games we want to play games all day, and make um cheap, cheaper.
We don’t want this type of thinking in our apple user base. Apple is about simplistic brilliance and functionality. If you do not like what Apple is doing today then please do not buy one, we like our 5-10% just fine, and we will do just fine without you. Not trying to be rude, its just a fact no one seems to bring up much, we like apple the way it is, we do not want cheap equipment that is not built well or an OS that needs to be babysat to install a scanner.
Were not interested in a cheap aluminum spinoff, we want an apple computer.
Imagine if there was only one type of computer that can be purchased! The new iMac is just great. There will always be people that will penny pinch and are not bothered about design and functionality. Personally I am so glad that Macs are on the market. I just love them. I have a 9500, a 9600 and a G4. Macs look great and they work great. It will be a sad day if only PC were available.
saha
Bruno
G3 Cube.
Love it, won’t buy it.
Think it’s cool, won’t buy it.
The new imac, like the Cube, appeals to the style of the dedicated Mac user. One problem existes, I and other dedicated users will NEVER buy a computer without pleanty of room to upgrade.
New year, new iMac, same old criticism. Fact is Apple’s the only company out there that constantly raises the bar for quality and innovation. Their stylish innovations and design transcend the computing arena to inspire culture and media.
Everyone’s whining about the price tags on the new iMacs. Sure, they could take away the LCD screen and throw in a CRT but that just defeats the purpose of innovation and trying to do away with CRT displays all together! The very first iMac came out bereft of a floppy drive and people’s reactions then were equivalent to that of a Taliban seeing an Afghan woman with an exposed elbow. Today in a computing world surrounded by optical drives and high-speed connections, 1.4 MB of floppy space is useless. And if Windows didn’t rely on floppies to boot, they’d do away with floppies too.
The iLamp is an industrial design breakthrough. It’s very simple yet no one’s thought of it before just as no one thought of putting colors on computers five years ago. It was a simple and minute change yet it inspired so many others to follow, from wannabe PC iMacs (what was that thing called?) to translucent blueberry pencil sharpeners. Back then critics were convinced that the iMac would be a flop and would do more harm to Apple than good. Six million iMacs and four generations after, iMac is still going strong and the new iMac will no doubt follow the same course.
There are still some misconceptions about Macs that scare a lot of PC-users off. Macs aren’t for everyone that I can say. If you want a computer you can take apart and play Frankenstein with, a Mac isn’t for you. If you’re a hardcore gamer, a Mac isn’t for you either (but seriously if you’re serious about gaming, get a Playstation 2 or an Xbox) since most games are only for PCs. If you want a computer that’s simple, intuitive and easy to use then a Mac might suit you. As much as I love Macs, I won’t be bias and declare it as the most perfect platform out there. But it’s close enough. =)
The one outstanding thing that sets Apple apart from other companies is the way they package their machines and I don’t mean boxes and Styrofoam though they do a good job at that. When I set up a PC the first thing I do is sort all the garbage out from the stuff I really need and figure out what goes where since PCs are like snowflakes—no two are ever alike. Boot up the machine and voila! More stuff I don’t need. The average PC is loaded with at least twelve useless programs and every ISP known to man so I make it a habit to do a clean install. Of course after I do that I have to run around places looking for drivers for all the peripherals to work. So much for plug and play. A Mac on the other hand I just power up and I’m set to go. No need to uninstall anything or do a clean install but if I do, I won’t need to run around looking for drivers to get everything working since Macs epitomize true plug and play. While PCs require third-party vendors to supply parts to the machine, Apple makes everything: the machine, the hardware, the operating system and the software. It’s hassle-free and it makes it so much easier to troubleshoot should the machine go out of whack. This is what the average computer user want and that’s what the iMac is for.
Along with quality is a high price to pay but it’s well worth the money in the end. When I buy a Mac, I know what I’m paying for. As for the rest of the people who are whining and complaining, lighten up—no one’s going to gag you down and shove an iMac down your throat.
APPLE NEEDS TO REASE MORE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MACHINES!!!!
I hate uniformality, a lot of people do. If Apple wants more people to buy their computers they should build more different kinds of computers for different types of people. They tried to do that by licencing clones back in the early to mid 90’s, but that was too little too late.
For the uninformed writing about the death of mac software, watch this <http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/powerofx/>.
It’s a quicktime presentation (another killer apple app).
Hmm the brackets killed the link.
here.http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/powerofx/
People, one of the things that this new comp has that no PeeCee has is a DVD burner. Sure you can buy one, FOR AS MUCH AS A WHOLE NEW COMPUTER!
Re: Burner,
Not true .Last year it was true, but now you can add one to a dell, for instance, for 399$.
1) I’m a PC user, and I plan on purchasing a Mac around March or so. It was going to be a PowerMac G4, but when I saw the new iMac, its specs, and its price, I was converted instantly. I’d be giving up 67 Mhz of processor speed and 2″ of monitor size while saving about $2000. Yes please.
2) Killer apps? If you want those, you have to go to Adobe, Macromedia, etc. I think that Apple has easily the best software bundle available, however. Basic programs that are intuitive and powerful. Give me iTunes over Music Match any day. I use Photoshop to edit pictures, but iPhoto looks like an amazing organizational tool. And Apple has DV down. I think the ability to easily put my home videos on DVD is amazing. In fact, iMovie, iDVD, and the Superdrive are the reason that I’m buying a Mac.
3) Desk space. I don’t really need it, but its nice. But, as with the original iMac, the new G4 is a spacesaver. This is wonderful for companies who need room, or moreso, for college students who have to live in dorms and put up with desks usually designed for, at most, a typewriter.
4) A new wave of PC buying will probably erupt in the next two years. In my experience a computer has a lifespan of around three years before it has problems running new software. And the major computer boom was back in 1998-2000. As the new one comes around, people are going to want the ability to manage all of their digital toys easily – and that’s what Apple is gearing towards.
Look…
stop bitching about pricing… if you don’t want it, don’t BUY it… If you DO want it, get another job or BUDGET (woa…)…
EVERY time a new Mac is announced, people bitch constantly about the price and blah blah blah….. and then they sell like hotcakes.
So, get over it or not, buy it or not, and get with the program or not.
<<EVERY time a new Mac is announced, people bitch constantly about the price and blah blah blah….. and then they sell like hotcakes.
So, get over it or not, buy it or not, and get with the program or not. >>
My thoughts exactly!
“Those PCs are looking better every day. If you want a bigger market share, then lower your freaking prices.”
I can’t help myself. If a PC is looking better to you everyday, I am sorry man. You need glasses or something’. As far as I am concerned, PC’s are looking old, and outdated every day since the beginning.
I am just tired of all this negative feedback towards my favorite company. A lot of you “pro” users out there, who “used” to be or “claim” to be Mac fanatics, are doing nothing but complaining about the size of the iMacs monitor, or its new look, or (insert Apple complaint here). You know what? I don’t care if Apple took a dump in a translucent case, and threw an iMac symbol on it, I would still buy it. I don’t care if they shipped a 8 button mouse. I do not care if they made the iMac with a 12 inch monitor. I don’t care if they removed the CD ROM. I don’t care if they raised the price 3,000 dollars. I don’t care what Apple does, because if Apple did it, they did it for a dang good reason. This is about love people. Call me brand loyal, call me stupid, call me a geek. I don’t care, because Apple Computers Rule, and I will support them until I am dead, because Apple makes the greatest computers I have ever used in this PC world we live in. Go Steve! Go Apple! Whatever you do, I will support you. Apple will never die as long as the true Mac fans exist.
Brad Jones
P.S. Im still happy with my iMac DV G3 400. And as far as I am concerned it is still the fastest computer out there. Yes, faster then your 1.2 Gigahertz
Athlon. Common, you know it. 😉
P.S.S. Oh yea, for the record, I am not rich. I still have an old school Mac,
but because of all this feedback, I think I will go take a loan for one of those new iLamps. Get out the chalk, and mark another one up for Apple!!
imacman11 wrote:
“stop bitching about pricing… if you don’t want it, don’t BUY it… If you DO want it, get another job or BUDGET (woa…)… ”
now there’s a kid with no wife or kids or house to support …
People really need to get a reality check through the mail here. In the depths of recession with a high layoff rate Apple decide to introduce a $1300 “consumer” computer. Yes I can see it now, the everyday family that Jobs is hoping to attract is really going to walk into Circuit City and go “hmmm lets buy this $1300 PC which looks nice instead of the fully laden Athlon/Intel thing over here for half the price”.
What a good way to increase a falling market share by marketing Bang & Olufsen to the Sanyo market.
And sorry I don’t know any familes desperate enough to buy a computer that would take another job! I’m sure if they can’t afford to spend $1300 on a computer they have better things to budget for. And believe it or not that’s the majority of the consumer market that Apple should be aiming for with this product. Although you’ve probably never seen this demographic before.
