Apple has clarified information about availability of its latest all-in-one iMac systems. Apparently, the company will start to ship the more affordable version of the iMac this Friday, whereas the high-performance flavor will only become available sometimes in December. The company admitted that some systems will be available only from select stores.

Apple said that the all-new iMac 21.5” will be available on Friday, November 30. The 21.5” iMac will be available through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple authorized resellers. The 27” iMac will be available for order through the Apple online store and will begin shipping in December. Previously it was reported that Apple’s latest iMacs will be delayed till next year as the company cannot produce them in the right quantities. Apple did admit that availability of the new all-in-one PCs will be limited.

“In terms of general shortages on the iMac, we will be constrained for the full quarter in a significant way, part of that is that we are beginning shipping the 21.5” iMac in November and the 27” in December. There will be a short amount of time during the quarter for manufacturer to ramp up those and I expect the demand to be robust. So we will have a significant shortage there,” said Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, during a conference call with financial analysts.

The new iMac features quad-core Intel Core i5 “Ivy Bridge” processors (can be upgraded to Core i7), Nvidia GeForce “Kepler” GTX 675M/660M or GeForce GT 650M/640M graphics processors with 512MB GDDR5, 8GB DDR3 memory as well as up to 3TB of hard disk drive storage or 768GB solid-state storage. The new iMacs also provide hybrid Fusion Drive option, which combines 128GB of flash with a standard 1TB or 3TB hard drive to create a single storage volume that intelligently manages files to optimize read and write performance. Traditionally, iMac AIOs come with 21.5” (1920*1080) and 27” (2560*1440) displays. Apple’s new iMac includes four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, SDXC card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and so on.

Tags: Apple, iMac, Blu-ray, Intel, Ivy Bridge, Core, Nvidia, Kepler, Geforce