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Apple Businesses

Apple Releases New PowerBook and the eMac 638

Posted by Hemos from the yum-yum-gimme-some dept.
Martin Kallisti writes "Apple has released new PowerBook models whose improvements include faster processors (up to 800MHz), better resolution, 1MB of L3 cache and 32MB of video memory. Also, a new computer looking much like the old iMacs, called the eMac, has seen the light of day. It's primarily targeted at the education market, and boasts a 700MHz G4 processor and a flat 17" monitor. " As Troc pointed out in another submission, the eMac will be available only to profs/teachers, students and higher education institutions.
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Apple Releases New PowerBook and the eMac More

Apple Releases New PowerBook and the eMac

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  • Education only!? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ipmcc ( 466386 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @06:55AM (#3428315) Homepage Journal
    Can someone explain what the point of an "education only" product is? Is that market really so different that it warrants restricting a product specifically to that market? Is this some kind of weird strategy to reduce support staff since most educational institutions have their own IT people? I'm baffled. Someone please explain it to me.

    • Re:Education only!? (Score:5, Informative)

      by fraserspeirs ( 113052 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:01AM (#3428332) Homepage
      The point is that it's a machine designed specifically for education. It has some features and options that consumers don't really want.

      One case in point is the CD-ROM only option. Schools like this for security reasons, but who wants to buy a CD-ROM only machine for personal use?

      When he introduced the new iMac, Jobs said that they had listened to consumers top 3 requests - Flat Screen, G3 and Superdrive.

      The thing about the flat screen is a bit of a killer in education for two reasons - primarly cost, and secondly durability. Schools want the G4 power, but not the extra hassle of the LCD iMac . I'm an admin for a school, and we're certainly leery of the potential for the arm getting busted.

      I think the point of edu-only is to give schools what they want and need, without complicating the product line for the general public. I mean, how do explain the differences between the eMac and the basic iMac?
    • It might be good for the sales force to have (slightly) different products for different markets. That way, you don't have to explain the business customers why they have to pay a different price for the same product than the educational customers.

    • Re:Education only!? (Score:4, Funny)

      by eet23 ( 563082 ) <eet23NO@SPAMcam.ac.uk> on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:15AM (#3428395) Journal
      IIRC, the eMate died because it was education only. It's probably just obeying the law of nature that says that if Apple does something good, they have to do something stupid to compensate.
      • That and Apple has a habit of phoning it in design-wise on their limited-market machines. Look at a) the Tanzania-based 4400/7220, b) Artemis (the iMac's immediate all-in-one predecessor, and c) the eMate. The eMate is the only one that could be considered attractive; Artemis in particular was kinda scary-looking...

        /Brian
    • Not like they can prove you aren't a student. It just makes you pick a state and school. Just say you go to it. What are they going to do? Check the school register to make sure you are a student before selling it to you?

    • Only while supplies are low (Score:5, Informative)

      by DABANSHEE ( 154661 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:25AM (#3428433)
      You see Apple has large Education Dept & university/tech/college contracts.

      This is for them.

      But once supplies get into gear, & the price for that spec starts to decrease, they'll open sales for them to the general public, you watch.

      The way it will work is that large contracts with Education Dept & universities/techs/colleges will get 1st go.

      Then Education staff will be able to by them from the collage Apple shop or through college book & supply shops.

      Then it will be anyone with a student card buying from the collage Apple shop or through college book & supply shops.

      Then they'l be sold in public stores but only to Education institions, education staff & people with student cards.

      Finally when they have gone through all this routine over about 6 months & if supplies stock up a bit, then they'll be released for general sale.

      That's the way its occured here where I am, in the past when Apple has released 'education only' products.

  • Steve is god (Score:2, Interesting)

    by aic ( 305925 )
    Steve is the master of wizardry, he managed to keep this one under his belt untill release. This is major difference in PR since the Imac was released. Shine on you crazy diamond

    • Re:Steve is god (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Filarion ( 548689 )
      You're right in respect to the eMac - but did anyone really want to know about it? Most of the new Powerbook specs were over the net the past couple of weeks.

  • Damn (Score:5, Funny)

    by Per Abrahamsen ( 1397 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @06:58AM (#3428324) Homepage
    I'm already tired of explaining to enquiring non-nerds that my nerd-friends are Emacs developers, not iMac's developers.

    I guess the problem just got worse.
    • wouldn't you love to run emacs on an eMac? It runs OS X; who knows, it might already be part of the default install.

