Refreshed iMacs inbound

[b0rn2sk8]

An SOC doesn’t necessarily mean is has to have the ram on the same package. ‘M1’ is just marketing at the end of the day and Apple is free to package the chips as they see fit.

A series chips have the ram off package for example. It’s like that because of space constraints in something like a phone. Putting it on package makes that package too big.

As already stated, there are no ram chips that will fit on package that are bigger than 16gb. If they want to offer more than 16gb than is has to be off package.

They could offer sodim like the current iMac or they could solder it like the MacBook Pro. That’s their choice.

Personally I’d expect regular iMacs to come with soldered ram going forward. The lower end iMac small will likely just be an M1. It’s cheaper to produce and they can charge more to do it that way.

 

[Squink]

Thanks for clearing it up - the reading I'd done (I'm not technical) made me think that SoC-and-RAM on the M-series were an inseparable part of the design.

Soldered RAM on the iMacs would be a very, very cheap move.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I’m afraid that is the Apple way.

In reality most people chuck in what ram they need when they buy it (either directly from Apple or immediately after) and call it done. Apple know this and they’ll want that pie for themselves. They also know people will moan but buy it anyway.

To be honest, I wouldn’t moan if the ram upgrades were sensibly priced, but there not.

 

[Squink]

To be honest, I wouldn’t moan if the ram upgrades were sensibly priced, but there not.

This is it. 8gb to 16gb at £100 would be expensive but wouldn't make the buyer feel like they've been ripped off. And 8gb to to 32Gb at £300 would likely tempt someone who would otherwise stick at 16gb RAM. I'm sure Apple have bean counted it down to the cent, but it's hard to put a cost on bad feeling amongst your customers.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Yup, I just don’t know where they get £300 from, it costs a fraction more to plug in different ram and given how few SKUs Apple actually have they probably just pre build them anyway.

Going from 8gb to 32gb shouldn’t cost more than £180 even with the Apple tax in 2021.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

I would be shocked if Apple have non-soldered ram on the M* iMac, they will want them as completely sealed and wafer thin units for aesthetics. They will no doubt push the 'compatability, speed and everything else' angle of not allowing non OEM parts also.

You could even make an argument they wont have an iMac with 32gb ram etc, they will want to push those users into a Mac Pro.

iMac/Macbook (8c 7g) for the every day PC user, school, business and so forth.
Macbook Pro/Mac Mini (8c 8g), the person who pushes their PC that bit more with video editing and so forth.
Mac Pro for the 'enthusiast'

Maybe an iMac Pro at some point in the future.

 

[HACO]

Yup, I just don’t know where they get £300 from, it costs a fraction more to plug in different ram and given how few SKUs Apple actually have they probably just pre build them anyway.

Going from 8gb to 32gb shouldn’t cost more than £180 even with the Apple tax in 2021.

Apple prices upgrades on net margin goals they have from their products, e.g. if they want a 40% margin from the iMac line, and they set a baseline price for a baseline config that's maybe at 27% margin, and they have a good estimate of distribution of configurations that will be ordered, upgrades have to be priced so that it will bring that overall margin up to their desired target. It has nothing to do with their cost.

This is in contrast to the pricing model where you set the same margin for all configurations and keeping it consistent with upgrades.

I would be shocked if Apple have non-soldered ram on the M* iMac, they will want them as completely sealed and wafer thin units for aesthetics. They will no doubt push the 'compatability, speed and everything else' angle of not allowing non OEM parts also.

You could even make an argument they wont have an iMac with 32gb ram etc, they will want to push those users into a Mac Pro.

iMac/Macbook (8c 7g) for the every day PC user, school, business and so forth.
Macbook Pro/Mac Mini (8c 8g), the person who pushes their PC that bit more with video editing and so forth.
Mac Pro for the 'enthusiast'

Maybe an iMac Pro at some point in the future.

Good point, I think the smaller iMac will be airtight (like the MBA) and fanless, with no moving parts.

 

[Squink]

I was hoping for an iMac with 12c/12g and 30” screen at sub-2k. The one thing you can guarantee with Apple is that they are absolutely NEVER more generous with their specs than you’d hope or expect, so no doubt the base 30”-ish inch will need another £400 spending on it for RAM and storage.

I’ve been on the border of committing to MacOS for ages, but I can see I’ll just end up buying another PC with the 2 grand or so upgrade money I have burning a hole in my pocket.

 

[HACO]

I was hoping for an iMac with 12c/12g and 30” screen at sub-2k. The one thing you can guarantee with Apple is that they are absolutely NEVER more generous with their specs than you’d hope or expect, so no doubt the base 30”-ish inch will need another £400 spending on it for RAM and storage.

I’ve been on the border of committing to MacOS for ages, but I can see I’ll just end up buying another PC with the 2 grand or so upgrade money I have burning a hole in my pocket.

Agreed. I think base larger iMac will be at least 12c/12g and sub-£2k, but with low Ram and SSD. Once you upgrade those (and maybe go to a higher tier CPU/GPU), you're looking at £2500-3000.