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A well-known blogger with deep connections at Apple has followed-up on the last week’s rumor related to imminent iMac and Mac Pro refreshes, adding the company will also introduce a new 27-inch Cinema Display.
According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Apple will release the updated hardware tomorrow, July 27, 2010. Advertising a new podcast series in a blog post on his site, Gruber dropped the following hint:
We’ll have much to talk about, what with the new Mac Pros (finally, right?), speed-bump iMacs, and the gorgeous new 16:9 27-inch Cinema Display that Apple might hypothetically release tomorrow.
It was revealed last week that both iMac shipments and Mac Pro supplies are running low across the channel, with third-party resellers nodding at new SKUs. New Mac Pros might sport Intel’s six core Xeon 5600 “Gulftown” processors in a single- and dual-CPU configuration for up to twelve CPU cores on the top-of-the-line Mac Pro. That CPU upgrade alone might result in a 50 percent performance jump over the current Mac Pro lineup.
New iMacs are said to include USB 3.0, an HDMI port, a faster FireWire, and possibly updated GPUs. The entire lineup should transition to Intel’s Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, and possibly include an AMD processor as a build-to-order option. According to MacRumors’ Buyer’s Guide, both the Mac Pro and iMac are way past their respective refresh cycles. The publication advises against buying both systems which are overdue for refresh 274 and 58 days, respectively.
Adding a 27-inch display seems inevitable considering popularity of Apple’s flagship 27-inch iMac. Apple is currently offering only the $1,800 30-inch Cinema Display last updated 650 days ago. The 20-inch Cinema Display was discontinued in February 2009 and the new $900 24-inch Cinema Display was unveiled in October 2008 with LED backlight technology, DisplayPort interconnect, and the iMac-like design. Just like the 27-inch iMac, the new 27-inch display should run at 2,560×1,400 pixel resolution.