      • Re:Yes, but... (Score:3, Informative)

        by stripes ( 3681 )
        It runs OS X; who knows, it might already be part of the default install.

        Hmmmm...
        $ uname -a
        Darwin         [...] 5.4 Darwin Kernel Version 5.4: Wed Apr 10 09:27:47 PDT 2002; root:xnu/xnu-201.19.3.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc
        $ which emacs
        /usr/bin/emacs

        Seems to have it, vi is a bit more my style though (it's too bad OSX doesn't also have w3m...). Even has ssh, and ssd (and a click box to turn it on).

  • emacs? (Score:4, Funny)

    by NewbieSpaz ( 172080 ) <nofx_punkguy@lin ... g minus language> on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:00AM (#3428326) Homepage
    Which is better, eMacs or vi?
    ;)
    The GNU people are gonna be pissed.

  • eMac huh..? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chardish ( 529780 ) <chardishNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:01AM (#3428333) Homepage
    Well there are still plenty more letters left in the alphabet. Personally, I look forward to jMac, wMac, fMac, and 21 other fine computers.

    Then, perhaps they will have to use characters from other alphabets. Wonder how you would pronounce ßMac? "Smack?"

    -Evan

  • Font change (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rbeattie ( 43187 ) <russ@russellbeattie.com> on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:03AM (#3428344) Homepage
    Did any graphic designers out there note that the eMac has a different font for its name? Sans-serif instead of the Garamond-derived Apple font. Check out the main Apple home page [apple.com] to see what I mean.

    Interesting... I wonder why the change?

    -Russ


    • Silly me. The front page changes every time... here's a better link. The eMac home page [apple.com].

      -Russ

    • Re:Font change (Score:2, Informative)

      by sh4de ( 93527 )
      The eMac logotype font is Adrian Frutiger's namesake font, Frutiger. It's very elegant looking for a sans-serif cut, a good choice for the logo.

      The eMac being targeted at educational markets, I guess they wanted also the logo to reflect the fresh new design. Apple's Garamond is, after all, almost straight out of Claude Garamond's wood type and hundreds of years old.

  • Pointing out the obvious here. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperCal ( 549671 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:05AM (#3428352) Homepage
    This may be blaringly obvious to everyone else, but this seems like a good solution to the problems apple has been having getting its hands on LCD parts.

  • Buzz, buzz.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by HiQ ( 159108 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:10AM (#3428367)
    It seems like Apple not only came up with a new PowerBook, but they also came up with their own brand-spanking new PowerLanguage (tm). With words like:

    screamingly fast
    mind-boggling 60 Gb drive
    a tremendous wallop
    wicked-fast performance
    stunning, dazzling, sleek, blows past ..., mega-wide

    What audience are they targetting with language like that?

  • DROOL (Score:2, Funny)

    by GraZZ ( 9716 )
    Ok, I'll have to clean the puddle of saliva off the floor now.....Then run out and get one.
  • Does it come with a box of black candles and a Rams-head logo?

  • the iMac everyone wants...but no-one can have? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by oingoboingo ( 179159 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:24AM (#3428429)
    an iMac with a 17" screen...wasn't this the thing that people have been clamouring for, and rumours flying over ever since the original iMac was launched? this is what a hell of a lot of people have been waiting for, and apple decides to release it for the educational market only? i don't get it...it uses a CRT, so there should be a lot fewer problems with supply, and it has to be cheaper to produce than the new flat-panel iMac with moving parts, so you can flood the consumer market with it. steve moves in mysterious ways...

    • Compared to the original iMac, the new eMac seems pretty evolutionary. Ho hum. It's practical, but visually boring.

      The new "desk lamp" iMac is a much more radical, distinctive design, which gets more attention in the press (free marketing, folks!) and int he store, and prolly moves more units than "just another" iMac.

      Practical model for the schools, flashy model for the fashion-conscious or gadget-happy home buyer. Seems pretty smart to me.

      Don't get me wrong, I think the eMac *is* a good design; it's the iMac we shoulda had 18 months ago instead of those dreadful "flower power" iMacs. Bet they woulda moved a bunch of 'em then...

