“I do think the Mac mini was simply meant to be a product to get people in the door, particularly those who felt they couldn’t afford a Mac. Consider the way auto dealers operate. They will advertise an uber-cheap model for an exceptionally low price to entice you to check them out,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Mac Night Owl.
“Now I realize some of you own a Mac mini, and you’re quite ready to dispute my contention that Apple doesn’t really care if they sell any or not, that it’s just a promotional gimmick, particularly for the converted PC user who is accustomed to cheap hardware. Indeed, with a full complement of memory, the mini is quite a decent computer. It’s a worthy product for offices, schools and they even serve duty as Web servers,” Steinberg writes.
“Of course, a highly-anticipated requiem for the Mac mini might very well arrive at Macworld Expo 2009. Perhaps Apple VP Philip Schiller — replacing Steve Jobs for the keynote — will proudly unveil a totally redesigned mini, perhaps with a slimmer case more reminiscent of Time Machine or the Apple TV,” Steinberg writes.
“A revitalized Mac mini, perhaps for an entry-level price of $499, might be just the ticket to keep Apple’s sales moving in the right direction,” Steinberg writes. “A bait and switch scheme? Maybe at one time, but things have changed, and I trust Apple will do the right thing for this long-neglected product.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Devlin” for the heads up.]
thanks for reporting nothing from a nobody
Steinberg confuses “bait and switch” with “upsell”, and as it happens, Apple is doing neither.
A “bait and switch” is when a company advertises something that doesn’t exist, to get someone into the store and sell them something else. An “upsell” is when a salesman convinces someone to buy a more expensive item than they are originally interested in.
Any visit to an Apple retail store will show that Apple does neither. Apple’s got the least-pushy sales approach of any company I’ve ever seen.
-jcr
I think the Mini is a good machine. I guess is is a bit of a bait & switch b/c for $599 it has a hard drive that is too small and only 1GB of memory, neither of which are typical end-user upgradable. IMHO, Apple could sell a boatload of these with a little more grease on the gears- like a 320GB drive is $55-, and an extra 1 gb ram is $29- at Other World Computing. The processor is more than adequate, and from a graphics perspective, the average budget user is well served. Although I would love one speedier and with better graphics, I’m not the target audience, am I? I would say that with cheaper ram and HD prices this past year, the mini could be a real “bomb” on the PC world with a few low cost bumps. In fact, an interesting concept would be to blend the mini & apple TV into a single unit- there are a lot of HD TV’s out there & a mini/apple tv plus a wireless keyboard could be pretty compelling, and I’m not sure why this couldn’t be done at the $499 to 599 price point. If they bump the graphics & processor too much I would think it could cut into iMac sales, and out-price the budget user.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to understand the appeal of the Mac Mini. It’s values and features rival the iMac at a fraction of the price, it’s elegantly small and portable, and mostly it’s unencumbered by an attached monitor in this bizarre symbiotic relationship as found in the iMac. With the Mini, I can choose my monitor’s size, model, features, and upgrade it in the future at any time I want, without replacing the whole damn machine. If I ever need it repaired, I don’t need to ship or lug this monster monitor unit to an Apple store, just a small box. It’s really as simple as that.
For probably 90+% of the people who have a computer the Mac mini is all they really need. Well, the mini and a monitor, keyboard and mouse…
I have an original mini G4 (1.25) that I gave my mom to replace her aging G3 iMac (still running at an Aunt’s house on 10.3) for her 70th B-Day. A couple of months ago I replaced it with a refurb Intel Core2 Duo Combi Drive mini. It still looks and runs great, it just lacks wireless and was PPC.
As I already have an Apple TV (160GB), I’m still wondering what to do with the thing. I’d probably give it to someone that would actually USE it.
Everyone i know that started off with a mac mini has since converted it to a server and bought themselves a macbook or macbook pro.
If they made the mac-mini @ the same price as the time capsule, I’d buy it straight away and create a server straight away.
I am fully committed to the mini and love the form factor.
I’ve upgraded my fleet of office macs from quadras, to Powermac G3’s, then PM G4’s…switched to Mini G4’s and now on Intel Mini’s.
Was tempted plenty of times to pick up a PM G5 for my main unit, unitl, I popped in a core2duo and a SSD into my main work mini and it cranked out a 139 on xbench (combared to 80’s previously).
for my needs at work it’s the best balance of power/silence and size.
home, I have an iMac cause of my digital photography work.
I love my Mac Mini. And I would totally get a new one once they update it (and hopefully double the RAM cap).
@Crabs
You mean say “…he used it completely wrongly.”
The mac mini was my THIRD mac, I never had illusions about what it could or could not do, and long planned for my mac pro to be my main mac.