Apple is reaching out to consumers who possibly want an iMac but couldn’t afford to get one by recently offering a 21.5-inch new desktop model that’s made affordable.
The company announced on June 18 that the smaller iMac model is the “perfect entry-level Mac desktop,” starting at $1,099.
Apple’s iMac 21.5 inch model also has an 8GB of memory, 500GB hard drive and Intel HD 5000 graphics. As is with all iMac units, it includes a next generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi, two Thunderbolt ports and four USB 3.0 ports for exceptional support and expandability for high-performance peripherals. It showcases an impressive ultra-thin design, vivid display and Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost Speeds of up to 2.7GHz. All new Mac models also come with the OS X, free iWork and iLife apps.
Apple also announced earlier this June of the impending release of OS X Yosemite this fall. Yosemite is “a powerful new version of OS X redesigned and refined with a fresh, modern look, powerful new apps and amazing new continuity features that make working across your Mac and iOS devices more fluid than ever,” the company says in a statement. The new version will be offered free at the App Store.
Some market watchers, however, believe the earlier iMac 21.5-inch model with Turbo Boost speed of up to 3.2GHz, priced at $1,299, is still the better entry-level unit as compared to the new 21.5-inch model. They say its GPU and CPU are way better and faster. Also, the consumer gets the ability to do an upgrade to 16GB RAM. They add that the differences between the two units are more noticeable when the consumer is engaged in power-intensive duties such as video editing or Photoshop.
Others, meanwhile, think it’s a relatively good iMac model with a reasonable price.
"…all in all, it's a pretty decent offering. It would have been really nice if they could have hit $999. That would have been a magical price. We haven't seen that from Apple in a long time. But it's still a good, solid system," Technalysis founder-chief analyst Bob O'Donnell said.
NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker also thinks Apple is paying more attention to volume.
"The earlier MacBook Air price changes, the amount of discounting that's going on with the iPad and iPhones as well, it feels like there's a lot more attention at Apple to getting to more mainstream pricing and more mainstream customers,” Baker, who is also an expert in retail sales in the U.S., said.
Other market analysts say the new iMac model is primarily for those who want to take a bite of Apple and want to see how it goes, and not really for those who have already taken their piece of the bite at a much higher price.
