there’s an entire high-end computer stuck to the back of it
Actually, there's an entire discount-parts ($150 cpu, $70 video card) computer stuck to the back of it. If you configure it with high-end parts the price goes up to $2200 and even then you're getting a previous-generation video card (radeon 4850 rather than the new 5850).
It's not really so curious. Apple does the "make exclusive deal with a supplier and beat the rest of the market by 6 months in order to look cool" trick all the time. They did it with Intel for the Macbook Air CPU for example.
What it must mean is that e-IPS panels cost much less to manufacture than s-IPS panels. And that a new generation of higher-res e-IPS displays will be arriving in 6 months.
LG Display has developed what it calls e-IPS. e-IPS is a version of the company’s trademark IPS technology that brings the cost down. Way down. LG Display target market is toward the larger LCD monitor market that is currently dominated by TN (Twisted Nematic) technology. LG Display has stated that its e-IPS LCD panels will be price competitive with TN LCD panels.
The breathless claim of a "high end computer" stuck out to me also. The iMac computer parts are one step up from bargain bin. They aren't the cheapest possible, but on a scale with two ends, they aren't near the "high" end of that scale.
I also like the author's math, a 25% price difference isn't much?
Bear in mind that the iMac uses almost exclusively laptop parts, which are more expensive (but have better thermal profiles, and are of course smaller).
The only thing in an iMac that is desktop-sized is I believe the HDD (and maybe the RAM? I'm not sure).
The ram is laptop-sized. (Which also means, by the way, that Apple is not gouging you for the RAM nearly as much as they usually do. They're still gouging you, they're just taking out your eyes instead of half your head.)
I love my Apple products, but Apple fanboys..come on. It took me less than 5 minutes to find out why the panel is so cheap. Seriously, why must you always be so...gushing?
I think another part of it, though, is that the panel manufacturer must be drooling over the fact that this is really the only way to move a lot of high-end panels, and therefore gain access to serious economies of scale, driving the prices down and bringing IPS panels to a more mainstream market. ...This is what I love about Apple. Nothing is driving innovation anymore in the PC market - the average computer today has little more capability than a computer from five years ago. Apple, however, is using the brute force of its market share to drive technology forward...Then, the rest of the industry follows suit in a vain attempt to catch them...
What compels people to turn their total ignorance of the hardware industry into love letters for Apple? Not only do Apple's economies of scale have nothing to do with the cost of e-IPS, Dell was the first out of the gate with an e-IPS display (
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/dells-2209wa-lcd-monitor-... ) but of course these fanboys didn't notice.
So now, because they don't know there's a difference between s-IPS and e-IPS, it's Apple's business strategy that is changing the world, rather than the scientists and engineers at LG. The ones who actually invented this new low-cost technology.
Come on now, you don't have to buy one and these sort of posts are only going to make your OS of choice more competitive. Bring it on: the more choice there is the better things will be.
Doesn't the article mention Dell's monitor?
Scientists cannot make low-cost hardware if there is no market, LG probably welcome apple's move as it allows them to ramp production up sooner.
Actually I do have to buy one. I use Apple computers exclusively. Except for my home server running Ubuntu which I built myself.
I don't just have to buy one, I'm eager to buy one. The 27-inch iMac is exactly what I've been waiting for. Unfortunately I have to wait for the second revision because the current CPU/graphics hardware is weak. It will be a hard wait.
Actually, there's an entire discount-parts ($150 cpu, $70 video card) computer stuck to the back of it. If you configure it with high-end parts the price goes up to $2200 and even then you're getting a previous-generation video card (radeon 4850 rather than the new 5850).
It's not really so curious. Apple does the "make exclusive deal with a supplier and beat the rest of the market by 6 months in order to look cool" trick all the time. They did it with Intel for the Macbook Air CPU for example.
What it must mean is that e-IPS panels cost much less to manufacture than s-IPS panels. And that a new generation of higher-res e-IPS displays will be arriving in 6 months.
EDIT: I googled "e-ips" and found this at http://www.displayblog.com/2009/02/13/lg-display-e-ips-lcd-p...
LG Display has developed what it calls e-IPS. e-IPS is a version of the company’s trademark IPS technology that brings the cost down. Way down. LG Display target market is toward the larger LCD monitor market that is currently dominated by TN (Twisted Nematic) technology. LG Display has stated that its e-IPS LCD panels will be price competitive with TN LCD panels.