Reports have come in that MWNY will be centered around the iMac and that for all intents and purposes the major focus on the floor, as far as Apple is concerned, will be the new G3 PowerBooks but the "star" of the show will be the iMac. "The Creative World" will have a star that will be the vehicle to deliver that "Creativity" to the masses. Too bad the AMP/vMac won't be there too, but those are the breaks. C'est la guerre.
And while it's not due to be shipped until August, RFI has received reports that the iMac will be hitting the 07 Jul 98 price list with a MAP of $1199, which also supports the price cut that MacWEEK's MTK mentioned in a recent column. And while it's not $999, it's a start. Why is Apple allegedly adding the iMac to its price list in early July? RFI suspects so that it will be ready to take orders for the iMac at MWNY as well as allowing its field sales force to take advantage of any buzz around the iMac associated with iMacWorld Expo New York. The field reps main problem will be lugging their "show" iMac around on their calls.
This alleged price list addition also means that all of those people who were expecting "enhanced feature sets" (SCSI, floppy, ad infinitum, ad nauseam) are going to be disappointed. If it's being added to the price list in early July then that means that there isn't going to be a delay because Apple is changing the features, nor are they taking the guts out of the iMacs already off the line and putting the "new guts" inside them. And while some are concerned that Apple might pull the Centris 600 / Quadra 610 "presto chango" gimmick with the iMac, RFI hopes they don't. That hacked off a lot of customers back then. And, RFI is also more than a mite pleased that Apple has allegedly decided against adding those "features" with the exception of the 56k modem; which isn't a "lock" just yet.
And as far as the "irrelevance" of the 33k vs. 56k modem, there's a reason behind Apple's "madness" on this. It is Apple's belief that within the next year or so, the majority of people won't be using the 56k modems to connect to the Internet, but will be using speedier connections that would then exploit the Ethernet connection built in. The "software modem" (yes, it's a software modem) is intended for those in areas that don't have access to the speedier connections, etc.
In other related news to iMacWorld, RFI has been hearing whispers and murmurs that Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schiller will be sharing the keynote and that there will be some new announcements during that time. Mostly revolving around new games and products. Not too shabby, eh? Could it also be related to the rumors that the Mouse with the Big Feet is going to be in the vicinity? Probably. Also, the rumored keynote speakers also seem to corroborate what RFI had reported on MWNY recently, that with the absence of Mr. Jobs there wouldn't be news of "major import" made at MWNY.
And, the rumored keynote speakers would also appear to deflate the hopes and dreams of those conspiracy scenarists who are desirous of something akin to Macworld Expo Boston '97. To them we'll state, there's always time for some surprise between now and then, isn't there? Who knows? Mr. Gates' appearance last year was "last minute" as well. But, we don't think that there will be something of that magnitude this year. Not with Mr. Jobs back in Cupertino and the media in New York. Yet, one never knows, does one?
There's more to this, but if we told everything then there wouldn't be anything left to pleasantly surprise you, now would there? You've got the major points to the iMac news at MWNY and can sit back and enjoy the show.
Finally. If the iMac is going to be the "Star" of iMacWorld New York (as far as the masses are concerned) then the campaign that Apple is kicking off at iMacWorld and then followed up on starting in August, might just allow them to exceed those numbers they are projecting by Christmas '98. Currently, those numbers range between 250,000 - 400,000. Now, that's why those who disagreed with our concerns over the iMac's "Initial Target Market" said that it didn't really matter that Apple was going to initially focus on the installed base. If they can pull it off, we'd have to agree.
Enough said. For now....
Next Story