Mac fans really need to be more objective about this, or at least put up a reasonable argument than those found here.
Oh yeah, I own a mac, I work with Macs and I’ve used them for 12 years.
Did I mention I hate Windows and I was a big Mac fan too?
Paint it the base flesh and you’ve got a boob screen.
I was a little put out since apple didn’t come out with a new powerful processor and presented the new iMac instead. I like the new iMac but didn’t think there should have been such a big hipe…well…checked out the intel concept computers on their site…uhhh….I think I like the iMac much more now….
>”I do believe those things [$799 iMac] just barely run OSX. That’s sort of like saying … “well, you can buy that cheap Pentium II 200MHz machine over there and run Windows XP on it”. It just isn’t going to happen. ”
I happen to have one of those low-end iMacs, and believe me, OS X runs at respectable speeds.
***Please remember that the bottom-of-the-line iMacs run at 500 MHz, not 200.***
It’s amazing what people are saying about the new imac and that it won’t sell. That’s ridiculous! Please remember back to ’98, when the iMac was first released. Then, you had your naysayers who said “It won’t sell; it has no floppy drive!” Well, they did sell, didn’t they? You can only take these “experts” opinions with a grain of salt.
I’ve used a PC all my life and have always viewed Apple as a company which makes overpriced underperforming computers. When the iMac came out I thought it was the stupidest thing ever, considering it had a small screen, no floppy drive and a processor with only 233 megahertz. I watched Apple bounce back and figured it was done entirely by Macintosh faithful who were showing support at Apple’s strange new business strategy.
Four weeks ago I was shopping for a new computer to replace my old but trusty HP and was checking out Sony’s at Best Buy. I found a decent model with a DVD burner and a 40 gigabyte hard drive for around two grand, and was impressed. I figured I would come back in a few weeks and buy the thing.
On my way back from Best Buy I passed the Apple store and stopped in, mainly to check out the new iPod which I had heard from friends and the news was a breakthrough product. When I walked in the store however the first thing that attracted my attention was a stylish G4. After playing with it for about 30 minutes, finding out that my mp3 player, printer and digital camera would work with it, and talking to a sales rep I made up my mind, I would splurge and spend $3000 on a new G4. Now that the new iMac came out I have something new to buy and am waiting anxiously until the Apple Store in Albany, NY gets some in stock.
Two months ago I would be here bashing Apple and the new iMac with a large number of other people on this board, but after actually looking at their product I was amazed. The new iMac is actually cheaper to buy than the Sony Vaio I was looking at, yet comes with just as many features and more useful programs, along with a footprint that could fit on my cluttered desk much more easily than the Sony.
I think Apple deserves some credit for creating these Apple stores, and I urge all of the Mac bashers on this board to go and check out the Apple store and see that these “overpriced sculptures” are actually good computers.
After reading many comments regarding the price/performance of the iMac compared to PC, I went to dell.com and looked. Today you can get a base 4300s for $799. Aside from the perceived performance gap due to MHz listings, the feature set compares well to the $799 G3 iMac. Dell scores points for a larger monitor, the iMac has networking, firewire and a CD-RW.
Take the same 4300s and equip it with comparable specifications to the $1299 new iMac, and it will cost you $1432. Move to the next level iMac at $1499 and the 4300s becomes $1601. There are no options to stack the 4300s against the high end G4 iMac (can’t get super-drive). The 4300s still lacks firewire.
What’s the price/performance problem with the unit? It really doesn’t exist when you stop guessing and actually compare. Apple’s most serious problem is that MHz has been used as a performance benchmark for years and it’s hard to sell data bandwidth and chip archetecture to most people.
Still a just Beta Version Unix OS…,
Dear Steve,
Dear Steve (Steve Jobs)I am a Mac-user of 15 years. Without a doubt, I feel that 9.2.1 is Mac’s best OS yet…
I have railed against MS-Dos for 15 years, and Windows versions as well, and against the MS-way of business, way of computing = An Industry-oriented, Procedural-50-different-installs and 30-different-setups-to-get-one-thing-accomplished-OS vs. the Mac, and its 1 or 2 procedure, User-oriented OS.
In 15 years, I have watched the school system be overwhelmed by Windows. So, I also learned to use Windows in order to support students using my courseware and web-courseware. So, I have 3 years of Windows experience (95, 98, ME), now. I am told by most Windows users, that 3 years is not even long enough to get the hang of things… Mac? Well, the miracle of Mac as long as 15 years ago, was I was already doing work on the first day of my Mac purchase, power-using a Mac in a short, exciting 6 months, with no instruction or training of any kind in computers, way back in 1985… So, from the early days, I always accepted that MS-DOS and Windows was more complicated (er, sophisticated, as many Windows users I know like to maintain…), more procedural than Mac. And that is why I have always been in Macintosh. Why I have lways paid a little more to have a Macintosh (my first Mac was a Dyna-Mac, 1985, and cost me $10,000.00). But it was worth it in those days. Using MS-DOS cost 1,000 hours of study time in computer classes, learning Basic in order to draw lines in Lotus 1-2-3, with an arrow key, on a DOS keyboard… I had always wanted to work IN my computer, NOT, ON it… Watching Ms OS colleagues, I figured I got my more than my money back in work-busy time.
So, as a long-time Mac-User (from the first floppy system Macs to 9.2.1), I see the newest OS X as a Unix-mac, not a Mac-unix. Note the capital letters?
I use my Macs with computer-illiterate children and adults, in a digital edcation environment (Macs happen to be computers, but the students don’t feel that using a Mac. And hey! Let’s not tell them, either…). So, it is super important that my students (customers) do not feel their digital environment is complicated to study in, or feels too much like a computer…
That they do not feel the Mac as a computer is the magic of a Mac. It is the defining moment of a Mac. Yes, I know it is a computer geek people… It just does not feel like one… And that feeling is what defines a Mac User from the rest of you (in terms of market share, you is the other 95% of the market)…
Whoooa! Mac OS X changes everything that I have been able to accomplish in a classroom… Well, fatalistically, I bought the Unix-mac Beta version and Unix-mac 10.0… Mac10.1? Mac10.1 Server? Got them too! Hoping against hope… Well, Steve, none of these versions does my work, or the student experience as easy 9.2.1.
SORRY! Mac10.1 probably has a lot of promise and a lot of potential. But when? I have been 15 years with Mac, the computer that doesn’t act like a computer, and it finally evolved to a really good OS in 9.2.1 only to become a completely different animal, making me start all over again???
The Unix-mac just became a great computer, and all that being a computer represents. So is Unix-Linux… What is the defining moment? The Mac was not a computer, it was a digital tool… New Mac-users may never know what they missed. However, this new Apple OS will result in fewer Mac Users… I have now gone backwards in buying my 10.1 OS, to a complicated Unix computer you call a Mac. When will OS X be less a computer? In my lifetime (been using a Mac since I was 35…)?
I have always disliked Windows and Microsoft and what they stood for in the digital world, but Steve, XP is FULLY OPERATIONAL… And Windows users feel it brings Windows Users farther than Windows ever has… XP has gotten EASIER, too! What?! A Windows OS that is easier than a Mac to use? Someone tell me I am wrong…
Never mind Windows… I do a lot of authoring (Hypercard, Hyperstudio) and DTP (Photoshop, Applworks, Word, Illustrator) and internet work (Adobe Pagemill, Golive, Dreamweaver, Freeway), data-base, (Filemaker-Pro) and end-user development, all without any formal computer education, ALL because I use a Macintosh…
Oh, yes, Simplicity? Maintain worries? I maintain a 60 computer digital education environmnet all by myself, without any formal computer education ALL because I use a Macintosh… It took me 60 hours to install and customize 40 DVD iMacs, while it took 7 specialists, 3 weeks to set up a 50 computer Windows 98 classroom that was purchased in 1999. MAC = OS Architectual Simplicity at it best!…
What have I lost in trying to work in 10.1, in Unix-mac?
1. I have lost the Mac as I knew and loved it… The computer that did not act like a computer. That acted the way I acted. It acted like my desk, my room… The computer for the rest of us… The 10.1 Unix-mac experience is the first time I have been forced to see and feel an Apple computer as a computer! For 15 wonderful years, I have never thought and used Mac as a computer… Steve, that was your magic. This is what you gave the world in Macintosh. And is also what you take away with Unix-Mac… Steve, it should have been Mac-unix, not Unix-mac.
2. I lost my application Window. The Dock stinks… Make it a tear off, make it float…
3. I lost my Scrapbook. I lost a super scrapbook program called smartscrap, too with it. The scrapbook is a key concept in the mac interface. The scrapbook made Mac what Windows could never be, easy to use between apps… Yes, copy paste into Appleworks? No thanks. I love that scrapbook concept Mac invented.
