Apple Announces New iMacs, New Cubes, & New iTunes (With Pics)

by , 11:10 PM EST, February 21st, 2001

At tonight's MACWORLD Tokyo keynote, Steve Jobs introduced new iMacs, a new Cube, and a new version of iTunes. We will have full reports tomorrow morning, but we wanted to offer you the basic information tonight.

The iMac models include two new "colors" called Blue Dalmation and Flower Power, and come in three different levels. The low end model is an Indigo 400 MHz G3, 64 MB of RAM, two FireWire ports, video mirroring, and a CD-ROM drive. Stunningly, Apple raised the price of the low model to US$899. The middle level runs at 500 MHz, comes equipped like the low end model plus a CD-RW drive and a Rage 128 Ultra instead of the Rage 128 Pro. This unit comes in Blue Dalmation, Flower Power Pro, and Indigo and is priced at US$1199. The high end iMac SE runs at 600 MHz, comes with 128 MB of RAM, and is priced at US$1499. It comes in Blue Dalmation, Flower Power, and Graphite. All models are available now.

Apple also released a new Cube model priced at US$1299. The unit ships with a 450 MHz G4 processor, 64 MB of RAM and the DVD-ROM of old. For US$1599, you get 128 MB of RAM and a CD-RW slot-loading drive. Tack on US$500 more, and you get 256 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard drive, and a GeForce2MX video card.

iTunes has also been updated to include support for several third party CD-RW drives. Apple lists Iomega, La Cie, QPS and Sony, though we have been told that VST's drives are supported too.

Lastly, Apple dropped the price of the 22" Cinema Display to US$2999, that's US$1000 less for you and me.

We will have full reports on these announcements in the morning. You can find more information at The Apple Store on all of these announcements (except iTunes).

The Mac Observer Spin:

We are utterly under whelmed by these announcements. The more expensive low end iMac, the still too expensive Cubes, the 15" monitors that are *still* included with the iMac... Only time will show whether Apple has a home run or a dud with the new iMac colors, but the rest of these announcements simply don't impress us. Back to the new colors, Apple will likely be taking a lot of heat from lots of sources initially, but it would be nice if Apple could tap into the same scene that Volkswagen has been managing so well with their own products.

On the plus side, the new pricing for the Cinema Display is great news for a lot (of rich) folks. US$1000 less seriously makes that product in the range of a lot more people.

Apple Store