“Apple Computer introduced its first low-priced Macintosh on Tuesday, signaling its bet that most consumers now see computers as simply another appliance in the modern house. While computers have long been sold as machines that can turn a home into an office, most Americans now use them in their bedrooms and kitchens as e-mail terminals; as hubs for playing music, storing and editing photos; and as stations for navigating the Web,” John Markoff and Saul Hansell report for The New York Times.
“The new Mac Mini, priced as low as $499 without a keyboard, monitor or mouse, is aimed squarely at the needs of this new digital household,” Markoff and Hansell report. “The new Apple strategy, which moves the company deeply into the consumer electronics market, positions the new Macintosh as an entertainment and communication device. It also promises to intensify Apple’s battle with Microsoft in the personal computer market dominated by machines using Windows software. ‘I wish I had a nickel for every time people have suggested that we do this,’ said Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, at a conference on Tuesday. ‘We want to price this Mac so that people who are thinking of switching will have no excuse,'” Markoff and Hansell report.
“But Apple’s introduction of a low-priced machine is not likely to cut significantly into Microsoft’s dominance in personal computing; more than 90 percent of PC’s are Windows machines. More important, Microsoft is also moving to turn PC’s into entertainment centers with its Windows Media Center Edition software, which lets a computer double as a television and video recorder. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said that Apple’s consumers were probably not going to give up their Windows PC’s but might buy a Macintosh as an additional computer for entertainment. ‘It’s not about switching but adding,’ he said. ‘People may still need a PC because of work activities, but this is for doing multimedia activities and searching the Internet,'” Markoff and Hansell report.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “It’s not about switching but adding.” Now, where have we heard that before? Oh, yeah, it goes something like this: For our Windows-only friends, information about smoothly adding a secure, powerful, and fun Mac OS X machine to your computing arsenal can be found here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple finally stops overreaching for ‘switchers’ and goes for ‘adders’ instead – January 12, 2005
I am gonna switch (add) a lot of friends with this. The Mac mini is just what was needed.
Add a PC to a Mac and you pay Microsoft almost as much for Office Pro with VPC. All you really get is a few $0.20 CD’s.
At least with adding a Mac to a PC you get a box full of hardware.
Appliance is damn straight. I’m gonna make a robot out of mine. Do you think that would void the warranty?
My friend was going to get an eMac already.. (I recommended an iBook)..
Tonight at work, I’m gonna tell him he can get one for 500 clams and use all his old stuff to attach it.
Can’t wait to see the look on his face.
All one needs is a USB/KVM switch with their existing PC and the Mac Mini makes a perfect, safe, virus free, adware free, spyware free, exploit free online computer.
Oh they get iLife for free too.
I expect a lot of PC users will buy this.
Maybe it’ll sell well, but are they making profit on it, or is it a loss leader designed to grab market share?
At least they’ll save money on packaging.
My mate and I have just figured it out.
It’s kinda like a girl buying a new dress (please excuse the stereotype for the moment). Once she has that, well, she has to accessorize doesn’t she….
In this case, it’s another iPod, iSight, maybe wireless keyboard/mouse, etc. etc. Most of the other gear Apple has is probably very high margin.
The lack of sound/mic input is annoying my friend, however, I pointed out that the iSight is the device to compensate for that. Plus there are 3rd party bluetooth headsets available as well.
I’ve just priced up a UK Mac mini as if I were buying for a typical office installation (512MB, Combo, Bluetooth, Warranty, Keyboard/Mouse).
Yours for �554 + VAT.
Which means I could fit out a 20 seat office for �11,000.
Add an Xserve (all bays with 400GB), for �5,000.
That is an unbelieveably competitive offering – and Apple should (in whatever country) be using the reseller channel that it has been screwing since the start of The Apple Store (both bricks and clicks) to get out there and evangelise this product on a VAR basis.
How long would a person using a Mac and a PC side by side have to do so before giving up the PC?
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Apple may had switchers in their mind when they designed mini, but I think they will be pleasantly surprised by the other uses. Example, a dedicated controller for whole house power management using X-10 modules, firewall to protect all the Windows PCs in the house, home file server, remote controller for data acquisition system, many uses which normally do not require monitor, keyboard or mouse.
But wait … I can still get a pc cheaper than this !!
I just bought one out made out of cardboard the other day … and its cheaper do you hear me? Cheaper than the Mac mini !!
So what good is the Mac Mini if I can get something that looks like a computer that is Cheaper !!
Cheap! Cheap! Cheaper! Cheapest!! Its cheaper so its better do you hear me …
You’ll never fool me you guys … not when I can get a compluter that iis
cheeprr .. chepkller … charliewla/lk/lle aaaaaarrrggggghhhh!!!
If the switchers are anything like me they will start wanting PC software capacity – waste a shed full of money on Virtual PC et al – and then realise that they just need to ditch everything PC and do everything in OSX
RePlay, it’s just going to take about a month or less before folks mothball their Windows machine. Then they are going to beat themselves for putting up with Windows for so long.
S, imagine a mini as the central controller for a house run by things like the X-10 modules you mentioned, only it will all be voice controlled by Tiger’s “VoiceOver” interface. That one feature alone stands to liberate a lot of people with motor control problems, or blindness, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if some start-up “value added” installer company is looking at the Mac for exactly this task.
I want a battery-powered Mac mini which I could then glue to the top of my Roomba. It would host my blog server via Airport, share my iTunes over my LAN and process Soundtrack and Motion projects via xGrid.
And I’d just lift my feet up and let it glide…
The REAL Media Center Computer
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