Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iMac
Rumors: 17-inch iMac meets its end?
According to MacDailyNews who relays information gleaned from ThinkSecret, the 17-inch iMac will soon be no more. Let's have a quick moment of silence to say goodbye.
Right then. Enough of the moment.
Industry insiders, those anonymous sources of all the most fabulous and occasionally reliable Apple news, suggest that starting at the end of June a refreshed iMac line will consist of 20- and 24-inch models. As display prices continue to drop, the cost difference between a 17-inch and 20-inch iMac has apparently shrunk as well, making this jump in screen size possible. More screen, same $$s. Excellent.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ben Englert said 4:12PM on 5-21-2007
Bummer, 17" is really the perfect size for my desk, I was going to wait on Leopard and buy one. Guess I'll get a used late-model C2D one then.
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Donald Burr said 4:31PM on 5-21-2007
The panels used in the 17" are significantly lower in quality than those used in the 20" and 23". The 17" iMacs used so-called "TN" panels, which have many deficiencies, chief of which are poor viewing angles, and the use of inferior 6-bit color (similar to laptop panels; see the story TUAW posted earlier today for a discussion of that deficiency.) The panels in the 20" and 24" iMacs are either "IPS" or "PVA" panels, and are much higher quality - full 8-bit color, wide viewing angles, etc. Basically these are the same high-quality panels used in the high-end LCD displays from Apple (Cinema Displays), Dell (2xxxFP series and similar), etc.
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Mystic said 4:42PM on 5-21-2007
Excellent for consumers who have the space for 20"+. Bad news for me, as I was just getting my employer to switch to macs. However, we don't have the space to put 20" iMacs on employee desks.
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Joe said 4:54PM on 5-21-2007
Mystic, you can still get mini's, especially if these are office machines with only enough room for a 17" screen. Chances are the onboard graphics won't be an issue.
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mannymix said 5:07PM on 5-21-2007
yeah, at the Galleria Apple store in Ft. Lauderdale they have no 17 inch iMacs on display.
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Vidd said 5:12PM on 5-21-2007
@Mannymix
Is that a recent development?
@Mystic
As said, a Mac Mini+screen could take up even less space.
This rumour seemed a bit far-fetched originally but if panel prices really have gone down as suggested, this could be awesome.
Hopefully this ties in with the case redesign.
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Jonathan Williams said 5:19PM on 5-21-2007
Now let's hope for an isight behind the screen so we can make icontact on ichat
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JeffDM said 5:21PM on 5-21-2007
I think there's still a vacancy left by the previous $800 eMac, it was replaced by the $1k iMac. I think component prices should be low enough for the minis to go down $100 as well.
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brendan Sheehan jnr said 5:23PM on 5-21-2007
"RIP 17" iMac, you will be missed"
We are talking about a computer here right?
Bring on the new design anyway.
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Donald Burr said 5:25PM on 5-21-2007
The 17" iMac is a pretty bare-bones machine; it has the slowest Core 2 Duo, uses the Intel GMA950 built-in graphics, and has a smallish hard drive and only a combo drive (does not burn DVD's). These are basically almost exactly the same specs as a Mac mini (The Mini uses a 1.66 GHz Core Duo, which is not that significant of a speed drop from the 1.83 GHz C2D that the iMac has), and also uses the Intel built-in graphics. So yeah, the Mini paired with a decent 17" monitor would be an excellent substitute, and would probably be a bit less than (but not more than) the $999 that the iMac would cost.
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Jonathan Grynspan said 5:30PM on 5-21-2007
Dag blast it! A 20" iMac would never fit on this desk. There's less than who inches of clearance between the top of my 17" iMac and the hutch bolted to the desk.
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Jaime said 5:31PM on 5-21-2007
I should keep my 17 inch iMac cause it will be an expensive classic someday. I hope so.
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Mystic said 6:04PM on 5-21-2007
Yes. I realize there's the mac mini. That's what we originally went with. The problem is I'm fighting with anti-mac zealots here, so they'll come up with any excuse to not use macs. With the mini's it was "there are too many wires', hehe, can you believe that?
So if the 17" does go away, I'm sure we'll go back to the minis.
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Donald Burr said 6:21PM on 5-21-2007
You could get ultra short cables, and bolt the Mini to the back (or the bottom) of a standard 17-inch CRT. That's how mine is set up; I call it my "ghetto iMac."
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Chris said 8:11PM on 5-21-2007
Donald Burr, there was also a 17" iMac with a SuperDrive, faster processor, an ATI GPU, and bigger hard drives (when ordered CTO).
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BilboToupsVernon said 8:15PM on 5-21-2007
20", 17" either way we all win right! And won't the mothership continue to sell refurbished 17(inchers) to the masses that so crave them.
Peace out!
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JeffDM said 8:40PM on 5-21-2007
Double checking the story, it's through ThinkSecret, which has not had a correct rumor in two years that I remember. Does anyone remember the Final Cut Extreme and the $10k workstation that was supposed to go with it? That was supposed to be released a year ago. It still hasn't happened. Remember that Aperture was axed after 1.0? Oh right, that never happened. They predicted new Cinema Displays for the same day the color Shuffles were announced.
I don't doubt that the 17" model will eventually go away, but if TS gives a month, a day or part of the year, I'm almost sure it will be wrong.
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andrew harrison said 1:57AM on 5-22-2007
@JeffDM
I agree, ThinkSecret has gone WAY downhill over the past 2 years or so. However, I'd venture that because of the logical likelihood of this happening, they are probably not basing it on just a rumour they've heard.
Here's why I can't see them keepign the 17" model, except maybe for the education sector.
- There isn't much price difference [at least in Australia] between consumer 17" and 20" Widescreen monitors, which means, when buying the panels wholesale like Apple do, the price difference would be even less.
- We're long overdue for an iMac update, which means it's an almost certainty that there will be new iMacs released at WWDC in 2 weeks. It's also almost certain that they will sport a redesign [though it may not be as radical a design shift from the sunflower -> pizza box models]
- Apple is known for being among the first manufacturers to drop legacy devices, such as the floppy drive. Though 17" monitors aren't legacy devices, the standard monitor size for most manufacturers - even on their most basic models - is now 19".
- a 20", 24" and 30" (here's hoping) iMac lineup is F**ING COOL. And a base model 20" is also F**ING COOL.
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Richard Sutherland said 10:26AM on 5-22-2007
My first Mac ever was a 2nd Gen G5 iMac. Best computer I ever bought!
2 Years have gone by so fast...
Just shows how quickly time flies in Apple-Land!!
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navstar said 12:28PM on 5-22-2007
How small can your desk be that someone doesn't have room for a 20"? There is only 2" size difference in HxWxD!
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