The online Apple Store is back up and, as many suspected, there’s a new low-end 21.5-inch iMac for sale.
Featuring a 1.4Ghz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB memory, a 500GB hard drive, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000, the iMac is available for shipping within 24 hours at $1,099. The specs were leaked earlier today when French Apple website Macplus posted the below image of a box for the new iMac.
The specifications and low price will allow Apple to target lower-end consumers wanting to buy its all-in-one desktop.
Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities had previously suggested that Apple was working on a new, low-end iMac, which would let it compete with desktops from companies like HP and Lenovo — both companies having experienced significant sales growth in emerging markets such as China.
Apple has already refreshed its MacBook Air lineup in April, adding faster processors and a smaller pricetag — making them the most affordable notebooks of their kind in Apple history.
Source: Apple Store
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
8 responses to “Apple’s new 21.5-inch iMac starts at $1,099”
Still fitting almost inaccessible electro-mechanical drives and still charging a ridiculous £160 to replace it with a 256GB SSD.
Why do you show an older model iMac with this article?
I wanted a reduced 27″ model.
Yeah, this is tempting, but I would only be interested in an iMac with a much larger screen.
This is still not a “cheap” or “affordable” computer. “Affordable” is the one thing Apple cannot seem to do.
Don’t want to do. They’re afraid of that market.
RIP OFF.
The mac mini has better specs for way less.
Ming-Chi Kuo is a respected analyst? By whom and why? Other than web sites who keep introducing him as respected, noted or whatever. Let’s see some statistics on accuracy for example.