Apple retires current iMac line

Paves way for ones with CD-RW

Apple has officially marked the current iMac line for termination after announcing $200 rebates on the two top models last week.

The rebates aren't signs in themselves that the current iMacs will soon be replaced by new versions. More likely they are designed to shift as much unsold stock as possible before the new machines are announced.

However, at the time the rebates emerged we heard from a CircuitCity source who claimed that the current iMac product codes had been removed from their inventory - a sign that kit has reached the end of its sales life.

Today, that source's claim was confirmed by MacCentral moles at "two national retailers". They also claimed that faster iMacs, equipped with CD-RW drives, will be announced soon.

As we noted previously, we had hoped Apple CEO Steve Jobs would have announced the new iMacs at MacWorld Expo last week, alongside the very consumer-oriented software tools he unveiled, iTunes and iDVD.

Certainly, it looked like that was the plan, and the move was delayed simply to allow more time for Apple and its resellers to sell off more of the current models (see Was Apple going to launch iMacs with CD-RW?). Hence the $200 rebate on iMac DV+ and iMac DV SE models. ®

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MacCentral's story can be found here

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