Apple Delays 27-Inch iMacs After Complaints

Apple is to delay the shipment of its 27-inch iMacs until after Christmas, after a number of users reported faults with the screen.

Officially, an Apple spokesperson has blamed the delayed shipments of the 27-inch iMacs to an abundance of orders, and has not responded to reports of the machines arriving with problems such as cracked or flickering screens.

On 13 December, an Apple spokesperson quoted on CNET said, “The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience or delay this may cause our customers.”

The delays, however, appear to be due to more than just a deluge of orders.

A comment thread in Apple’s support forum about flickering screens on the 27-inch iMacs stretches to more than 80 pages. Another thread details iMacs arriving with cracked screens.

“Add me to the list of those whose i7 iMac had cracks in the lower-left glass screen cover when unpacked (vertically), with both outer and inner packaging in excellent shape,” wrote dancro43.

Forum poster tgoetz followed, “Same thing happened to me. Sam location, same size crack from the sounds of it. The good news is that I got mine from Best Buy and they swapped it out for another one no problem.”

Still others are complaining of a “yellow tinge” on the lower portion of the 27-incher’s screen.

“Mine (iMac 27″ i7 delivered last Tuesday after 4 weeks of waiting has the same issues with the yellowish tint at the bottom third of the screen. I just called Apple in order to return it. The lady on the hotline told me that other people have already returned their iMac because of this problem,” wrote forum poster sandrotto.

Apple introduced the feature-rich, 27-inch iMacs on 20 October. They’re available with either a 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 quad core. The displays are LED-backlit with edge-to-edge glass, a 16:9 ratio and a resolution of 1,560 by 1,440 pixels.

Initially, Apple was slower to ship the quad-core versions than those with the Core 2 Duo processor. As of 10 November, Apple’s customer service was telling customers that the quad-core models would ship later “during the month of November,” while offering more specific timelines for the Core 2 Duo models.

As for the iMacs’ current issues, a site set up to report good and bad iMac experiences – though set up by whom isn’t clear – adds “noisy screens” to the list.

Apple did not respond to eWEEK’s request for comment on the delayed iMacs.

On 19 October, Apple reported, along with its fourth-quarter earnings, that it sold approximately 3.05 million Macs during the quarter, which was a 17 percent year-over-year rise. Its revenue for the quarter was $9.87 billion (£6.1 billion), with net quarterly profits of $1.67 billion (£1 billion).