Wednesday, December 29, 2004 |
11:16 - The next little thing?
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0412expo2.html
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Well, doesn't this just make one want to sit up and bark...
With iPod-savvy Windows users clearly in its sights, Apple is expected to announce a bare bones, G4-based iMac without a display at Macworld Expo on January 11 that will retail for $499, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret.
The new Mac, code-named Q88, will be part of the iMac family and is expected to sport a PowerPC G4 processor at a speed around 1.25GHz. The new Mac is said to be incredibly small and will be housed in a flat enclosure with a height similar to the 1.73 inches of Apple's Xserve. Its size benefits will include the ability to stand the Mac on its side or put it below a display or monitor.
Along with lowering costs by forgoing a display (Apple's entry-level eMac sells for $799 with a built-in 17-inch CRT display), the so-called "headless" iMac will allow Apple's target audience -- Windows users looking for a cheap, second PC -- to keep their current peripherals or decide on their own what to pair with the system, be it a high-priced LCD display or an inexpensive display. Sources expect the device to feature both DVI and VGA connectivity, although whether this will be provided through dual ports or through a single DVI port with a VGA adapter remains to be seen.
Wow. Several commentators (including Aziz Poonawalla, who alerted me to this) have speculated hopefully about this kind of new Mac in the past: a headless, entry-level, laptop-form machine to compete with the loss-leaders from Dell and HP and Gateway (which tend not to come with monitors, though you only find that out in the fine print). I've always taken Apple at their word when they said that they had no interest in that market segment, deeming the sacrifices they'd have to make in hardware packaging and software functionality to be too much of a downside to justify the upside. But as the article says, it seems the iPod really has changed all the rules. Suddenly Apple is a household name again, and in a good way this time; now everybody's looking at them expectantly, saying, "Okay—you've got my attention. What do I do next?"
So they're going ahead with what's meant to be the ultimate Switcher Box, are they? Maybe not—this is just a rumor at this stage. But we'll find out soon enough. Talk about striking while the iron is hot, though. I don't know if there's ever been a riper time.
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