“It’s definitely no rival to entry-level PCs, but Apple’s new Mac mini – combined with the iPod – could be the basis of a perfect Trojan horse strategy… Many rightly point out that given the market share of the Macintosh platform, even doubling the number of Macs sold would hardly dent the Windows predominance,” Andreas Pfeiffer writes for ExtremeTech.
“But before jumping to conclusions, let’s see what the new Mac mini is not to better understand the strategies behind it. First of all, the new Mac is not what most rumors predicted: a pizza-box, cut-down version of the Macintosh, as an entry-level Macintosh to compete with entry-level PCs,” Pfeiffer writes. “And as far as the Macintosh lineup goes, the Mac mini is very close to Apple’s high-end PowerBooks. Not the speed of a G5, but certainly not a Macintosh on the cheap.”
“As far as potential market share is concerned, the comparison of the Mac mini with low-end Windows PCs is both interesting and flawed. Steve Jobs is not attacking the Windows market per se. The way the new Mac is styled (and will presumably be marketed), it will stay safely out of the low-cost PC arena. Instead, Jobs is going after the Achilles heel of Windows dominance: the living room,” Pfeiffer writes.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Apple Computer will own the living room, not Microsoft – January 10, 2005
