Amid rumors and hints of a forthcoming update for the iMac, supplies of Apple's current 27-inch iMac continue to dwindle with mid- and high-end stock configurations now seeing shipping estimates pushed back into September.
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The 27-inch iMac has seen tight supplies and extended shipping estimates for months now, but the situation has been gradually worsening to the point where new buyers can now expect to wait nearly two months to receive their machines.
Rumors of an imminent iMac update date back to March when reliable leaker CoinX indicated that one was coming "soon." A few weeks later, word of a new 23-inch iMac coming in the second half of the year surfaced, while Bloomberg's Mark Gurman noted that a "substantial" iMac refresh potentially including a redesign would be coming later in the year.
As WWDC approached, occasional leaker Sonny Dickson claimed that a redesigned iMac with "iPad Pro design language" would be arriving at the conference, but it failed to materialize, leaving considerable uncertainty about when we should expect an update to arrive.
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Lurking in the background is Apple's transition to Apple Silicon in its Mac lineup, as noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that a redesigned 24-inch iMac will be one of the first machines to make the move, and Apple announced that the first Apple Silicon-based Macs will be released before the end of the year.
Kuo also said that the current Intel-based iMac will get one more update in the third quarter of this year, which would be between now and the end of September, and we have in fact seen a recent Geekbench benchmark for an apparent unreleased iMac equipped with unreleased Intel Comet Lake-S and AMD graphics processors.
So when will we see the next iMac update? It's hard to say at this point. We've heard no specific rumors of an update coming in the very near future, but with Apple rumored to be releasing an Apple Silicon-based iMac before the end of the year, it would seem this last Intel version should come sooner rather than later. Even a refresh right now would leave a relatively short update cycle unless the Apple Silicon-based iMac coming at the end of the year is intended to be sold alongside Intel-based models during a transition period.
Top Rated Comments
“ERMAGRRRRRD SHIPPING DATES SLIPPED NEW IMAC COMING”
“WWDC IMAC COMING”
“AAAAAAARMMMMMM IMAC RAWR”
::Insert inaccurate Jon Prosser tweet here::
“SHIPPING DATES SLIP AGAIN IMAC IMMINENT BUT DON’T BUY NEW ONE COMING LATER SO DONT UPDATE ARMMMMMM”
Ad nauseam.
So over it at this point. I’m probably just going to go Windows... Lol actually no. I’ll just complain, but then rejoice in excitement whenever Apple ends the cockblock of the century and releases a redesigned iMac.
I opted for a 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM. And god, it was not worth the over $2k. The 5K screen is awesome but everything aside from that just feels exactly the same. The performance is really, really disappointing. It stutters under my graphic design and music production workload. It is not smooth.
This is not a fun waiting game... anyone who needs an iMac is getting "DON'T BUY" screamed in their ears but with no real end in sight.
1.) Another update to the 27" iMac in it's current 2012-era design with 2009 bezels/front face ?
2.) A 23 or 24" all-new ARM-based iMac in the fall as a replacement for the 21.5" entry level and just powerful enough to entice prosumers that would typically opt-for a 27" iMac
3.) An ARM-based replacement for the 27" iMac in late-2021/mid 2022 that is 29-32" with the power to meet or more likely exceed historical Intel performance
Basically, anyone holding out hope for a redesigned 27" iMac should probably be prepared to wait yet another year or more. Hopefully the benefits of Apple Silicon in a desktop form factor will be worth the wait.