“I’ve seen Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, make the case for his sublime Mac computers a half dozen times or more, and every time, I’ve come out of his polished presentations promising myself that I’m going to leave the land of Windows and switch over, cold turkey, to a nice, clean, great-looking Apple machine,” Farhad Manjoo writes for Salon.com.
“I remember taking the Apple vow when Jobs unveiled the white-plastic iBook a few years ago, and also in 2002, when I first saw the cute, lamp-shaped iMac. ‘This time, I’m just going to do it,’ my heart would say. ‘I deserve it.’ Then my brain would kick in. You want me to pay $1,500 for a notebook with as much power as a Windows machine two-thirds its price? I may appreciate the look-and-feel of Apple’s system, but not enough to spend $1,300 on essentially the same desktop Dell’s giving away for $500,” Manjoo writes.
“Today, though, after another one of Jobs’ starry presentations at Macworld, I may really do it. That’s because this time, Jobs brought forth a new kind of Mac — a machine that comes with every feature of the Macs of yesteryear, except one: Sticker shock. Like all Macs, the new Mac Mini, which is priced at $500, tugs at your heart. But the best thing about it is it won’t offend your brain,” Manjoo writes.
Full article (must watch a brief advertisement to get a free one-day site pass) here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple finally stops overreaching for ‘switchers’ and goes for ‘adders’ instead – January 12, 2005
Kiss of death: Dvorak likes Apple’s new Mac mini – January 12, 2005
Bill Palmer calls Apple’s Mac mini a ‘groundbreakingly stupid, terrible idea’ – January 12, 2005
You think Apple’s going to magically rule the world with the Mac mini? Think different – January 12, 2005
Analyst: Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle are big winners for Apple – January 11, 2005
Apple introduces Mac mini, most affordable Mac ever starts at just $499 – January 11, 2005
Headless iMac for $499? Please, Apple, let it be true! – December 29, 2004
Only Apple can garner this kind of response for something like a computer.
“but not enough to spend $1,300 on essentially the same desktop Dell’s giving away for $500”
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The same desktop! Not by a “longhorn shot”.
This person is clueless. no spyware, no viruses.
Stupid in a public place should be against the law!
first ever post anywhere
He writes, “I may appreciate the look-and-feel of Apple’s system, but not enough to spend $1,300 on essentially the same desktop Dell’s giving away for $500,” Manjoo writes.”
**********
Essentially the same desktop that Dell gives away? Aside from the obvious fact that Dell does not give it away, in that it costs $500, the notion of Windows XP being essentially the same as Panther (with iLife included, no less) may be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard anyone say.
Apple’s primary uphill battle is overcoming the colossal ignorance of so many people.
He may be ignorant, but he is leaving the dark side it seems. Too bad Apple isn’t including a coupon good for a discount off the PC- to Mac software that helps to move files. I’m sure the Apple stores will do a good business selling it. It’s funny how the PC writers understand what the mini is all about. Unplug your PC CPU from you system and plug in the mini and that’s it. Palmer and other some Mac writers haven’t a clue to what this is all about. One other thing. I saw a pic of the power brick. It’s almost as big as the computer! No matter, it sits on the floor out of the way just as the Cube one did.
And one more thing: Why, oh why, do so many people REFUSE to count time lost and money wasted doing the Windows dance as part of the cost of computer ownership? Why is it that for so many, outright initial purchase price is the one and ONLY thing that they are able or willing to calculate?
In the entire history of human events, Mr. Gates is without a doubt the largest benificiary of intellectual laziness.
rick.. i think you have to have a degree in economics to do that..
Touch a Mac and see how well it is made in comparison to any PC computer out there!
Just feel the plastic, examine the fit and finish….
When you compare PC to Macs, consider everything, not just price, please!!!
Your Papa knows best.
And, of course, he capitalized “mini.”
Apple could make the prospect of adding a Mac for the average Windows user even easier if they put together a device that combined the functions of a 2-port KVM + audio switch with an 2-way Ethernet switch and included a spot for an Airport Extreme card in the device. Bundle that with Move2Mac and the marketing slogan becomes “Accessorize” instead of “Switch”. Much less scary prospect for the quaking masses of Wintel sheep.
