“With the initial hoopla over the iPhone finally dying down, Apple Inc. will try to draw some attention back to its flagship Macintosh computer line this week, which has quietly been gaining share in the PC market,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch.
“Apple Inc. is scheduled to hold an event at its corporate headquarters on Tuesday (10am PDT), which it has described as a ‘Mac-centric’ event but has given no further details,” Crum reports.
“Despite all the attention for the iPhone and iPod, the Macintosh has recently reasserted its strength and made Apple a force in the PC market, at least in the U.S.,” Crum reports.
“Apple has already upgraded its MacBook, so the event will likely include new versions of the desktop Mac line, which Apple hasn’t fully upgraded since September of last year. However, there is some speculation that Apple could be on the verge of releasing a new notebook that runs on flash memory instead of a traditional hard-disk drive,” Crum reports.
“Whatever occurs, the moves comes at a fortuitous time for Apple, which is gearing up for the back-to-school and end-of-the-year holiday shopping seasons, which tend to be the company’s strongest business periods,” Crum reports. “The company may drum up more business with its upcoming October release of Leopard, the next upgrade to its Macintosh operating system.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whither the withered Mac mini?
Could we see an early Leopard release?
Being on the heals of Gateway show just how far Apple has to go. I can’t remeber the last time I saw someone with a new Gateway computer.
Leopard would be great but it doesn’t look ready just yet. I’m on the aluminum iMac bandwagon. It will be Santa Rosa based with some component that will reduce Apple’s margins. It could be integrated flash memory, DDR3 RAM, or a high-end processor line-up. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was also a new addition to the MacBook line-up. .mac and iLife upgrades for sure.
my $0.02
I hope iWorks comes out along with a new iMac.
“Could we see an early Leopard release?”
——————
Doubtful.
Going back as far as pre-OS9, Apple has always released new computers before the release of a new OS upgrade..
This way, they will get sales from new computers as well as the OS upgrade a month or two later.
It’s smart business sense to do it this way.
Look, the new iMac will probably have a new look, new processor, and accommodation for more RAM. But what it really needs if Apple is not going to give us a mid-size Mac Pro is the ability to upgrade the graphics card. That, IMHO, is the weakest link preventing the all-in-one iMac design from being ideally suited to fill the gap between the mini and Pro Macs.
Spark: Keep on dreamin’
i’m betting 50 quids MacMini is dead
Have they said what time the event will be?
artist. Being on the heals of Gateway show just how far Apple has to go.
Yes, those heels are healing on the heels of the Gateway show.
Yeah!
Regarding the Macmini – The only Mac I never liked. People, notably a lot of switchers, moved to the mini because it was a “cheap” Mac, but over rated its performance and ended up being more disappointed than satisfied. I personally know people who were trying to run Final Cut Pro v5 and up on these things – Yes it’s possible, but… why? You’ll just end up being frustrated out of your mind.
Leave the cheap pcs to others.
ndelc,
10:00 am PDT.
Being on the heals of Gateway show just how far Apple has to go. I can’t remeber the last time I saw someone with a new Gateway computer.
Being on the heels of Gateway shows how far they have to go as well. I can remember the last time I saw someone with a new Gateway computer; it was about ten minutes ago.
Spark is right on!
If you don’t want an iMac, the Mac Pro is too big and the Mac mini is a joke.
What do we have in between that Pro Mac users and switchers alike flock to? I certainly have nothing to recommend to people who fall into the in-between spot. People with all the peripherals they need along with an already nice monitor. I usually tell them to get a MacBook Pro. At least you can pick your own external monitor AND carry the thing around.
Yep we need some kind of 1/2 Mac Pro:
1/2 the size.
1/2 the slots.
1/2 the price.
(2 PCI slots, 4 RAM slots, 2 internal drive bays)
Thanks Charko!
Apple may have decided the Mac mini has served it’s purpose. It was certainly intended to switch people from the Windows platform and was successful. I think the smart thing would be for Apple to introduce a headless Mac at a higher price than the loaded mini with user upgrade potential and a discrete graphics card. Hopefully it would be a capable gaming machine but never as powerful as the Mac Pro.
The best thing that would help .mac would be to add Full O-T-A sync with iphone and full windows services as well.
As much as i would like the windows part to not happen, its really the best way for Apple to make .mac grow, perhaps integration with Safari windows??
And i know tommorow is suppsoed to focus on MAC but this iPhone announcement would be a welcome one for myself.
Leave the cheap pcs to others.
Absolutely. I know people trying to run similar programs (video and photo editing) on their Wal-Mart $400 computers. They are having major issues, of course.
People always amaze me when they buy the cheapest version of a product, then expect it to perform like the more expensive ones.
My guess is no Leopard, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a “Free Upgrade” to Leopard so people won’t wait the 2 months to purchase it. With the new OS coming, who wants to shell out another $129 to buy it a few months later.
My prediction…
Aluminum iMacs
Something with displays (Camera screen or touch)
.Mac update
Something involving the notebooks.
@ Tre: Don’t they usually include a coupon in the box with the Mac for OS upgrades that occur right after a CPU purchase? Seems like the last couple I bought had them.
Are you people saying you want a Cube?
“Apple Inc. is scheduled to hold an event at its corporate headquarters on Tuesday (10am PDT), which it has described as a ‘Mac-centric’ event but has given no further details,” Crum reports.
Why are people so against the Mac mini? It is a great computer for many different areas. I set up 5 of them for an after school program and put them in a plastic case mounted under the table. The desktop computer continued to get kicked and destroyed very quickly. The iMac was too expensive and they already had a bunch of monitors lying around. The mini’s have been working great for over 6 months.
Personally, I would buy a Mac mini if they upgraded it to a Core 2 and hook it up to an HD TV. With Front Row, this would work just like an Apple TV, but I’d also be using it as a web server and be able to surf the web. The size is perfect for an entertainment center and it will drive the 1080p full digital resolution with videos and everything else.
Not to mention that the upcoming Resolution Independence in Leopard will allow me to scale the whole output to whatever size I want and not look blurry (same Technology that allows the iPhone to smoothly zoom in on a web page and not get blocky). Resolution Independence and an HD TV are a perfect match.
I think the next mac mini will be a firmware chip thats implanted into the brain :p It will be the next miracle cure next to stem cell research :p
“I personally know people who were trying to run Final Cut Pro v5 and up on these things”
Idiots. That’s not what the Mac mini is for. For its intended audience, it’s a great computer (with now outdated specs).