    • This is _the_ system that Apple needs to break into the enterprise business category. Of course Apple would prefer businesses to buy their PowerMac line, but the up-front cost of this system makes it unattractive to most medium businesses. The entry level system with the 15" LCD is $2,198. When you are buying a small number of workstations, you may be able to justify a couple hundred dollars difference. When buying several hundred, however, price will be king. Furthermore, the PowerMac is simply over-qualified for most business users, as these systems are primarily used for Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook/IE

      The eMac would be perfect for medium to large companies. As configured it should handle office productivity apps at a very reasonable cost. Compare the price against similarly configured business systems from Dell and Compaq:

      Apple eMac (700mhz G4, 128MB RAM, 40GB HD, 17" monitor, 32MB video card, Apple Protection Plan): $1,118*
      Dell Workstation 340 (1.7Ghz P4, 128MB RAM, 40GB HD, 17" monitor, 32MB video card, basic 3yr support): $1,374
      Compaq Evo D300s (1.7Ghz P4, 128MB RAM, 40GB HD, 17" monitor, 32MB video card, basic 3yr support): $1,277
      * This includes the "education discount". Even if you add on $100, you still have a competetive system.

      Let's hope someone at Apple can "Think Different" enough to realize the huge untapped market the eMac could mean to that company.

  • The eMac still isn't ergonomic (Score:3, Interesting)

    by uweber ( 61619 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:29AM (#3428448)
    Can anybody tell me why the hell they didn't stick with VESA timings for that CRT. With only 72 Hz for the highest resolution I could not stand to work on that thing for more than 30 minutes.

    • Re:The eMac still isn't ergonomic (Score:5, Informative)

      by Riskable ( 19437 ) <YouKnowWho@YouKnowWhat.com> on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:43AM (#3428500) Homepage Journal
      Actually (from the Apple website)...

      Five screen resolutions:
      640 by 480 pixels at 138 Hz
      800 by 600 pixels at 112 Hz
      1024 by 768 pixels at 89 Hz
      1152 by 864 pixels at 80 Hz
      1280 by 960 pixels at 72 Hz

      The eMac has a 17 inch display. Who the hell is going to run that thing at 1280x960!?! I'm sure your eyes would be just fine running at the recommended resolution of 1024x768 @89 Hz.

      The actual range of the human eye for refresh rate is somewhere around 60-72 Hz anyway. So even if you do run at that way-too-big-for-this-screen resolution, you're still at the top of the spectrum.

      Unless you're some sort of X-mutated cyclopse with a high-refresh eye, you'll be fine.
      • On some monitors, I can't stand lower than 80Hz refresh. Some I can get by at 75Hz.
      • This "human eye" thing is bull. Under some circumstances, I can tell the difference between 72Hz and 100Hz, and I'm pretty sure I have human eyes.

        There are at least two reasons that higher is better:

        1. Interference with fluorescent bulbs. Your ambient lighting might have an imperceptible variation in brightness at a frequency slightly different from your refresh rate. When that happens, it is the difference between the two frequencies that you perceive as flicker.

        2. Motion blur. Things that move on a computer screen have no motion blur: they are a series of static images. (Well, some high-end video cards do motion blur I think.) Moving images with no motion blur look very strange and sometimes confusing, and appear to flicker. (An example of this is the opening battle from Gladiator, in which motion blur was reduced to enhance the impression of chaos.) One way to simulate motion blur is to have tons of frames per second. For instance, if you have 5 times more FPS than your eye can perceive, then each five frames will effectively blur together, creating a more natural-looking motion with less flicker.

        I'm sure there are more effects I haven't thought of, but you get the idea: it's not just about having enough frames to fool the eye. For #1, the key is not only high frame rate, but a frame rate sufficiently different from that of your ambient lighting (and its harmonics, I guess). For #2, the higher the frame rate the better: there is no limit. Fast-moving animations will always benefit from more FPS.

      • I have a 17" CRT at home and run it at 1600x1200 @ 80hz (or thereabouts). Yes it's set to small fonts (actually I've lowered them from the "small" defaults), and yes I can read it fine, without squinting. Maybe people's eyes are different? :-)

      • There's a pretty strong line of evidence from ergonomics research showing that even though most people can't spot the difference between, say, 75Hz and 120Hz, it still has a big impact on reading speed and eyestrain. Reason being, your eyes move (saccade) from location to location very quickly, and they need visual information during the saccade in order to "lock-in" to their targets. At lower refresh rates, that information isn't always available during the saccade, so it takes longer for the eye to get where it's supposed to be going.
  • I had to make sure it wasn't April 1...

    Probably the coolest thing about the eMac is that it's one of the much-discussed "rumor" topics that I never expected to be productized.

    Kudos, Apple... I think...

    Heck, I don't know what to think.... what's the mob party line on this? L33t or Lame?

