Apple has always seen the education market as a huge one to sell lots of its Mac products. This week the web site MacRumors.com spotted a new model of Apple"s iMac PC that"s on sale for just $999. The catch is that it is for education customers only and is not available for individual purchases. In other words even if you are a student or a teacher you cannot buy this new iMac.
The hardware specs for this "education only" version of the all-in-one iMac includes a 21.5 inch screen, a 3.1 GHz Intel Core i3 Dual-Core processor, an AMD Radeon HD 6750 graphics card with 256 MB of RAM, 2 GB of memory (expandable to 8 GB for more money), a 250 GB hard drive, a Superdrive and of course OS X Lion, the latest version of Mac OS X that was launched just a few weeks ago. One interesting thing about this model of the iMac is there"s no Thunderbolt port available; just a mini-Display Port. Thunderbolt, the new ultra-fast data and video transfer port, was added to the iMac line-up for regular consumers a few weeks ago. The education version of the iMac still has a Firewire port and four USB ports.
It remains to be seen if Apple will ever release an iMac for under $1,000. Apple has a history of keeping prices of its Mac products high compared to other PCs due in part to the fact that demand for its products have continued even with its high prices.