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As you all know, two of MPG’s writers, Adam Jackson and Mike Livsey were up all night on Monday covering Apple Expo’s keynote. There, Phil Schiller introduced the long-awaited iMac G5. The new beauty packs a G5 processor, 17/ 20” LCD, combo or Superdrive and a brand new design that is a mix between iMac, eMac and Apple’s iPod. At MPG we love the new design and its entry price of $1299. Many complain of its lack of aluminum and minimal moving monitor but others have fallen in love with the new computer and have already bought theirs.
Apple is really pushing that this iMac was built by the iPod team; but for the most part it is another brilliant job by Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head industrial designer and creator of every amazing computer Apple has released since 1998. When Apple released the G5 they did not state it was from the same team that made the Cube because what would that say? The Cube of 1999 was great but no one purchased them so Apple does not bring that up anymore. No, Apple picked the iPod/ iMac contrast because they are hoping those that bought iPods and see their brilliance (especially PC users) will think that with the iPod being so great this reasonably priced iMac thing should be good too. Plus the two match very well on a desk and the iMac and iPod have very little cables associated with them. I can see Apple’s marketing behind the new iMac but analysts are afraid it will fail because the iMac is still way above most sub 1000 dollar Pcs. Hey analysts! There is always the G4 eMac which is much faster than those $999 desktops on sale so you can shove it!
Then comes to the constant argument of expandability, included ram and graphics card. Everyone sees the new iMac and is just amazed of its great look and price but then sees its specs and their face gets that puzzled look like they deposited five hundred bucks in the bank and their statement says they have overdrawn. The first question is the lack of a good graphics card. Honestly, 64Mbs is adequate for home users. If you want to play Halo, you will need to get a dual 1.8Ghz G5 tower. If you want expandability, the PowerMac has always been the choice and if you want more ram space then get a Powermac. The price is good; it is 2” thick and has everything in a small package. The final complaint is lack of Firewire 800. One and a half years after FW 800 appeared on in the 17” Powerbook (MWSF 03) we still don’t have FW 800 in anything except the Pro line of Apple’s products. My thought is that Apple does not think consumers need it yet. The iPod does not have it, nor does the iSight so why put it on consumer products? Maybe in the iMac’s next revision we will see the inclusion of Firewire b.
The final argument is its lack of a type of media software like a TV tuner, or an EyeTV sort of capability and the lack of an announcement all new desktops ship with Bluetooth keyboards and mice and work out of the box as already been paired by the firmware. If you do not know what I am speaking of, the reason desktops cannot come with Bluetooth keyboards and mice is because you have to pair the peripherals and computers after setup, the pairing does not occur out of the box so you can’t use your computer if Bluetooth input devices are the standard and not USB. My opinion is, soon, very soon. And Apple may be trying to perfect EyeTV’s software because when someone else has a technology that is poor or needs improvement Apple will take it and make it better. They have done it in the past.
I love the new iMac and so does our crew. It has a great price point and specs that match it. We like Apple is sticking with the current white color scheme of its i-line of products. Finally, more may come soon to the iMac but for now, Apple is hanging onto music and its marketing efforts in that sector so we will just stay positive about the whole thing but if we have one more keynote where Apple spends half of the show or more focused on music, we are going to start breaking skulls.