New iMacs Could Be Coming At WWDC Today

By

imac-back

Today’s WWDC, and at the very least, we’re expecting new Macbooks based off of Intel’s new Haswell processors. But whither iMac, and when will Apple’s line of desktops be upgraded? It looks like Haswell-based iMacs could be announced today as well.

In a note to clients, reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that shipments of iMacs would fall from 1.75 million units in the first calendar quarter to just 650,000 units. Part of that drop is due to seasonality, but just as importantly? Apple’s making a Haswell transition coming either this month or July.

We attribute the shipments decline to the fact that new product shipments have peaked and due to the arrival of the consumer slow season. But we believe iMac shipments troughed in 2Q13. Apple is expected to upgrade iMac processor to Intel’s (US) latest Haswell processor in June or July. Meanwhile, the consumer peak season has arrived. Thus we expect shipments to reach 1.1mn units in 3Q13, up 69% QoQ. Full-year shipments are forecast to be 4.7mn units, up 31% YoY.

Pretty good. Even if upgraded iMacs aren’t available today, they could be announced. We’ll see, though: as Apple has seen in the past with the iMac line, announcing new products that aren’t ready to ship can sometimes significantly impact sales.

Truthfully, though, Haswell processors aren’t going to be a huge improvement for iMacs. Where Haswell will rule is in mobile computers, like the MacBook line: Haswell isn’t much faster than current chips, but the battery performance and on-chip graphics have been greatly improved. Important in a laptop, but not as big a deal in a desktop.

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