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I could never justify getting an iMac. All the downsides of a laptop & desktop in one; not upgradeable and not portable. Leaves me wondering how many of these A
by jfoster 2y ago
I could never justify getting an iMac. All the downsides of a laptop & desktop in one; not upgradeable and not portable. Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell. A Mac Mini with a separate screen feels like it makes far more sense.
- fire_lake 2y agoVery low desk clutter though. Power cable, maybe a mouse. Nothing else.
- graeme 2y agoThe iMacs very much aren't their main seller. A couple of key demographics use it though: * Families with a shared computer in a common room. Super simple to setup, no fiddling, low price. In the video Apple showcased this use case. My parents have an M3 imac and it works great. They had their last iMac for ten years. * Businesses buy these for reception areas and customers see the Apple logo on the back. Easy solution for a business with no IT department, great marketing for Apple. Apple will probably always sell an iMac option as long as businesses buy and display them.
- 39896880 2y agoEducation as well. Main reason why that headphone jack has stuck around I suspect.
- graypegg 2y ago+1 for the business front desk. This is by far where I see them the most. They're very easy to deploy, and most of the software you're going to need it to be running works in a browser. A windows all-in-one PC is another option... but the chance of something going wrong/being annoying in the interim between "plunk it on the desk" and "open salesforce in chrome" is definitely higher.
- aphantastic 2y agoMy parents have had an iMac in their living room sitting quietly doing stuff (web apps, mainly) for 9 years now. Still works fine for all their use cases and the 5k screen remains a delight to behold.
- notatoad 2y agoi know a few people who have an iMac in their living room like that, with the same logic as the people who still have landlines - the laptops and cell phones get put away when you get home (or stay in the home office), so you can be present with your family. but sometimes you still need a computer for stuff, like controlling the music or quickly looking something up on google. but if it's not your computer, and it's not signed in to all your stuff, you're going to quickly do the thing you need doing and then get off it again. iMac is perfect for that. it looks pretty, it's small enough that it can be put in a corner, and it's powerful enough that you can buy it, leave it there, and not think about having to upgrade it for a decade.
- saylisteins 2y agoIt's surreal for me how something so expensive can be thought as "perfect" for this usecase. I'd say in cases like this having a cheap laptop or even a cheap all in one desktop computer is good enough. Why spend $2000 to browse the internet?
- graypegg 2y agoBeing honest, I would bet the archetypical family that can prioritize "putting the phone away and being present" definitely skews more affluent than you may expect.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rsynnott 2y agoEh, they start at $1300 (I suspect pretty much all non-commercial purchases are the base-line one) and last roughly forever (like, a decade is not an exaggeration; you see old ones around a fair bit). There’s a market, there. Not sure what it’s like these days, but last time I checked cheap PC laptops were basically disposable; in an old job we had plastic Dell laptops for non-eng roles, and I’d be surprised if the median lifespan was much more than a year. They just broke _all the time_. Possibly things have come on, I suppose; this was a while back.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- coryfklein 2y agoI love the iMac as the main driver for my family of 5 * We want a dedicated space in the house for a family computer, so portability is no concern * It has a very small footprint * It looks the most like "furniture" out of all the options I've seen; pretty color & form factor, and no mess of cables. If you're male, think "wife approval factor". * It does everything the family needs from it; runs Steam, documents, spreadsheet, browser, school, photos/videos, etc * High interoperability with our family iPhones/iPads
- newsclues 2y agoYeah a family friend PC that can end up on a desk or in the kitchen, or on a milk crate as a media player in an apartment, as a family computer they get years of use over time by different people in a family. From work to life to play.
- lokar 2y agoSame here. I provide tech support to my father, on the condition that I pick the hardware, always an iMac
- jwells89 2y agoLow number of cables has also been one of the points of appeal for the iMac, to the point that it was a focal point of marketing for the original model. For the average person's setup the current model only needs a power cable.