  • Introducing the new, more DROPPABLE eMac (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Crash Culligan ( 227354 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:34AM (#3428465) Journal
    There's a feature that's been on almost every Mac, from low end to high end, since Steve Jobs decided to give the company's products their first image makeover. It's strangely absent from the eMac, and now I wonder why it lacks-- --the handles. Oh yeah, scoff if you must, but think about it -- nearly every non-laptop machine in Apple's post-beige era has had handles of some sort, either on the corners (blue G3 and G4 towers) or set in the top (iMacs from the get-go). Even the old iBooks had the plastic carrying handle. And if you think back, remember the very very original 128K Macintosh with the big square mouse? It had a handle too. SE/030? Handle. The eMac represents a departure from the standard design for a number of reasons as stated by other posters, and now there's this too. Yeah, I know, the handle isn't quite as nice as, say, the BSD-compatible core, but it's something I'd grown to rely on. I begin to wonder what's going through the designers' minds.
  • There seems to be a lot of confusion about Apple's pricing schema. It would seem that the you can only get the $999 modemless one if you're shopping for a k-12 instituion, with the other emacs going for $1199 and $1456. If you're a personal shoppeer, going shopping for higher ed, you're only two choices are the combo drive ones, for $1249 and $1516. Very to give a higher discount to the K-12 market...

  • I do/don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nomad7674 ( 453223 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @07:52AM (#3428532) Homepage Journal
    I must admit to being confused here. While the left side of my brain (rational) understands some of what is going on here, the right side (creative) which Apple usually caters to is highly confused about these two new additions to Apple's line-up -- especially the eMac.

    800 MHz TiBook:
    What I *DO* get:
    1. It is faster. Always good.
    2. It is new. That will jump-start sales.
    3. It has a new graphics chipset. Good for the graphics pros who use TiBooks.
    What I *DO*NOT* get:
    1. This is NOT fast enough. 800 MHz is better, but why not 1 GHz? The Wintel portables are up there and Apple is too far behind the P.R. curve on this one. I know, I know: Heat and Supplies. But this is simply not enough of a speed increase.
    2. When can we see a new form factor? Removable bays are sorely missed, for one. In my ever-so-humble opinion, the Pismo form was superior in most ways to this one. Course, a form factor change is probably better held off until July.
    3. Was the enhanced graphics really for the graphics pros or the hard-core gamers???

    eMac:
    What I *DO* get:
    1. Education needs a cheap base Mac for their labs. This fits with the sub-$1000 price.
    2. LCDs are expensive and hard-to-find right now. This alleviates the shortage in the education market.
    3. This uses a form already known and accepted in education. Adding this to an existing iMac lab will not make it stand out too much.
    4. Apple needs the education market happy in order to maintain its base.
    What I *DO*NOT* get:
    1. Why the "eMac"? iMac for internet, eMac for education. Will the next thing be the oMac for use by IRS agents ("Owe Mac", get it?)? This seems to be diluting the brand and confusing buyers.
    2. Why CRT when LCD is the way to go? Apple is pushing LCD (or some form of flatscreen) as the wave of the future. Why backtrack in this area only? If LCD is NOT the way to go, why not make the eMac available to all. If LCD IS the way to go, why not make it available for corporate and home users?

    My Two Cents.
    • A few answers:
      • For the TiBook, 800Mhz is fast, don't get caught up in comparing Mhz to Mhz when the chips are of totally different architecture. What you really need to be looking at is what the real world results are with fully optimized programs on both architectures. Oh and heat is probably a factor aswell.
      • For the eMac, the CRT was probably chosen for several reasons, including cost, availability ( you have probably heard of the LCD screen supply problems ) and possibily because this is generally more robust and has a proven track record. Oh, and eduction tends to be a little more conservative due to their budget (IMHO education should get more investment in general).
      The only question I have is if OLED screen are meant to be so much better and cheaper to produce, in comparison to regular flat screens, why aren't we seeing them entering the market place?
  • Compare Google's cache of Apple's old Powerbook page [216.239.33.100] and Apple's new Powerbook page [apple.com]. They've raised the prices, along with refreshing their product line.

    The URL Google gave me has an IP number rather than xxxx.google.com so it looks a little suspicious. If you're worried I'm sending you off to goat sex, do a Google search for "apple store powerbook" and take the second result.
  • It's primarily targeted at the education market, and boasts a 700mhz G4 processor and a flat 17" monitor.