4. I lost my computer-literacy… I can NOT read the contents of my Mac (OS X.1) anymore. I have lost control… I used to be able to take my whole Mac system apart and/or replace it part by part, knowing where everything went, and what belonged where. Needless to say, I could read everything in my Macintosh… That meant I could also fix it more easily. I can completely reinstall and fully customize any Mac, any system, running from OS 7.5 to 9.2.1. All in less than 60 minutes, programs, 6gigbytes worth of files, the works… And now? I have not the slightest idea of what I am looking at, looking at OS X… I am back to the Stone Age, in the OS of the future?… I mean bins? Dgms? Pkgs? Get a life? I use an Apple and spend the extra money for a Mac machine and OS NOT to have to put up with computer nonsense such as libraries, bins, Dgms and Pkgs!…
5. I lost my major authoring software on OS X, Hypercard! I cannot record sounds in any authoring programs in OS X. Out goes Mac for educational purposes…
6. I lost SIMPLICITY… If I wanted a Unix, Linux would be the obvious choice in terms of price. I mean, if you are going to get complicated you might as well be cheaply complicated…
Steve, I hope you read this, cause while I think Windows is not the OS I want to work with, I want to work on Unix-mac even less… The new OS X.v.10.1 is not a Mac. Worse, it is still just a Beta Version Unix OS trying to be a Macintosh… And you are still a rich genius. A rich genius who has digitally liberated me for 15 years…
I am longing for a Mac-unix, ASAP…
Too Complicated,
Robert Alagna.
This just happen to hit me today. I work/program around Sun Microsystems hardware/software on a daily basis and though I never really keep up with their latest and greatest of their product lines (other than what I worth with and maintain) I just happen to think that hey you know Sun Microsystems hasn’t even reached 1 GHz yet with their UltraSPARC CPUs yet… and please don’t try to tell me that Sun Workstations and Servers are under achievers, because they are not by a long shot. And do you want to talk about price? Go price your average Sun Machine/Box one time… Apple’s prices are peanuts compared to what Sun sells, but then again Sun Microsystems (like Apple) builds computers that just doesn’t quit, and big companies are willing to pay the price for good hardware. Am I saying PCs are junk, NO of course not! It’s all personal preference, but like alot of Mac users are telling you here, if you don’t want to pay the price for a Mac that is fine, but don’t complain about it!
Oh yeah Sun’s CPU’s (SPARCS & UltraSPARCS) use the similar RISC architecture and concept that Motorola/IBM/Apple use. So you got to ask yourself “why is Intel and AMD pushing MHz when the other guys aren’t?” That is something I like to know! But the bottom line is that MHz doesn’t matter when comparing x86 to PPC and/or SPARC when other issues are to be addressed like when it comes to ‘RISC -vs- CISC’ and other issues that matter!
I like macs and pcs both, but if i had to choose i’d choose a mac. However i’m what they call a starving artist, and can’t afford a mac powerful enough to do what i need it to. What would really, really be the most smartest thing apple could do is play the software game, like microsoft, and make a verson of MAC OS X that runs on intel machines. Or if they don’t want to do that move OS 9 to the intel box, being that they will no longer sale it as the OS. Cool idea yes?
maximus…
>>What would really, really be the most smartest thing apple could do is play the software game, like microsoft, and make a verson of MAC OS X that runs on intel machines. Or if they don’t want to do that move OS 9 to the intel box, being that they will no longer sale it as the OS. Cool idea yes?<<
Though this would be a cool idea indeed (well in someways I guess) it is not in the best interest of Apple or Microsoft. They both know that it wouldn’t help either of them. If you have noticed in the last couple years, these 2 dance around the others market, which is not surprising. They also have a strategic alliance (which is suppose to end next month, but both Apple and Microsoft like how things are going… well other than the DOJ thing where Apple is concerned).
Oh sorry for my typos on my last post… I need to start proof reading I guess 🙂
>”I do believe those things [$799 iMac] just barely run OSX. That’s sort of like saying … “well, you can buy that cheap Pentium II 200MHz machine over there and run Windows XP on it”. It just isn’t going to happen. ”
I’ve seen this same or even similar statements at this and other sites, as the owner of a 333mhz imac 384mb over two years young which is even lower end than those systems. OSX .1 runs just beautiful all my programs runs as smooth as silk so if you’re looking for a reason to say something bad about the MAC or it’s OS look somewhere else. I can’t believe these people, look at the price and specs of these new MACS and what you were getting just a couple months or years ago… I’d say some of you got your heads up you know what. (A little scenario here) Could dell or those other companies even survive with such a low market share if they were put on the spot to revive a waning pc market?
For those who have a DV video camera, and use it and iMovie (or FCP) to make home or small business videos, the new iMac is perfect. These people were running iMac DV’s (just follow the iMovie list for awhile), and some may have bought the top G4, but it was too much for most. This new machine is made for them. The Superdrive is obviously a hot item for videographers, and the Altivec is needed to make viewing the video on the computer screen bearable, but the little, high footprint really helps with the average video desk–covered with VCR, SVHS monitor camera or DV deck, sound amp, tapes, shot lists, award-winning screenplays….
Go to the Dell or Compaq site and try to put together a comparable system. Surprise! It costs as much, and you have to buy your own software and hope it all works together. The iMac just works, folks. Pretend you have to give a man a finished tape tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., or you don’t get paid this month.
Forget Macs.
CP/M machines are fast and stable and cheap, cheap, cheap (if you can find one).
I like the Mac and all, what with its “ease of use” and “smart design” but I just can’t afford to spend more than about $50.
Apple has to start competing for price if it wants to survive.
I just bought a 15 year old Kaypro off my buddy for 40 bucks (including a box of disks.) Apple will have to do more to convince me to buy a Mac.
If I was Apple, I’d have a $50 Mac with Wordstar and a version of OS X without the graphical interface.
I’m all for Macs, but as it stands, all they’re interested in is designing nice computers that are enjoyable to use year after year. Come on, Apple!
>>Apple has to start competing for price if it wants to survive.<<
Do you see Sun Microsystems doing this? That is a big NO!!! Why do you ask?! Because they have branded themselves (like Apple) into a quality company/product that their customers keep going back (most of the sane ones anyway). Helk Sun doesn’t even sneeze in the consumer market’s direction (as far as hardware goes) because the business market they have been marketing and producing for the last 20 years has done just fine for them. Though I can admit I wouldn’t mind seeing them compete pro actively in the consumer market, I doubt it will happen anytime soon 🙁
But you can still purchase from Sun regardless who you are, if you can afford their hardware that is 😐
You make it seem that the articles you link have some common theme about the Mac/Apple disappearing. They do not. Your manner of expression and syntax gives rise to thoughts about whether you actually understand the articles you are reading.
David Pogue in no way questioned the quality of the product or the company’s decision to introduce it. The Cnet article concerned the Time magazine cover as much as the new iMac itself. The author made erroneous negative comments about the ports on the new iMac. 2 Firewire ports and 3 USB seem enough to me and, I think, 90 % of computer users.
Your “article” is poorly researched and reveals glaring confusin or blatant misrepresentaion – I am not sure which. Columbia University and St. Louis University have great journalism schools. You should visit them.
Well, Where do I start? I could say how great my mac plus was (and STILL is), or comment on the quadra 800 that taught me how creative a macintosh can be, But I will just tell you about my current Mac.
It started life as a “PowerPc 7500/100” it was no slouch at the time. But soon the speed of computer chips went whizzing ahead, and I found that waiting for a computer to do something was really uncool… So I started upgrading. First, I needed to know just how far I could go with my Mac. hmmmm… This is an “Old” computer by todays standards. But it has 3 PCI slots, Built in ethernet, audio/video in and out, S video, Dual monitor ports, and a BUNCH of ram slots. Wow, The guys at Apple were really thinking ahead!
So I am typing this post on a 7 year old computer that now has a G3 proc. Firewire, USB, radeon graphics card, Firewire cdrw, firewire 45gb 7500rpm HD, Superdisc, Zip Drive, 2 monitors, miromotion DC30+ video capture card, and a Half a Gig of Ram. (it will run a Gig)
I’m online now with 700k DSL via ethernet through a linksys router.
I have my 4 security cameras plugged into it, and use adobe premiere 6, Photoshop 6, pro tools, Illustrator, Go Live,
Seems the ONLY time it crashes is while using MS IE…. hmmm.
Anyways, My Point?
Apple has not only “thought different”, they have proven themselves by building high quality, solid machines that will last a long time.
And even though I have no need to get the new imac right now, I think I will.
Because Apple has the BEST ALL AROUND PRODUCT in the computer world, and my desk is cluttered with all this computer stuff..
🙂 imho
It seems surprising to me that Mac only has 3% market share, because to anyone woeking in the internet industry its obvious that the, let’s say , “IQ-Hours” put in are a MUCH higher proportion.
