A little more than a week since Apple began offering a rock-bottom priced iMac configuration targeted at educational customers, the company has stopped offering the machine to anyone other than institutional buyers. The $900 replacement for the eMac differed from the baseline consumer model only in its loss of superdrive, dedicated graphics, bluetooth, and Front Row caused a big stir with students heading back to school this fall. Rumor in the ether is that this is par-for-the-course for an education product release. The cycle goes like this: Product is announced >> lots of people get excited and order it >> Apple realizes that if they keep getting orders at the current pace, they won't be able to supply the institutional buyers who they originally targeted >> Apple pulls product from mainstream consumer stores >> ...time passes... >> the educational buying season ends >> Apple allows us regular people to place orders again.
[Via MacNN]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-14-2006 @ 9:05AM
Jamie said...
Apple never allowed 'regular' buyers to buy that iMac - it was always education only, which technically means not everyone could buy it.
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7-14-2006 @ 9:24AM
Ashley Mushnick said...
This is a bad, bad PR move. I almost can't believe they did it.
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7-14-2006 @ 9:30AM
Blake said...
I got one!
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7-14-2006 @ 9:36AM
andrew said...
same exact thing as they did with the eMac.
The educational market is important to apple, and if this is what they need to do to meet demand, then so be it.
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7-14-2006 @ 9:43AM
Solipsism said...
Ashley, This is quite common. As the article states, they need to supply to the edumacathiun departments first. When those sales start to die down, then they'll be available to the general public.
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7-14-2006 @ 10:12AM
Calvin said...
The best and stupidest thing Apple ever did in one week!
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7-14-2006 @ 10:24AM
wackybit said...
I think it's because so many students are buying the education model, and that makes apple lose sales of the normal 17" iMac
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7-14-2006 @ 11:13AM
Tony C said...
That headline is very misleading and it's also old news -- I read about this on some other Apple news sites two or three days ago. Guess I shoulda sent in a tip! ;)
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7-14-2006 @ 11:17AM
James Donevan said...
Actually this is not the same as the eMac situation, nor does it mirror past launches. In the case of the eMac, Apple expressly stated it would be for institutional use only, not consumer sales (educational or otherwise). It was only after a groundswell of consumer interest that they allowed sales to consumers. Production volume or availability played no part in the matter. Rather Apple was concerned about cannibilising sales from their regular consumer product line.
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7-14-2006 @ 11:17AM
Drew said...
This news isn't all that bad. If you're a student looking for a budget mac, the mini or Macbook are still great options.
And the base iMac does have several advantages for only $300 more (at Macmall) than the Edu iMac: hard drive w/ twice the capacity, SuperDrive, a real graphics card for gaming, and FrontRow.
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7-14-2006 @ 11:20AM
Brian Little said...
Misleading head, old news. There is no there there, guys. Apple didn't "pull" the ed iMac, the limited its availability to...ed.
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7-14-2006 @ 12:33PM
Eddie Hargreaves said...
"Rumor in the ether is that this is par-for-the-course for an education product release."
Huh? Name one other education product that followed this course.
"same exact thing as they did with the eMac."
Huh? It's the exact OPPOSITE thing they did with the eMac. it was first released as an education-only Macintosh (that's what the 'e' is for) and later was made available for all consumers.
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7-14-2006 @ 3:40PM
Ben said...
Well, if you miss out, you miss out. I'm just upset that I wasn't up on this when it happened. I usually peruse the apple store and macdeals.com once a week, but this flew by. I got my 2hz processor Imac for $1,299 and I thought that was a good deal. This blows that away!
-Ben
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7-14-2006 @ 7:27PM
Mac Lover said...
Why doesn't Apple bite the bullet for at least one portable and one desktop all-in-one product and offer it at a lower price? They could really get a lot of new Mac users.
Answer: But noooooo, they're too greedy unless you're gonna buy a truckload of them. Apple is content with keeping their high priced, exclusive, niche product market space. Even schools (elementary to colleges) here in Silicon Valley have mainly switched to Dell because the education solution is far more economical than using Macs.
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7-15-2006 @ 7:07AM
glad said...
Apple are a profit making company and not a charity, which is why they have made the decision. It seems like someone has got their wires crossed in the marketing department at apple.
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9-04-2006 @ 5:25AM
Mag said...
I think the eMac configuration fits exactly the educational needs, with a price that institutions can afford for mass amounts.
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10-05-2006 @ 8:20AM
cars spec said...
I agree with you, Mag. these prece are very affordable.
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