    I was seriously considering getting one of the new lamp-style iMacs, but I didn't particularly like the smaller screen (or what my cats are likely to do to an LCD panel). This is ideal -- a bigger tube and a G4 processor are the only things really missing from my current 1999 issue iMac.

    --saint

  • New PowerBook G4 screen: hope it's droolproof! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Gryffin ( 86893 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:00AM (#3428576) Homepage
    It's now official: my next new Mac is gonna be a PowerBook G4.

    I'm one of those people who just can't stand to work on a screen smaller than 1280 or so pix wide. Even 1024x768 feels cramped, and 800x600 is downright claustrophobic.

    Now that Apple's packing the new PowerBook with a 15.2" 1280x854 LCD, the ol' 21" CRT on my desk, with it's huge size, godawful heat output and power requirements, isn't looking so appealing anymore.

    Oh, it has another nice feature: fully-accelerated DVI output to a second monitor, if ya got it. 1280x854 not enough room when you're doing graphics work? just hook up a second LCD monitor. Sweet.

  • For college students at least, they start at $1249.
    Building an equivalent Powermac system is about 1480 dollars (adding monitor to education "entry" model powermac.) These things would be tempting if I had the money to cough up for it. In a few weeks I'll have the cash, but won't be a college student anymore. The Macs are nice, but not worth that amount of cash to home users. The price/benefit ratio for home users is killed by Windows PCs. For professional graphics work, though, they are great workstations...
  • What's the deal with that mini-vga plug on the back of the eMac? Why not just use the standard VGA plug? I wonder how many millions of dollars have been spent by Mac users on adaptors.
  • If you're an EduMac shop now this is a good upgrade. If you are a school that wants to run Mac software this is a good upgrade. If you want machines that are easy and cheap to install and move around the 'media center' (aka library) this is a good deal. Ok the soft screen might not be so good I guess they'll get some screeen shields. If you want to have a bunch of Gateways with a dozen cables out the ass end for kids to screw with and a bunch of OFF buttons that are just going to make your life real interesting then this is a bad deal.

  • From the education store--

    $999.00

    700MHz
    PowerPC G4
    128MB SDRAM
    40GB Ultra ATA drive
    CD-ROM drive
    No Modem

    $1,199.00

    700MHz
    PowerPC G4
    128MB SDRAM
    40GB Ultra ATA drive
    Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW)
    56K internal modem

    $1,456.00

    700MHz
    PowerPC G4
    512MB SDRAM
    40GB Ultra ATA drive
    Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW)
    56K internal modem
    eMac Stand

  • Same size (Score:5, Informative)

    by axlrosen ( 88070 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:46AM (#3428770) Homepage
    Pretty cool, the 17" CRT eMac is the same depth as the 15" CRT iMac (17.1 inches), and only .8 inches taller and wider. That's pretty impressive.

    http://www.apple.com/education/emac/specs.html [apple.com]
    http://www.apple.com/imac/g3/specs.html [apple.com]

    (For some reason in the marketing description they say it's 8mm shorter, not sure why.)

  • Fan? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by axlrosen ( 88070 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:53AM (#3428799) Homepage
    One of the cool thinks about the iMac is that it had no fan, so it was very quiet. I assume this one does, because it doesn't say one way or the other.

  • The Quake test (Score:3, Informative)

    by kruczkowski ( 160872 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:27AM (#3428927) Homepage
    "3D games push the graphics processing unit harder than any other application. And of these 3D games, Quake performance has come to be the benchmark against which all graphics processors are measured. So you'll be pleased to hear that when playing the Quake III Arena version 1.30, in millions of colors, at 1024x768 resolution, the 800MHz PowerBook G4 blazes away at a scorching 68 frames per second.*

    * Higher frame rates indicate better performance. Tests conducted by Apple."

  • Sweet! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by macdaddy ( 38372 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:51AM (#3429021) Homepage Journal
    This is one of the things I've been holding out for prior to buying a laptop. The 1st was a G4 in the house. The 2nd was 32MB or 64MB of video RAM.

    I wish Apple, ATI, and the rest of the industry would get together and work up a standard for video cards in laptops. I'd like to see the video cards be removable and not part of the mobo. As long as you had the support of the video card manufacturers like ATI and the GeForce folks, you could allow your laptops video setup to be upgraded when needed. Let's say that ATI comes out with the 8500 with 64MB in the mobility configuration. I do a little surgery on my laptop and *boom* I have a better video card that extends the useful life of the expensive laptop. I think Apple would be an ideal candidate to do this. They make a lot of inovative moves that are initially seen as risky. Many of the become "the thing" and everyone eventually does the same. Apple would be a good place to start this idea. Please Apple, do this!

