Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday announced the release of a new family of eMac all-in-one desktop systems.
“This has great appeal to a value conscious customer who is looking for a complete system,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Product Marketing, told MacCentral.
The new eMacs offer up to a 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a faster 4x SuperDrive, high performance ATI Radeon 7500 graphics, up to 80GB hard drives and internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking. The eMac also has a 17-inch flat CRT display.
With the increased power of the graphics card in the eMac, Apple hopes to appeal to consumers of all types including the gamers, who typically require much more power in their graphics than average users.
“We think graphics are important to customers,” said Joswiak. “Often times they are surprised when they get a low-cost PC home and find out it’s not a very good game machine. Things like 3D gaming are important to the consumer and we want to offer a great experience to them which means offering dedicated video controllers and dedicated video memory.”
After announcing in September 2002 that all Macs made in 2003 would only boot into Mac OS X, Apple announced in mid-December 2002 that certain Macs would continue to boot into Mac OS 9 until June 2003. Two of the new eMac models — the low-end and mid-range — will boot into Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X.
“The high-end model boots only into Mac OS X because of the SuperDrive and iDVD 3 is a Mac OS X-only application,” said Joswiak. “We think this model really appeals to the customer who has already made the switch to Mac OS X.”
The new eMac family is available in the following configurations:
The 17-inch flat CRT eMac, for a suggested retail price of US$799 includes:
The 17-inch flat CRT eMac, for a suggested retail price of $999 includes:
The 17-inch flat CRT eMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,299 includes:
“The eMac has been a hit with both education customers and consumers, and we’ve made it more powerful and affordable than ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Product Marketing. “The eMac offers customers a complete system that is the ideal entry point for today’s digital lifestyle.”
Updated: Added information from an Interview with Apple executives.