iMac

Crikey! £949 is the cheapest iMac after today's update.

A friend of mine wanted to wait for the update, and my brother-in-law has recently bought one. Bet the latter is rubbing his hands with glee!

Yep and they have only updated the graphics card. They are last years machines with a new GPU pure and simple.

Integrated graphics too for the first time on an iMac

There is a change to the keyboard - the new iMac's standard keyboard is now the compact one with no numeric keypad, though you can opt for the numeric keypad one at the time of the order.

New wired keyboard�sans numeric keypad�ships with iMac | Input Devices | MacUser | Macworld

I was getting tempted to join the Mac darkside but these updates aren't making me any keener.

These are just refresh products. The next versions will be different, the laptops have had all the attention of late.

These are just refresh products.

With suitably refreshed prices! I think that Apple are in danger of pricing themselves out of the (UK at least) market. People will only put up with so much when it comes to price discrepancy.

The Mac Mini, in particular, is now ridiculously poor value compared to equivalent PCs.

I blogged about it t'uther day, like. Compared what you can get PC-wise for the same price as the cheapest iMac is pretty shocking.

But then again I'd never willingly switch back to using Windows. I use it at work and that's enough for me!

I think the danger is that more people will switch to Hackintoshes. They might even be tempted to try Linux, or one of the BSDs, which are getting more and more user friendly (and the price is right!).

I'd love to (legally) be able to run OS X on my PCs - I'm sure it would be a lot quicker than my PPC Mac Mini.

I'm assuming you are building the PC?

What is your time worth?

What warranty does it have?

How much hassle will it be if it goes wrong?

I agree the prices are stiff, but I am pretty certain that Apple has done the arithmetic on the basis of a bit more than price.

your typical DIYer building PCs etc will have done the maths, after all they are building themselves to save money and really theres not alot to go wrong and time wise still not alot of time versus the amount of money saved. I think that these prices for the refresh will keep the 2nd hand market for iMacs etc alive as can`t see these as anything but attractive to die hard Mac fans, certainly not those new to the scene.

I'm assuming you are building the PC?

Why?

In reply to a post by AnotherExPipex:

I'm assuming you are building the PC?

Why?

Because of the way the info is presented.

Sorry, I didn't actually look at the blog! Fact is, you can buy a finished PC for little more than the cost of the components - sometimes even for less, due to economies of scale.

With regards to the difference between Apple's US vs. UK prices they seem to me to be closer than many times in the past. Being boring and applying simple maths, the current exchange rate hovers around the 1.40 mark. Apple's US store prices don't include sales tax as each State applies a different amount. If you take away VAT the prices aren't so drastically different. Years ago I purchased my Powerbook in the States and saved a fortune. Not sure I'd bother now. Still it is a shame about the increase with regards to the small upgrade! I should have bought one last week.

Simple, they've passed on the cost of making them greener to the customer.

In reply to a post by gilesjuk:

Simple, they've passed on the cost of making them greener to the customer.

so in that respect maybe its better to build your own computer that way you only need to upgrade the parts needed rather than buy the whole thing ?

What was it before?

Have I forgotten the massive price drops when Sterling rocketed against the Dollar or did it never happen?

let ya guess what happened