eMac getting phased out?

Straight from the Apple Store's collective mouth... The eMac has officially been discontinued! I just called to get some official confirmation. I have been researching and specing a system for a friend of mine who wants to get into entry level computer based recording, with a budget of $2500. I wanna set him up with an eMac and a Tascam FW-1082 hardware control surface and signal I/O device, along with a few other associated goodies. Looks like I'm gonna have to call him and tell him he better jump on it soon, or to revise his budget. Yeah, there's no doubt that there will be eMacs in the pipeline for awhile yet, but it just came as a bit of a shock...I had seen no official news of it being discontinued. Pisser, too, because I had a "saved cart" on the Apple Store website, just waiting for my buddy to come over and enter his credit card info. When I call the saved cart up, it's now flagged with an alert telling me that the "cart is no longer valid because the flagged item is no longer available." And I don't agree that the Mini is cheaper. $1060 for a fully tricked eMac (which includes the 17" monitor, keyboard, mouse, along with TWICE the VRAM of the Mini.) Mini, with 1 GB RAM, keyboard + mouse, $877. Add the cheapest 17" Viewsonic LCD monitor at $199, and you're already over the price of the eMac. Monitor size is important. Recording software can throw more screen-hogging palettes on the screen than just about any other class of software I can think of. No matter what anyone tries to tell me, I still say that the eMac was the best bang-for-the-buck system Apple has offered for years. It's a sad day in Appleville.

Gimp, they're still available at the store if you search for them, and some are reporting they're also listed in a special education part of the store. Besides, you could easily buy a Mac mini and a 15" or 17" LCD display for the same price of an eMac, and probably even save some $$. That setup would save some serious desk space too. Search around at sites like dealmac.com, Pricewatch.com or Newegg.com for some good deals.

nooo! i was going to buy one! gosh darnit. i can't afford anything else... now the buggers have made it so i can't get a new computer... well then steve, why don't YOU trying working on a '98 G3 iMac running 10.3.9 ... ITS SO SLOW IM GOING CRAZY.

makes sense to me that apple would phase out the eMac completely. LCDs really are at the point where they're worth the cost to almost everyone. If you look around, you can easily find 15" 1024x768 LCD models for under $150, and 17" 1280x1024 LCD models for under $200. Putting more emphasis on the Mac Mini makes more sense too. I'm seriously considering one, but would never consider an iMac. Why? Because I like nice monitors, and spend a little money on them, but they tend to last me through AT LEAST two computers. With the iMac, when the computer is too old, you are forced to throw away the monitor, even though you spent good money on it. The 17" widescreen iMac isnt big enough. The 20" model is good, but I would rather buy a freestanding Dell 20" widescreen for $400 and use it with a Mac Mini.

They'd better come up with a replacement, because the mini is not adequate for education - and CRTs are better and much more durable and affordable than LCDs (kids poke at the monitors, nothing you can do).
The mini is bad for two reasons: too "portable" and therefore easily stolen -- yes, it can be stowed away, but that's a lot more work in a lab of 25 computers; and it's a serious misunderstanding of the situation if you think that schools take 3,4,5 year-old Windows computers and throw them away, leaving an available monitor for a mini. If a computer is moved out of the lab, it moves somewhere else in the school-- classroom, office, etc., and it needs the monitor and keyboard.

Apple has made an error in STILL having no monitor/keyboard solution packaged with the mini after all this time.

We just got three 'eight-packs' of eMacs for our lab this year, and I got a souped up Superdrive eMac for the teacher's computer. It makes a nice lab that the kids really can use with VERY few problems. Several have expressed an interest in getting an eMac for home. Too bad, Apple.

I hope Apple comes up with a new solution for affordable computing needs in the mid-range of the Mac Mini and iMac. But I can understand why they scrapped the bulky aged looking (blue iMac) design. I hope they've got a new exciting system design in the works.

Bummer. Yes, it's neat that there is the mini (except for the fact that after buying a monitor, keyboard, and mouse you are above the price of the eMac), but it was really nice to have an all-in-one solution that was robust, cheap, and easy to set up. I have a lot of clients that love the eMac, and at around $700 it was an easy buy for them. Too bad Apple didn't just keep it around, put an intel chipset into it, and charge a couple of hundred bucks for it...Maybe there's something up Apple's sleeve?

Apple did not "[have] to make it available to the public just to be able to keep them around." They made it available to the public due to the public's demand for the eMac at the time it was introduced.

Also note that even if you get to the eMac page, if you hit "buy now" it just brings you back to the main store page. RIP indeed.

They're still listed in the educational store, but only for institutional purchases. Apparently, they don't feel the need to sell them to individuals anymore.