• Apple does not like this model, as it was designed under the pressure of shareholders willing to get a cheap entry level Mac hardware.
• A Core 2 Duo-based Mac mini would compete with iMac and MacBook, models for which Apple has larger margins or sale volumes.
• Last answer is probably the most interesting one: a Core 2 Duo Mac mini would kill Apple TV. Indeed, if the minimal GUI of the Apple TV makes it user-friendly and a perfect device for just watching movies, it can not compete with the Mac mini for any further functions, and many Mac users have already chosen the Mac mini to be plugged to their TV even thought it is twice more expensive. If this is true, one will have to expect the Apple TV to become a real business success in order to see the Mac mini being upgraded.
Lionel reports, “Last but not least, R&D resources might have been so much dedicated to the iPhone and Leopard (beside iMac and MacBook revision to come), that Apple could not work on a Core 2 Duo Mac mini and decided to wait for Santa Rosa to bring a Mac mini based on the last Intel mobile platform evolution, together with the new iMac and MacBook models.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]