Mac Mini a hit! And its orders are only beginning to ship!

[Savage Henry]

i think the mac mini won't be a hit... two usb ports... filled with pc keyboard and mouse... customer says..eh.. where do i plug in the printer?scanner?joystick?usb mp3 player?gnaw!!!

I disagree. People I know who only thought Apple was a fruit until they bought an iPod will tip-toe into the realm of the Macintosh. The mini - thought reticent I was at the start of the rumours - seems an ideal opportunity for your normal person just to tune in to their mail, safe internet, word processing and music downloading.

I admit that many minis have been bought by the hardcore fanatics, but this thing will not go Cube.

 

[Chappers]

Saw a mini on Saturday - last week.... t was very nice.

 

[Platform]

I don't think Apple can make computers fast enough to even raise their marketshare 1%!

When did apple's computers become slow

 

[ftaok]

Maybe 7%-10% of new computers sold, but not total marketshare. Also, does marketshare include every computer, including those from the early 90's, or is it just those from the past year, or what.

Marketshare is a measure of how many units of one particular brand sold compared to the total number of units sold in a PARTICULAR time frame. When people throw around numbers like 2-3%, they are usually referring to last year's marketshare or the most recent quarter. The numbers quoted by financial people is never the "user base" percentage. That's just too hard to accurately estimate.

The marketshare numbers are usually compiled by a company called Gartner, although there are others. They almost always indicate what time frame the numbers are based on. Not sure what the typical timeframe is used for PCs/Macs, but for cell phones, it's usually the most recent quarter.

ft

 

[kettle]

When did apple's computers become slow

I think "speed of production" was meant by quickly, not the mac itself.

Production not performance.

 

[JeffTL]

I think "speed of production" was meant by quickly, not the mac itself.

Production not performance.

The original production commenter has a valid point.

Whenever Apple has an extremely successful product they have a hard time getting the merchandise in from Asia fast enough. But sure as the world if when that happened they got a second manufacturing contract the demand would subside by the time the second plant was getting goods to market.

 

[Platform]

I think "speed of production" was meant by quickly, not the mac itself.

Production not performance.

Oh well in that case I understand
The shipment of mac's do take ages, it seem's as the previous model come to you when the next rev is out

 

[zami]

The original production commenter has a valid point.

Whenever Apple has an extremely successful product they have a hard time getting the merchandise in from Asia fast enough. But sure as the world if when that happened they got a second manufacturing contract the demand would subside by the time the second plant was getting goods to market.

It's not just production that is the problem but the whole Apple attitude. Today I went to the Apple Store in London to buy an iPod Shuffle for a friend. The queue at the tills is frankly taking the piss, if they can't be bothered to sell you the stuff it's no wonder there are production problems.

Sadly the architecture of the shop with its huge atrium and stairs with everything a long walk away in the distance follows classical fascist architectural themes and left me feeling very uneasy about the company itself. Apple needs to remind itself that bombastic american imperialism is not well seen among a huge number of europeans. As a european myself I just wish we did not have to buy US controlled products but we have little choice while chip production lies in the hands of IBM, Intel, AMD, Motorola etc.

 

[RealDeal]

agreed- some Apple shops anti-customer

It's not just production that is the problem but the whole Apple attitude. Today I went to the Apple Store in London to buy an iPod Shuffle for a friend. The queue at the tills is frankly taking the piss, if they can't be bothered to sell you the stuff it's no wonder there are production problems.

In Vancouver (a somewhat scruffy shop rather than fancy)- I visited the shop 6 times (before the latest new releases), and was very interested in products, yet the staff seemed to hover around scruffy "cool" folks rather than myself in business-casual. I never returned and spent most my dollars at the online Apple store...

Wrt the production capacity, depending on volume cycles for the contract electronics manufacturers, relatively quick to line up another 200-400% of capacity, so ramping up to 8% isn't impossible in a 1 year window (yet the workflow capability of online store, and retail outlets remains untested at this level- maybe bottlenecks there). Think about how PC sales are (up or down), and how Xbox/PS2x sales are (up/down) and can start getting a feel for the industry. For example, some industries like automotive manufacturing have a global excess capacity of some 60% (30 million plus units).

Another big clue is how fast are Apple hiring new staff, authorising new Apple stores and extending their resources and distribution networks.

 

[durvivor]

2010 Census

So, nobody really knows what market share means. I say we put that behind us and concentrate on the future.

What do we have to do to get a question on the 2010 Census?

How many personal computers do you have in your household? _2_
Please list each machine by brand _Apple, HP___
Are your computers networked

It will be perfect, after 2010 Census results are released we will be able to know how many Apples are out there and in use, compared to the Dells, and others.

Plus, the computers that we use for our jobs won't skew the results.

Who's with me.

 

[daveL]

It's not just production that is the problem but the whole Apple attitude. Today I went to the Apple Store in London to buy an iPod Shuffle for a friend. The queue at the tills is frankly taking the piss, if they can't be bothered to sell you the stuff it's no wonder there are production problems.

