I am by no means an Apple pundit, nor I am privy to any inside information. I’m just a long time Apple fan with a wish list.
I think Apple should take the Pro Display XDR chassis and use it as the new form-factor for the iMac (and its big sister, the iMac Pro). It’d be a sealed enclosure, i.e., not user upgradeable. With at least 4 USB-C sized ports on the back.
It’ll need a stand, probably a fixed stand version of the XDR stand.
Same thing as with the iMac, only make a portion of the back hinged to allow access to one or maybe two expansion slots. Pro users without the means to acquire a Mac Pro, would flock to an iMac Pro that had an expansion slot or two.
There’s a huge hole in display offerings from Apple. There is one display option that will run you $6000 for the base model and $7000 for a nano texture display. There is nothing else. The PC market caters to business buyers (cheap desktop monitors) or to gamers (less cheap, higher DPI (dots per inch)) offerings. There is only one 3rd party manufacturer making a retina density display - LG. Compared to Apple’s fit and finish standards, the LG is unfortunately lacking.
Apple should make a Retina Display using the XDR chassis, and the 5K screen in the iMacs. Even at 1200 or 1500 dollars, I suspect they’d be back ordered by all the people with shiny new M1 laptops or M1 Mac Minis.
It would make for a sexy combination with either of the iMacs described above.
Updating the iMac form factor (long over due), and releasing a matching monitor would nicely refresh Apple’s line up, and would provide a monitor worthy of being used with Apple computers.
I would throw money at a Mac Mini and an Apple Retina Display.