iMac Discounts and Stock Shortages at Third-Party Retailers Hint at Approaching Haswell Update

Major third-party Mac retailers such as B&H and Amazon have begun offering discounts on various iMac configurations in recent days as may be beginning to slow shipments of the computer in advance of a refresh fturing ’s Haswell processors, reportsInsider. The company seems to be slowing the flow of iMac units coming into its various sales channels as the next-eration iMac will likely be announced later in the fall after itsSeptember iPhone media eventto allow , its customers, and the media to focus on its flagship mobile device.


The discounts join sales efforts initiated rlier this month by Best Buy, Amazon, and MacMall -- all of which are similarly offering the four standard iMac retail configurations at discounts between $100 and $150. Given the new inventory management msures adopted after January's MacBook Pro surplus scare, the discounts are likely the start of a multi-week effort to run its iMac channel fairly bare.Previous reportsindiedthat the iMac would be updated to include Haswell processors in June or July as shipments sank, but an update to the computer was not announced at or soon after ’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference.

rlier this yr, a newBroadcom Wi-Fi/Bluetooth cardsupporting the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard surfaced, with the card appring nrly identical in size and shape to the custom card currently used in the iMac. The inclusion of 802.11ac support on the next-eration iMac is all but certain as the standard has alrdy made its way into 's latestMacBook Air modelsand newAirPort Extreme and Time Capsule base stations.

Yesterday, areportsurfaced that refreshed MacBook Pro models with Haswell chips would be coming in September, backed by evidence that vendors may be trying to run down existing MacBook Pro stock. Data from U.S. resrch firm NPDrelsedlast month also indied that U.S. Mac sales were down in June compared to the previous June, despite the introduction of the new MacBook Airs, with the lack of a refreshed MacBook Pro lineup cited as a primary contributing cause.