Why are Macs so great? Because every aspect of the computer inside and out is designed to be pleasing to the consumer, a fact that is unappreciated by many PC users. This intimate attention to detail has existed for every Apple product ever. Note this story about Steve Jobs:
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=PC_Board_Esthetics.txt&sortOrder=Sort by Date&detail=medium&search=steve jobs
“We started having weekly management meetings in June 1981, which were attended by most of the team, where we discussed the issues of the week. At the second or third meeting, Burrell presented an intricate blueprint of the PC board layout, which had already been used to build a few working prototypes, blown up to four times the actual size.
Steve started critiquing the layout on a purely esthetic basis. “That part’s really pretty”, he proclaimed. “But look at the memory chips. That’s ugly. The lines are too close together”.
George Crow, our recently hired analog engineer, interrupted Steve. “Who cares what the PC board looks like? The only thing that’s important is how well that it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board.”
Steve responded strongly. “I’m gonna see it! I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.”
If spending $500 on “lunch-box” is what’s required for the writer to spend $1,300 on an iMac or more then so be it. He’ll spend a total $1,800 once he’s switched. I’d prefer to spend more for the hottest Mac and keep it a little longer.
This is sweet. This exact kind of thinking is what’s going to drive people to the Mac in droves. Forget the arguments that Macs are cheaper in the long run, or that it’s worth the higher cost to not deal with viruses/spyware and so on. This is exactly what many would-be-switchers needed.
you can still find cheaper PCs, but there aren’t many. And the price is so much closer to the cheapest PCs, that the cry from the unwashed of “Macs are just so much more expensive” will now be diminished to the few anti-Mac folks who won’t be happy with anything that Apple creates.
And, frankly, I don’t want those few to own a Mac anyway.
Wow. Steve Jobs sure is looking old.
(just posted this in the Bill Palmer thread, sorry to repost here but wanted to be sure folks saw it
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Hey, here’s one more data point proving exactly the kind of thinking we’re talking about, for the kind of user that the mini is targeted at:
http://www.pvponline.com/
PvP (Player vs. Player) is a popular web comic about a fictional gaming magazine. The IT coordinator of the magazine in the strip is a steretypical teenage l33t gamer who thinks macs are toys. But the magazines graphics director, the “Brent Sienna” character, is naturally a Mac user, constantly getting in fights with the IT kid.
A while back the comic’s author, Scott Kurtz, had inidcated that many people had suggested he switch to Mac, especially when in his mini-blog below the comic he would mention some PC related problem. Not having the $$, for a while he put up a donation link so Mac evangelists among his readership could send a few bucks which he could use to try a Mac. Read the top entry on his news post today, which mentions this. It’s exactly the kind of switch rationale we’ve been talking about. (Made sweeter for Scott because it’s funded by reader donations, including enough to load up a mini with more RAM and a Superdrive!)
Kudos to Kurtz for getting strangers to buy him a new Mac! I feel like a dope for not doing the same at http://aDailyCartoon.com, but then I’d have to pretend to be stuck in PC land rather than be a long-time contented Mac user.
All kidding aside, the Mac mini is just what lots of PC-ers just might buy. Real kudos to Jobs!
Why, oh why, do so many people REFUSE to count time lost and money wasted doing the Windows dance as part of the cost of computer ownership?
Because it’s not cash. (magic word: reason)
Remember, like the iPod, this will be a “snowball” effect. We need a critical mass of switchers, from people who walk into the Apple store for iPods to well-informed Windows users sick of the pain. Eventually, word of mouth will spread the effect to the most casual of users.
most people don’t consider the money wasted watching The Biggest Loser, vis a vis Opportunity Cost either..
Most people aren’t Econ majors…
I’m half-joking, of course..
the amount of interest in the mainstream press is nothing short of amazing. even our small town news rag in a 50,000 soul town in Northern Germany ran a three column coverage of the miniMac today. in Europe, especially in Germany, the marketing sucks, though. except for graphics people, advertising folks and scientists who had training in the US or UK, the awareness of Apple as a computer maker is very low.
and they have to get a foothold in asian countries such as India and China where a huge part of the software is written today.