In other words, I’m guessing a lot of cheap PCs get bought and sit virtually unused, or used for things of limited consequence, whereas a FAR higher proportion of Macs get used by much more intelligent, influential people.
(Like, say, presidents of the united states)
Frankly, too many companies want to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Thankfully, Apple isn’t one of them. The day they start running their company through a focus-group is the day I go back to using pen and paper. I don’t give a shit how much I have to shell out for a Mac. Notwithstanding the Newton, it’s always been worth it. I live in front of the computer and so the experience better be an aesthetically appealing and creative one. I’d rather suck face with a $20 Mac Classic than stumble my way through the morass that is Dos and Windows, any day. The new iMac is brilliant. It’s not just another pretty face like the Cube. It combines beauty with functionality and will make whatever time you spend using it an enjoyable experience. If you can’t be creative with it, then you’re either dead, or a moron, and you should stick with Dell or get a computer from that lousy cow company. Because if Apple ever goes out of business, then 1984 will be JUST like 1984. Mark my words.
Before attending school found myself asking “What computer will get me thorugh at least 4 years of school?” Laptops were out, too easily stolen and too expensive, and I couldn’t use an iMac due to its lack of a G4 and DVD player. I ended up buying a used G4 466 in July for $1,000, add monitor (although neither flat nor thin) and extra RAM $200. Zoom ahead, add another $110 for a second HD and another $90 for a CD-RW drive and I’ve spent a grand total of $1,400 more or less. If I was to buy a 15 inch flat monitor I’d be paying $250 more. Had the new iMac been out in July (those bastards!) I would now have one sitting on my desk taking up less space and being quite cute and kicking ass. Many of my friends give me a tough time, along with many people I meet (those bastards at best buy mock me, but how eager they were to sell iMacs). But when it comes down to it, who had their computer on for over a month in OS X without a crash while so many other suffered. How many times have I seen people suffer from a cheap PC ?(I live in Gateway Country, talk about your cheap crappy computers, even their employees say so) When it comes down to it “What you pay is what you get.” My parents have the original iMac, which I hated. This new iMac kicks ass, and I hope they get one. Then they can stop bugging me to burn Enya CDs! If you ever want to comvert a PC user show them iTunes or iPhoto. Dazzle them with iTunes visuals (I tell you, somehwere massive numbers of pot heads are loving iTunes visuals) show them how easy iPhoto is. When they ask you where they can get their copy, tell them how out of luck they are. Believe me it cuts them right to the bone.
Joshua
Best Buy is a great example of why PCs are so cheap. They sell crappy computers, make you buy a service plan, and pay a ton for extra (come on, does a USB cable really cost $20? Employee discount is shows it is only $3) Any employee will tell you that they don’t buy the bargin PC at Best Buy.
Ok, so Apple only has roughly 5% market share. What is Dell’s market share? IBM’s? Gateway’s? Although I’m sure they’re probably more than 5% even taken individually (maybe much more?) the point is that Apple’s 5% is not really just up against Microsoft’s 90%. The playing field is not as uneven as it first appears when compared to other *computer* manufacturers not just Operating System manufacturers.
From 1990 to the present, the only brand of computers I bought was Apple. It’s a lovely piece of machine, and I do love it, but when it comes to prices, and all the hype that Jobs does, I think the approach only hurts the company itself. The move, by Apple, will not work, and the new iMac is not even coming close to what I was expecting (it’s just another G4 in a mushroom box, with an LCD monitor). To be honest, the speed increase is not even modest, the shape is just a shape, and the LCD is just another throw in the box (considering that the price for a 15″ LCD has gone down), to live up to the hype that was created. Profit was is what this new box is intended to bring in, but I don’t think that too many new, or old, users will bite into it. I personally, as a college student, would not spend my money on such hype. I know that Apple is trying to keep the education market for itself, but after seeing the new XP system, I think I will be switching to a Windows based system, regrettably. Since Apple has killed the competition, by withdrawing it licensing of the Mac system (few years ago), prices are up again–which hurts many Mac users. That’s the fact, and I hate it!
Although the new imac is on the whole a very nice machine with a good standard spec, i cannot help but notice that it is nothing special in the looks department. The reason the mac is having such a resurgence of late is that the design of the more modern equipment is nothing short of art, the previous version of the imac made a lifestyle statement and could be spotted from a hudred yards by a partialy sighted rhino therefor demanding a second look. the new imac apart from the clever little lolly stick monitor looks very similar to any pc with a crt monitor until you make a closer inspection, gone are the cool colours (a room designers dream)gone is the overall impression that the imac is something new innovative and special and gone are the drop dead gorgeous looks. i feel that this machine is the weekest link in the mac chain, they should have persevered with the cube at least it looked the part.
am I the only one who’s not excited about this iMac G4? I love the fact that it has a G4 processor, I LOVE the price tag, I even don’t mind the desk lamp look (did you really think they were gonna just stack everything to the back of the LCD panel, making it look like a stylish version of a Gateway2000’s all-in-one cheapo machine?), but that damn gizmo called SuperDrive.. I don’t get it. Burning DVDs is a feature that flies 6 feet over my head, and for the rest of its abilities, it’s an extremely slow CD-R/CD-RW drive! Write at 8x, re-write at 4x?! Plus, don’t get me wrong I do understand the concept of a consumer machine, but everything is still soldered, no chance to get rid of that oldish GeForce 2 MX video card (which, by the way, in case Mac users have not been reading much industry news, the G4 towers are equipped with a 2 year old card..), the VGA-out port is still just for mirroring at the same resolution, and the screen is still stuck at 1024×768. Yes, a 15″ LCD panel is like a 17″ CRT, but at 1024×768 that’s just a lot of fat pixels to me, considering MacOS X just takes so much screen footprint with it’s bigger bars, bigger icons, bigger everything.
I like this iMac, but obviously it’s not for me, perhaps I’m asking for stuff that were already available in the 2000 G4 Cube.
I think the new iMac is incredible. Seeing it first hand at an Apple Store, I can honestly say the pictures (while great) do not do the computer justice. You must experience the joy of using one in person to truly appreciate an innovative design. My only concern is how long before the Windows world copies–uh, duplicates–and comes out with one of their own????
Kudos to Steve Jobs and the gang.
I think that the new iMac is Apple’s attempt to makeup for lost points with the Cube. I don’t know or care why the Cube failed, I just think Apple, if it wishes to make money and stay alive as a company, should stop trying to be too inovative. Why? Because, Apples computers only fit into a few niches. The first iMacs, mainly becuse of its price, were their biggest success because its uses fit into more catigories than the G4s and the earlier G3s. Apples approch to personal computing seems to be almost comunistic. Don’t get me wrong, I think macs are the best thing in the whole wide world. I just think that Apple should put a little more varity into their line. I know there isn’t any thing wrong with the design of the standard mac, that is probably why Nintendo decided to put a PPC chip into their Game Cube. And any operating system with unix at its roots beats any Microsoft operating system. I would suggest that Apple, IBM, and Motarola let other computer companies fiddle with the PPC chip design, and that Apple make a G4 triangle or somthing else to add to there line.
In consideration of all the components offered with the new stylish iMac systems, I have to first of all consider its PRICE TAG! Yes, oh yes it is indeed a very stylish package and has a few new bells and whisles to trump upon (a co-worker for the first time has even been considering the purchase of this new model), however there are some fundamental basics that Mr. Jobs (with the greatest of all due respect Sir) misses on its target.
There IS actually a recession in progress, and even if there weren’t, the price tag is most unsavorably TOO high (almost twice the price of the PC market comparitive models) Mr. Jobs (as if he’d be reading this right?). Do not mistake these comments for a tone of ambivalence and negativity, as I have been a LOYAL Mac Man for the last 16 years since the days of my first 512K, and now upon my 5th Mac (G3 PB) and considering a 6th to utilize for my enterprising endeavors.
My biggest stumbling block is ultimately the price, and I have to consciously consider this vs the PC field the the same comparitive bells and whisles in place at the moment. Mr. Jobs, please reanalyze your position of a dwindling market share and note that you could easily gain this back and then some by bringing your nosebleed prices into the current market as it stands into something more leapable in casting out such large chunks of money (Financed or otherwise).
Apple CAN outstand the performance and compatibility by giving ALL the chance to buy one of your hot little morsels (and don’t leave out any of the chunky chips :-D). Apple has a 4 billion dollar cash reserve position, This says that there has been enough price gouging and it IS time to allow ALL of the Masses to afford a Macintosh. All that has to be done, is to bring down the price!
