[Chris Keele]

Hello all,
I just bought a brand new iBook, and my fiancee bought the 12" version. We are wanting to get an eMac also, however (best pricing for us, etc.) Should we wait a few months for an update. It hasn't been upgraded since last April, I think. Should it be due an upgrage? Currently, my iBook is faster than the eMac. Any info and/or speculation would be very helpful!
Chris Keele

[staph]

Yeah, it'll probably get an upgrade before mid-year. When is anyone's guess — it's not quite so much a bread-and-butter line as some of the others. Personally, I'd get a Mac Mini instead tho', on the theory that you can choose a decent monitor to go with it.

-S

[psmith2.0]

I honestly don't know what to think about the eMac anymore. As you mentioned, it's gone since last April without an update (well, until yesterday so did the PowerBooks! ).

There were some "G5 eMac" rumblings in the final months of 2004 at various rumor sites. But now I wonder about how the Mac mini affects the eMac line. A little? A lot? Maybe they'll return the eMac to education-only status, offering stripped-down, cheap-as-possible models for school buyers? Or maybe they'll discontinue it altogether? Or maybe it's getting a massive redesign?

I really thought MWSF would've seen some sort of eMac update.

It might come out next Tuesday, sporting a G5. Or it might never reappear. It's the one Apple product I can't quite get a handle on or predict - with any confidence - where it stands.



Personally I dig them. Before the Mac mini, it was the cheapest, easiest way to "go Mac", and several friends have bought one over the years and loved it. Maybe the Mac mini now fills that role?

[thequicksilver]

Some drastic measure is going to have to be taken with the eMac in the next few months. It's not a rational purchase right now with the price of the mini. There's a $300 difference between the two, which ship with the same CPU, HDD and RAM. How much does a 1280x960 CRT monitor go for these days? Certainly not $300.

It surely has to go G5 soon, or be EOLd.

[oldmacfan]

I could see the eMac taking on the headless consumer/education G5 position. But they can't kill the Mac mini sales in the process.

[JayReding]

Personally, if I had to guess, I'd say the eMac is probably a goner. Most schools have scads of monitors, mice, and keyboards laying about, and the Mac mini is probably a better for the edu market than the eMac was.

Especially for home use, you're probably better off with the Mac mini, especially when you can pick up a decent CRT for a relatively cheap price these days.

[psmith2.0]

About the only thing they could do to the eMac to make it stick around and be somewhat desirable to both newbies and current Mac heads is to give it a bit of a redesign (slim/shallow it up a bit, etc.), make it a G5 (even a low 1.6GHz one) and perhaps something novel like an iLife-friendly widescreen (do they even make widescreen CRTs?). And get that price as low as humanly possible, of course.

And redesign it to have the tilt/swivel base integrated and built-in (charging extra for that little stand bugs me).

If I were in charge of coming up with a new eMac, I'd take the low-end iMac G5 (G5 chip and 17" widescreen), the current eMac (white glossy plastic) and the "mobius strip" 17" ADC CRT from a few years ago (cool tilt/swivel base, built-in), put all three into a blender and mix well...

Voila.

New eMac.



Yeah, I think the mini might possibly eat the eMac's lunch, so to speak. Will be interesting to see if Apple kills it, or gives it a fresh take.

[julesstoop]

By the way - just curious - why would you want an eMac if you have an iBook ? (which is similar performance-wise) I would buy a nice screen, a mouse and keyboard and some external storage device to use with the iBook at home.

[Nullpunkt]

how about this:

the new eMac is a hybrid between the mini-mac and a 20" cinema display.

the mini-mac could be used as the base, and the cinema display used as, well, the display.....duh!

not the most asthetically-pleasing computer, that's for sure... but since when was the eMac anything but the ugly red-headed step-child?

[Robo]

My thoughts on the eMac? G5 or bust. And it probably won't see a G5 too soon, so if Apple plans on keeping it around, I imagine it'll see one more G4 speed bump or so, and soon. Just my thoughts...

