Mac Mini

Prairieboy

Prairieboy

Veteran
Well Apple has done something different again. The Mac Mini. Check it out at apple.com. It is about the size of an external burner for 500 bucks. What I am curious about is that with this product apple is going after a much bigger marker share. To me it is preaching to the choir.
But for you non macaddicts will this work? The macs are too expensive argument is now gone too. Yes it is not a blazing editng machine. But you could run FCP with some extra ram. I am really curious if this will bite into the windows marketshare.
 
Re: Mac Mini

It has already been leaked that the intention of this product is to market directly to PC-based iPod owners who might be interested in an affordable "trial" of the Mac experience.

Essentially, they're thinking that since the iPod has become such a cultural revolution, they're probably got a really captive audience that might be ready to defect entirely.

For $500, I think we might see an astonishing number of these go off the shelves. People have been thinking nothing of dropping $300 and up on what is essentially a extra-hip MP3 player, there's bound to be a ton of those same people that would dump another $500 to try the rest of what apple has to offer.

I don't think it will steal any market share, but we might see it seriously co-habitating in the future.
 
Re: Mac Mini

I think this is a great move for them. I doubt I'll switch sides anytime soon, but it's a step in the right direction.
 
Re: Mac Mini

With that and the new iWork Pages app (bring it on Word), they're positioning themselves to take some serious market share imho. Not all of it or even a majority, but a serious chunk vs what it is now.
 
Re: Mac Mini

I'm a long time Mac person (we are on our 8th Mac since 92). I think the Mac Mini looks really cool, but realistically, at $500 to $600 without monitor or keyboard, by the time you ad a cheap monitor and keyboard you are at the same price as an eMac. The poor eMac, at $799 has been the most underated Mac ever. G4 processor, 15" monitor, WITH keyboard and mouse to me, should have the cheap PC killer for the past 2 years.
 
Re: Mac Mini

I am still astonished by iMovie HD. Maybe this year really will be the year of HD, now that iMovie has HD.
 
Re: Mac Mini

[quote author=pptphoto link=board=Offtopic;num=1105474256;start=0#4 date=01/11/05 at 16:17:32] I think the Mac Mini looks really cool, but realistically, at $500 to $600 without monitor or keyboard, by the time you ad a cheap monitor and keyboard you are at the same price as an eMac.[/quote]

The reason it doesn't come with a monitor or keyboard is specifically so that PC people can plug it into the stuff they already own.

I'm thinking of getting one to integrate into my home entertainment system. I would just add a wireless keyboard to the pile of remotes on the couch. :)
 
Re: Mac Mini

would you be able to use a usb mouse, keyboard and monitor that works on your PC?
 
Re: Mac Mini

Duh, I'm an idiot. Of course you are right ExFilms. With usb keyboards, and vga connections, all peripherals are interchangable these days... and iPods load so much faster on firewire on Macs, as opposed to usb on PCs. So, what DO you PC users think?
 
Re: Mac Mini

Reminds me of the Apple IIC design. Back when I was selling Apples, the IIE was $1795 and had slots. Then Apple introduced the IIC, which was much smaller, white, all-in-one, twice the memory, no slots but a lot less money -- I think it was $1295. We moved a lot of IIC's in those days.

But I don't think any were to people who were considering an IBM PC or a Commodore 64. They mainly went to prospective IIe customers who couldn't afford the IIe.

I think your comment about "preaching to the choir" will likely prove accurate. The ipod changed the way people played music. iTunes revolutionized the way people buy music. What does the mac mini change? If there's a killer app that somehow does something no other computer does, then it succeeds in broadening the market share. If there's no new killer application, then it's just a lower-priced mac, right? And as such, would likely appeal to those already shopping for a mac or wishing they could afford a mac (i.e., "the choir".)

You can get a low-end Dell for about $300, so I don't see a PC person saying "oh, wait a minute, let me get this mac instead." I don't think the mac vs. pc thing is about price, it's about whether it does what you want or not. Whether it runs the software you want or not.

One potential new market would be the style-conscious, but then again they've probably always gravitated towards Apple products anyway, Apple's always had great style in their products.
 
Re: Mac Mini

If Apple REALLY wanted to be competitive in the low-price market, they shouldn't have nixed the cloning. If you could build a Mac from components like you can a PC . . .

I (well, WE) had a IIe, and I also had a Commodore 64. The two were in different universes. The IIe gathered a lot of dust, and I had to hide the disk drive serial cord to keep my brother from sneaking into my room to use the 64.

Siiiggggh. I have to wonder what Commodore would be producing these days if they hadn't taken their inexplicable swan dive . . .
 
Re: Mac Mini

[quote author=Barry_Green link=board=Offtopic;num=1105474256;start=0#10 date=01/11/05 at 17:50:15]You can get a low-end Dell for about $300, so I don't see a PC person saying "oh, wait a minute, let me get this mac instead." I don't think the mac vs. pc thing is about price, it's about whether it does what you want or not. Whether it runs the software you want or not.[/quote]

Good point.

I think the appeal of the mini is that it's:

  • At a price point that makes it attractive for stepping into the Mac world
  • iLife - A ton of great software that is integrated well. Total up the cost of equivalent on a WinTel machine. Add that to the cheap Dell's price and it is no longer close.
  • iPod - There are a ton of iPod users out there and the mini is a nice addition to the iPod. Yes, I can see people buying a mini just for their iPod. Kinda backwards but the iPod is a Trojan horse.

I'm a long time WinTel user btw but have worked on both platforms.
 
Re: Mac Mini

i could be wrong but i think there IS a lot of ppl out there that are on pcs because macs are too expensive, not just because of the software.
 
Re: Mac Mini

Make no mistake, with an external HD for your scratch disk, this is a completely viable editing machine.
I currently edit with FCP HD and author DVDs in DVD Studio Pro on an 867MHz G4 with 512 MB RAM and a 60 GB hard drive, with a 120 GB LaCie external as my scratch disk. The graphics card is a G-Force2 MX with 32 MB of video ram.

You can upgrade the mac mini to a superdrive for $100, should you need to burn DVDs, or just hook up an external DVD burner.
The graphics card is one thing that's not upgradeable on it (at least not yet). It's an ATI Radeon 9200 with 32 MB of vram.
So, the only thing you really won't be able to run from Apple's production suite is Motion.

Gotta love this little machine.

Plus, iMovieHD and FCP Express HD both support HDV for you HDV guys and girls out there. Even iDVD has some really great new stuff. I use Studio Pro, but I'm really impressed with iDVD 5.
 
Re: Mac Mini

I'm a PC guy, but I always have been attracted to mac. I have an old sony vaio with a pretty kick ass monitor and keyboard mouse all the goodies. Seeing this thing is giving me these wild ideas.
Do you guys think this would be good if I used it solely for editing (upgraded version though) I think It would be cool to use it just for FCP, what do you guys think? would it work well considering what its got?
 
Re: Mac Mini

For some reason the minimac reminded me of hamburgers.

"I'll have the minimac with cheese."

There's a pulp fiction spoof waiting to be written about the Mac Mini. ;D
 
Re: Mac Mini

Before jumping over to the apple store and buying one, be sure to do a price/feature comparison with their other computers. I looked at the price of a mini compared to a similarly configured iBook and an iMac. Once you start throwing in the various features you actually need (more memory, superdrive, etc) the price differential isn't that great.

That makes me start looking at why I would really want the mini. At the moment, it would only be for handling my digital media (photos, music, syncing my ipod) and using existing keyboard/mouse/monitor. If I had to purchase additional hardware/accessories then the additional cost(s) don't justify it for me.
 
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