Hasta La Gadget!

It’s no surprise that PC sales are tanking, thanks to what many believe is the beginning of the post-PC era, where smartphones and tablets are taking over. The last quarterly results of PC sale saw the largest decline in PC sales in 20 years. However, PCs are still selling, and Apple is leading the way when it comes to pure operating profit.

Apple currently makes up 45% of all PC operating profit, with Dell making up 13%, HP at 7%, Lenovo at 6%, ASUS at 6%, and Acer at a measly 1%., with 21% of the total pie consisting of “other” PC manufacturers. Of course, it’s important to note that profit is different than sales. Apple may not have sold the most computers, but they made the most profit from the ones they did sell.

The data comes from industry analysis firm Asymco, who say that the volumes which “made up for” low margins with PC sales are “disappearing.” Of course, Apple is experiencing the same problem, but on much lower scale, because they have “positioned themselves for growth with devices and content commerce and services.”

The problem seems to be OEMs’ reliance on Windows 8, which has been met with criticism as a step backward in desktop operating systems, whereas Apple integrates its operating system with its own hardware. Simply tacking on Windows 8 to various hardware is certainly cheaper for OEMs, but if Windows 8 fails, hardware sales go down with it.

[via Cult of Mac]

Apple makes up almost half of all PC operating profit is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The launch of EA’s SimCity certainly suffered from numerous hiccups which brought up the debate of whether or not using always-on DRM is a good idea. But a month after its launch, it looks as though both EA and Maxis may finally have a product they wanted to release initially, which means they can finally move on to delivering the game to the Mac.

EA and Maxis have announced today SimCity will be available on the Mac starting on June 11 and expects a worldwide release. Best of all, if you own a PC version of SimCity and would like to take your game to your Mac, EA will allow you to have the Mac version of the game absolutely for free and both versions will support cross-platform play. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition Arriving On Mac 22nd February, Lord of the Rings Online finally gets a Mac client,

SimCity‘s reboot has seen its fair share of tumult since launching for PC earlier this year — massive queues to log in, downed servers, and a messy (attempted) public relations cleanup. Things have more or less leveled off for the game since its rocky start, and its developer, EA Maxis, is now ready to launch the game on OS X. Or rather, as we read this, “You can finally delete that version of SimCity you’ve got on your Windows partition and play it natively in OS X.” Huzzah! The OS X version of SimCity launches on June 11th, and you can snag it for free if you’ve already purchased a PC version (and vice versa). Even better, both PC and Mac players can play together, cross-platform.

Similarly thrilling, the game’s “cheetah” speed (its fastest speed) is back, and EA Maxis is promising a 2.0 version of its game. Beyond fixing a variety of bugs, it’s unknown what’s in the update, but we’re fairly confident it won’t enable an offline version of the game (as so, so many players have requested) given EA’s repeated refusal to enable as much. When pushed on a release date for the update, EA reps told Engadget it’ll arrive “well ahead of the June 11 Mac launch.” Sounds to us like that Mac version will ship with Update 2.0 enabled, but EA wouldn’t confirm as much.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Facebook, EA

If you’ve been thinking about purchasing an Apple iMac, but haven’t been able to pull the trigger due to its expensive price tag, here’s some good news for you. Apple is now offering refurbished versions of its current-gen iMacs. The refurbished iMacs boast a 15-20% discount from its normal price-tag, and it also provides you a 1-year warranty for your product, so if your computer acts up, you’ll be covered.

The first configuration is a 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 27-inch iMac. It has 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M video card with 512MB memory. Its RAM is upgradeable to 32GB, it is 802.11n WiFi capable, and supports a display resolution of up to 2560 x 1600. Its available for $1529.00, which is $270 lower than its $1799.00 non-refurbished counterpart. The second model features a 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX video card with 1GB memory. All its other specs are similar to the $1529.00 model. This model, however, goes for $1699.00, which is $300 off its $1999.00 counterpart.

There is also a last-gen model of the 27-inch iMac available as well. This version, released on May 2011, does not have the same IPS display as the former options. It has a 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and a AMD Radeon HD 6970M video card with 1GB memory. This version is available for $1599.00, $400 lower than its non-refurbished model. However, the lack of IPS technology and having only 4GB of RAM makes the other options much more appealing.

These iMacs are expected to ship within 1-3 days, and supplies are limited. If you’ve been wanting an iMac, you should act quickly. Also, in other news, we learned that Apple may be introducing a refreshed line-up of Mac Pros sometime this month or next month. If you’ve been eyeing a Mac Pro instead of an iMac, you may want to wait a little while for refurbished current-gen Mac Pros to go on sale. Also, be sure to check out our review of the current-gen iMac here.

Apple is now offering refurbished current-gen 27-inch iMacs is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The folks over at Mac Daily News have received a tip from a source they say has provided them with tips in the past that have proven true: Apple will be rolling out a refreshed line of Mac Pros. The tipster says the new line will be released some time this month, but didn’t supply a precise date. Not much else was said, but what is known is available after the jump.

The source is quoted as having specifically said “Mac Pro,” and so it is not currently know whether this means the refresh will be in the form of a tower or miniature tower or something else altogether. And while the plan is to announce the new Mac Pros this month, the source is reported as saying that the timeline could get bumped to next month or June.

As with all rumors of this nature, there’s no way to know whether or not it is true – Apple certainly won’t confirm it – and Mac Daily News says that it is not able to confirm the information either, only repeating what it was told by someone who has supplied them with correct information in the past. Because of this, we’re filing it away into the rumor folder for now, but will be keeping an eye out.

As we reported on January 31, Apple has stopped selling Mac Pros in Europe, with reasons being cited as “[Mac Pros] are not compliant with Amendment 1 of regulation IEC 60950-1, Second Edition which becomes effective on this date.” Sales were discontinued on March 1, following low demand and a noted lack of big updates from Apple.

[via Mac Daily News]

Apple to introduce refreshed Mac Pros this month according to source is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.