Has Tim Cook lost the plot?

Faustus

Faustus

Faustus

Soldato
Joined
20 Mar 2007
Posts
5,413
Apple have launched a cheaper iMac though many are calling it a Macbook Air behind an iMac screen.

The spec is pretty paltry to say the least as it uses the Air CPU. One of the boasts for the iMac is they have always had a reasonable spec, however, this new one bucks that trend.

I can't help but think that making a cut price poorly spec'd iMac simply devalues the brand.
 
bloodiedathame said:
It's a cheap all in one desktop aimed at people who want to use it for not a lot more than browse the web without being stuck to a laptop or tablet. Makes sense to me.
Click to expand...

How does it make sense. The Macs have always sold themselves as a premium product, going down market hardly ticks that box.

rhysduck thinks the spec is decent which begs the question what would he consider bad?
 
it's an odd spec. Dual Core 1.4GHz ULV Laptop chip. OK so it turbos to 2.7GHz, but it's no powerhouse. It's less than half as quick as the previous bottom of the range iMac which runs a full-fat quad i5 desktop CPU.

AND THEY'VE BLOODY WELL SOLDERED THE RAM IN AGAIN. Grrr.

It will be slower than the MBA it's based off as it's got a mechanical hard drive. It'd be fine for undemanding use (eg my Mum), but I'd recommend finding the extra cash for the proper CPU version as it'll give longer service.
 
Last edited:
bloodiedathame said:
It's a cheap all in one desktop aimed at people who want to use it for not a lot more than browse the web without being stuck to a laptop or tablet. Makes sense to me.
Click to expand...

But its not cheap its £900, and for that you get a Low voltage laptop CPU, no dedicated GPU, a 5400rpm HDD, and none user replaceable ram, with a 1080p display. Its pretty bad for the price, at least with the Air you get awesome battery life and other advantages over windows counter parts, but with this its just OSX and I don't feel OSX is worth enough to warrant such bad specs for £900.
 
MagicBoy said:
it's an odd spec. Dual Core 1.4GHz ULV Laptop chip. OK so it turbos to 2.7GHz, but it's no powerhouse. It's less than half as quick as the previous bottom of the range iMac which runs a full-fat quad i5 desktop CPU.

AND THEY'VE BLOODY WELL SOLDERED THE RAM IN AGAIN. Grrr.

It will be slower than the MBA it's based off as it's got a mechanical hard drive. It'd be fine for undemanding use (eg my Mum), but I'd recommend finding the extra cash for the proper CPU version as it'll give longer service.
Click to expand...

Have to agree - a real case of a sheep in sheep's clothing.
 
Agreed. If it was the same price as the MBA they might have point. Needs to lose a couple of hundred quid.

Best thing I can say for it, is at least they've had the sense to use a 5000 series GPU part. It's about the only explanation I can see for using the ULV chip.
 
Last edited:
It's probably an inventory clearing / keeping schools happy initiative. It's not like it's replaced anything higher up the range.

They should come with SSDs as standard though.
 
They don't refresh the ranges every two weeks, but when a product line is new they are often amongst the first to get new chips in. To be honest, if a Macbook Air CPU has enough grunt for office apps then I'm not seeing the issue at all. It's a cheapish all in one system with a good display on it and decent build quality.

You could probably swap my work laptop out for something with the equivalent beans of an iPad Air and I wouldn't notice. It's literally a tool to remote into other systems and look at web pages.
 
Last edited:
Beerbaron said:
Don't Apple tend to use older spec hardware anyway?
Click to expand...

No. They can keep existing models in production for longer. The CPU in this machine was launched this quarter, it's just a 15W laptop part designed for something like the MacBook Air.

Apple get good supply of the bleeding edge processors from Intel, often before the massive PC OEMs.
 
8GB is plenty for almost all use apart from serious photoshop or render work.
 
Don't see the problem with this. If you want a premium product then there is one and if all you want to do is email, web browse and word process then this is all you need.
 
So you would be interested in owning a premium brand that then becomes diluted by the manufacturer taking it down market to give it more mass market appeal? Most business schools would say that was a crazy thing to do.

Surely Apple already have a segment in this part of the market with the Mini? The bench marks for the new 'cheap' iMac are pretty paltry to say the least.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom