On a day when three major products went on sale—a new 24-inch iMac, 12.9 iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display, and an Apple TV 4K with a new Siri Remote—Macworld readers would usually be lining up to preorder and make sure they were among the first to get their hands on the newest Apple devices. As it turns out, more than a few of you didn’t buy anything.
When more than half of the respondents to our poll answered no, we were intrigued. We figured the poll would be a healthy mix of the three products, but we weren’t expecting a clear majority of “Nothing.” We know that a lot of you have been waiting for a new iMac, a new Siri Remote was high on everyone’s wish list, and the mini LED display is one of Apple’s best display innovations in years. And when we dug a little deeper, it appeared that there were a few recurring issues.
Here are a few of the comments that grabbed our eye.
Storage and port shortage
The biggest issue you had was with the storage, particularly with the iMac. Apple only offers 256GB of storage in the $1,299 and $1,499 iMac models, with upgrades starting at $200. That’s not a lot of storage for a desktop PC—though to be fair, Apple’s $5,999 Mac Pro also starts at 256GB of storage—and many of you felt you were being nickel-and-dimed.
The entry-level iMac has a pair of Thunderbolt ports, while the higher models have an additional two USB 3 ports. That’s a far cry from the veritable bevy of expansion options on the older iMac, which includes six USB ports, ethernet, and an SDXC card slot. Many of you feel that the next iMac will address these issues, so you opted to hold off for now.
And some of you wanted to see more from the processor. Even though Apple put its new M1 chip int he iMac, it’s the same one that’s in the Mac mini, which costs hundreds less.
iPad problems
The iPad is definitely a luxury tablet, but many of you felt the price isn’t justified, despite the additions of an M1 processor, Thunderbolt support, and mini LED display in the 12.9-inch model.
Apple TV static
Apple’s new streaming box turned away some buyers as well, with some of you lamenting Apple’s lack of any real updates to the Apple TV and many who didn’t order balking at the price.
Waiting for something better
And finally, some of you just wanted something different and are willing to wait a little longer.
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He’s still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.
