“Apple Computer isn’t the only company with big hopes for small computers. Rival PC makers are hoping Apple’s newly minted Mac Mini, which went on sale last Saturday, helps shift consumer tastes to smaller desktops at a time when most people associate ‘little’ with laptops. ‘I love the product. I think it’s beautiful,’ said Tom Anderson, vice president of marketing for the Consumer PC Global Business Unit at Hewlett-Packard. ‘If it started a trend of small (desktops)…I’d be very happy about that. It would be a reason for someone to consider a desktop.’ Big-name PC makers such as HP have so far had little success with small desktops, but the tiny Apple could well create enough buzz to spark new interest among consumers, some executives said,” John G. Spooner writes for CNET News.
“The diminutive Mac arrives at a time when most Windows-based desktop machines offer the same basic elements, including at least two 5.25-inch bays for CD or DVD drives, a floppy drive, a series of front-mounted ports for headphones and other peripherals, as well as a memory card reader. Currently, designing a desktop has more to do with choosing parts to hit a specific price than creating a thing of beauty,” Spooner writes.
“Changing consumer taste will amount to a monumental task for the tiny Mini. To date, the vast majority of consumers purchasing Windows desktops have shown little desire for anything other than a standard mini tower. Even stylish, all-in-one machines such as the iMac and the Gateway Profile have sold in small numbers compared with the tens of millions of standard desktops purchased by consumers annually,” Spooner writes. “But Apple has paved the way before. Take the company’s iPod music player, which has changed the way many people listen to music. Although it has yet to be determined whether the Mini will be the product that turns around the entire desktop computer market, the machine has arrived at what could be an opportune time.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s get real here, how many cheap Windows boxes actually come with a dedicated graphics processor, a DVI connector, and FireWire like Apple’s Mac mini?
Also, is there no comprehension on the part of the writer that the operating system and the software are different for a Mac mini vs. all other Wintel box assemblers’ PCs? Of course, he must know all about it, but anyone reading his full article wouldn’t be able to find out that critically important information. One cannot look just at the hardware and then write, “most Windows-based desktop machines offer the same basic elements [as the Mac mini].” It just is not a true statement (even if you only did look at the hardware, it’s false). It would be more truthful and useful to the casual reader to write, “most Windows-based desktop machines offer some of the same basic hardware elements as the Mac mini, but no Windows-based desktop machines can offer the extremely secure and powerful Mac OS X operating system or the large amount of excellent software that comes bundled with every new Mac mini.” Again, it’s the software, stupid.
As we’ve said before, to really understand the Mac mini, think of it as a $499 software and operating system bundle that is unprecedented in personal computing history that also comes with a free Macintosh computer.
Here’s an example of a much better article that illustrates exactly we’re talking about:
USA Today: the software loaded on Apple’s Mac Mini gets you more bang for your buck – January 27, 2005
MDN–let’s see if you can understand this. I’ll make it nice and short and simple.
Hardware is hardware. Software is software.
Saying, “Well, it has less RAM, a smaller hard drive, fewer ports, no keyboard, no mouse, no speakers, a slower CPU and a slower optical drive than a less costly Dell, but the Dell can’t run OS X or iLife” is true, but it is somewhat along the same lines as saying, “Well, she’s fatter than her sister, shorter than her sister, has zits, smokes, and didn’t get past tenth grade, but the sister doesn’t swallow.”
Hey opj,
Yes, hardware is hardware, abd software is software. Boy, nothing gets past you, except maybe that the two are not mutually exclusive. Co-dependent would be a better description. Or put another way, they need each other to function. The bestest high end every component thrown into a designer box with light and liquid cooled CPUs will still be hampered by a MS version of windows. Lipstick on a pig is still a pig.
When even an aging (ancient) cpu like a G4 1 gig can run a modern OS like panther and soon tiger, and give the end user a better, trouble free, virus free, it just works experience, the actual value of $5000 alienware computer or a $500 throw away Dell isn’t worth $50. (unless they were paying you to take it off their hands)
When oh when will these guys start to finally get it? They have got to start seeing BEYOND THE BOX.
“As we’ve said before, to really understand the Mac mini, think of it as a $499 software and operating system bundle that is unprecedented in personal computing history that also comes with a free Macintosh computer.”
Problem is, the remaining 97% of the world (assuming ALL Mac users agree with your statement) DON’T think of it that way. And it’s tiring to hear the mantra.
A cheap Window’s Media Center is a “software and operating system bundle that is unprecedented in personal computing history”, too.
The price-point of the mini is to let the PC folks decide on their own (without us cheerleaders pushing them on) to try out this Mac thing. We all know friends and family who hate hearing us talk about our Macs. They need to do it themselves.
If you have an over-weight friend, do you constantly remind them how fat they are or how great working out is? Do you tell them that they’re eating the wrong foods or too much food? No! They’d drop you in a hearbeat. Think of a different approach, then you’ll get somewhere. But they have to come to that conclusion on their own and know you’ll help with with the transition if they take that step.
For $500, they might do that.
Oh please, MDN. MacCentral is like watching the paint dry? A bit of envy there I think.
More like MDN, the Pro Wrestling of Mac sites.
That’s more like it.
some users want to turn the mini into a pvr, or install it in their cars. the mac mini is so tiny that it offers lots of options in how it can be used. i like it.
I just have a question- Can you use imovie or like ilife on a hewlett packard computer????
e-mail me at carriegomez@hotmail.com