The last iMac you'll ever need ?

[pastrychef]

Again, while this would be great for consumers, it would be terrible for Apple. It won't be long before 3rd party companies make monitors with "compatible" cartridge slots. The drop in sales means that Apple will lose leverage as a high volume buyer of LED panels. This in turn can mean even higher prices on Mac laptops.

 

[trs96]

Again, while this would be great for consumers, it would be terrible for Apple.

Because my 2005 Mac mini was not upgradeable past 1GB of ram and the existing single core 1.25 GHz CPU they lost me as a customer. I built a hackintosh in 2011 instead. How many billions has Apple missed out on by not selling Mac hardware to people like us ? Those that wanted to be able to choose what went into our CustoMac machines.

 

[pastrychef]

Because my 2005 Mac mini was not upgradeable past 1GB of ram and the existing single core 1.25 GHz CPU they lost me as a customer. I built a hackintosh in 2011 instead. How many billions has Apple missed out on by not selling Mac hardware to people like us ? Those that wanted to be able to choose what went into our CustoMac machines.

Apple has never really done anything to inhibit hackintoshing. This makes me think that hackintoshing represents very few lost sales to them.

I think the 1GB limitation of the 2005 Mac mini was a PowerPC limitation, not Apple's. I remember there were even Mac minis with socketed CPUs.

 

[phunguss]

I think the 1GB limitation of the 2005 Mac mini was a PowerPC limitation, not Apple's. I remember there were even Mac minis with socketed CPUs.

I agree that limit was likely powerPC. When they changed to Intel, the 2006 Mac Mini 2,1 could be cpu swapped to a 2.33GHz T7600 and 3GB ram limit. It could also be firmware upgraded to a 2,2 machine. I still have a couple of those floating around.

So a while back I bought the guts to an apple G4 cube, which had the replaceable CPU daughter card. I purchased a Dual G4 450MHz card to upgrade it before even checking out the guts I purchased... turns out the guts already had a 1.2GHz G4 in it, instead of the original single 450MHz processor. I remember my PowerPC 601 cards of varying speeds and options... so, during the PowerPC era, yes lots of CPU could be swapped out to upgrade your machine. I am typing this on my 2011 27" iMac 12,2 with 3.3GHz Quad core Xeon and upgraded 4GB GPU Radeon WX4150.

There are always tear downs on iFixIt and complexity ratings for every make and model. It just depends on how comfortable and adventurous you want to be with your hardware.

 

[trs96]

Apple has never really done anything to inhibit hackintoshing.

They did kill off Mac clones in the 90's (a pre-cursor to the hackintosh) and then sued Psytar out of business around 2009. One reason they didn't try to stop the individual hackintosh movement is because they couldn't enforce their EULA in all countries in the world. It would also tarnish their reputation too, going after the individual consumer that wanted to build their own hack. By 2010 to the present day they've had the cash cow iPhones and iPads and Mac sales are miniscule in comparison. They could easily afford to let the hackintosh survive. The next attempt to kill it off is Apple Silicon.

 

[phunguss]

The next attempt to kill it off is Apple Silicon.

The last 10 years have been great in the Hackintosh community. There is a huge following on the MacOS9Lives.com site (PPC). I am looking forward to the next 10 years of Apple Silicon development and what the Hackintosh community does with it, as I will be rolling into my retirement years and will have more time to explore it.

 

[pastrychef]

They did kill off Mac clones in the 90's (a pre-cursor to the hackintosh) and then sued Psytar out of business around 2009. One reason they didn't try to stop the individual hackintosh movement is because they couldn't enforce their EULA in all countries in the world. It would also tarnish their reputation too, going after the individual consumer that wanted to build their own hack. By 2010 to the present day they've had the cash cow iPhones and iPads and Mac sales are miniscule in comparison. They could easily afford to let the hackintosh survive. The next attempt to kill it off is Apple Silicon.

Not sure if "kill" is the appropriate term... They stopped licensing and purchased Power Computing because it was "killing" Apple themselves as a company.

Well, it's an entirely different ball game when you start trying to sell and profit off of their work... The legality of Psystar's entire existence was very questionable from the start.

If Apple truly wanted to go after hackintoshers, they'd have started actively trying to shut down this site and Insanely long ago. It wasn't like they weren't aware of hackintoshers, they even hired some well known ones.

I don't see the transition to Apple Silicon as an attack on hackintoshing. They are simply try to to skate to where the puck is going to be. Just as I don't see AWS' Graviton CPU as an attempt to kill Intel. They are just doing what makes sense for their business. Transitioning to Intel from PowerPC wasn't an attempt to kill PowerPC hackintoshers.

 

[trs96]

Not sure if "kill" is the appropriate term...

It is the term most all the tech media outlets used at the time. We know they're always right. LOL

 

[pastrychef]

It is the term most all the tech media outlets used at the time. We know they're always right. LOL
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If they were able to just "kill" them, they would not have had to spend money to buy Power Computing.

The vast majority of media also said the NY Post story about Hunter Biden was fake...

 

[Nodarkthings]

View attachment 560542
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.

I can imagine a refurb line (call it iRefurb ) where Apple themselves recycle on a large scale any of their old stuff with new stuff inside, but not in place of their actual business, just a side line that would allow them to be "greener", while keeping selling brand new products for who wants them.
Apple won't keep any design for years, because it's been part of their success to have "revolutionary" design all the time.
This is without considering that the computer as we've known it till now might not exist at all in the future...