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Originally Posted by jcoley2
$2099 free shipping seems like a good deal but I had to buy something refurbished, even from Apple, without seeing it. Any one have experience in buying a high-end product from them?
Also, should I wait and use one of my 17" flat screens from another computer and see what Apple releases next in the Cinema display arena?
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The fact that you don't have to pay sales tax makes your deal all the better.
If you know someone who is a local, state or federal employee, that person could have sponsored your purchase of a new 30" display for $2299. I'm a former city of LA employee, so I have lots of former coworkers/friends who will assist me with the government employee discount prices on the high-end Apple products.
Many refurb deals can be steals. There was one AppleNova poster who works for Dell and he wrote that much of Dell's refurb merchandise consists of customer returns and cancelled orders -- the stuff isn't always defective. Because the items have already been sold as new, when it is returned to the manufacturer, if resold, it has to be sold as refurbished, even if the packaging hasn't been opened. They still have to repackage it in refurb boxes. A local news consumer guru in LA did a story a few months ago about refurbished merchandise, giving a great education on refurbished products. And, I have a few friends who swear by refurbished items.
The nice thing about Apple's refurbished stuff -- they say its been tested and it has the same one year warranty as their new products. The icing on the cake -- you can get AppleCare on the refurb stuff, just as you can with the new stuff.
As for the Apple Cinema Displays, the sizes offered are consistent with those of other computer and display manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Samsung, Gateway, Sharp and Samsung. To my knowledge, only Apple offers the 30" display. But, that may change with the gaining popularity of "media centers" and lower prices of LCD panel and dual-link video cards.
It is highly unlikley Apple will go larger than the 30" form factor for computer use. They may increase the resolution of the panel, but one you've seen how great anything looks on the 30" display, the argument for more resolution beyond 2560x1600 is weak. IBM has an ultra high resolution display, the 22.2" T221. It was designed for medical imaging, automotive CAD and oil exploration, according to IBM. At 3840x2400, it's the highest resolution display I'm aware of, but Apple has the biggest at 30".