Will Apple ever launch a bigger iMac?

Apple ditched the 27-inch iMac three years ago - is it due a comeback?

- DAVID CROOKES

Back in March 2022, Apple's Peak Performance event came to a close and, within minutes, the curtain also came down on a product that had been an integral part of the company's line-up for some 13 years - the 27-inch iMac. In its place as the flagship all-in-one was the colourful range of 24-inch Apple silicon M1 iMacs that had been announced a year earlier, but it wasn't long before customers began asking for a larger size.

When the 27-inch iMac was released in 2009, it introduced the range’s largest screen ever. Many users then grew accustomed to the roomy display offered by those extra inches because it made it easier to view multiple windows and enabled photographers, video editors and designers to see finer detail in their work - even more so when the 5K Retina screen was introduced in 2014.

The alternative from that point was a lower-powered 4K 21.5-inch iMac. It was primarily aimed at home users seeking a reliable desktop or office users carrying out administrative and productivity tasks. But while that also ended up being axed as Apple moved away from Intel-based machines and switched to its own chips, it wasn't mourned because there was a large, better, all-round alternative. Not so for the 27-inch iMac, and what we have now can best be described as a compromise - a display size that sits in the middle of the previous two sizes.

Yet what it has also done, in effect, is take high-end professional iMacs off the market in favour of a more consumer-range, home-friendly version. This, it appears, would be the intention, otherwise how would you also account for the decision, in 2021, to discontinue the 27-inch iMac Pro, introduced in 2017 as the fastest Mac around? But is this really going to be the case forever, or can we expect a more powerful 27-inch iMac to make a reappearance at some point in the near future?

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