- bmicraft 2y ago> For the average person's setup the current model only needs a power cable. Even if you use wireless input devices you'll need to charge them occasionally
- jwells89 2y agoOf course, but those cables (or more likely, just one cable) can be stashed away in a drawer 99% of the time. The bundled keyboard and mouse/trackpad can go months between recharges, especially with lighter less frequent use that something like a living room or kitchen machine might see.
- mjlee 2y agoIt's an optional extra (of course), but you can plug an ethernet cable in to the power adapter and deliver power + network over the same cable.
- davedx 2y agoMy daughter's orthodontist has one of these behind every chair. Our dentist has them too. HN honestly is a terrible source of information for 1) What sells 2) What might sell
- glonq 2y ago"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."
- playingalong 2y agoI have been to a on orthodontist office which didn't have any iMac. I wouldn't apply this observation to judge if the product makes sense
- talldayo 2y agoThat's fine, but personal anecdotes are also a hugely misleading source of information too. In the time since the iMac redesign was released, I've seen 10x more of the old models than I have seen of the new ones. My local barber even uses an Intel iMac in Target Display mode to run their Windows small-form-factor PC. HN is disillusioned, but so are a lot of the west coast product designers that expect businesses to buy these on day 1. The majority of businesses are going to buy whatever is cheap and effective - their realistic choice is between a Chromebox and a Mac Mini.
- _chu1 2y agoWhen I think cheap and works out of the box, Mac is the last thing on my mind.
- DaiPlusPlus 2y agoApple ain’t cheap. Windows 11 (literally) will not work out-of-the-box if you don’t have internet access. Linux isn’t cheap unless your time is free. I say we should just bring back IRIX.
- creole_wither 2y ago
- jfoster 2y agoOK, I want to partly take back my comment. The business use case is brilliant.
- FactKnower69 2y ago>low price ???
- sgt 2y agoIf you just want a family computer in the living room or somewhere, it's perfect. A place where you can just sit down and do some stuff. We have an iMac there without a login requirement.
- rswail 2y agoUpgraded my father to one when the M1 came out. Perfect size and screen for him, more performance than he'll ever need (browsing and occasional word processing/spreadsheets). He's very happy with it.
- martin_a 2y agoI don't see the point in them anymore, too. 24" screen size is not interesting and I can't get more displays that do look like the first one. Will always look strangely mixed in environments. edit: ok, others pointed out possible use cases. was thinking about the reception one, too.
- azinman2 2y agoMost Mac users seldom upgrade. I read here and myself often use a MacBook for 7+ years. Given screen tech changes alone, I think it makes a lot of sense. I’ve owned an iMac before very happily. I just don’t own one now because they stopped making 27” versions.
- ryandrake 2y ago27" iMac has been my daily driver for over 10 years, and I only replaced my last one because the screen cracked when I tried to repair it. I've got 64GB of RAM and a 27" thunderbolt display on both sides, making excellent for both software development and video editing. I don't know what I'd replace it with if it died.
- sorum 2y agoWhat is preventing them from launching a 27" version? I've been waiting to upgrade our 2017 model in the living room, was hoping the 27" was finally going to come now. Guess Mac Mini is the only route to go...
- znpy 2y ago> What is preventing them from launching a 27" version? most likely they (apple) think that would eat into some other market segment. for a 27" station they probably want you to get a mac mini with a studio display. apple is known for "gently (but firmly) nudging" you towards the more expensive options.
- sorum 2y agoIt does seem that way, doesn't it? Shame, it was the perfect form factor for family room, office front desk.
- rgbrgb 2y ago> Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell I think we can check since they're public. Looks like 5-8 million per quarter [0]. Approx 10% of their computer sales [1]. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-mac-computers-since-first-quarter-2006/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-ma... [1]: https://www.cultofmac.com/news/macbooks-make-up-a-whopping-77-of-mac-sales https://www.cultofmac.com/news/macbooks-make-up-a-whopping-7...
- wongarsu 2y agoCompared to 43% MacBook Pro, 34% MacBook Air, 9% Mac Pro, 3% Mac mini, 1% Mac Studio, as per the second link. So these are their most popular desktop, but by a slim margin and far behind the laptop sales
- Tagbert 2y agoNote that those are revenue figures, not unit sales. That is why the Mac Pro comes out so high. the unit cost is so much higher that even with low volumes, the revenue is noticeable.