Okay I have given enough compressions upon this company’s bleeding chest… it is either time to call the time of death here (thusly conceeding to that evil Uncle Bill [Gates] or find more inovative considerations to revive this company’s prosperity and future. Hint: Cut the Prices!! My only other solution to this is that I will continue to buy last years models, or rebuilt/renovated reconstructions. This itself should tell all about things to come. Apple will loose out in its Earnings per share on the quarterly reports, if it can not keep this company from bleeding out due to its starchy prices. Sadly I may really have to consider alas, a change in venue towards a PC <sigh>…
Apple does not need to be courting the under $1000 market right now. They had that in their $700 G3 imacs that weren’t selling. THe G4 imac is perfect. It is a massively powerful PC that is small and stylish, just what the creative apple faithful are looking for. J.Ive has created what is possibly the most attractive PC ever and that will draw new apple fans in as well as please the tried and true. I don’t really need a new computer, but because this is so beautiful and has everything I need, mine should be shipping next week. If you want a cheap-o mac get an old imac, they’ll be selling for a fraction of their intro price in about a week. God knows how many G3 chips motorola has lying around that need to be sold pronto.
jmg
I think that the new iMac is Apple’s attempt to makeup for lost points with the Cube. I don’t know or care why the Cube failed, I just think Apple, if it wishes to make money and stay alive as a company, should stop trying to be too inovative. Why? Because, Apples computers only fit into a few niches. The first iMacs, mainly becuse of its price, were their biggest success because its uses fit into more catigories than the G4s and the earlier G3s. Apples approch to personal computing seems to be almost comunistic. Don’t get me wrong, I think macs are the best thing in the whole wide world. I just think that Apple should put a little more varity into their line. I know there isn’t any thing wrong with the design of the standard mac, that is probably why Nintendo decided to put a PPC chip into their Game Cube. And any operating system with unix at its roots beats any Microsoft operating system. I would suggest that Apple, IBM, and Motarola let other computer companies fiddle with the PPC chip design, and that Apple make a G4 triangle or somthing else to add to there line.
Anyone who knows me will be shocked to hear me admit this: I don’t know what to think. For me personally, I’m already saving my allowance (my kids get most of it, so it might take a while)– the elegant use of desk space with great performance wins me over.
But I’m already convinced. I have to use PeeCees at work… they are capable if awkward, and I can get done most of what I need. I will choose another Mac. But I’m not the key audience… I fully expected to buy a new Mac sometime soon, and this is just a good choice for me. ( If I can swing it, I might look to the new G5 as well, to maintain PCI/AGP flexibility.) Yes, they have to keep up the innovation to keep current users happy and to nibble at the Wintel installed base, so this is the right thing to do. And I agree with the argument that there is always a BMW market, so long as BMWs can be used on the same roads. I think the styling is a winner in this generation.
The problem is that Bill is closing in on complete control of people who have to use Wintels at work. With about 90% market share, the box producers can sort themselves out from the cheapie Wang Ho or whatever at $700 to Sony (with real appeal and style) in the BMW class, but Apple has to cover as many of those bases as possible with a much smaller product line. And now with Bill seemingly able to get his lemmings/customers to accept that XP “agreement” (can there be an agreement in a monopoly?), give him all their key personal information for sale, and then to disable the OS if they choose to change or upgrade computers, how can we hope that choice and independent thinking can survive? And now that the government is in bed with Bill (I voted for these guys!!) it looks almost inevitable… it will soon be impossible to do your daily work without accepting the Mark of the Beast on your forehead, or the electronic equivalent.
Yes, I will pay the extra $100-200 over the closest Wintel (not counting Sony, which are roughly equal in price). But many of my younger colleagues who have never worked on a Mac won’t even look at it, and not usually because of the price. Sometimes it feels like trying to get people to use a different kind of electricity or telephone line to even think the choice question through.
I’m stubborn, and I love liberty, choice, and quality, but most people rush to the bottom an accept the first thing that works at the lowest entry-point price. I only wish Apple could cover all the market sectors and wish lists, but they can’t, and in this environment we can only hope for enough open minds for survival in a Bill-centric world. If not, just wait… if you think Macs are expensive today, wait till you see the shape of a post-Apple, totally noncompetitive market!
I sadly own a PC, however, my first computer was a newton.1.Mac’s are easy’er to operate than a PC. 2. Very few Mac’s users have virus problems, or have to buy software to protect thier systems. Mac people seem to be less stressed out about market share, and just have fun useing a easy tool for life’s day to day tasks. The only computer company to have “clubs” to talk about the most recent product or software. I can think of another company that has clubs, its called Harley-Davidson. Harley people and Mac people are nice folks…..don’t dis thier bikes and god forbid…. don’t dis thier mac’s.
Everyone who’s seen me before knows me as an OS-X, and by extension Mac, advocate. I have a sad story to report to any Mac lover, but it is one for grounding people in reality. I own and love my cube, and I know a lot of people who think the new iMac is really neat and worth buying. When my sister’s boyfriend told me his family was buying a new computer, I told him to take a look at the iMacs. His family looked into them, and were pleased with what they saw, but their attention was drawn to a computer system that cost $100 less than the CD-RW version, but had the following:
1.7 GHz Athlon, 256MB DDR Ram, 60GB HD, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive, 17″ CRT Moniter, GeForce2MX graphics card, Flat Panel Speaker System, 10/100BaseT, 56K Modem LexMark Office Printer/Fax/Copier, WordPerfect Suite (didn’t know they made that anymore).
Now here’s the problem. For only $100 more they would have had an LCD with the same capabilities, but a bit faster suhb system and processor. However, they wouldn’t have an office combo printer, and they wouldn’t have office software. If we bring in those features then we are talking an extra $300 at least. So now the Mac costs $400 more. They therefore wanted to know which system I thought they should buy.
The first problem is that the CD-RW iMac isn’t available until February. The second problem is that they wanted to spend around $1500, which is exactly what they are spending with the PC system. So, while the DVD-R system is a great deal, and the CD-RW isn’t bad, it still is more money than they are willing to spend by around $400. Why don’t we move them down to a CRT iMac, or a tower.
Well the towers cost much more than their budget, since they start at $1700, and while the original iMac would definately put them at their price point, it would lack the DVD playback capability, the nice graphics card and it would have a much smaller monitor.
So here is where Apple has their problems. Their new iMacs are great deals, regardless of what people have said before. The problem is that there is no lower end system that isn’t LCD based that would have brought these people into the Macintosh fold. Now, instead they are going to be PC users for atleast the next three years. The conclusion, from my point of view, is that regardless of how well or poorly the new iMacs are priced, without something targeting the ~$1000 market with comparable features and packages, Apple is going to loose a lot of potential new customers who really adore the new OS.
As someone who uses a Mac with X installed, I am seriously debating the purchase of the $1800 model simply to have a video editing setup for others to use in my office. Simplicity itself.
As someone who also manages an NT server with MANY workstations, I can tell you flatly–with computers you get what you pay for. If you seek a bargain basement model of a PC, you are asking for ALL of the trouble you will have. These computers have very poorly designed integrated video and audio on the motherboard and often have driver issues you’ll be VERY lucky if you can resolve after you upgrade any software.
Apple makes the whole widget… and they make FAR better than anyone else out there–anyone.
As of 4 years ago, I had never owned a Wintel or Mac. The only PC I had been exposed to was the Wintel and I considered it frustrating, unreliable, labrynthine and soulless. Then I married into a Mac family.
My father -in -law bought me an early iMac for college studies. No one taught me how to use it and I now troubleshoot WINTELS for my side of the family. In four years I’ve called Apple support no more than half a dozen times while owning 5 Macs.
So, Apple has transformed me into a computer user by making a product that is the polar opposite of frustrating, unreliable, labrynthine and soulless.
The only folks I know who are satisfied with Wintels are proffesionals and geeks (in the most complimentary sense). Note I write satisfied, not happy, enthusiastic or enamored.
I am enamored with the new iMac. It’s freakin’ beautiful.
I feel for those Mac users who have lost a basic appreciation of what Apple does. They ,and self-satisfied Wintel users, are deprived of a small but tangilbe joy.
With Apple’s 3% market share, there remain millions for whom this discovery awaits. Perhaps the new iMac will introduce them.
The AMAZING thing about this Testamonial is that I took the time to write it.
