The last iMac you'll ever need ?

[trs96]

Let’s imagine this 2021 iMac in 2026 when it has inevitably begun to reach the end of its competitive life. Apple could welcome back these products at scale—not for destructive disassembly for material recovery but for remanufacture. It could refinish and reuse major components like the aluminum stand, enclosure, and glass of the screen rather than recycling these back to raw materials. It could update key performance components (e.g., processors and memory chips) to take advantage of technological advancements. It might even look at new manufacturing techniques to modify and improve existing components.

Let’s imagine this keeps happening. It’s 2031 and the iMac has been remanufactured for a second time. Reborn again as the next version of “iMac Generations”: three generations in the making since 2021, regenerated from the best of Apple’s old products, updated with new colors, and upgraded with its latest technologies.

Excerpt from an article by Matthew Cockerill

https://www.fastcompany.com/90634913/the-last-imac-youll-ever-need-why-we-must-think-beyond-the-endless-product-cycles-to-reduce-e-waste

The 24" 2021 iMac has a 4.5K display that looks really sharp. Should last way longer than five years. If only Apple would let you simply swap out the tiny logic board to upgrade to the newest M series chip, you wouldn't have to pay for a new, more expensive iMac model. This would help Apple to be a company that doesn't just talk about being eco-friendly to one that really does something about it.

 

[pastrychef]

This would be really cool and entirely possible. If you look at the Mac mini or MacBooks, the current crop of Macs are all basically just single board computers (aka SBC). It wouldn't require much effort to replace ribbon cables used to connect the display and cables used to connect the power source with pogo pins. Then, users would just need to undo a few screws to do a complete upgrade.

It may get a bid complicated with SoCs that require larger coolers but the M1 and M2 barely need any cooling at all. Teardowns of the M2 MacBook Air show that just a flimsy sheet of aluminum foil is attached to the SoC.

Unfortunately, as cool and logical as this sounds, Apple would probably never do it because they profit on markups of each component...

 

[trs96]

as cool and logical as this sounds, Apple would probably never do it because they profit on markups of each component...

That plus they'd probably require an Apple certified tech do the mobo swap for the customer. They'd never trust the general public to do it without causing some kind of damage. So when you add in the hardware cost + that labor fee, it would make it more favorable to the customer to buy a new iMac.

 

[pastrychef]

That plus they'd probably require an Apple certified tech do the mobo swap for the customer. They'd never trust the general public to do it without causing some kind of damage. So when you add in the hardware cost + that labor fee, it would make it more favorable to the customer to buy a new iMac.

It can be made even more idiot-proof if they designed the entire logic board like and old school Atari or Super Nintendo cartridge where upgrading the computer is a simple plug-n-play procedure.

 

[trs96]

If Framework can do this, Apple surely could. They have the budget to make it happen. Just imagine if you bought a car. It wouldn't let you change the tires, replace the muffler or spark plugs etc. Who'd want a car like that ?

Choose Framework Laptop 13 (12th Gen Intel® Core™)

A thin, light, high-performance notebook with 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor and Windows 11, available in three pre-built configurations.

frame.work

 

[trs96]

 

[pastrychef]

If Framework can do this, Apple surely could. They have the budget to make it happen. Just imagine if you bought a car. It wouldn't let you change the tires, replace the muffler or spark plugs etc. Who'd want a car like that ?

Choose Framework Laptop 13 (12th Gen Intel® Core™)

A thin, light, high-performance notebook with 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processor and Windows 11, available in three pre-built configurations.

frame.work

View attachment 560545

I'm not a fan of the Framework. Plus, IMO, the cost of that thing makes buying a completely new laptop more attractive.

By nature, laptops take more of a beating than a desktop would.

 

[trs96]

By nature, laptops take more of a beating than a desktop would.

They could apply the same principles Framework uses to the M1 iMac and Mac mini. With graphics and ram, on the SoC, it's a real no brainer.

 

[trs96]

The M1 mini logic board. Could be swapped out in a few minutes. Aluminum Mac mini chassis will last pretty much forever. Mine from 2005 is holding up quite well. It's not even all metal. If Apple would have let me upgrade that over the years, I'd still be using it today.

 

[pastrychef]

They could apply the same principles Framework uses to the iMac and Mac mini. With graphics and ram, on the SoC, it's a real no brainer.

Just make the monitor the "hub" with a cartridge slot for the logic board cartridges. The logic board cartridges will be the system. It would be completely tool-less.

The M1 MacBook Air logic board is really very small.