I can't believe its because people want to spend less money, even if they get less computer, despite the fact that the features of the $899 model probably more closely match the needs of most users of an iMac...

But we all know apple knows best. More is better!

there are still glaring holes in the line up, there has got to be another comsumer model, something between the mini and the imac

They just lost a couple sales to college friends who were eyeing the new 899 model due to its attractive price.

does anybody remember this same scenario with the original eMac?

the problem is right apple is probably only able to ship to institutions due to manufacturing constraints. the period leading up to september will invlove an educational feeding frenzy on this model. when the edu buying season slows down (probably by the winter holidays), you'll probably see this on the regular apple store.

I do not know what the suprize is all about. At the end of its life cycle, Apple only offered the eMac to institutional buyers, Moreover, Apple has historically offered special configurations just to istitutional buyers.

Ifor one assumed it was only offered to institutional buyers or I would have bought one. In my view it was mistake. My guess is it would cannbalize other sales at the expensive of institutional buyers.

Apple does not even check to verify if people are in fact students.

Somehow it feels like the days when Apple was the leader with the Mac. The days when arrogance reigned supreme. I get this attitude more and more with Apple.

They couldn't be, could they?

stop the paranoia nd conspiracy talk. Most likely too many people were buying it and Apple doesn't have enough right now (in forecasts etc) to satisfy the edu institutional buyers in this back to school season of buying right now. Original eMac was similar. This will show up again for individuals... Its not arrogance, it is business reality. They can't afford to piss off and lose large institutional purchases based on supply not meeting demand and not being able to get them in schools for the new year.

Arrogance??? I guess I must have miss that one.

"Apple today quietly pulled its newly introduced $899 iMac from its online education store. "

I wonder if the margins on this are so low, that they don't want to sell it to everyone. They'd be willing to sell to institutions the users will see them and buy more expensive models for their home.

Apple isn't a charity. Just because you want a dirt cheap all-in-one Mac doesn't mean you deserve one or that Apple should be obliged to sell you one.

But really people. Before the Mac mini everybody whined that they wanted a cheap CPU-only Mac. Now they have that, people are whining about a cheap all-in-one Mac. I guess you can't please everyone.

stop the paranoia nd conspiracy talk. Most likely too many people were buying it and Apple doesn't have enough right now (in forecasts etc) to satisfy the edu institutional buyers in this back to school season of buying right now.

Except Apple released this thing so far into the institution buying season they've all but missed most potential sales. Schools need the computers over the summer so they can be set up and ready to go by the beginning of the school year. That means ordering in April/May/June.

Oh, and do you think there was a lot of demand from individuals because they actually saw an imac that was worth the price, to them? High demand for this item indicates, to me at least, that maybe Apple is missing their targets on their other models.

But really people. Before the Mac mini everybody whined that they wanted a cheap CPU-only Mac. Now they have that, people are whining about a cheap all-in-one Mac. I guess you can't please everyone.

No, we whined that we wanted a cheap monitorless tower, with some simple things like a PCI slot or 2, and changeable graphics. You know, what PC users have had for like 10 years now. In fact, the mini costs more then it could because of form over function. The small parts, cramped case, etc, increase its cost (and support costs), then a larger mac would.