Apple is a great brand name and Steve Jobs a clever CEO (I mean that), since they can get people excited about overpriced old technology. Note to Apple: LCD screens look great on the outside but suck where that matters, as everyone who's got an excellent 19" CRT for the price of a 15" LCD will attest. But hey, there must be a market for people who adjust the position of their screen all day long. It's well known that many people got harmed by repeatedly trying to move their move their "old-fashioned CRT displays". Doh.

"VIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processor for photorealistic games and spectacular 3D graphics". Yeah right, that's enough for your lousy screen (and there are no games for Apple anyway). For non-geeks, the GeForce2 MX chipset belongs in the lower end of the market. My recommendation (based on my current config): an Athlon XP PC with lots of RAM, an ATI Radeon 8500 and dual 19" CRTs (I'm just waiting for that additional piece of cable to run at 1600x1200x2). At least Apple got the mouse right this time (must have figured Hobbits didn't exist by now). And the DVD writer is not "revolutionary", it's available elsewhere and not very useful to start with (at the current prices).

It's a shame since Apple occasionally come with great stuff (Airport, Firewire), only to dilute them in fashion statements they price out of the market. Do I sound angry? I'm not (I care, but not that much), however "It’s clear that the new iMac is several leaps ahead of any other computer out there" is such a ludicrous statement when you look at the specs. The software that comes with it? Seems as revolutionary as the stuff that comes with XP (as in "you could do it with dozens of other programs").

I hope for Apple's credibility that they come up with more than that. I would like, for the sake of choice and competition in the marketplace, that they eventually get that the market for computers is value driven (and consumers are more and more savvy), instead of locking themselves in their old niches.

01/11/02 update: Why Apple's new iMac ISN'T 'flat-out cool'.

07/17/02 update: MacWorld rumors (great essay.)

09/04/02 update: Barking up Apple's tree.

"Apple has garnered well-deserved praise for its ingeniously designed iMac, which sports a flat-panel screen on a metal appendage that allows for endless repositioning. The iMac is ergonomic ecstasy."

Emphasis mine. It's in fact hard to come up with a modern PC less ergonomic that an iMac, with its mediocre keyboard and mouse, which people do keep using to interact with their computer (as opposed to moving your screen is weird positions, which is plain useless).

If you don't know much about personal computers, and are too stupid or lazy to learn, please write about something else. This is the usual braindead story comparing brand-name PCs and Macs and drawing conclusions about what "consumers" are able to do with both. The fact is, the PC aftermarket dwarves the whole Apple market, since many people are able to add components to their PCs and routinely do so. Those that can't or won't, just rely on savvier friends and family.