Tim Cook Would Have Preferred to Announce the New iMac in January

During the Q&A portion of today's earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about the number of product releases in the fall of 2012 and whether he wished Apple had done things differently.

His answer was somewhat revealing, as Apple is usually hesitant to disclose internal discussions and deliberations, but Cook said that looking back, he would have delayed the release of the new iMac until 2013 to avoid some of the delays that many customers experienced after ordering a new Mac.

newimac.jpg

I don't spend a lot of time looking back except to learn from it. If we could run it over, I'd announce the iMac after the turn of the year. We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product.

Apple's new iMacs, first announced in October, experienced significant delays in shipping, presumably due to the thinness of the machine. The displays required a new manufacturing process along with advanced welding techniques, causing some customers to wait for weeks before receiving their orders.

During Apple's Q1 earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that the iMac was constrained for the entire quarter, resulting in a "significant shortage".

The above quote is from a rough transcript of the earnings call

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Expected to Release iOS 18.3 Next Week With These New Features

Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones. Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3. Notification Summary Changes Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries Apple Intelligence...
Apple Pay Walmart Feature

Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.

Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today. A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes. The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
truecaller

Truecaller iOS Update Rolls Out Real-Time Caller ID Support

Wednesday January 22, 2025 2:07 am PST by
Popular caller ID app Truecaller is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers. Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely retrieve information about a caller from their servers, hence today's Truecaller update. iPhone users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature by going to Settings ➝ ...
iPhone 17 Air Size Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With Rear Camera Bar Allegedly Shown in Leaked Photo

Tuesday January 21, 2025 12:46 pm PST by
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model. The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Launching This Year With These New Features

Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device. The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
iPhone SE 4 Single Camera Thumb 3

iOS 18.3 Leak Provides Clue About iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and iPad Air 7 Launch Timing

Wednesday January 22, 2025 9:39 am PST by
New information has surfaced that indicates the rumored iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and new iPad Air models are nearing launch. A private account on social media platform X today revealed that iOS 18.3 or iPadOS 18.3 will be preinstalled on all of those upcoming devices when they are released. It is still unclear exactly when the devices will launch, but this information suggests that Apple will...
iOS 18

5 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.3

Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...

Top Rated Comments

patsfan83 Avatar
153 months ago
So Mac Pro users haven't waited long enough?
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eric/ Avatar
153 months ago
I'm surprised he didn't mention Maps.

How long ago was Maps released? Why are people still complaining about Maps? It's not even a big deal. Don't like it, download one of the other billion map applications.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
acorntoy Avatar
153 months ago
It would have been interesting if they went along with that plan... although delaying them until 2013 would have put nearly a two-year gap between releases...

Not that the 2011 iMac is anything to sneeze at! My 27" baby is still running very strong since I got it almost two years ago! :)

My 2009 is still running perfectly as well.

----------

Wow, so he would've delayed a product that was perfectly fine and ready to go? Somebody please get rid of this guy for good.

But it wasn't. Supplies were significantly constrained. But let's just keep attacking anybody that isn't Jobs :rolleyes:
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pirg Avatar
153 months ago
One thing is for certain. If Tim cook is ever ousted, apple has their pick of capable future ceos right here on macrumors. Amazing how so many capable people have found themselves here, huh?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Elijahg Avatar
153 months ago
By the way, I've had a few conversations with the techies who will have to repair the new iMacs when, for example, a hard drive goes south.

I completely agree with you, Apple seems to be getting rather OCD about shaving off another 0.Xmm just for the sake of it, which is completely unnecessary on a desktop. When was the last time you heard anyone say "I wish my iMac was thinner"...?

It's pretty ridiculous too that they have to use an expensive and slower mobile CPU and GPU just so they can save a few millimetres... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't loose any sales by having perhaps an internal PCI slot with the GPU in, which would have fitted in the older aluminium design no problem. How about user-upgradable RAM too? What happened to that?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rdlink Avatar
153 months ago
Wow, so he would've delayed a product that was perfectly fine and ready to go? Somebody please get rid of this guy for good.

Definition of a product that's ready to go: I click order, and they assemble it and ship it to me in a reasonable amount of time (under three months). It was not "ready to go."

There's more to releasing a product that you want to sell than designing it. You need to be able to supply it to the customers who buy it.

It was a mistake to announce it before it was ready to ship in any quantity. Glad he owned up to it.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)