- madeofpalk 2y agoNote the data isn't actually public - Apple does not break Mac revenue or sales figures down to per device. These are all just 'market intelligence' estimates.
- MBCook 2y agoRight. They used to, they stopped many years ago. So now it’s all guesses, estimates, based on whatever.
- taeric 2y agoI'd be interested in numbers on some of this. From my view, the upgradability is a bit of a red herring for most users. Computers are fast enough for most uses that it just doesn't matter.
- stouset 2y agoAnd frankly, the “upgradeability” of most desktops is a myth in my experience. By the time I’ve ever wanted to upgrade a Windows or Linux PC, a new CPU probably isn’t going to fit into the same socket as the one I had so now I need a new motherboard too. I probably want a new GPU if it was a gaming PC and if it wasn’t I would be using an integrated GPU anyway. I think the only thing I’ve ever kept from an “upgrade” was my case and some memory sticks. But I probably would have been better off—both in time and money—just selling the damn thing as a whole and buying an entirely new set of components. TL;DR, year-over-year bumps just aren’t worth the price of upgrades, but by the time it is worth doing you probably want to upgrade so many parts there’s little left to keep. YMMV.
- captnObvious 2y agoI agree with you entirely except for if we skip the year over year part.5- Time of purchase upgrade ability, if we’re talking about getting to 128 or 256 GB of RAM. Time of purchase to upgrade to multiple high res screens that match. Dedicated GPUs… I bet there is a top of the line home hobbiest LLM oriented GPU from Nvidia or AMD in the next 3 years that will cleanly connect to recent chip architectures. I doubt it will run optimally tied to a Mac. It’ll be something that you could also rack in a server.
- wongarsu 2y agoIf you want a new CPU after a decade it's absolutely as you describe: you need a new mainboard and probably new memory (DDR5 just came out), and end up keeping only the case, drive, case fans and PSU, if that. For other components it mostly works. You can smoothly upgrade from 8GB RAM all the way to 128GB, get a new GPU, whatever the current WiFi standard is, more silent cooling, more, bigger or faster drives, etc. If you replace something every 2-3 years you can ship-of-theseus the same computer for a surprisingly long time at pretty low cost
- gigatexal 2y agoYeah ... I wish they kept the iMac Pro line. An M4 pro in that body heck even with a larger 32inch screen would be awesome!
- klodolph 2y agoI bought an iMac a while back. I left it connected to a bunch of music studio equipment. It does its job as the center of a home recording studio—gigabit ethernet and plenty of USB ports. I am not considering replacing it yet, even though it stopped receiving updates from Apple. It can’t run Logic 11 (it’s stuck on 10).
- mhh__ 2y agoBut just think of the satisfaction you'll have at your computer being tiny in the dimension you can't actually perceive when using it!
- Tagbert 2y agoMost computers are part of a 3D space where you can occupy more than just the frontal view. You will notice the screen thinness from other angles. it's not the most important aspect but it a nice enhancement. This are often used in environments where they are seen from other angles like homes, front desks, schools.
- notjustanymike 2y agoIt's the computer equivalent of a fleet car.
- fennecbutt 2y agoNah that's a chromebook.
- insane_dreamer 2y ago> not upgradeable and not portable your average user (aka not HN-er) doesn't upgrade their computer an all-in-one solution is very attractive for families or situations where you don't need to tote around a laptop and you want a large screen
- throwaway48476 2y agoAverage user tells average HNer their computer is slow and the HNer does the upgrade.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoFair
- tonyedgecombe 2y agoAverage user tells average HNer their computer is slow and the HNer continues to develop Electron apps.
- js2 2y agoMy uncle is on his third iMac. He owns them for a decade at a time. When he sends emails, the subject is always "From <his name>" because he shared an email account with my aunt years ago and even though he no longer does, he still puts his name in the subject. That's the target buyer.
