It's not surprising. The previous mini was $249 - $20 =$229 with the educational discount. This mini is $199 - $20 = $179. It is a pretty good price though. It makes it seem like a lot less with the 1 leading the price instead of a 2, even though it's only a $20 discount.
In my opinion, Apple should have added a little something "extra" to the 6GB model to entice people to spend the extra $50 on it, similiar to how in the original iPod lineup, the $300 model was no-frills while the $400 model came with a case, remote, etc. (of course Apple stopped doing that). Now there's nothing really to make a lot of people get the 6GB model. The people who are buying the mini aren't expecting to put their entire collection on it anyway, so why spend the extra $50? Now, if it had a color screen...