I have used apple computers since the original Apple, I have used other computers from the old 8080, Z80, 8088 days before there was keyboard input. I am the MIS dude at a consulting firm that uses Unix, NT, 2000 & 98 Microsoft operating systems. I have a home network that I use for video editing and production; 1.7ghz XP box, G3 tower on 10.1.2, G4 dual proc. on 9.2.2, TiBook 667 on 10.1.2/9.2.2, iMac DV SE+ 400mhz on 9.2.2. These are tools, and this is what most folks use them as, tools to do a job. 3 years ago I had to fork out $3800.00 for two PCI cards and a middle of the road nonlinear editing program for a computer with an Microsoft operating system. It took days of swapping cards, loading and unloading the software, IRQ conflicts and removal of a video display card to get it to work. The new iMac with final cut pro 3.0 does a better job for $1000.00 less money. It has more processor power than my TiBook, which can’t be upgraded either. As for the $1799.00 cost, look back at the original iMac when it arrived on the scene. The DV edition I purchased was $1500.00, with short memory and a small hard drive. I have used 3rd party equipment with all my boxes, and have NEVER had to call tech support for anything that plugged or fit into an Apple computer. I cannot make the same statement for computers running Microsoft operating systems. We need to decide what tools we need, how we’re going to use them, and get the best we can afford at the time. A lot of high end software tools aren’t available for Apple’s operating system, nor are a lot of the mainstream tools used in business. I know there are programs running on 9.2 etc that will do the same job, but the installed base usually rules corporations out of using those. Apple offers us a choice up front, buy our hardware and run our operating system, which WE optimize for the hardware, or buy anyone else’s hardware and run Microsoft’s operating system. Computer and equipment manufacturers have to build their equipment on what they think Microsoft is going to have out next year, and each one of them has their own way of implementing certain opreations. Comparing only hardware to hardware which is better made, the $1800.00 box or the $799.00 box, which would you rather have to look at day in and day out, those things should be considered also, not just who the manufacturer is. Different jobs call for different tools.
The one thing I never read in these comments, especially from the WinTel folks, is an expression of gratitude to Apple for being the spur that forces MS to update their systems to provide similar services, functionality, ease of use and management on the DOS->Windows->NT->Win2K->XP product line. If Apple had not shown the way, I’d bet that we’d all be looking at the C: prompt today.
Even if you believe that Apple is an arrogant, swaggering, elitist company (and I really can’t deny that statement), the influence on the current state of the desktop is completely out of proportion to Apple’s market share.
Be grateful, you WinTel Luddites, and wish Apple a long and happy life. You’ll continue to be the beneficiary of their brilliance in design and innovative technology. The death of Apple would eliminate a major agent of change – positive change – in your world.
Anyone who says that Apple is simply repackaging the same hardware hasn’t looked at the new iMac’s specs. This is a G4, people! This is what people have been complaining most loudly about. That and they wanted a 17″ screen. Well, the 15″ LCD has the same dimensions as a 17″ CRT. This is a totally new machine.
Also, to those that have said the new iMac will only “barely run OS X”, I’d beg to differ. I had a PowerBook G3/500 with 128MB of RAM (the minimum for X) that ran it adequately. My iMac DV 400 / 256MB runs it quite well. I can only infer from this information that an iMac G4/700 or 800 would run it even better.
This is, of course, only my $0.02CDN.
First off, all the people ranting about Apple hurting with only a 3% user installed base and how they need to fix this with a low price. This is the worst thing Apple could do at this point. Look at all the PC manufacturers bleeding red ink because they bought into this line of thinking. Even Dell’s numbers are down because of the price wars. Apple has wisely avoided entering the price war fray, because they know they’d lose head to head with the PC industry. Apple targets it’s products to specific niche markets. That’s why they’ve cornered the desktop publishing market with over 90% market share, and it’s not because graphic designers are brainwashed either. Colorsync is the main reason so many desktop publishers have stuck with Apple. Windows still can’t guarantee that what a designer scans in is what he sees on the screen and is what comes out of his proofing printer so that when he sends his file to the press his creation looks the same in the magazine as it did off of his printer, and as it did on his screen. Second is Photoshop performance. Adobe is THE standard application that graphic designers use. And using it on a mac is easier, more intuitive, faster in a user experience and faster hardware performance-wise. Therefore, no price war, good margins, profitable computer company. They have close to a 30% market share in the audio industry as well, but over 50% in the high end of it. Logic Audio Platinum is the dominant program, and the reason most users of it insist on using a mac is because the mac version doesn’t crash on you in the middle of a performance! The third market is education. Apple is going head to head with Dell in this market and winning. Why? Number one: it’s got the support of the majority of teachers because they feel more comfortable on a mac, due to it’s simplicity, ease of use, etc. Second, they’re easier to maintain, they cost less in long-term support, and they’re easier to network. Of course, it’s also worth mentioning that Apple provides 10-year support on parts availability, so schools can redistribute and reuse the machines to the end of their usefulness (and beyond their usefulness, schools being schools). Apple is also tearing apart the video-editing market. When Apple introduced Final Cut Pro and digital video on a G4, they began winning bids against Avid machines costing close to six figures! All in all, Apple is doing a great job marketing their product. If you buy a computer because it’s the best price you could get, well, Apple probably doesn’t want you as a client anyway, you should stick with Dell.
The next issue I have is with the claim that there isn’t enough software available on the mac. Most major applications are available on the mac platform, and if a particular title isn’t available, you can bet you can find a competitive product that is available that does the same thing. And, with the new OS X system, a ton of Unix software just became available for mac users. Apple has done a tremendous job with OS X to make it appealing to developers. The API’s and the environments (Carbon & Cocoa) are second to none, and with objective C++ and Java as built-in (yes, built in, compilers and all) languages, it’ll be a snap for developers to make a mac version at the same time as their unix/linux/windows version. In fact, any Java program compatible with Java 2 Standard Edition 1.3 will run no problem, and have the Aqua look and feel to it.
Finally, for all the people complaining about the clock speeds, forget about it. You can’t compare the processors head to head and pick a clear winner. Apple is RISC based, Intel/AMD are CISC based. I’m not going to get into a detailed description of the differences, but in terms of performance, RISC is faster for the majority of simple tasks, CISC is faster on specific more complex tasks. This makes it very hard to provide an accurate comparison. One will clearly win on certain applications or certain benchmarks. And clock speeds are only good for comparing against the same design, ie P4 1.7GHz vs P4 1.4GHz, the 1.7GHz is obviously faster. You can’t compare Intel’s clock speed against AMD’s or Apple’s clock speeds and expect to get an approximation of which is faster. A better quantitative comparison would be the number of floating-point operations per second the processor can acheive. The G4 processor at 500MHz is theoretically capable of over 5 Gigaflops, but more realistically (running a real application) achieves 3 Gigaflops. Intel’s P4 1.7GHz realistically achieves 3 Gigaflops (couldn’t find it’s theoretical capability, sorry). But again, it all depends on what your software is doing. If it uses the calculations the RISC is optimized for, it’s lightning fast. If the majority of the calculations are optimized on a CISC chip, the RISC can’t touch it. So if speed is the be-all and end-all of what the best computer is, you’d better pick your applications before you buy your platform.
According to C. Hunter at NASA Langley Research Center, the Power Mac G4 runs vector computations sveral times faster than do traditional scalar workstations. During evaluation of various systems for simulations in computational fluid dynamics, the G4 was found to enjoy a potetial cost effectiveness (speed/cost) up to eight times higher than other workstations. General info. on the NASA Langley effort is at http://www.larc.nasa.gov.
Apple’s can’t run games? I run Giants: Citizen Kabuto on 1280×1024 with all effects cranked. At the same time, I’m downloading encoded avi’s in the background, decoding them, and converting them to mpg for burning to VCD, and the game doesn’t even hiccup. Of course, that’s with 512MB of RAM.
With so many people concerned that the new iMac may be over priced for the average user, I thought I’d break down some of the components to prove that it’s really not so over priced.
The only two major components on the new iMac of concern are it’s two biggest selling points outside of the G4 processor that’s in that little hemisphere of a case: The LCD screen and the CDRW/DVD-R SuperDrive.
Apple sells the 15″ LCD Screen for a whopping $599 when PC catalogs have similar, although less stylish, screens for between four and five hundred dollars. But either way you look at it, the LCD costs a chunk of change when sold separately.
Now the SuperDrive is another matter, sold only in Apple computers, a PC version of the SuperDrive sells for $499 in PC catalogs and it does have the DVD-R capability, one of the reasons you rarely see one on a PC sold at rock bottom prices is that it costs too much to include it.
So now let’s add up the totals, then.
LCD Screen: $599
SuperDrive: $499 (PC pricing)
iMac: $1799
If you subtract the cost of the screen and the SuperDrive from the cost of the iMac, the actual machine only costs $699. So Apple was able to do what most PC vendors wouldn’t dare do. They put an LCD Screen and an all in one drive into a low cost machine and put it out on the market. And let’s not forget all the software that comes with the iMac that allows you to use the SuperDrive and connect to imaging devices like digital cameras and videocams.
That’s Apple for you, always leading the way.
Then why the hell don’t they sell one that doesn’t have the screen and a CD-RW combo drive for $799? I’ve never argued that the iMacs are over priced, I’m just upset they don’t offer something to prospective PC buyers that is equivalent to what they get on the PC side. Oh and one more thing, AppleWorks should be a standard install for machines, period.
>>Oh and one more thing, AppleWorks should be a standard install for machines, period.<<
AppleWorks is a standard install on all the iMacs and iBooks… unless they have changed that policy since I last saw?!
