Neil Hughes
In a rare public admission of hindsight, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Tuesday that he wishes his company had waited until 2013 to launch its redesigned iMac, which remained in short supply through the end of 2012.
Speaking with investors and analysts during his company's quarterly earnings conference call, Cook said he doesn't spend a lot of time looking back "except to learn." But in response to a question from Mark Moskowitz of J.P. Morgan, Cook admitted that Apple may have pushed to launch its new iMac too soon at the end of 2012.
"We felt our customers had to wait too long," he admitted.
While the iPad mini was in short supply throughout the December quarter, Apple was still able to ship the 7.9-inch tablet to millions of customers. The same could not be said for the all-in-one iMac, which was given a major redesign with a thinner profile.
"In retrospect, yes, I sort of wish we had done it after the turn of the year," Cook said. "Customers wouldn't have had to have waited as long as they did."
The new iMac was plagued with production issues when the desktop went on sale in December. It was reported that those issues came from a unique screen lamination process Apple has employed in its new design, allowing the desktop to sport a much thinner profile than its predecessor.
In the December quarter, Mac sales were off 17 percent year over year to 4.1 million — a loss that Apple attributed mostly to a lack of availability of the new iMac. This quarter, with iMac availability vastly improved, and sales were about flat year over year at just under 4 million.
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70 Comments
Aside from no preorders (the frick was up with that, Tim?) you did the right thing. Rather have people whine about something they've already ordered, know exist, and know they're getting than to whine about "been a year since the last update and the chips are out; where's the machine I know exists that you're hiding from me?"
1) From a business standpoint, I wholeheartedly agree. 2) From the standpoint of a customer who loves his new 27" iMac, I'm glad I didn't have to wait longer for it. 3) This makes me wonder if this might push Cook to hold off other new products to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again. This might explain why there has been an extra long delay between events. Perhaps Cook's "doubling down on secrecy" means he wants even less of a lead time between an event and the release of a product.
Could have launch the old design with Ivy Bridge in June, when they launch the MBP Retina. Putting a new chip into the old case would have been ridiculously easy at that point. Then wait till Haswell and launch the redesign. Intel's tick and Apple leap. Give them 6 months to perfect production. All would have been happy. Yeah, Cook blew this call.
I'm neutral on the whole iMac fiasco. However, kudos for Cook to look at it as an opportunity to do better.
It would not have made much difference in the big picture methink. Whiners and trolls complaining that Apple wasn't updating the iMacs fast enough would simply turn right around and complain that Apple had the NERVE to update the iMacs right after the Christmas season.
No way he could win.
I'm waiting for the next iMac iteration before I decide to retire my 2009 iMac, which I still happily love using to this day.
What happened to their staggered release schedule? I think getting rid of it is an incredibly stupid strategy.