I wonder when they will release a G5 E-Mac? I would like to get a nice “light” FCP HD rig for at home and something like this looks like a perfect compromise.

Keep up the great work Apple,

Alex

I wouldn't expect one until next summer. The "e" is for education and it's release will be timed for that market.

I wonder whether we will ever see a G5 eMac? When the original eMac was released it was only available to schools and wasn't even advertised to the public. When they saw some demand they added it to their regular line, which was a smart move since it gave people a low cost entry point to the Mac. At $800 it still is pretty attractive, but the cost of the iBooks and iMacs has fallen so the gap has narrowed. The eMac is also the only CRT in Apple's line and I wonder how long they will want to support that?

Who knows what they have up their sleeves, but personally I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an eMac with a G5. Like Jeff said, if it comes at all it's probably a year away. In Apple's mind, I really don't think they see the eMac as a platform for FCP or other high end applications and the G4 probably already meets the needs of its target audience. If I were a betting man I'd guess they'll just keep selling the existing models until demand drops off and then they will discontinue them. But it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about Apple's strategy either...

Apple still views the education as important. They'll use the G4 chip as long as Motorola makes the chip and it remains compatible with the OS. I think Apple would like to move to all G5's by summer 2006, assuming development of the G5 continues as well as the G6.

Just have to echo the sentiment - as a PC person, if Apple included Final Cut Pro with these new iMacs I'd definitely get one. Final Cut Pro 4, HD or whatever the heck current version is ...

The design isn't really portable, but it sure is luggable, and I could certainly use that.

They have a new education/production bundle that includes FCP HD, DVD Studio Pro 3 and Motion for only $499. Motion would be a little slow, but other than that the user could expect good performance. I think Apple will need to sell a few gizzlion more iPods before FCP is free.

It is very unlikely that Apple would ever have all their product line based on a single CPU: using chips with difference prices allows them to cater to a wide range of market segments, this is a known principle in marketing: technically, it would make sense and even lower costs for a company to have a single multi-purpose product, but by catering to somewhat more personalized needs they make more money out of each customer. Just take a look at the Walkman, it's a great example: we could all use the same one but they throw in little luxuries or strip it to the basics so that some of us, who are willing to spend a little more money for, say an extra LED or something, have the chance to do so.

Apple is only using the Motorola product (G4) in the portable products and eMac. This is because of heat and power consumption issues. Apple would love to have the PowerBooks on the G5 chip for greater performance. I suspect the iBooks and eMac will transition to the G5 when the G6 becomes available.

You guys are forgetting one possiblity - a new mac - a tablet running on the g4, will keep the g4 viable & sooo cool to be running fcx- concerning the new imac - the only downside is the expense of getting to 2g's of ram- if you can live with 1 gig , the processors and bus is fast enough for real-time on fcx or fcp. If you want to use motion , you should probably put that 2 grand into the dual 1.8. Of course the 20" imac only cost $600 if you deduct the price of the monitor and as mentioned earlier, should have nice, portable carrying cases available soon as they appear to be designed for " lugging around "- the ultimate presentation tool.

Jobs has said in several interviews that Apple will not make a PDA, cell phone or tablet. Apple's version of a tablet is the 12" iBook in my opinion.

Jeff- appleinsider had a little story about a month ago about an apple memo that leaked and contained a concept drawing for a tablet and there's been other stories about an ipod video machine- maybe it's the same kernal of truth and maybe not.. Whatever the future holds , for me , it's always going to be the choice between one mac or another , never a pc ( not because of the machine -but because of the os ) even though at times I think Jobs is full of himself ! and that comes from a modest Apple shareholder, too.