New From Apple: Recession Macs
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 3, 2009 at 6:06 AM PT
The rumors were true. Well, partially true anyway. Apple was planning a sweeping refresh of its desktops–but it was one that didn’t merit a special-event rollout.
This morning Apple (AAPL) refreshed its desktop line, announcing a new Nehalem-based Mac Pro, a more robust Mac mini and four new iMacs, among them, three with 24-inch screens. All three lines boast fundamental enhancements, but also more affordable prices–a feature Apple touted in its marketing materials the way it would a new technology. Consider this pull quote from Apple COO Tim Cook: “Our flagship 24-inch iMac with twice the memory and twice the storage is now available for just $1,499. The Mac mini is not only our most affordable Mac, it’s also the world’s most energy efficient desktop computer.” And this one from Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing: “The new Mac Pro is a significant upgrade and starts at $300 less than before.”
An interesting change from Apple’s standard marketing language, which typically holds its new machines up as “the most incredible desktop computer we’ve ever made” or “our fastest, biggest and brightest” or “the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about.”
These days, Apple’s new Macs are not simply faster and shinier, they’re a bargain as well. “Insanely great!” has become “insanely affordable!” Anyway, on to the specs.
The new Mac Pro is priced at $2,499 for the quad-core version and at $3,299 for the eight-core version, with Nehalem Xeon processors running at 2.93GHz. All feature an updated system architecture that Apple says delivers twice the performance of the previous model.
The new iMac line starts with the 20-inch iMac for $1,199 with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 memory, a 320GB Serial ATA hard drive and Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics. Its 24-inch brethren features a 1920-by-1200-pixel widescreen display that offers 30 percent more screen real estate than the 20-inch model. It offers up to a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and starts at $1,499–the same price as the previous generation 20-inch model.
The new Mac Mini has been outfitted with the same Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics as Apple’s new MacBooks, something the company says will improve its graphics performance as much as fivefold. Available in two models that start at $599, the mini features a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory, up to 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, five (!) USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800 and a SuperDrive.
Also receiving a refresh today: Apple’s Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme, which now offer a “guest networking” feature that allows users to create a separate Wi-Fi network just for their friends and supports for simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi. “For maximum range and compatibility, Time Capsule works simultaneously on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, allowing all the devices on the network to use the most efficient band automatically,” Apple explains. “And Time Capsule uses the latest 802.11n wireless technology so you can enjoy up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of 802.11g wireless networks.”
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Comments
1. The Mac Pro is way over-priced.
2. The Mini is over-priced or under-powered, your choice.
3. The iMac is perfect.
And, no, I don’t want to be sued for copyright infringement by the author of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.
Posted by Dave Barnes at March 3rd, 2009 at 7:38 amStill pretty expensive. I could get a very fast used DELL with very nice video card, large memory, etc.. for less than $200 with all the melt-down of businesses nowadays. They all come from large companies like Morgan Stanley etc..
Posted by Say Ooi at March 3rd, 2009 at 10:51 amOh, how I wish your price for the MacPro 8-core 2.93GHz were true! Mathematica is wiping the floor with my venerable G4 duo. I need to upgrade. Apple’s site says that $3299 gets me 8 cores @ 2.26GHz. They want a whopping $2600 more for 2.93GHz! Mathematica version 7 would make pretty good use of 8 cores, so I might go with 8@2.26. The disgusting thing about that would be that my old laptop might run some apps faster.
Posted by Tom Burton at March 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pmYep, the Mac Pro is way overpriced, if all you want to do is play Solitaire, cruise the web, and check your Facebook friends for the umpteenth time.
When I work up a 120 meg file from my 21 megapixel EOS 5D Mark II, and create a panorama, or an animation from 15 pictures in a PSD file, the file size is nearly a gigabyte. Let me tell you, the Mac Pro is a bargain when that kind of horsepower is required.
That $200 Dell would choke. And if I were to buy a comparable Dell (if and when they come out with Nehalem Xeon processors, at this point, the Mac Pro is the only option) it will cost $600 to $1000 more than the Mac Pro for the same specs if history says anything about it.
If you can’t see the value of spending more, you don’t need it.
Posted by Eric Welch at March 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 pmDave,
1) Go price any PC workstation with server-class Quad-Core Xeon processors and get back to me.
2) Go price a “mini” sized system with Core 2 Duos and make sure it has DDR3 RAM and a 1066MHz front-side bus.
Most people who complain about “expensive” Apple computers aren’t looking under the hood, and aren’t comparing apples to Apples.
Posted by Michael Long at March 3rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm