Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Last evening I had the opportunity to speak to Omar Jamil of Red Herring, who was writing this article and asked my thoughts about the rumors of a cheap Mac, allegedly to be introduced at MWSF. Mr. Jamil asked a number of hard questions, many of which I really didn’t have an answer for simply because there aren’t enough facts with which to form a solid opinion about the subject yet, if it’s even true. I was able to theorize a bit, however, and Mr. Jamil chose the perfect quote to represent my first thoughts on the issue:

Apple could not be reached for comment. Even assuming the rumors to be true, a new low-end iMac does not guarantee that Apple will successfully lure Windows users to the Apple platform. Aaron Adams, a Mac enthusiast and occasional co-host of Your Mac Life, believes a new headless Mac runs the risk of cannibalizing the sales of existing products.

ÒThe specs for this headless box very closely matched the iBook, and Apple is selling iBooks like hotcakes,Ó he said. Given that the new iMac would be cheaper than the iBook, he wonders whether this might eat into iBook sales. Additionally, he said, a new low-end iMac would replace the eMac as AppleÕs low-end machine and possibly erode sales of that product as well.

I’d like to take an opportunity to elaborate on those remarks here.

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