Post: How’s my timing?
This just keeps getting better and better: literally days before I’m planning on buying an iMac, they upgrade the whole line, neatly fixing all the (small) problems I had with them.
I was worried that 256 MB wasn’t enough memory: they upgrade it to 512 MB.
I was upset about Bluetooth and 802.11 add-on cards were expensive: the new models include them as standard.
Plus they upgrade the bits that didn’t even really need it, taking the CPU up from 1.8 GHz to 2 GHz, the hard disk up from 160 GB to 250 GB (that would be twice the size of both my current hard disks combined).
Hoo mamma – I’m in love.
Not that I’m criticising Apple, I appreciate all companies refresh product lines and you either win or lose, but I wonder where you’d stand if you’d just purchased an iMac? Do you think Apple would recompense you?
The new range does look better feature-wise (obivously, I guess) but you know my thoughts on the whole issue :p
Kind Regards
I think it very unlikely, just as I think it very unlikely that (say) Dell would recompense you if they upgraded their product line shortly after you purchased one of their products. Computer goods depreciate over time – afraid it’s just one of these facts that you have to live with. I guess it’s more pronounced in Apple products (and also x86 laptops) because of the limited upgradability, but that’s again something one has to live with unless PowerPC-based hardware becomes sufficiently cheap to let you build your own, or unless Apple release Mac OS for x86 (which is highly unlikely).
Agreed
Thankfully laptops are becoming more upgradable, you can now switch the CPU, RAM, HDD, optical drive, mini-PCI card (Bluetooth etc.) and, form-factor pending, the graphics card too. Surprisingly Dell even provide step-by-step instructions on how to perform these switches.
I think Apple’s are generally upgradable up to a point (RAM, graphics, HDD etc.) but as you say some things do remain off limits, particularly with it’s proprietary architecture in places. I notice they haven’t touched the Mac Mini, I wonder how much of a profit margin (or not) they’re making on it in comparison to, say, a hideously overpriced iMac? 😉
Kind Regards
Well, for exactly that reason there’s a Mac site that tracks how recently the lines have been upgraded and also when they think they will be upgrading next: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Also, I seem to remember that they did offer people some recompense (in the form of extended warranties, or extra software, rather than cash) the last time when people had recently bought something that was massively upgraded. But it is a dim and fuzzy memory — Prof Google may know better.
This set of upgrades is maybe a little iffier than previous, not least because of the recent release of Tiger. A lot of people figured that when Tiger came, so would any hardware upgrades to go with it. Not those hardware upgrades a week later. I’m not sure that this is necesarilly good sport from Apple.
That said, the upgraded iMac line is outstandingly good. iBook upgrades (or price drops) are rumoured to be imminent and I wouldn’t be suprised if the Mac Mini got a boost soon, since everything else has.
The Apple store in the US has just been updated and shows the Mac Mini now shipping with Tiger
Go on Fatty, you know you want to 😉
Kind Regards
Jonty
P.S. Could we have some form of post preview, or allowable tags, or something Fatty? Some of my formatting got stripped on the post above without warning, that’s all