Sadly the architecture of the shop with its huge atrium and stairs with everything a long walk away in the distance follows classical fascist architectural themes and left me feeling very uneasy about the company itself. Apple needs to remind itself that bombastic american imperialism is not well seen among a huge number of europeans. As a european myself I just wish we did not have to buy US controlled products but we have little choice while chip production lies in the hands of IBM, Intel, AMD, Motorola etc.

Wow. Taking things a bit seriously, aren't we? Maybe you should try a Russian PC running Linux (I'd install my own Linux distro, from a trusted source, if I were you).

 

[jaromski]

So, nobody really knows what market share means. I say we put that behind us and concentrate on the future.

What do we have to do to get a question on the 2010 Census?

How many personal computers do you have in your household? _2_
Please list each machine by brand _Apple, HP___
Are your computers networked

It will be perfect, after 2010 Census results are released we will be able to know how many Apples are out there and in use, compared to the Dells, and others.

Plus, the computers that we use for our jobs won't skew the results.

Who's with me.

A simpler measure would be to check apache logs on a represenative sample of web servers and see what web clients are used. I have a small web site and according to my logs there are 58.% MS IE, 34% Netscape, and the rest Mozilla Firefox. It shows 20% Mac, and 80% Windows too. My sample size is pretty small but it has shown a downward trend over the last four months for IE usage and Netscape + Firefox usage has gone up.

Of course this limits your stats to networked machines and assumes the user's browser identifies itself correctly (.e.g the user didn't send a fake agent id) but I would say it is pretty accurate for the most part.

If you could sample across all types of web sites it would really start to paint an interesting picture. As for non-networked machines there really isn't a good way to handle those unless you sent out mail surveys or something.

-jaromski

 

[jaromski]

It's not just production that is the problem but the whole Apple attitude. Today I went to the Apple Store in London to buy an iPod Shuffle for a friend. The queue at the tills is frankly taking the piss, if they can't be bothered to sell you the stuff it's no wonder there are production problems.

Sadly the architecture of the shop with its huge atrium and stairs with everything a long walk away in the distance follows classical fascist architectural themes and left me feeling very uneasy about the company itself. Apple needs to remind itself that bombastic american imperialism is not well seen among a huge number of europeans. As a european myself I just wish we did not have to buy US controlled products but we have little choice while chip production lies in the hands of IBM, Intel, AMD, Motorola etc.

Yeah I noticed that Europeans have a penchant for disdain when it comes to the American pigdog capitalist/imperialists. The problem I have is that although some of the criticisms are valid I think the interesting thing to note is before America came on the scene as the current imperial overlords the Brits, French, Dutch, etc., were all doing rather nicely for themselves in the imperialist fashion. Who controlled Africa, India, and the colonies in the Americas? Gee it wasn't the Americans. Can't blame that one on the ******* Americans.

I think it all amounts to a bunch of sour grapes with the Europeans/British vs. the Americans. Europe and Britain were the cultural and economic powerhouse of yesteryear. A few World Wars tipped the balance of power to the Americans for the time being but in reality, regardless of nationality, race, religion, most people are *******s and will use others to achieve their ends...for as long as they can get away with it.

So it might help y'all to feel smug and superior to Americans but in the end game your past is just as checkered and just as littered with bodies of those who stood in your way, in between your nation realizing its interests, etc.

-jaromski

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Mac Mini is a hit how do i know? because iam sending this from a new Mini. Awesome little machine. Only time i can hear it is when everything in the home is off. I noticed the fan speeds up while gaming and slows down after. This is a cool cool little computer. Took all my stuff off my old mac so i havent had to put 1 program on it. Just Awesome! 5 out of 5 stars. It would get 6 out of 5 if it had 64MB video So happy to be back on the Mac.

 

[solvs]

So happy to be back on the Mac.

Glad to have you back.

The Mac mini is great, and I think it will sell well to it's market, as long as it keeps up. I don't blame Apple for keeping a low quantity at first. They've been hit with overstocks before, and that really hurts the bottom line. But they need to get this thing out there. Everybody wants one, and they have to sell while they can.

Market share isn't that big of a deal, but I suspect they're already at about 10%. The problem is that they only sell about 2% overall, and that's including cash registers, servers, workstations. And they seem to be happy being profitable, but not huge. I suspect that may slowly change, but if you notice Steve has been biding his time. I think once Tiger hits, and they have more G5s to go around, they'll really explode. Now is the prime time to do so too with a lot of peopel getting fed up with M$.

While the Switch campaign wasn't a huge success, it wasn't exactly a failure. And the iPod and Retail Stores have helped more than you'd think. Apple's name is getting out there, and making a dent, and that's all they need to remain viable.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

There isnt much mini about the mini but two things. The size and its 32mb video. There isnt a reason for it not to have 64. Anways UT2003 runs fine so that means 98% of all games can still run on it. Sleek,small and beautiful. People are crazy to put up with windows when something like this is available. My office is silent,my desk is back and the thing is just

 

[takao]

There isnt much mini about the mini but two things. The size and its 32mb video. There isnt a reason for it not to have 64. Anways UT2003 runs fine so that means 98% of all games can still run on it. Sleek,small and beautiful. People are crazy to put up with windows when something like this is available. My office is silent,my desk is back and the thing is just

good to hear that ut2003 runs ok ...i hope this will stop me from gnawing off a hand or something if my delivery will be delayed next week (like i already see it coming...)