    • Re:Sweet! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Have Blue ( 616 )
      One word: Cooling. A next-generation video chip would probably be a lot hotter than the previous one, and laptops are already very close to the limit with regards to heat and airflow.

  • Looks like an iMac failure. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by litewoheat ( 179018 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @10:28AM (#3429164)
    Having worked at Apple and experienced their productization methodology, this looks like a failed iMac concept that had too much money dumped into it to just toss. Some smart product manager said "Hey lets refocus it!". The thing is though, back in the dark days, almost any R&D product hit the streets for fear of wasting money. That didn't work too well, but I think this repurposing will do fine.

  • So fast! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Isldeur ( 125133 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @11:26AM (#3429450)
    The PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine is so fearsomely fast that its performance is measured in gigaflops

    My wang is so big it's measured in kilometers: 0.00001564km!
  • Coupla facts, thoughts, and conjectures:
    1. Apple just introduced their new iMac a few months ago. It's gotten great reviews everywhere from the New York Times to BusinessWeek to most every major local daily and geek publication.
    2. Apple isn't going to confuse the market with an iMac that hearkens back to the older design iMac (which they still sell BTW!)
    3. However the Education market is a big one for Apple and one they've recently been taking a beating in (in spite of a few big wins.) The last education-specific-product they had was the ill-starred eMate [everymac.com] (Netwon-based indestructo-laptop) that burnt their customers when it was suddenly dropped.
    4. Folks have been whining at Apple for a 17" iMac for forever. However Apple made it clear they couldn't do it in the iMac formfactor. Well, this is pretty close but yeah, not the same.
    5. So here they've solved two problems with one stone, er, Mac. They've satisfied the Edu market with a cheapie low-maint iMac that has scaled up to the 17" world. They've also managed to satisfy that market without detracting from their can't-ship-them-fast-enough new iMac design.
    6. Will this eMac move into the Consumer market? Probably not as such. Right now the service, support, marketing etc. for this model is nicely contained in the Edu division of Apple and likely to stay there for a while.
    7. On the other hand businesses have really taken a shine to a iMac line. This is a bit of a quandary for Apple as they'd far prefer their G-series of Macs be the corporate model.
    8. The eMac might lead the way to a compromise: Here's a cheapie iMac-alike that could be a great client packaged with a MacOS X Server. This could get Apple into the 1,000-cheap-standardized-ruggedized-identical-buil t-to-be-centrally-managed desktop model that they've been completely absent from.
    9. However this would somewhat expand Apple's product line which is something they're leery of after the excesses of the late 80's-90's.
    10. Right now Apple's product line-up is Consumer with iMac & iBook, Professional with G4 & PowerBook. The Cube was an odd duck to this - a cross between the iMac & G4. However this is almost exactly what the eMac is just cheaper and in a different formfactor.

    11. So eMac = Cube v.2?

    12. This is my guess. Not only did Apple listen to what Edus wanted from an iMac but they also learned what didn't work with the Cube. Now they've merged them and I wouldn't be surprised in a rev or two to see Apple start a big public push back onto corporate desktops.
    13. Just as NT was perceived as a better OS as it came in desktop & server versions (gotta have the same across the enterprise!), it was "friendlier" then Netware and the other competition (can't get nicer then Apple!) and "industrial strength" (MacOS X runs BSD for goodness sakes!) I bet Apple is getting ready for the same assault back.
    14. A range of hardware, expanding marketshare, an OS that runs the same stuff as "the big boys", easy to develop custom apps for, ease of use, runs MS Office; Apple could regain some serious ground.
    All IMHO of course.

  • A 17" iMac has been long-rumored... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by aquarian ( 134728 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:32PM (#3433232)
    An iMac with a 17" screen has been talked about for a long time. It was the obvious successor to the original iMac, and what everyone assumed Apple would do next.

    Then the new, flat screen iMac came out. It upped the ante, and upped the price point. It's possible the eMac was in the works for a long time, but the new iMac leapfrogged it. Naturally, Apple would want to milk the iMac for awhile before letting the eMac out- the eMac might have eaten into iMac sales.

    Whatever happened, there's definately a market for both. It's unfortunate the eMac is edu-only, at least for now. There are a lot of starving artist Mac users who need a CRT, but can't afford a new G4 and monitor. Plus, the eMac is the perfect office appliance- as someone else said, "e" should mean "enterprise."

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