I guess that is new since I bought my cube…which is entirely possible since that was a year and a half ago.
Trust me I agree with you… I had a cow when I found out that AppleWorks didn’t come installed on my Ti-Book G4, of course I didn’t pay much attention to the bundled software list either. But I was like “look I am paying good money for this machine and I expect AppleWorks to be installed by default!” But the guy at the Apple Store was like well most people who buy the PowerBooks usually pick their own Office Suite. I still think that AppleWorks should be installed on all models, but that is my opinion. I ended up buying AppleWorks 6.2 which was only $79 bucks anyway. I can admit for what you’re getting in the software, it’s a good buy!!!
Of course Mr. Jobs has a Reality Distortion Field. He’s an artist. Bill Gates is an accountant.
Some people like mcgarbage “value” meals, others prefer to dine.
After looking to purchase a new computer for almost 6 months now, I am glad to saw that my new “i-lamp” is on order.
I’d been doing lots (LOTS) of reading and looking and talking to people who own both flavors of boxes (mac/pc) and as a former mac user (think Classic) and a current wintel user, I went for the pricier mac for more than a few reasons:
windows XP has way too many problems…when we bought my nephew a new P4, I downloaded over 40 MB of patches to get security and app problems solved. His box was $1200 without a monitor.
My total for my Mac order was about $1000 more. But…I bought the whole package: APP, office X, a new printer, and other stuff. More money? Sure.
And no I am not rich, but I did want to purchase something that I will be comfortable using for the next three years or so.
My i-lamp will do all of the graphics stuff my PC didn’t do nearly as well. Firewire…USB…DVD-R…
Not to mention a linux based OS.
#1 – I’m getting sick of hearing about Steve’s “Reality Distortion Field” It seems to be an excuse for people who are just too dumb to get it! So be it.
#2 – I’m also getting sick of this whole iLamp thing! First of all, it’s not a lamp, there’s a computer in there. Again, some people just don’t get it.
#3 – There seem to be a lot people who are ticked at Apple for not releasing the newest super-fast G5 … Get over it! Don’t take it out on the the new iMac. You don’t think there’s a new PowerMac waiting in the wing? It’ll have it’s day. just not today.
#4 – Why is everyone so worried and always comparing Apple’s market share with the Wintel world? Apple sells millions of systems every year. In and of itself that is no small feat. They’re doing fine.
I’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out what a Windows box that has all of the features of the new IMac would cost. That includes firewire, flat display, and DVD-RW. It has been very difficult to find a comparable system. Either I’m inept in my search or they are scarce. I welcome any help with this comparison from PC enthusiasts out there. I’d like to know how much money Apple is “stealing” from me when I buy an IMac.
Anyone know the speed on the new iMac’s 60GB HD?
I think we’re forgetting some important things. Sure, I haven’t read all 180+ comments, but none of the ones I’ve read have mentioned what I think are the most obvious and most crucial things to remember about Macs.
1) re: market share. Yes, Bill Gates has been quite successful in his Hitlerian march toward total domination. BUT, there is and always will be a devoted following for Macs, especially within the creative community. Designers of all kinds, audio and video producers (I can’t imagine my life without FinalCut Pro!) and many many others rely on Macs to get their jobs done. Macs have *always* been superior for graphics work and they continue to be.
And let’s not forget schools! I grew up with “Apples for the Students” where the more grocery store receipts you brought to school, the more Macs your school could buy. With iBooks and AirPorts, even the poorest of schools are setting up wireless networks! And since they’re easy to learn, easy to teach, easy to use, easy to maintain and look cool, they will continue to be in many K-12 classrooms.
Gates’ chokehold isn’t as strong outside the US. Apple’s international support is phenomenal, especially under OSX! Macs have supported Unecode for years while PCs are still lacking.
Apple will not be going out of business any time soon. As long as we have designers, kids and non-Americans, Apple will be ok. And think of just how many people 2.9% really is! And one great bonus of being in that 2.9% is that the chances of my little iBook catching a virus are just about ZERO because no one bothers to write viruses for Macs!
2) re: processor speed. I’ve had people ask me, “Why buy a G4? It’s only got a 700 MHz processor and I’ve got a 1.2 GHz P4…my computer’s way faster than your’s!” But in reality, it’s not. The G4 is. Mac processors, while they are measured in MHz and GHz, they are clocked differently than PCs. So a 700 MHz G4 and a 700 MHz P3/4 are not the same speed: the G4 is approximately twice as fast. It saddens me when G3’s and G4’s are dismissed as slow because when I hear the number, I think, “Ok, double that and that’s about the Pentium equivalent…that’s much better.” To anyone who feels compelled to play the numbers game, just watch one of those demonstrations at MacWorld where Steve Jobs sets a Mac and PC to the same task and the Mac is done by the time the PC has gotten through the first two steps. With a little more education, I’d argue that we’d get some converts.
3) re: CRTs vs. LCDs. LCDs are great! Fabulous, crisp picture, which makes a *huge* difference when I’m doing minute color correction in Photoshop. Light, so I won’t throw my back out. And small, which matters lot when you’re balancing a viewing monitor, a DV deck, a stack of DV tapes, and external FireWire drives on the same surface, or even just some books and a cup of coffee! (I know most people aren’t like me, no need to point that out in a rebuttal
) But, you don’t have to buy an LCD! Apple’s not forcing them on people. You can buy a CRT from MacMall or MacZone for a couple hundred bucks, or use the one you have now if it’s still good. If you did that, you’d probably spend around the same as if you bought a package deal from Dell. And you don’t have to buy Apple’s LCDs either! There are other manufacturers who offer more competetive prices.
4) re: the “high” cost of a new Mac. Yeah, Macs are more expensive than PCs, like someone made the analogy that BMWs are more expensive than Ford Focuses. I prefer a Volkswagen vs. Hyundai analogy, though. Yes, they all get the job done, but the higher price (in these cases) is for the higher quality product. The only problems I’ve had with my iBook are the ones I caused myself by tinkering with the system, the many problems I’ve had with my Dell and my IBM before that were utterly random, and in the end with the IBM, unfixable. My friends (who paid under $1000 for a PC desktop) always say, “Man, my computer won’t recognize my new Zip drive” or “Crap! I got a virus!! My whole harddrive is ruined!!” and I laugh to myself (who paid $1300 a FireWire iBook) and think, “I will never have either of those problems…”
But hey, I’m just a little Mac supporter, slaving away in academia drowning in a sea of great Apple machines, so take my word for what you will.
I don’t know about any of you but IF I had a BMW, I’d trade it in for the new iMac. As it is I’ll continue to drive my Hyubdai and save up my money – I’ve got to get one of these!
Quite frankly, as a Mac fan, I was somewhat disappointed with the new iMac. Yet I was reading the reader opinions posts regarding the new iMac on CNet’s review, and was very surprised at the enthusiasm that PC user’s are displaying for this new product. Many are saying this will be the first Mac they purchase. Other’s are saying they used Macs in the past, and are now seriously considering moving back.
Never mind the software capabilities and design features, the main thing this iMac has that the original didn’t: a simple, clean, white color which lends to a positive first impression. I am realizing now that alot of people like the designs of Macs, yet just didn’t care for the candy, toy-like, colors (which I loved at the time).
I believe this iMac will be a tremendous hit. The DVD burning cababilities alone make me want one.
Mac users always prepare themselves for a major letdown after any major Apple event. I’m not sure what they are expecting… total world domination of the PC industry in one fell swoop?
I am a Apple user for more then ten years and love to work with them, but, i am slowley losing faith in Apple. I think the Apple’s getting to pricey and to slow in comper with the wintel machines. And if the new I MAC was a buety, it would be OK to pay this much for a machine but it simply isn’t. I realy realy hope that Apple has something good for us in the near future !!! (a supper fast G5 for $1500.- is a good idea) PS I am dutch so i am a poor englich speller. 😉
I have a beige G3 300MHz Macintosh that I loaded with RAM (768 Meg). OS X.1 works plenty fast for me.
The new iMac G4 is very competetive. The Dell for $799 is for a 1.5 Ghz CPU, the G4 is a 128 bit – twice the throughput. The imac has twice the memory at 256MB and three times the HDD space at 60GB. Both have the same GeForce graphics but the iMac comes with top line LCD display – the dell’s price is just for the big box. The iMac also has the SuperDrive! — that’s DVD recording folks! backup 4.7GB per layer on ONE disc. Record and make DVD movies with interactive movie menus etc. This whole DVD package is worth the price alone. Find a Wintel equivalent piece of hardware along digital edit suites comparable to iMovie, iDvd, iPhoto for that Dell… with an LCD, and one can see that iMac is very comptetive indeed. Oh, and you don’t get Mac OS X. I use XP on my WinTel and it’s nothing special. Sorry. It’s a more advanced Win2000 with a face lift.
