January 2009 – Apple Products – What NOT to buy!

This guest post was written by DoesWhat. A technology blog sharing news and reviews of the tech products.

It’s agonising to see the innocently oblivious purchase Apple products just before Apple refreshes their line. So, when is the best time to buy? Clearly purchasing within the month of release is most preferable, but that option isn’t always available, especially if you weren’t paying attention (pay attention!).

So here is a guide of what Apple products you should and shouldn’t buy this January 2009. First of all it’s appropriate to point out that you should NOT buy a Mac Mini, Mac Pro, iMac, 20″/30″ Cinema Display or Xserve server (this month). These products have all gone well past their average release cycle meaning that: either a new one is coming soon or it’s been available for so long that it isn’t value for money (assuming it was originally value for money).

The Mac Mini which is generally updated twice a year hasn’t been updated for almost a year and a half. Similarly the iMac which was last updated in April 2008 will be given a refresh very shortly. The Mac Pro and Xserve haven’t been updated in over a year, previous releases of the Mac Pro have generally been within 8 months of each other, the Xserve having a slightly longer cycle of 11 months. And well, the 20″ and 30″ Cinema Displays haven’t been updated in just about forever.

The iPhone is to see a 32GB version coming early this year. It’s been 6 months since Apple released the iPhone 3G, it may be up-to or beyond 6 months before we see a new iPhone. Rumors of iPhone Nano coming soon?

The iPod Classic, Touch, Nano and Shuffle were last updated early September 2008, they are therefore around mid-cycle. If you’re desperate then grab one, you have a few months before your device is rendered worthless.

If you’ve been waiting on an updated MacBook Pro then now is definitely the time to purchase the 17″ version which was announced at Macworld this month. If you don’t mind being a little behind the times then now would be the time to purchase either a 13.3″ Aluminium MacBook, MacBook Air, 15″ MacBook Pro or 24″ LED Cinema Display which were updated mid-October 2008.

Regarding software, Apple announced iLife and iWork ’09 this January at Macworld. iWork is already available and iLife will be shipping this month. Unless your willing to wait until January 2010 then now is a good time to purchase iLife or iWork. If you’re still using Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” then you may want to wait for Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” which will be released sometime in 2009, most probably between June-July if not earlier.

That’s about everything you could possibly need to know about the current Apple line release cycle. Parting wisdom: don’t forget to chuckle when a college swaggers into work proclaiming they’ve splashed out on an iMac. Similarly, don’t hesitate to stride into work with a brand new 17″ MacBook Pro.