What about the Mac Mini?

How are Mac Mini sales doing?

I always wonder about the Mac Mini.

Every time I see one I want to touch it, and I’m always on the look-out for a cheap enough model to buy. But I wonder how the Mac Mini’s sales are doing.

When it was launched, people predicted the Mini – then a G4 – would sell pretty well. Then, last summer, sites predicted the death of the Mini. Since Leopard was release, the Mini just hangs in limbo.

It’s a shame, too, because people love the pint-sized Mac enough to mod the heck out of it. Media centers, car computers – you name it, someone has put a Mini inside it. But how well does it sell overall?

The original idea was to offer up a below-$1,000 Mac so that Window users, who already own a capable monitor and keyboard/mouse set, could jump ship easily and cheaply. The Mini could run OS X and MS Office software and anything else you could throw at it, and users could expect a machine to help them “learn” the Mac OS without whipping through 40 Photoshop filters at top speed. You knew it was a modest system. You didn’t expect a whole lot.

As it stands today, though, people are switching to Apple – but mostly through the notebook route. What’s the Mac Mini’s role in all this? A new MobileMe-only device? A music server?

Plus, OS X 10.5 requires more powerful hardware, and the Mini’s modest specs seem to not up to the new iMac’s standards, I guess I’m just worried the tiny Mac will get lost in the (non-iPod) shuffle. If sales are sluggish, would Apple just drop it? Would the monitor-less experiment be over? And what about the dreaded xMac?

If anyone knows, I’d love to hear about it.

No comments.

  1. Hey mate, I saw your blog on MyAppleSpace in the Blog thing at Steve’s Office, I posted mine their to, you are welcome to check it out.

    Anyway, I doubt they would drop, Well, actually I really hope they don’t drop it, its definetley good for the switchers who know almost nothing about Mac OS X if you do know something about Mac OS X then go for something else, like I am (MacBook Pro)

    If Apple was going to drop anything they have on the market right now it would probably be the iPod Shuffle.

  2. You’re right: Mac Minis don’t seem to be for the “serious” Mac fans. But then a friend of mine runs the print shop he works at on Mac Minis – so it works just fine for some folks.

  3. Yup, DRBUK also has a mini and loves it.

  4. The mini is an excellent computer, compact, simple and quiet. I’m not sure about some of the “must have XMac” people, it’s like they’re *looking* for something wrong. Sure I wish Apple would push it a bit more, but I’d be sorry if they cut them.

  5. “Simple and quiet” – I like that.

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