In any case, wait. I don't think it will be too long before Apple reveals whether they're committed to the 40 lb. marshmallow, or whether they're scrapping it in favor of the 3 lb. Mac mini.

...although, really, you might be better off with a Mac mini anyway.

[EmC]

I could see the eMac getting an LCD. Some may think that because it is an education offering that this won't ever happen. The new labs on campus here have LCDs and all the new computers at my little bro's school are LCD. Alot of people who know nothing about computers (in my experience, the ones put in charge of buying them) assume that computers that come with CRTs are cheap and all good computers have an LCD. LCD prices have come way down since thier introduction. This LCD doesn't have to be the best ever LCD, it is only going into an edu. machine. This could slim up the eMac, give it a new life while keeping relitavely the same specs as far as the processor, hard drive, and memory are concerned. I don't think that Apple will make an eMac with a G5 in it before the Powerbooks get something a little more dignificant than a speed bump, maybe a new version of the G4 not necessarily the G5. Somehing that Apple can market as G5 mobile or something along those lines.

I did these mockups the last time this was brought up (and then shot down).

eMac Mockup

[Nullpunkt]

so yeah, i wanted to flesh out my idea a little more to better explain myself....

but as i was saying, have the cinema display "footprint" slide under the "eMac mini" CPU which could be used as a base as well. that way, there's still two separate parts, if one wanted to buy things separately.

as for the asthetics, well, to maintain the new "prosumer" look, the back of the eMac's cinema display would be white, as would the top of the "eMac mini" CPU

so yeah, be gentle, as i whipped this up in Teal in about, oh 15 seconds (yes, THAT horrible drawing program but i can't put anything else on here with 128MB's of RAM) to kind of illustrate the words i'm struggling to say.



i know, a 5 year old could do a better mock-up. but i didn't claim to be talented.

(Where's pscates 2.0 to give this hopeless schmuck a lesson when he needs it?)

[Luca]

I think pscates already did a mockup kinda like that, where there was actually a slot in the back of a slab-like headless Mac (this was before the mini's announcement) that the Cinema display would slide into. The problem is that the mini's ports are all on the back, so they'd be inaccessible if it was kept in that position.

[BlueRabbit]

I think that the eMac is going to become the iMac-for-cheap. Since it fits in right between the iMac and Mac mini pricewise, it will stay –*EOL'ing it would make a big gap in Apple's lineup. However, it will probably recieve an update soon (next Tuesday?) bumping it so its specs are above the mini's. This means 1.42 GHz (at least, maybe a G5 bump), a better video card, and a bigger hard drive. Right now, the low-end eMac has the same specs as the low-end mini , which will not last for long.

[EmC]

Similar to this Nullpunkt?

eMac

[Chris Keele]

Actually, my fiancee is the one that wants the extra computer. She wants a desktop for most of our law school work, gaming, bigger hardrive for music, dvd burning, etc. I don't think she needs one, but she does. We considered the macmini, and we have access to a monitor, but the emac is a better deal once you add a nice monitor, memory, superdrive, etc. I want to wait, though, to get an updated emac.
Chris

[Nullpunkt]

Originally Posted by EmC Similar to this Nullpunkt? eMac

oh yeah, that's pretty spot on. prolly what the iMac shoulda been...

i'd imagine it'd be thinner than the iMac G5 tho, as they don't need to cram quite as much in there if it's only going to be a higher-end G4....

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by Luca I think pscates already did a mockup kinda like that, where there was actually a slot in the back of a slab-like headless Mac (this was before the mini's announcement) that the Cinema display would slide into. The problem is that the mini's ports are all on the back, so they'd be inaccessible if it was kept in that position.

Yeah, it was this:



Edit: oops, misunderstood Luca's comments...he was referring to the actual mini's back ports, not my mockup. Sorry!

I think I drew the above last summer (after the new displays were released - obviously - but before the iMac G5 came out, and I was big on a small, "headless" unit.

Looks like I was about six months ahead of myself...although, looking back, probably not the sleekest, most elegant thing going.

