Apple Set To Launch $500 Mac
In a bid to take advantage of the success of the iPod music player, Apple Computer Inc. is set to release a Mac retailing at under $500.
Source: eWeekA report on Mac news site Think Secret claimed that the product, code-named Q88, is expected to be announced on January 11 during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote speech at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The new Mac will utilize a 1.25GHz G4 processor and will come in a small, flat enclosure similar to that of the popular LC series of Macs from the 1990s. Although the product will be priced at under $500, this will not include a monitor or DVD-R drive, and hard drive capacity will be between 40GB and 80GB.
Apple has traditionally eschewed the low-end PC market in favor of high-margin, higher-priced computers. However, according to sources cited by Think Secret, the runaway success of the iPod has persuaded the company that a low-cost Mac could be a winner—a view supported by some analysts.
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hahaha this is just ridiculous, I bought and built my first computer last year for under 500 and was twice the speed at least!
put up a 1.25ghz G4 against a 2.5 ghz P4 (or a 2.0ghz athlon) and let them take a whack at some floating point and that G4 will trounce either PC processor.
and for the record, this is a just a highly verified rumor, not a garantee.
OS X, for all you whiners, is just simply a better OS than windows. Sorry, it's true
I'm thinkging about it too prime, but rather hold out till i could afford a ibook... strongly reconsidering....
/me goes back to his ocean current vector plotting program
Maybe so, but if Microsoft was also the sole source supplier of all the ****ing x86 hardware just like Apple is with their hardware, I'd bet that XP would rule the roost anyways! That's why you'll never see OSX ported over to x86; they would have the same problems and issues as Microsoft. It's a lot easier to write code for a definite, finite set of hardware to handle like Apple does.
I wouldn't mind messing with OSX at all, but I'll never again get stuck buying a system from someone who controls both hardware and software and is the sole-source supplier of said hardware and software. I'm talking about core components, not hard drives and memory and ****. I went that route with my old Amiga machine and it was very advanced for it's day (a lot better than both x86 and Mac), but Commodore screwed the pooch on it by being sole-source for it.
I even did a test when I first got my A64 3000+, my school got some G5's in, clocked at 1.8GHz I believe, and only single CPU. While it may not be a fair test to compair a A64 2GHz with a G5 1.GHz, the test I ran was with Adobe software which is BUILT for the MAC user then ported to Windows. The test was rather simple, After Effects was the main test, I made a project file at home on my system, rendered it out I believe it was 1 hour to do becuase I added tons of effects. Took it to the G5 lab and rendered the SAME file out again, it was considerably longer. I don't recall all the tests or the times, but I do remember after that point I didn't think of Mac's in the highest regaurd.
My problem is that I HAVE to work on them becuase that is where most of my industry is... I'll probably be buying a high end mac sometime this year, or perhaps one of their notebooks.
Providing CherryOS doesnt work out.
Oh dear, i hate having to explain this... Macs and PC's do not share the same speed ratio... like the guy said a 1.25Ghz G4 would waste a P4 at around 2.0-2.5ghz if they had the same RAM etc.
While Apple had Mac OS 7 which had menus icons everything that Windows has today, Microsoft was messing around with DOS and Windows 3.1. So if you think its backwards its not - its the right way round. Windows is a patched messed up copy of Mac OS