the apple insider website is predicting that the mac mini is dead.
it’s probably true. the website has been pretty accurate as of late, and this rumor makes sense. the mini hasn’t been updated in ages, i don’t think apple sells as many of them as they thought they would, they don’t have much of a profit margin, and they probably cannibalize sales of the new apple tv.
still.
it was the mini that made me return to apple, after a five-year-or-so hiatus on the dark, dark pc side of things. and if this rumor is true, it saddens me a bit.
the mini isn’t a very cost-effective purchase if you run the numbers. you can buy an imac for the cost of a mini + display + keyboard +mouse, and get a better, faster computer in the deal. it makes more sense if you are reusing your old display, or hooking it up to a tv.
but the truth is in the pudding, to mix a metaphor. go to an apple store, count the minis you see on display, and compare that to the number of imacs you see on display. there’s a reason for that. it’s gotta be supply and demand, pure and simple. if apple sold tons of minis and made money on them, you’d see tons of them out on display in the store.
if the mini goes away, there will be a gaping hole in the low end of the mac product line.
expect to see it filled.
with something, i hope, really fantastic.
