‘iMac for education’ notes of interest

Yesterday, we broke the news that Apple was launching an ‘iMac for Education’ with downgraded specs to the education market for $999.  It was originally scheduled to be released toward the middle of the month (August 16th was set to be release date – and it still is when they hit the streets), but with the cat out of the bag, Apple went public with the details today.

As per usual, our man Mr. X, was spot on with details revealing:

• 3.1GHz Intel Core i3 Dual-Core, 21.5-inch LCD
• AMD Radeon HD 6750 with 256 MB, 2GB RAM
• 250GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive, OS X Lion

Some interesting notes about the machine:

• It appears to be a hybrid between this year’s model and last year’s with slower processors and this year’s video card
• No Thunderbolt underscores that these are aimed at labs and kiosk type situations.  Even Apple’s $599 entry Mac Mini now has Thunderbolt
• Half the RAM at a paltry 2GB seems absurdly low. Again, this screams “kiosk!” Interestingly, Apple says the upgrades are “only configurable at the Apple Store” but lists RAM modules to the sides (right).
• We’re told that this is the Education price of 1 of these machines and there are additional price drops at volume with the machine quickly hitting $899 in bulk and below (EDUs talk to your Apple rep!)

For those jealous of the EDU-only pricing, Apple still offers the previous model refurbished with the exact same specs (but twice the RAM, older GPU) for just  $929.