Updated iMac line expected to boost Apple's share of PC market
Following last year's iMac refresh, Apple saw 23.7 percent sequential growth. Analyst Maynard Um with UBS expects to see a similar bump in sales this year from the newly updated iMac line.
"Apple continues to provide more value," he said, noting that the four basic iMac configurations held their same prices with improved internal hardware, "and we expect it to continue to gain share in the PC market."
As noted last week by AppleInsider, Tuesday's iMac update comes at a crucial time for the all-in-one desktop. Desktop Macs have fallen from more than 50 percent of the company's Mac shipments in 2006 to just 26 percent of total units in the second fiscal quarter of 2011.
But Mac desktop sales have also seen a significant boost when Apple issues an update for its flagship product in that category, the iMac. In Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2010, when the iMac hardware was completely redesigned with an edge-to-edge glass display, desktop sales increased by 70 percent year over year. For comparison, portable sales were up just 18 percent year over year.
Um noted that the 2011 iMac refresh comes three months before the hardware arrived in 2010. He said the earlier arrival could provide upside to his third-quarter estimate of 1.15 million units sold.
Unveiled on Tuesday, the new quad-core iMacs include the new Thunderbolt high-speed input/output port. They are also powered by Intel's latest-generation Sandy Bridge processors, and have a new high-definition FaceTime camera for video chat.
The new iMac starts at $1,199 and is up to 70 percent faster, with graphics performance up to three times that of the previous generation. It retains the same all-in-one design of its predecessor.
With a strong lineup of products, Apple has continued to gain market share in the heavily competitive PC industry. Just last week, research firm Canalys
22 Comments
No matte antiglare screens on the new iMacs. If you need matte screens, there's something you can do - add your voice to 1,300+ petitions at http://macmatte.wordpress.com Unlike personal emails to Apple - which Apple just ignore, asserting everyone loves glossy screens - make it count by adding to the online petition where your voice will remain visible on the net until Apple listens. Remember, adding your comment to transient news articles on the net is fine, but those articles go out of date in a few weeks, and also there is no long-term accumulation and consolidation of numbers, like there is at a petition site.
No matte antiglare screens on the new iMacs. If you need matte screens, there's something you can do - add your voice to 1,300+ petitions at http://macmatte.wordpress.com Unlike personal emails to Apple - which Apple just ignore, asserting everyone loves glossy screens - make it count by adding to the online petition where your voice will remain visible on the net until Apple listens. Remember, adding your comment to transient news articles on the net is fine, but those articles go out of date in a few weeks, and also there is no long-term accumulation and consolidation of numbers, like there is at a petition site.
If you don't like a gloss screen then don't buy the device. Don't post the exact same message on every single mac forum. Or - learn to position your monitor correctly to eradicate any reflection, replace the glass or get a coating for it. The on-line petition ignores any posts in favour of the gloss screen - that is hardly a free and fair debate.
Graphics professionals used glossy CRT screens for many years before the dreaded matte imac of doom was released - any sunlight hits the screen of one of these matte displays and you can't see a thing on them.
Newer product to sell better than older version of same product. News at 5. Seriously, complete non-news. Where do I get one of these analyst jobs?
Next iMac will need 8GB Ram as standard, we have gone past 4GB Ram, especially for 1K+ price range computers.
The on-line petition ignores any posts in favour of the gloss screen - that is hardly a free and fair debate.
That's retarded. The glare (gloss) screen already exists as the default (only) option. Why would a petition site need to support an extant form?
Anyone who defends less choice as "good" is drunk on kool-aid.