I was waiting patiently for MacWorld. You see, I was going to see what was announced, get my children a low end iMac, and finally throw their PC out. (It is a pain to have to go run to them every time it crashes. MY 2 year old now thinks everytime something electronic fusses, you have to reboot it.)
Now — NOW I want to give them my G4 tower, and get one of the new iMacs. It is everything we would want! Larger HD, faster processor, Superdrive. SUPERDRIVE! Comes with the monitor, and all the software I will need, including AppleWorks and some games. A new tower most likely will not come with the same software bundle.
I enjoy iTunes, iPhoto (organizing the nearly 1000 photos I have was a breeze), and hope to eventually get a digital video camera so I can play with iMovie and iDVD. Prices are dropping on those, so it’s possible. Everything runs so nice on my G4, I will never go back to a PC. Ever. I have only had to open up my case once since I got the G4 (an early one — a 400? 450?) and that was to throw a gig of RAM in it. My PC was in constant need of upgrading. Sure, PCs are cheaper, but when you have to constantly upgrade the processor, the OS, the video card, all that, it just doesn’t pay. SO with the money I saved I got myself a nice printer, a decent video camera, great speakers, a graphics tablet, CDRW, etc. All USB and firewire, I swap constantly and have a great time USING my computer without fuss.
Apple is worth every penny and although I will have to wait until the spring to get a new iMac, aren’t good things worth budgeting and saving for? Value, not price speaks to me.
I have been using macs since 1985 and pcs since 1990, for the last few years simultanously. I have been doing all the creative work on the mac and the daily tasks on the pc. Just to see the difference, I once did the opposite, the daily work on the mac and the creative on the pc. The result: Now I am doing both on the mac, the pc is gone and no more headaches. You have to ask yourself one simple question: how much is your creativity worth? A few hundred dollars for a comprimise? Well I own a BMW, I could have spent much less on a chrysler.. You can’t explain quality only with a price difference, you have to feel it, (oh, by the way; remember? the “flopped” cube is still the only computer around working without a chipfan; how much can this be worth?)
I have been using macs since 1985 and pcs since 1990, for the last few years simultanously. I have been doing all the creative work on the mac and the daily tasks on the pc. Just to see the difference, I once did the opposite, the daily work on the mac and the creative on the pc. The result: Now I am doing both on the mac, the pc is gone and no more headaches. You have to ask yourself one simple question: how much is your creativity worth? A few hundred dollars for a comprimise? Well I own a BMW, I could have spent much less on a chrysler.. You can’t explain quality only with a price difference, you have to feel it, (oh, by the way; remember? the “flopped” cube is still the only computer around working without a chipfan; how much can this be worth?)
I’m right there with you man.
To “L”: I’ve had it on good authority that a HD needs to be a minimum of 7200 rpm to use it for video editing and not get stalls and dropped frames, so the iMac must be sporting something this fast or better.
To “Oakar”: IMHO, don’t get caught in the processor speed myth. As buyers we tend to grasp easy numbers to assign value to a product. (Watts in the hifi world, Horsepower in the car world…) Not “real” numbers in my experience. Look at the actual time it takes to render a movie edit, or a photoshop image. It’s about what you can do with the tools at hand, not who has bragging rights for the fastest processor speed number.
BTW: my first ever computer was a used Mac SE in 1989. I paid $1600 for a 25mHz processor based machine… and I loved it because of what I could do with it.
How many times must Apple fail to die before people stop predicting its demise?
Fact: OS X running on a G4 is easier to use and more stable than anything running on a PC of any stripe. Mac is a better machine that seems to cost more than a PeeCee built on the same day.
Fact: Most folks use PeeCees.
Fact: Anything that is good enough for almost everybody, yet is not the best, is mediocre. The new iMac may not be what everyone wants, but it is decidedly NOT mediocre.
Fact: There will always be a small contingent willing to pay a little more to have the best of anything. And Apple has some lower end machines for those who are willing to wait a while for second-best.
Conclusion: For those who don’t understand the superiority of Macintosh computing, or who don’t think it’s worth the difference in price, Dell, Gateway, and Compaq have nice, plain, uninspiring, incrementally improving computers that will do just fine.
For those of us who don’t choose to goose-step to the beat of a Microsoft drum, there is Macintosh.
Finally: Apple’s imminent demise has been reported in the tech media for at least 20 years. That is pure piffle.
I realy want the new iMac with a superdrivebut why did Apple go with the old standard of USB instead of USB2. I know that firewire is great for high speed but it seems to me that a radical new design should not be cumbered with an old standard when the new has been out long enough to be adopted. Especially since this cannot be upgraded.
Also, Please, on the next remake of the iMac, make the graphics card upgradable too. Yes the card this one comes with does rock but what about a year from now?
The myth I would like to dispell for jeremiah256, andre matuch and countless others is that the imac is a low end computer. It most certainly is NOT a low end computer. In the interest of fact, not perceived reality, I visited dell, sony and gateway. Dell’s closest computer has one advantage over the new imac when choosing the same exact specs is that it’s hard drive has 20 more gig. But dell’s damn machine costs $2,195.00. Meanwhile, sony seems to be less flexible in their choices but the closest I could come is $2,800.00. Gateway’s computer, again with 20 more gig of hard drive space is $2,090.00. Note: I choose 1.6mhz pentium 4’s because the bit rates are half as much on them compared to G4s with Velocity Engine. Now, I’m no expert but paying a minimum of $290 for 20 more gig of hard drive space seems like a waste of money. 2nd Note: you can get a portable 20 gig firewire drive, which has a lot more functionality than being stuck to your desktop, for $249 at macmall but, I would pay an extra $150 dollars for 15 less gig and get the most kickass mp3 player/storage device, the ipod.
Somehow, the other fact that seems to be lost on many is that you are looking at huge out of pocket expenses to acquire the software necessary to use winblows computers as digital hubs. And none of it has the intergration of having been developed by the same company. I’m talking about making movies, storing photos and burning either to dvd.
And now that were on the subject of software. Fact, 6 of the top 20 software titles for pcs are programs that come standard, i.e. operating systems or part of the isuite, on the mac. Fact, 3 of the top 20 titles are to keep a pc running or keep it from getting attacked by a virus. Fact, 3 are games, 2 of which are available on the mac. The nonsense of software not being available for the mac is just that, nonsense.
I hope I’ve made some salient points here. Take heart macaddicts. PC users are shaking in their boots otherwise what’s all the hub bub about?
MacManus
The new imac G4 looks pretty interesting. Will it dethrone wintell? Of course not. But I like it a whole lot and will start saving my pennies.
Years and years ago I bought a new kind of computer called Macintosh. It was a lot of fun but suffered from some teething problems. Jobs was adamant that the machine shouldn’t have a cooling fan and consequently a number of them toasted their power supplies. I hope this time Apple really has it all engineered correctly.
After using wintell boxes for years, I’d like to try an apple again. How many times have I looked at Billy Gates’ stupid blue screen telling me I haven’t shut down windows correctly? If I had a dime for each occaision, I’d be buying one of those new imacs no problem…
I for one am glad there is an Apple. I use Macs, but I also use Windows, and every time I sit down in front of a Windows box I’m silently glad there is an Apple.
I think Jobs, Ive, Tevanian and the rest of the Apple corps understand that they can’t and won’t win the PC war. Can you win with the “digital hub”? No. But what they can do, and what they have done, and what they continue to do, is to define the future of Personal Computing.
It’s no coincidence that less than 24 hours after I downloaded and installed iPhoto, my wife was emailing pictures of our cat to friends and relatives, whereas before she treated the digital camera as a neat device with a cute little screen. The Mac not only supports but indeed defines what we will use our computers for in the future… and I’m not talking about Microsoft Office.
I think Jobs is happy to be the Robert Altman of computing, letting Gates be the Jerry Bruckheimer. Isn’t defining the future winning?
Those who have read the Lord of the Rings with sufficient intelligence enough to decipher it and relate them to our present struggles should be able to understand that those words of wisdom are really Mr.Tolkien`s prophesy of the future: the eventual triumph of apple over the windows.
One ring* to rule them all, One ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
*one ring = windows
Song of Apple
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
PC User’s Riddle
Seek for the Sword* that was broken:
In Imladris it dwells;
There shall be counsels* taken
Stronger than Morgul-spells.
There shall be shown a token*
That Doom is near at hand,
For Isildur’s Bane* shall waken,
And the Halfling* forth shall stand.
Hints for the brainless:
*sword = macintosh
*counsels = macworld expos
*token = pc’s gigahertz myth
*Isuldur’s Bane = the one ring
*Hafling = the new imac
Opening your mind will make all of these evident even if you have the tiniest brain ever. After all, the Queen Galadriel have spoken, “Even the tiniest person in the world can change the course of the future”.