Why the iMac is late
Where was the new iMac that Apple watchers expected Steve Jobs — or rather, Phil Schiller — to unveil at Macworld?
In a report to clients issued Monday, Kaufman Bros.' analyst Shaw Wu says it will be out before March, or June at the latest, and he offers three reasons that the refresh of Apple's best-selling desktop machine is running behind schedule. According to his latest supply chain checks:
- Apple hasn't yet decided whether to power the new iMac with Intel quad-core processors or newer dual-core processors with larger caches. "While quad-core would provide a material improvement in performance and potentially jump start sales," he writes, "it could cannibalize the Mac Pro, its high-end tower."
- Apple computers tend to run hot, and the iMacs vents and cooling systems may need to be redesigned, he says, "to deal with higher heat dissipation."
- The timing of Snow Leopard — the next-generation Mac OS X announced by Steve Jobs last June but still without a firm release date — could be an issue. "While Leopard would take advantage of multiple cores," he writes, "Snow Leopard takes it to the next level with better support for multi-core, multi-processors, and OpenCL, with enhanced graphics capability."
Wu points out what last week's earnings report made abundantly clear: Apple's desktop machines are due for an overhaul. The company's desktop business was down 25% year-to-year in the quarter that ended in December. Only boffo sales of the MacBook and MacBook Pro — up 34% — saved its Mac numbers from going south last quarter.
Wu is sticking with his Apple (AAPL) price target of $120 a share, which as he points out is 11 times free cash flow earnings for the calendar 2009, by his estimate, but only 7.5X if you exclude Apple's enviable $28.1 billion cash hoard.
I have my money ready to buy a quad core iMac running OS 10.6. The G5 iMac is so slow running a couple of apps at one time.
Jobs has a thing about fan noise – despises it. So, Apple always pushes the envelope to run w/ no fans or, worst case, run w/ quiet fans.
Also, since Apple doesn’t sell cheap, slow, low temp PCs (excepting the fanless Mac Mini and Apple TV), its processor speeds are skewed toward the high, hot end.
Posted By pk de cville
The aluminum iMacs have 3 quite fans, in order of size:
1. Hard Drive Fan (smallest)
2. Optical Fan
3. CPU Fan (largest and it should be called CPU and GPU fan because it cools both CPU and GPU heatsincs which is right next to each other).
Each fan have separate sensors so if you want to see what temperatures your getting you can go to http://www.bresink.de/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html and download this free temperature monitor utility.
It also depends on what you are comparing it with… other manufacturer's all-in-one like HPs, maybe other Macintosh lineup like the Macbooks, MBP or even MacPros? If compared with Mac laptops when touching the bottom of MBP and the plastic back on iMacs, the iMac wins which I also think is way colder than my homebuilt windows PC with 4 large and loud fans.
Compared to all the machines I've owned which include laptops, if you compare temperatures by sensor monitor, by touch and the amount of hot air coming from the machine, the iMacs will be among the colder running machines.
@sbjforever
Check out Apple's last fiscal quarter results, no recession here. And Apple certainly doesn't care if the world is in recession, people will still buy there products.
when you buy a mac, you are basically running a mainframe. Puts out a lot more heat then the pocket calculators packaged in many laptops. The fact that the fan comes on so rarely is a testament to good design, not poor design.
I think they'll update iMacs wen introducing Snow Leopard.
Why? Because they want the OS to be using as optimal as possible the hardware possibilities. And Snow Leopard has something for this Grand Central.
"Is there a particular reason why Apple computers tend to run hot? Poor cooling design in general across the Mac product line or just iMacs? An OS that makes the processor work harder?"
Jobs has a thing about fan noise – despises it. So, Apple always pushes the envelope to run w/ no fans or, worst case, run w/ quiet fans.
Also, since Apple doesn't sell cheap, slow, low temp PCs (excepting the fanless Mac Mini and Apple TV), its processor speeds are skewed toward the high, hot end.
My vote is also with #3.
It would be rather late to still be arguing over the CPU set. That is too major a design issue.
I think that either:
1- they are waiting on some GPUs from NVidia, or
2- they may have hit some last minute snags in Snow Leopard.
I firmly believe that the iMac will have architecture designed to take advantage of Snow Leopard's technology, and they want announce their performance numbers only with the new OS.
Please fasten your seatbelts!
@Constable Odo
IF they do run hot (I am not sure where that claim comes from – other than the mind of Wu), so IF they run hot, my guess would be it is because Apple's design team is always pushing the limits. If you want a beautiful sleek enclosure, then there are tradeoffs. Apple recognizes the tradeoffs and engineers them to reasonable levels – but perhaps at the limit.
@tog
If image processing is your thing – then DO DO DO wait! Their new iMacs will probably have heavily beefed up GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) that , combined with Snow Leopard, will give you exceptional increases in graphic/video speeds.
Tog in Cherry Hill – good luck with the switch! Our family did, and we now have 6 Mac laptops and one PC. We have a Windows partition on two of the Macs, which has proven more than adequate for our needs. My older son uses both OS's regularly at college, I hardly use my Windows partition anymore. My younger son is still attached to a Windows PC (sigh). I do hope that Apple releases Snow Leopard soon – if expanded availability of quad core systems comes with it.
Is there a particular reason why Apple computers tend to run hot? Poor cooling design in general across the Mac product line or just iMacs? An OS that makes the processor work harder?
Anyone have an answer for that statement? A machine as well designed as the MacPro seems to be, I would figure it would run very cool.
I'll lean to Snow Leopard. Aside fromthe personal annoyance of buying a mac only to have to buy and install a new OS in 3 months… It would be nice for apple to introduct a new multi (2 or 4) core machine with an OS optimized to take better advantage of said processor…
Change:
but only 7.5X is you exclude Apple’s enviable $28.1 billion cash hoard.
To read:
but only 7.5X if you exclude Apple’s enviable $28.1 billion cash hoard.
ex ped: Done. Thanks.
I've been looking to make the switch for a while. Either of the new Intel chips would probably make a noticeable difference in image processing (my biggest demand on the CPU), so the next refresh will probably be the push I need to buy my first Mac. Loving the iPhone; if the Mac experience is anything even close to that I'll never go back to Windows. (O.k., I'll probably dual-boot to keep some favorite apps handy, but …)
How about because the economy is in deep downturn the worst possible time for major new product announcements. Far better to postpone, use the extra time gained to further improve the product for release when the economy upswing occurs.
Apple is coming out with new iMacs with next month. That is all I have to say.