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Apple Sticks with CRTs For Now
A reader writes, "eWEEK talked with Apple about the state of its hardware line at Macworld Expo/New York, six months after Apple said it was going all-flat panel with future Macs. Greg Joswiak, senior director, hardware products, with Apple worldwide product marketing, says that while LCD Macs are still 'the future,' surprise boosts in flat-panel prices mean CRT systems like the eMac and old-school iMac will stick around a while longer."
Nothing could be worse than Apple sticking to some visionary principle and completely phasing out CRTs. When you build an integrated system, swings in the price of any component will kill you. The G3 iMac and eMac footprints are not all that big and are perfectly reasonable systems. This is a smart business decision.
[That said, the 17" G4 iMac arrived just in time for my birthday. Woo hoo!]
--- "It annoyed me, so I fixed it." -- Tom's First Principle of Engineering
Apple would reverse course on the death of the CRT for a few reasons:
... Or not
(1) Foremost, to compete in the low end market where the CRT iMac lead Apple's sales in numbers (not dollars), CRTs are nearly and order of magnitude less expensive which can help apple attract 'value' customers
(2) In the education market (eMac) flat screens may still be viewed by value minded school boards and parents as frivolous expenses that could be used to put more computers in classrooms
(3) Until those who purchase a CRT today will have one more reason to anxiously await an upgrade tomorrow. Until Dell, Gateway, etc make LCD standard, the consumers who purchase CRTs will have hardware envy for LCDs.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Why is it people assume that only things apple sells directly work with apple computers?
You can buy a powermac or even an iMac G4 with a CRT-- Apple's whole line will run with CRTs if you want-- just buy the CRT from someone else (its not like it isn't a commodity) and plug it in.
That's CHOICE. you have choice. Unless you want a powerbook with a CRT built in, then you don't have "choice"
CRTs are commodity. There are hundreds of companies selling them. Apple chooses to sell what it can add value to and that is really killer LCDs.
ITs worth pointing out that Apple's line of LCDs are superior to most of what's out there from a technology point of view-- but since Apple isn't about comparing MHz, etc, they don't hype this as much as they should.
ITs unfortunate that people fall into the trap of thinking every 15 inch CRT or LCD is like every other one.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
You're wrong on a couple counts.
First off, Apple owns %30 of the company that makes the LCDs. Apple owns the factory, in effect because they used apple's investment to build a new factory.
Secondly, Apple has very large marketshare-- and probably sells more LCD screens than any other single company.
Finally, these designs are not "outdated". They are top of the line, and possibly exclusive to apple. Apple is definitely getting a competitive price here, and as usual, passing it on to its customers. For, AS USUAL, the iMac is far cheaper than a comparable PCs. (course nobody bothers to compare it to comparable PCs. the XBOX doesn't count- no display, slower processor, etc.)
(Why is it people constantly compare apples share of the market to the SUM OF ALL OTHER COMPANIES COMBINED and then say apple's a small company? Its one of the largest computer companies in the world and for a long time was the largest.)
Your assumptions are false, and you conclusion therefore is pointless.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Can't speak for your friend, of course, but I have a G3 iMac (400MHz) with less than a gig of RAM (768MB, I think) and OS X 10.1.5 runs just fine. I use Imageready 7, Dreamweaver MX, XFree86 4.2, BBEdit 6.5.2, Mozilla 1.1alpha (nightly) and a variety of other software, mostly running at the same time. Notice, no video editing software - that should be used with a pro-level machine, me thinks, or resort to using the versions of software that were out when the G3 debuted as "pro-level" ...
Because for many purposes, that's what matters. I can use Dell hardware or software with a Compaq, but not natively with a Mac.
Its one of the largest computer companies in the world and for a long time was the largest.
Apple never was the largest computer company by any measure. That title has mostly been held by IBM.
lcd's are not known for their accurate color rendition. motion, while better than years ago, still sucks on an lcd vs. a good crt. and even still photography is very hard to do right on an lcd.
I own almost nothing BUT lcd's. I have 4 sgi flat panel 1600's (on linux), 1 vga flat panel and 1 dvi flat panel. I do software devel 95% of the time and so for xterms and mozilla, flat panels are perfect. but for the few times that I need to color correct a skin tone (from some scanned slides or negs), I look all over for a good crt and do the work on that box.
macs are known for their video and still photo ability. colormatching is easiest on them than win* or unix (except for maybe sgi. maybe.) apple just can't drop crt support on high end boxes. gfx people wouldn't stand for it.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."