“One of the things I’ve been hearing is that Apple is a lot less excited about the Mac mini than the rest of the world seems to be. I saw an example of that Wednesday at the Apple Store in Emeryville, CA, where to mini was hidden away in a corner. I didn’t even see it until I started looking,” David Coursey writes in his eWeek Weblog. “Why? Because Apple’s been burned by a very similar machine in the past and doesn’t want to get burned again. There’s also the question–at least in the stores–of the mini stealing sales from more profitable products.”
“Apple had great hopes for the Power Macintosh G4 Cube, none of which were ever realized. The feeling at the time was Apple should have released a less expensive machine in a small form factor,” Coursey writes. “That brings us to the Mac mini, a machine that’s much smaller than the Cube, does a lot more and costs a lot less. Apple customers have seemed a lot more interested in the mini than some people at Apple, who seem genuinely surprised at the mini’s warm reception. Will customer interest turn into sales? It’s too early to tell. But this is the first computer I’ve gotten excited about in quite some time.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If “Apple is a lot less excited about the Mac mini than the rest of the world” as Coursey claims, could the company have underestimated interest causing the reported supply issues the Mac mini is currently experiencing? Perhaps the Mac mini is exceeding Apple’s expectations, but Steve Jobs’ comment during the Mac mini introduction about it being “priced so that people wanting to switch will have no more excuses,” lead us to believe Apple has high hopes for and is very exited about the Mac mini.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Analyst: initial demand for ‘Mac mini’ and ‘iPod shuffle’ have exceeded Apple’s expectations – February 01, 2005
Computerworld: Apple Computer ‘has a hit on its hands with the new Mac Mini’ – February 01, 2005
Report: Best Buy to sell Mac mini, could accelerate ‘iPod Halo Effect’ – January 28, 2005
Target pulls Apple Mac mini from online store due to ‘availability concerns’ – January 25, 2005
Mac mini is going to dramatically improve Apple’s share in the personal computer market – January 23, 2005
Apple’ Mac mini in high demand, faces backlog; Target.com now selling Mac mini – January 21, 2005
USA Today: Apple’s new Mac Mini could sell in mass quantities – January 21, 2005
Apple Mac mini, iMac G5 models hold top three spots in Amazon’s Desktop Computer Top Sellers list – January 21, 2005
Analyst: Apple’s retail outlets will be critical in selling Mac minis to Windows users – January 20, 2005
New Mac mini could make Apple ‘a serious player in the PC market once again’ – January 19, 2005
Can Mac mini help Apple win back double-digit market share in the personal computer market? – January 16, 2005
Apple’s Mac mini a ‘disruptive’ technology that could cause Macs to show up in unexpected places – January 16, 2005
Wintel box assemblers simply cannot compete with Apple’s new Mac mini – January 14, 2005
Early anecdotal evidence points to Apple Mac mini success among Windows-only users – January 14, 2005
Apple Computer equips their stealth army with mini recruiting weapons – January 14, 2005
Mac mini is the future of Apple Computer – January 13, 2005
New ‘Mac mini’ to intensify Apple’s battle with Microsoft in the personal computer market – January 12, 2005
New Mac mini could cause Apple ‘some short-term pain, but the long-term gain could be spectacular’ – January 12, 2005
Analyst: Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle are big winners for Apple – January 11, 2005
Well yeah. When I drive a car dealership, they generally have the “top models” near the road. Of course they’d rather sell the more profitable unit. sheesh.
(and what the hell is going on with the magic word popup? I think it’s time to find a new Mac site….sigh…how annoying)
Jobs hardly talked about the mac mini in his keynote. He couldn’t wait to get that thing off the stage. Its clear that apple had no clue what was going to happen when they released it.
I had to ask a sales rep to show me one. But first I made them pull out the very last 1.42GHz model and put it on the counter with my name on it. I had to drive through the worst snow storm this winter 38 miles with two kids and a box of granola bars to make it and I got the very LAST ONE on opening day.
That was despite the fact they were so hard to find. I grabbed it and ran to the play area with my kids.
Yes, many at Apple may be less than enthusiastic that the mini will canabalize sales of higher priced machines, but this their last big shot to bring Macs to mainstream users and wipe away the preconceived notions which have kept many from buying higher-end Macs.
I think this time it will work. OS X can deliver on its promise.
T
I don’t think you draw much of a conclusion from a sample of one.
The things I would wonder about are:
* Is Apple making a profit on each mini, considering the obvious amount of engineering that had to go into its design?
* are they being taken completely off guard by the overwhelming response (and orders?)
and by the way, I did read DC’s article, and all he says is “One of the things I’ve been hearing”, but that doesn’t make for much of a data point.
Got mine today. Unfortunately a combodrive was installed instead of the spec’d Superdrive so back it goes. I did fire it up and fool around a bit. It is amazingly small and quiet. There is a slight hiccup at the very beginning of an itunes cd burn, other than that there is no problem with multiple workspace openings while using Quicktime etc. Far faster than the imac 1.25 ghz I am used to.
A slight change in public perception is all it would take to sell scads of these.
My opinion is that they aren’t able to keep up with demand as it is, so no need to put it in the spotlight.
It would be worse to sell/market it and then fall further behind in the waiting time for delivery.
MDN Magic word ‘Tell’ as in Time will tell.
Why do people compare the mini to the Cube? The Cube was waayy over priced for it’s market, people weren’t as aware of Apple at the time and the Cube came with OS 9 installed.
I feel the mini has to very strong features going for it, price and OS X. Many Windows users I know have a huge interest in OS X combine that with the low price and Apple has a hit with the mini.
Unfortunately I experienced the same thing in Seattle, the Mini was in a back room and it was turned off. The salesman fumbled with it and then left me to sell myself on it. Had I been an non mac user I would not have been interested in it based on his presentation or lack there off. It makes sense that they would rather sell the more expensive laptops. Conundrum indeed.
