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New iMacs Still Expected to Ship in November-December

Monday November 19, 2012 5:27 am PST by Arnold Kim
Last week, a report from french site MacBidouille claimed that Apple may not be shipping their new iMac until early 2013, despite Apple's official promises that the new iMac models would ship before year's end.


9to5Mac now reassures us that Apple's original plans are still intact for the iMac. The new 21.5" iMacs are said to already be shipping to distribution centers, while the 27" iMacs are due in December. Supplies, however, are likely to be very short through the rest of the year.

Apple continues to list November and December availability dates for the new iMacs in their online store. Pre-orders are not yet available but are expected by the end of November.

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Hakone
87 months ago
November-December of what year? =P
Rating: 19 Votes
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Spink10
87 months ago
Bring on the 27inch
Rating: 9 Votes
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Jetson
87 months ago

I remember all the whining when the first Macs came out without a 5.5" floppy drive, and iMacs came out without a floppy drive, and cars came out without running boards, cassette or 8-track tape decks. Change is enevitable as stuff continues to get old and replaced. It eventually happens to everything and everyone.

Whining???

People still need to use optical media to transfer commercial content. NOT ONE COMPANY puts commercial content on USB sticks, but on CDs and DVDs. They are NOT obsolete.

Your solution is that we shell out additional money for an unsightly stand alone optical drive so that our super expensive "all in one" computer now can access commercial content.

It makes no sense, except that you are trying to justify Apple's decision here.
Rating: 9 Votes
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wmikulic
87 months ago

You know, at first I whined a little about the absent optical drive...


My son has been using a first generation Mac mini and needed a new computer. As soon as the "new" iMac was announced with no optical, we went to the nearest Apple store and bought the current iMac. There's just too many school assignments where the product has to be turned in on CD or DVD and I'm a believer the optical should be part of the computer. I've owned iMacs since the original tube screened one, and not once has a desktop's thickness been an issue for me. What a great business model, remove features so people have to buy add-ons. Maybe they should remove the hard drive/SSD so they can charge extra for that too?
Rating: 9 Votes
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Jetson
87 months ago

I agree that depending on your needs, you're not going to want to lose the optical drive. However, is it that bad to just use a USB drive? It's worth sacrificing the built-in drive in order to have the latest chipsets for the exact same amount of money.

Some of us still want to obtain and use commercial content on optical media - CDs, DVDs.

There is ZERO commerical content on USB sticks, whereas there is still a thriving CD and DVD business. Optical drives are NOT obsolete.

Just becaue YOU (in the general sense) don't use one doesn't mean that others don't need one.
Rating: 8 Votes
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I8P'CS
87 months ago

I agree that depending on your needs, you're not going to want to lose the optical drive. However, is it that bad to just use a USB drive? It's worth sacrificing the built-in drive in order to have the latest chipsets for the exact same amount of money.



You would have the latest chipset regardless of removing the OD. Apple has been given latest chipset from 2010. Also agree with his statement remove OD then say buy external. Most people will buy Apples external drive meaning more money on a product that the price has already been increased compared to previous years.
Also the point of a AIO is to avoid clutter on your desk as Apple use to say. Now people are willing to disagree with that just because Apple say so. SMDH

I understand some people don't mind being mugged/ripped of but smart people don't. Yes Apple products have a great design and premium but doesn't mean you move like a zombie or sheep defending blatant money making tactics.
Rating: 7 Votes
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CausticPuppy
87 months ago

too much turmoil with these guys.


Are you referring to unsubstantiated rumors from questionable sites that (unsurprisingly) turn out to be false?
Rating: 6 Votes
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Jetson
87 months ago

Usage of optical drives is WAY down. At what point does a manufacturer decide that so few people are using a feature there's no point in including it?

My last computer, abandoned about a month ago, included a parallel printer port, PS/2 mouse & keyboard sockets, and a 3.5" floppy drive. These are, or were, major industry standards for which some people still have a use for. But why, oh why, was Dell still including them, wasting money and space for >99% of customers? Heck yeah remove deprecated features - and let those tiny numbers who still need 'em buy add-ons. Buried in my techno-junk boxes I've got PS/2-USB adapters and a floppy-USB drive; I sure don't want 'em built in any more ... and considering how little I use optical media, I don't want to waste some 15 cubic inches on it.

:apple: in fact keeps its edge by dropping features more aggressively than most companies. They keep a pretty tight reign on what is supported, thus making sure what is supported works well and does not contribute to lethargic obsolescence. Do you need a parallel printer port? PS/2 connectors? RS-232 (25- or 9-pin)? VGA? a dozen other flavors of video output? 3.5" floppies? 5.25"? Zip drives? multiple drive bays from "laptop" 2.5" to "full-height" 5.25"? 3" optical? Firewire? CD/DVD? At what point should a manufacturer, controlling costs & features, decide enough customers don't want something that it should be dropped - even though a small number will be annoyed in the process? And at what point should a manufacturer, wanting to guide the industry to a favorable future, take something away to encourage customers elsewhere?

Apple didn't drop the SuperDrive because it was obsolete. They dropped it because it got in the way of their "everything must be wafer-thin" paradigm.
Rating: 6 Votes
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JHankwitz
87 months ago

Thinner design, less materials, lighter, cheaper shipping cost, no optical drive ..shouldn't all this add up to a lower price or at least the same rather that more expensive?:(


Right, and for the same reason a Lamborghini Aventador should cost less than a Ford 150.
Rating: 6 Votes
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ctdonath
87 months ago

The future still requires duping a [movie] digital master onto physical drives and postal mailing or sneaker-netting them to clients, networks, and sat uplink providers because it is an easy way to guarantee more security over your product submission.


And it's also an edge case involving very large amounts of data, harking back to the old saw "never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magnetic tapes."

Rating: 6 Votes

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