The unveiling of theMac Studiothis workweek arrest me thinking about how unknown the last few year of the Intel - based27 - inch iMacwere .
Whenthe 27 - column inch iMac was refresh in 2020weall knewit wasthe terminal of the line . Apple silicon iMacs were come , but just before Apple end the door on the old iMac , it catch a net revision out the door .
see the features of that iMac : An optional nano - grain display and a 3.6GHz 10 - core Intel Core i9 central processing unit . Macworld ’s reviewed iMac configuration be $ 4,499 — clearly aimed at pro users . Now weigh that the original iMac , when it was introduce in 1997 , was underpowered and be $ 1,299 for the oecumenical consumer . The evolution of the iMac took a foreign turn . What happened ?
No place to go
After the Intel passage in 2006 , the newMac Pro(formerly Power Mac ) seemed to be adrift further and further by from most users . It eventually reached its apotheosis when it transformed from a holey metal slab into acylinder , becoming an expensive objet d’art with Methedrine - can reckon and severe chill problems . Its ultimate replacement – thecurrent Mac Pro – starts at $ 6,000 and go right smart , right smart up from there .
These are computing machine designed for the extremes of Apple ’s client base . But there ’s another group that does n’t want to spend that much ( or ca n’t yield it ) and does n’t need extreme world power . They have needs – great than those who just want to check email and browse the web – but notextremeneeds .
With the Mac Pro receding into the distance , that group fly to the iMac . ( specially when Apple stopped selling its own external video display , making using a Mac miniskirt even less of an attractive proposition . ) Over the years , the iMac slowly transformed from a friendly computer for the tidy sum to a machine that led a dual life . It still require to be low-priced for the masses , but also had to offer big businessman to those who needed it .
The Mac Pro is too expensive for substance abuser who need more power than that found in a consumer Mac .
Apple
Weird iMacs
In the Intel era , the iMac got weird . Apple maintain trying to hold down the blue death of the line , offer affordable organisation with features like non - Retina displays and spinning hard drives for year after they had fled the rest of the production line of credit . And on the in high spirits end , the iMac was pack with higher - end Intel central processor that taxed the iMac ’s cooling organization , do them to loudly blow fan when doing hard work .
Mac Studio (M1 Max, 2022)
24-inch iMac (2021)
The crowning moment in the overrefinement of the iMac was the passing of the 2017 iMac Pro . Ilove the iMac Pro – I indite this clause on mine – but it was a Cartesian product built at a moment when Apple thought it was going to cancel the Mac Pro . Apple had fully commit to the idea that the iMac production credit line would now encompass everything that high - last Mac users needed .
And yet , by the clock time the iMac Pro was free , Apple had changed direction , offering a mea culpa and promising a new Mac Pro . The 2017 iMac Pro end up being one of its kind , and Apple kept releasing “ steady ” iMacs with hot central processor and nanotexture display .
Released in 2017 , the iMac Pro tried to fill the midrange operation gap .
IDG
The fun is back
The Apple silicon era has been a reset for the iMac . The24 - in M1 iMacis downrightfun . Apple bring a rainbow gloss palette back for the first time since the original G3 iMac . The M1 processor itself , while a remarkable piece of engineering , is not exactly a professional - tier chip – as has been made readily apparent by the arrival of the M1 Pro , M1 Max , and M1 Ultra microchip .
And now , this . The 27 - column inch iMac – that one with loud fans cooling high - ending Intel chips – has beendiscontinued . Apple did n’t release a new iMac or update the 24 - in modelling with an M1 Pro . alternatively , Apple announced the Mac Studio and a new Studio Display to go with it .
We ’ll see how the Mac Studio performs when it make it on March 18 , but it seems clear that Apple has decided to redefine the iMac ’s place in the ware argumentation . Instead of pack it full of mogul , it has left that for the Mac Studio . As someone whose last two basal Macs have been iMacs ( an original 5 K iMac and that uncanny , with child one - off iMac Pro ) , I will admit : the present moment I saw the Mac Studio , I realized that it was made for me .
The iMac was always meant to be a consumer figurer . Now it is again . While I hope that , in time , there ’s a larger and more open iMac for those who want one , I ’m happy that the iMac is no longer the via media exploiter make because they do n’t want a Mac Pro .