We ordered our mini a couple weeks ago along with an iPod and some software. The iPod and software arrived a week ago, at least, the mini is showing an estimated ship date of February 23rd. I think they way underestimated it. We hit two of the Chicago area stores on the Sunday and Monday after it showed up there. One store was sold out and one had a some/one of the 1.25 ghz models left, none of the 1.42 version.
As far as cannabalizing sales, we would have purchased a more expensive REFURBISHED machine if this hadn’t come along. We were not at all in the market for a new machine until the mini showed up.
Joe, glad to see you bought one. I’ve been wondering (and probably missed you commenting on the purchase).
BTW, the mini’s were displayed at both stores we visited, with it sitting right next to the window on Michigan Avenue.
MDN magic word: square, as in: I can’t wait for my little square computer to show up!
Well, you don’t push what you don’t have in stock yet. My 4-year-old could have told you that one!
To david: WTF? You couldn’t have been at the keynote. Jobs spent plenty of time on the Mini, to all sorts of ooos and aaaaahs, carrying it around, clearly ther proud papa, with more than adequate attention on screen and on stage. And if you were at the keynote, you must have been on crack, Or perhaps you were being sarcastic.
The Mini is gonna be HUUUUUGE. I hope they are cranking them out as fast as they can. Apple may have problems with supplying enough of their products at times but that is a very high quality problem to have.
WAKE UP MDN. PLEASE FIX THE POSTING FUNCTION!!!!!!
Magic word “bed’ as in maybe they already went to bed.
Again MDN just to help out. The pop up window that comes when you try to post (and come up twice by the way, once when you click in the magic word box, and once more when you click submit) is at the URL:
http://z1.adserver.com/w/cp.x;rid=3;tid=18;ev=2;dt=3;ac=17;c=889;
which is blank. VERY VERY ANNOYING.
How could drawing in PC users take away from sales? “Switchers” are going to get this…like it…and want more power in a year…that’s when they will buy an iMac or Powermac…or book….
Additionally, even satisfied Mac users are nabbing this little jem up…lots of people with relatively new macs are getting this just because…its a cool new mac at the price of an iPod photo.
This will be nothing but a success …one way or another.
not having that popup window experience posting from NetNewsWire
Why the hell are you people talking about popups? What the hell browser are you using? If your stupid enough to allow popups…then you deserve the frustration.
DaddySteve
Apple could in need of child prodigies, but in the mean time, its time to change your diaper.
Steve Jobs sounded excited about it? Of course he sounded excited about it. Even if he wasn’t, I’m sure he could sound thrilled about something he hated if it was good for Apple.
I would agree with other postings that you promote what you can deliver, and that once the mini’s production can catch up with demand, they will be front and center. I see no reason why the mini wouldn’t be producing a margin similar to the iBooks and eMacs, perhaps iMacs too. Certainly material costs are low compared to iMac, and shipping is low compared to both the eMac and iMac. As far as engineering costs go, it becomes less and less of an expense the more you sell, because that money is already spent.
I think Apple is indeed hopefull that the mini sells by the millions, but the production problems are not really problems, more of a precaution. Apple has been hung out to dry with product before, and they’d rather have too few than too many. Besides low supply has some positive aura about it, whereas getting stuck with 400,000+ units you can’t get your money back out of is a serious problem. Apple is making the protection of their profits the #1 priority, and that isn’t a bad thing. If the mini continues to sell good, Apple will have to invest more into training, support, administrative and distribution processes to back up a much larger customer base.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Apple Store in Costa Mesa, CA. I agree–the mini was hard to find. Part of the reason, though, is that (a) it’s small, (b) it was hooked to the 17″ display (I, of course, gravitated to the 30″ display
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cheese” style=”border:0;” />), and (c) there was no sign saying “Hey! Here’s the Mac mini!” I found it where I would expect to find it, though, on the same shelf with the eMac.
It was right next to the Window but, again, it’s so small that’s hardly noticeable sitting next to a 17″ display. It just looks like yet another computer.
One thing they might do is hook it up to a decent 17″ CRT (like the Mitsubishi FE770 in the Online Apple Store) to show the “PC Connectivity”. Heck, go buy a PS/2-to-USB connector and show it with an HP keyboard and mouse (just to be friendly with HP). Heck, an ugly PC Keyboard and Mouse would stand out like a sore thumb in the Apple Store. Put up little placards that say the Mitsubishi display can be purchased online and that keyboard and mouse are taken from an old PC.
Either that, or they could hook it up to a nice Plasma TV.
Apple learned their lesson with the Cube. Start with small quantities and keep production low key until it’s necessary to do otherwise.
And, call me crazy, but I seriously doubt they would put the R&D time and budget into anything that they weren’t excited about. I agree with those who postulate that it has more to do with availability right now.
This is another halo thing. People get an appetiser of the mac and go out and buy a bigger faster one later on. If Apple were worried, why the hell did they make the friggen thing ?
I disagree.. the Mac Mini is aimed at 95% of computer owners who already have a junky eMachines and a Mon and Keyboard etc…
So it makes sense that there would be such an incredible reception to the Mac mini…
Who woulda thunk those PC users would be so eager to dropkick Gates and Co.?
Where’s the Brand Loyalty?
Answer: MS gets loyalty from its developers, not its users…they think they can force you to buy their shit this way. So far, a pretty good guess.
As a “Mac evangelist,” I just witnessed the conversion of a PC user who went to the local Apple Store with the intention of purchasing a Mac mini. However, he “switched” to a 20″ iMac G5 in the process! So, if nothing else, the Mac mini is an efficient “hook” with which to lure folks into the stores.