14 DAY TRIAL // Recent rumors regarding Apple’s desktop line of computers indicate that an iMac refresh with Sandy Bridge CPUS and Thunderbolt I/O technology is due out soon. According to those who’ve further investigated the matter, said computers are to arrive next week.
Apple-centric blog 9to5mac cites a certain Mr. X who says to expect new iMacs the week of May 2nd as Apple will officially stop shipping iMacs to resellers this week.
Corroborating the source’s claims is a reader who later told the blog that Apple had delayed his order for an iMac from the online education store.
The order was simply delayed to the week of May 2nd, but not completely cancelled. His notification reportedly said:
Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship the following item(s) by the date that you were originally quoted:Z0JP, IMAC 27\”/5750/SD will now ship on or before May 02, 2011
These are just two of multiple recent claims that an iMac refresh was on the way, let alone the fact that Apple’s all-in-one desktop computers are overdue for a refresh.
Not only does the current iMac line lack Thunderbolt connectivity - recently introduced with the new MacBook Pro family - it could also use the much-hyped Sandy Bridge architecture which, although not a requirement to run OS X Lion, it will undoubtedly cater to it.
In reporting its second quarter results for fiscal 2011, Apple revealed it had sold 3.76 million Macs during the quarter, a 28 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
The company failed to specify which systems in particular accounted most for these figures, but a big slice is undoubtedly attributed to the iMac.
Let’s keep a close eye on the Apple store for potential outages, then.