Why is mountain lion not coming to my iMac?

Question

Hi
I'm new to the community but have been with apple for a long time. I current own a late 2006 iMac and am trying to wrap my brain around why Mountain Lion isn't supported on the model?
I have recently updated the mac's RAM to 3GB and purchased OS Lion for the reason I wanted to get Mountain Lion when it launched. It runs Lion with no issues at all and I really can't believe there is that much change coming in Mountain Lion, which requires better hardware since the software tweaks don't seem massive?
I could be wrong on the matter, I'm just a little annoyed as I was really looking forward to using mountain lion at an upgrade cost of £19.99 than having to pay out £1000 for a new computer.
If anyone could put in my place and explain why this isn't coming to this iMac please reply?
Ian

Answer 1

This is what Apple does, now.
When new  technologies become developed by Apple, they do not now want to support a lot of legacy Macs any longer.
They had to do this with PPC Macs because of all the years they used PPC technology and the large installed user base.
Now that the majority of installed users and new users are now on Intel Macs, Apple feels, now, in order to push technology forward that they need to pick a cutoff point at which to end older Mac hardware. Apple is continuing to build on 64 bit technologies in hardware and software.The 2006 model Macs simply aren't up to the challenge as they are only 32 bit architecture computers. Nothing says you have to stay on a current, upgrade path with your Mac, but Apple wants to continue to push technology forward and they do this, now, by obsoleting technology that may only be 3-4 years old!
I think you've been lucky. You've already got six years of productive life out of your iMac and it will continue to perform what you need it perform for a few more years to come.
I just made the switch to Intel with a used, but new to me, 2009, 27 inch screen iMac. I used a 2003 PowerPC tower for nearly 10 years prior to this. That Mac went as far as I could take it!
The only line of Macs that seem to have this kind of longevity, now, is Apple's top of the line Mac Pros.
I think this is so because if it's heavy price point. People and professionals expect to get longer useful and productive life of this line of Macs because they paid so much for these.
Technology is always going to move forward.
Also like to point out that even though you have installed the max. 3 GBs in RAM in your iMac, it is really the barest minimum to run OS X, by itself. You must not have or do any CPU or RAM intense work. You must just use this iMac for the basics (Internet, email, video chat, playing music and movies)? Ideally, the " working minimum" RAM for OS X 10.6-10.8 is really 4 GBs. Just for running the OS alone!
Additonal RAM atop this min. amount will insure the most applications will run a lot smoother.
With the specs of your iMac, I really can't see it running OS X Mountain Lion very well, in any event. IMO.