[Luca]

Oh, don't be so hard on yourself. Your model incorporates front ports, probably has room for a 3.5" hard drive, and encourages buyers to go with an Apple display for the tight integration without preventing anyone from using any other display. And I think the finish looks better - I'm not a big fan of the mini's two-tone thing.

[Paranoid666au]

I think Apple will see how the Mac mini plays out before making a decition on the eMac.

I guess it makes sence to the budget market to have a seperate screen. Perhaps this is the end for the CRT Mac, or maybey we'll see G5 CRT Mac. I spose it all comes down to the price diference between LCD and CRT.

An LCD eMac will just be a budget G5 iMac. If you think about it, the word eMac was used because this computer was origianly exclusivily for the education market. But now there no sence anymore to stick with that name. So now we have the Mac mini and in the futer we'll probably see a cheaper iMac clinging to old specs and filling the lower midrange market.

[runner91786]

I honestly don't see why they would redesign it. Not only a waste of another new production line as in redesigning the machines to build it, but its also too much like the imac. I mean that mockup is nice, but honestly, once you throw a lcd on there and raise the specs, g4 or not, the cost will be the same as the low end imac.

Edit: Didnt notice the post directly above

[psmith2.0]

I've got no problem with the eMac staying CRT (wasn't sure if you were referring to my mock-up or not, which ISN'T an eMac).

To keep it low-priced, I don't think the eMac could have anything other than a CRT, right?

[Luca]

Yeah, the eMac's CRT must cost very little to include. A typical cheap 17" CRT will be similar in quality to the eMac's display and cost a little over $100, but that also includes a power supply, cable, on screen display and controls, casing, and stand. Apple gets the CRTs in bulk quantity and only needs the guts, so they can probably get them for around $50 a pop. The only inexpensive LCD option for the eMac would be a 15", which would be a downgrade for many eMac users since they are limited to only 1024x768 resolution. On top of that, even the cheapest 15" LCDs are very expensive compared to your average 17" CRT, at $150-$250.

[Robo]

In another thread, I predicted that Apple would bring the eMac to G5 with an LCD, starting at $999, and they'd introduce another computer, the aMac, which would be very similair to the new eMac, only perhaps "crippled" a little and with a CRT for $799. The Mac mini wouldn't be much of a deal then, of course, but if all that were to pan out, the Mac mini would likely go G5 shortly thereafter, too. It wasn't a really serious prediction or anything (in the same post, I also predicted a minor iMac redesign, to differentiate it from the new eMac and, er, match the Mac mini) but hey, I thought I'd post it anyway.

I know that sounds like it would be a bit of a crowded line-up, but I don't think so...

$499 Mac mini (low end) - No monitor
$599 Mac mini (high end) - No monitor
$799 aMac (only one model, similair to the low-end eMac) - 17" CRT
$999 eMac (low end) - 17" LCD
$1099 eMac (high end) - 17" LCD
$1299 iMac (low end) - 17" WIDESCREEN LCD
yada yada yada...

...$100 between the variations in the line, and $200 between lines...if you think about it, it's a surprisingly neat and, well, Apple-y line-up.

Not that I think it will happen, mind you. Just felt like wasting your time

Whether Apple keeps the eMac around or not, I think we'll see a line of smaller, cheaper LCDs (maybe even a CRT?) to match the Mac mini. Assuming, of course, that the Mac mini takes off...

[defaultmike]

aMac? :chuckle: does that stand for Another Mac :tongue: just kidding
I don't see apple introducing another mac line. They'll more likely either kill the eMac line, or get it a faster G4 processor 1.67 and price it at 699, or go to a 1.6 G5 and price it at 799-899.
I'm hoping that they keep the line alive. I think a lot of the appeal of the mini is that its tiny. regardless of the screen or whatever. So I don't think the eMac could canibalize its sales...

[Robo]

It's less an entirely new line and more a CRT version of my vision of an eMac G5, which (thanks to the LCD) would have to start at $999 or so. Hey, I never said that my ideas were any more than rampant speculation...

[yoda_four]

EmC: In regards to this, what's iCalc?