Apple lowered the prices of Mac Mini upgrades! and now 8x Superdrive!

You've got to be kidding me.

Looks like those discounts are reflected in regular pricing as well. The price of being an early adopter, I suppose. I suppose if you've already ordered, you could cancel and get back at the end of the line with the cheaper/better add-ons.

Superhob said:

I just noticed these price drops on the edu pricing of the mac mini:

Bluetooth and AE combo was $116. Now it's $89

The 1 gb ram was $382. Now $292

NOW this is weird. The superdrive upgrade is now for an 8x and at $90. The tech specs page says 4x and I'm pretty sure all the original minis had 4x drives in them. This is sure to make many early adopters very angry......

Those were the only ones I noted as I've been on the fence as to which system to buy.

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I'm guessing it has something to do with supply problems for the superdrive increase in speed. As far as the price drops go, I'm not sure why the big EDU drops and no drops in regular pricing. Maybe it's because they are cancelling the eMac and they want to make sure the mac mini is an equal or better value for education customers than the emac was/is.

Also the HDD upgrade is $50....I thought it used to be $90! Am I wrong there?

The 8X superdrive is listed in the regular BTO area for the mini, not just the EDU.

The 1GB upgrade is now $325

I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Apple -- really making these things commodity machines, changing prices/specs as the market changes. Instead of waiting 6 months for upgrades, they could happen every couple of weeks.

Peyote said:

Also the HDD upgrade is $50....I thought it used to be $90! Am I wrong there?

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I'm pretty sure it was always $50. At least, it has been for some time.

Peyote said:

Also the HDD upgrade is $50....I thought it used to be $90! Am I wrong there?

The 8X superdrive is listed in the regular BTO area for the mini, not just the EDU.

The 1GB upgrade is now $325

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Yeah, I just went to the Apple Store online as well, and all of this is true. Airport Express and Bluetooth together as a BTO is only $99 also! Individually they are the same price $79 and $50 but together cheaper. Who knows where this came from?

jsw said:

I'm pretty sure it was always $50.

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It was at least $75 for regular BTO because I briefly considered it when it first was up for preorder.

I am so psyched about the 8X superdrive...I was going to buy my mini through MacConnection since they don't charge sales tax in TX and I can get the config I want (1.25Ghz, Superdrive). Now I will be ordering through Apple.com for sure. That slow superdrive was one thing I really wished was different when they were first announced. I'm glad I had to wait to order...I'll be placing my order for a mini with the following specs tonight:


1.25 Ghz
8x Superdrive
256 MB
40 GB
Apple Keyboard & Mouse

I'll also be ordering a 1 GB module from one of these vendors:

http://dealram.com/prices/23/1GB.html

I think this thread could be moved to the front page, no? It's not a huge upgrade, but it's definitely interesting that apple has dropped prices for this stuff so quickly and it is fun to speculate as to why.

Wow... Apple is really making this hard for me... the mini is more and more of a GREAT deal, and winning more and more ground over the single 1.8 G5 PowerMac in my mind. I just might break down and buy the mini soon.

maxterpiece said:

I think this thread could be moved to the front page, no? It's not a huge upgrade, but it's definitely interesting that apple has dropped prices for this stuff so quickly and it is fun to speculate as to why.

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just put it there.
Good catch

Gotta love 'Apple Update' Tuesdays


Now I'm wondering what other updates we might see today....Powerbook maybe?

bring on the bitching about no powerbook's

the imac g5 and the powerbook/ibook optical drives will surely be 8X from now on like what they did with the powermac when the emac got an 8x superdrive

Anyone buying now doesn't care about price anyway

Since anyone buying today doesn't care that in less than six months they will have to shell out 20% of the price of the Mini for Tiger ($129), I'm guessing that early adopters don't care about price anyway.

But seriously, unless you absolutely *must* have a mini *now*, veruca salt style, why wouldn't you wait to get Tiger for free?

Sucks for people who have just received their mini Mac.

Wonder if they are caught under Apple's price protection.

maybe this little bump really means the end of the eMac? this brings the mini on par with what was the eMac.

Well Paint Me a Sucker!

arrrrg! I've had it for 1 day and already the price has dropped!

Well, it's OK - I got the 1.4 instead of the 1.2 which I pretty much got for the hard drive upgrade, so if I ordered today I'd just have the 1.2 and a $50 hd upgrade.

I'll take solace in knowing I got my macmini on the 21st anniversary of Macintosh.

Peyote said:

Gotta love 'Apple Update' Tuesdays


Now I'm wondering what other updates we might see today....Powerbook maybe?

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Too late, any new PBs would have already been introduced today... normally.

Some price shifts in the UK too

Yep, HD upgrade was £50..now £30, Superdrive is same @£70, but wireless BT is the same I think, extreme looks less @£49.

Great news really, does anybody think Extreme is gonna get upgraded to the n standard soon, hence some reductions?

HarmlessRabbit said:

Since anyone buying today doesn't care that in less than six months they will have to shell out 20% of the price of the Mini for Tiger ($129), I'm guessing that early adopters don't care about price anyway.

But seriously, unless you absolutely *must* have a mini *now*, veruca salt style, why wouldn't you wait to get Tiger for free?

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Well, one reason would be if you weren't planning to upgrade to Tiger. I'm considering not doing it, unless Apple announces it'll be at least 2 years until the next OS upgrade. Right now, Panther does everything I need it to.

Another reason: if you have more than one other Mac: Then Tiger would be $200 for a family pack upgrade whether or not you buy the mini.

HarmlessRabbit said:

Since anyone buying today doesn't care that in less than six months they will have to shell out 20% of the price of the Mini for Tiger ($129), I'm guessing that early adopters don't care about price anyway.

But seriously, unless you absolutely *must* have a mini *now*, veruca salt style, why wouldn't you wait to get Tiger for free?

Click to expand...

I'll tell you why I will wait:

A) I don't buy OS upgrades in their first iteration....in fact, I usually wait at least 1 year before I buy the next OS, to give Apple time to work the bugs out.

B) Tiger just doesn't interest me...the features don't look that appealing, and I won't use most of them.

C) I couldn't wait because in order to buy a mini, I have to sell my older Mac...which by the time Tiger is released, probably would have dropped quite a bit in resale value because of the mini.


Just because you don't see any reason buying a mini now, doesn't mean that others don't have perfectly good reasons for buying early. No need to be insulting just because someone makes a decision you wouldn't have.

....£50 for a 512 MB memory stick, £290 for 1Gb, Superdrive is £70, upgrade to 80Gb hard drive £30, Bluetooth and AE CArd £84.

rhpenguin said:

maybe this little bump really means the end of the eMac? this brings the mini on par with what was the eMac.

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All it will take is a cheaper 17" screen, keyboard bundle to compete in existing eMac territory...now if the Mac mini was really easy to 'simple user' upgrade, wouldn't it be nice to get an add on wireless keyboard/ mouse/ BT & extreme package all bundled in a sweet box...one for each arm

It's a bit like you've bought the pants... fancy a nice jacket and tie sir?