- xyst 2y agoglorified e-mail client for $1200. Nice.
- msisk6 2y agoFor a decade. That works out to $10 a month. Not a bad deal.
- bmicraft 2y agoIt's still a bad deal.
- pantulis 2y agoI've provided my father (82 years, living 500km away from me) with hand-me-downs Mac laptops since 2009: from the initial Macbook Core Duo up to a the most recent M2 Air. He does web browsing and frequent FaceTime calls with me just for checking out how they are. Those little laptops last him until the battery dies. He could very well be using Windows with a cheaper laptop, but I consider the amount of support hours that I've saved to more than compensate for that.
- lurking_swe 2y agoi agree on principal, but don’t forget…not everyone tries to thrift every purchase. Some people don’t care about a $300 price difference (just an example) if they plan to keep it for 10 years. Good for them.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rwmj 2y agoMeet my relatives who recently retired an x86 iMac, upgraded to an Arm-based one, and will probably upgrade to something like this, but only after another 7-10 years, when the current iMac is far out of support and getting so slow that it becomes unbearable. They use it as a shared family computer, almost exclusively for downloading photos from a (also very old) digital camera and watching Youtube videos. Judging by the sibling comments I'm not the only one with relatives like this!
- xutopia 2y agoI was considering an iMac but decided against it because I couldn't use it as a secondary display for my work laptop.
- jedberg 2y agoAt the very least, they use them at the front desk of every Apple building for the admin who signs people in. :) I had one during the pandemic. I got it at a steep discount but it was really nice when I didn't need to go anywhere. I'm giving it to my son to put in his room. Seems like they're useful for families and kids, and corp environments that use Macs for the folks who work in office and don't move around (admins, lab workers, etc)
- symlinkk 2y agoThe “separate screens” you can buy all suck. They aren’t 5k resolution, and they always have some weird edge case issue you find out about 2 weeks after you buy it.
- gehsty 2y agoI think iMacs end up where someone wants a computer to look nice (either personally or professionally). You could have these in a none tech environment and they will look good.
- space_oddity 2y agoiMacs have always been as much about aesthetics as performance, and they do fit beautifully in environments where style is key, like design studios
- HeckFeck 2y agoYou’re completely right and yet the sight of one fills me with desire. Possibly because it has a direct line right back to the original Macintosh. Such that when I showed my 11yo cousin my Macintosh SE, he called it an ‘iMac’.
- jxdxbx 2y agoFor a long time the best Apple display you could get was in the iMacs. An iMac with nothing used with it besides a wireless keyboard and mouse, where you can even hide the ethernet port in the power brick, makes for a nice clean desk.
- space_oddity 2y agoAbsolutely, the iMac’s display quality has been a big draw for years, especially when Apple's external display options were limited.
- runjake 2y agoSince none of the options there are tangibly more upgradeable than the other, you can reduce your point to "The iMac is not portable." I bet that iMac M4 sales meet their target, which is probably on par with the iMac M1 sales. And those were apparently good enough that they finally released an updated model.
- space_oddity 2y agoIt suits users who prioritize a clean setup, minimal cable clutter, and don’t need the flexibility to upgrade components down the line.
- racl101 2y agoThey are perfect for suuuuuper casual people. Perfect for your grandparents for example. Most people I know who own these are elderly. Yes, an iPad would also work or a MacBook too but elderly people aren't travelling nor are they gonna buy a MacMini and get a monitor. They just need their simple to set up, all-in-one desktop computer.
- jccalhoun 2y agoschools are a big one. If they are going to buy macs, being all in one the school IT doesn't have to worry about a separate monitor to troubleshoot problems with.
- snakeyjake 2y ago> Leaves me wondering how many of these Apple actually sell. The target audience for this machine is my local yoga studio (which has two), my local comic book shop (which has two), and my local spa (which has one). They run a web browser, some kind of inventory or booking app in the browser, and Spotify. That's it. Last year I went to Bali and the Gili Islands on vacation and both of the places I stayed checked me in on an M1 iMac. In that instance they were both also running the WhatsApp app. They're going to sell millions.