Apple Computer Inc. announced on Thursday plans for a next-generation iMac desktop computer, but said it won"t ship until September, missing its original internal schedule.
The company also said it has stopped taking orders for the current iMac, sales of which have slowed in recent quarter, and didn"t give details about the forthcoming iMac replacement. "We planned to have our next-generation iMac ready by the time the inventory of current iMacs runs out in the next few weeks," the Cupertino, California-based company said in a statement. "But our planning was obviously less than perfect." Shares of Apple fell nearly 6 percent to $30.40 in after-hours trade. Apple"s statement was somewhat unusual in that the secretive company hasn"t said anything publicly about redesigning the iMac, analysts said.
The company said it has stopped taking orders for the current iMac as it begins "the transition from the current iMac line to an all-new iMac line." Analysts said that Apple shouldn"t be hurt by the lack of an iMac for the back-to-school shopping season, which is important for the company, because it has emphasized other models for the education market. In the education market, Apple has historically emphasized its iBook notebook PC and the eMac desktop machine rather than the iMac computer, which has a circular base and a flat-panel screen that hovers above it.