“I have owned many Macs over the years including: LC, LC III, PowerMac 6100, 7200, iBook G3 15″, PowerBook G4 12″ (the best laptop form factor ever, btw) and Mac Mini G4, so let me share with you what I think is missing from Apple’s basically awesome Mac product line,” Michael Frager blogs in an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Frager asks for “A REGULAR MAC! – With no monitor and a full-height PCI-Express 16x slot! Price range: $600 – $1200. Dual-core, 1GB RAM. Nothing fancy!”
“Apple needs something that can compete with Dell, HP and Lenovo. This computer does not take a genius to design but it will sell like crazy! It can be priced at around $100 to $200 more than a same spec. Windows box due to the value of OS X (esp. 10.5),” Frager writes.
“I believe that while the all-in-one iMac is attractive to schools, it is not what the broader market wants. I have seen my friends buy too many gray boxes over the years. Now is the time for Apple to make one worth buying,” Frager writes.
Full article here.
agree 100%
my imac has the screen blemish problem , the last time i’m buying an integrated mac
what i want is an lc for the 21st century !
He’s right!!
I would buy it without blinking!!!
A pure commodity item. May sound appealing, but somehow I just don’t see Apple doing this.
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With wired Ethernet standard, but with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as options.
What exactly would be the difference between this and the PowerMac?
a mac mini with a pci-express slot ?
Er, please ignore my last message. let me rephrase…
What exactly would be the difference between this and the Mac Pro?
I disagree. Apple just needs to update the Mac mini. Apple is a leader and an innovator because it raises the bar of what consumers should expect. The “beige box” format for computers is so 90s. The oohs and ahhs that my office gets when people see the iMacs in the front office is almost worth the price of admission alone. Simply put, the “box” format commodity computer is not where the future lies and Apple knows this.
The difference between this and the powermac, which you probably meant mac pro, is it will be half the price. Mac needs a tower setup that doesn’t start at $2k. They can achieve this, at least partially, by using conroe not xeon and ddr not fb-dimm or whatever its called.
flappo,
A Mac Mini with PCI-Express and more memory slots.
Yes ! An Extra Mac double dick Mac Mini .. yes ! Easy to configure an extra HD or add extra memory from the pc – store around the corner, a good enough 128 video card to play even pc games.
The difference would be PRICE and SIZE..
I am a video editor/ producer and do work from home (in nyc) and would love something that I could expand upon but is not the price and size bohemeth that is the Power Mac! (one that will actually fit in to a standard computer desk. I dont need tons of slots – just enough to add a pro video card..
And who needs 16 GB of ram?? Not the average person for sure..
And I would love to be able to change/upgrade my monitor as needed.
I am sure that Apple would find a way to make it cool too..
This is the unit I have been waiting for!
I think a unit like this one would increase Apples market share by several percentage points.
Apple really does not want to get into the commodity hardware like Dell, HP, etc….but I think they could make significant gains with a product like this.
Also, add a ultra light weight laptop, sub 3 lbs! That should round out Apples product line.
Quote: “What exactly would be the difference between this and the Mac Pro?”
Not a lot. What people are asking for is a MacPro at a commodity price. That said, I think Apple should do a Mac at around the size of a standard PC. Most computer desks have a compartment designed for a PC into which a MacPro won’t fit.
Do a smaller one and they may well sell by the shed load to corporates who view the Mini as underpowered. Unless of course Apple will resurrect the dumb terminal.
“re:Simply put, the “box” format commodity computer is not where the future lies and Apple knows this.”
I disagree. I am a teacher in a school system with 6,000 computers, mix of Windows and Mini’s.
Mini’s need the kind of upgradeability he is talking about. Perception is often reality and when this system is faced with what will happen when they feel forced to upgrade to
Vista requirements.
RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY ( of course I think it’s wrong, so don’t waste my time by going there!) if the Mini’s that we have were upgradeable to what he is talking about, Apple could head off the hardware upgrade that our system will make to run Vista.
Should the school system have gone all Mac so they would not be faced with a Vista upgrade ?
ABSOLUTELY!
BUT THAT IS NOT , REPEAT, IS NOT WHAT WE HAVE TO FACE.
An upgradeable Mini could give school systems a better option. It is that simple.
I cannot live in the world of “should” I have to live in the world of “is.” We all do whether we choose to recognize it or not.
Customers need options. Hardware options like what he suggests will do it. Forget that “image” horsecrap!
Your real image is based upon how customers can use your product!
The reason we are successful is that we don’t compete on this very level with Dell or HP. If we were to try to make a Mac like this, it would sell, and then cannibalize our more expensive computers (which would be better simply for the fact that they cost more so they get better engineering).
When will you bozos realize that commodity computers are killing Dell? Get a grip. We don’t WANT the business of penny pinchers who choose medicrity over cool.
Sheesh, when will you all stop with this nonsense?
Thankfully Apple will never do this. If your friends so desperately want a gray box, let’em have one.
Wait for apple to update the mac mini… stop whining… there is alot of choice with mac.
I have the sneaking feeling that Apple is working on something like this. I think you could up-size the Mac Mini just a tad to fit a PCI slot and/or a better video card. I think Apple has heard the public on the Mini and it’s “integrated” video. I love the Mini but it is just shy of something I would purchase because I think it’s video is slightly under powered.
They should come up with a lower cost monitor to go with it as well.
Not gonna happen. Unless the Mini gets an update/slight redesign.
It would ruin iMac sales.
This is only a prediction obviously – an educated (hopefully!) guess.
Several years ago SGI had a workstation that was probably no more than 15x6x12 inches. I really liked the form factor – a mini tower that could be upgraded with standard drives etc. I often wondered if Apple could do something like that.
Still it probably wouldn’t be sexy enough for them. It certainly would be cheap to build.
I hope they do that upgrade to the Mini.
It does not have to be cheap, Apple can and must make a profit on it. It can be higher priced than a comparable Dell or whatever, and it will sell because of OSX.
Our schools WOULD buy it because they work well, not because of “image”
kenh is right. Now that Apple is GROWING in market share, they should offer Macs for the mass market. There will always be folks who want an iMac (like myself, I like the all in one) and there are the folks who want the POWER of the MacPro…and then there are the folks who want affordable, flexible machines, like businesses and schools.
C’mon, Apple–you WERE a nitch player, but you have entered the big leagues now due to great OS.
To Kenh and others,
Somehow, I am sure that Apple does a serious look at what machines will sell where.
Apple sells the big box with plug in options but I do not see them trying to copy HP or Dell. Even if it means selling more computers. There are too many factors to go into here, but like the person who buys a car so he can tinker with it, people who do that do not really care if it just works, they will take it apart anyways.
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Apple, it always needs to “just work” — first and foremost.
en
Isn’t one danger in this is the “upgradeability” will also lead to the gajillion 3rd party driver issues that Windows faces? When Apple cedes control of hardware configuration to an “upgradeable” box scheme with externally provided drivers, won’t OS X suffer as a result?
Please, correct me if I’m wrong. I sort of hope I am, and I rather hope that if I am wrong, that Apple has plans to build such an item, because I think it’d be a much easier sell to potential “switcher” friends.