If Apple desktop users were feeling a little left out this year, today’s good news is likely to perk them right up. Amidst the unbelievable hype for the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini, news of a new lineup of iMacs has leaked to the media.
Fox News is citing unnamed sources as saying new versions of the desktop iMac are “imminent.” The report points out that supplies of 27-inch iMacs are beginning to run short in stores such as Amazon. A sell-out of current generation Kindles was part of the confirmation of Amazon’s recent announcement of its new Kindle lineup.
Although the original Fox News report stated that the iMacs will be announced alongside the iPhone 5 at next week’s Apple event, the story has since been updated to be more vague about the timeframe. Fox pointed to a recent blog post by Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, that stated the devices will be out sometime this fall.
Now that the impending announcement is known, coverage of the devices is feeding into that favorite pastime: Apple rumor and speculation. So, what could possibly be changing in the new iMacs? Though the hardware is likely to get an upgrade, most of the current speculation is on what type of screen the iMacs will have. Fox speculates that, aside from removing the disc drive, the new iMacs will have a retina display. This is contradicted by Arment, who speculates that retina displays of iMac size can’t yet be manufactured in large enough quantities to meet Apple’s needs. Another screen rumor that wasn’t mentioned by Fox, but was whispered widely this past spring is that the new iMac might get a touch screen. Sure, Steve Jobs would never have allowed such a thing, but Apple has the patent on such a device, all the same.