4 weeks since i've ordered ...waiting for your computer is much worse than waiting for big apple events ....


tommorow i'm gonna look around if they got a mini in any stores around...but i doubt it....

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

When i say ok i mean at 800 x 600 with normal settings, still the only thing holding down the mini is the GPU. I think a 1.42 G4 multitasks better then my AMD 3500 did. Movies play great, when word gets out on these apple wont be able to keep up. Very solid little machine. Mine took 5 days from China. Not bad at all.

 

[JzzTrump22]

It's just going to take time. Eventually Apple will gain more and more of the market. Especially with the Mac Mini.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

It's just going to take time. Eventually Apple will gain more and more of the market. Especially with the Mac Mini.

I agree, but not only the mini will be the decisive line, don't forget that a high percentage of machines sold (in the private marked) are portables, and that the iBooks (and PowerBooks) will take a big bite of that, growing marked.

Hopefully "we" may get over 5% again, and then take it from there. Not sure world domination is a good thing in itself...

 

[Mord]

I don't think Apple can make computers fast enough to even raise their marketshare 1%!

apple dose not make macs they design them, IBM will be able to keep up demand if the demand is there to ramp up fabrication, the macs themselves are made by foxcom and asus, which comes as a shock to pc types

 

[Blue Velvet]

It's not just production that is the problem but the whole Apple attitude. Today I went to the Apple Store in London to buy an iPod Shuffle for a friend. The queue at the tills is frankly taking the piss, if they can't be bothered to sell you the stuff it's no wonder there are production problems.

Sadly the architecture of the shop with its huge atrium and stairs with everything a long walk away in the distance follows classical fascist architectural themes and left me feeling very uneasy about the company itself. Apple needs to remind itself that bombastic american imperialism is not well seen among a huge number of europeans. As a european myself I just wish we did not have to buy US controlled products but we have little choice while chip production lies in the hands of IBM, Intel, AMD, Motorola etc.

Is this the very same Regent St, Apple Store where I picked up my Shuffle tonight?

It's a computer store. What do you want -- incense, potted plants, woodgrain & whale-song?

First you complain about the queue, then the long walk (of all of about 20 metres ) The store is big precisely because it needs to handle the amount of people that are in there without it getting cramped, hence the wide stairs...

I don't recall Albert Speer being a big fan of atriums...

 

[panphage]

i think the mac mini won't be a hit... two usb ports... filled with pc keyboard and mouse... customer says..eh.. where do i plug in the printer?scanner?joystick?usb mp3 player?gnaw!!!

Hrmm...my two pcs only have two usb ports each...most people with 500--err, several peripherals like you're saying will have a hub anyway. Heck, I've got two hubs, one in my monitor, one in my keyboard (but I'm an apple fanboy...)

 

[feakbeak]

Can't wait for my mini...

When i say ok i mean at 800 x 600 with normal settings, still the only thing holding down the mini is the GPU. I think a 1.42 G4 multitasks better then my AMD 3500 did. Movies play great, when word gets out on these apple wont be able to keep up. Very solid little machine. Mine took 5 days from China. Not bad at all.

You think the 1.42 GHz mini multitasks better than the Athlon 3500? Wow, I have an old 1.4 GHz Athlon with 512 MB, a 9600 SE w/128 MB and it multitasks rather well for being 3.5 years old. I run Firefox, Thunderbird, Trillian, iTunes constantly with services running in the background (webserver, MySQL and Prime95 not to mention the usual - Norton, etc.) I'm also a programmer and have no problem running a VMWare session and compiling in VS.NET 2003 at the same time. Could your Windows machine be bogged down with malware?

I have a Mac mini 1.42 GHz (full specs in sig) on the way. I just ordered last week and it is supposed to ship on March 3rd. I am expecting my Mac mini to be on par with my PC perhaps a little snappier with Apple's software since it's optimized for their hardware. I played with a mini at the local Apple store and performance was decent, but it only had the stock 256 MB. I'm getting 512 MB in my mini because I didn't want to pay Apple for the gig stick. How much memory did you get in your mini? I'll probably be asking around the boards if 1 GB really helps the mini fly I might upgrade it myself. Most reviewers said 512 MB was the sweet spot, we'll see.

Still, if the mini performs as well as you say I will be very impressed. Now I just have to wait...

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

You think the 1.42 GHz mini multitasks better than the Athlon 3500? Wow, I have an old 1.4 GHz Athlon with 512 MB, a 9600 SE w/128 MB and it multitasks rather well for being 3.5 years old. I run Firefox, Thunderbird, Trillian, iTunes constantly with services running in the background (webserver, MySQL and Prime95 not to mention the usual - Norton, etc.) I'm also a programmer and have no problem running a VMWare session and compiling in VS.NET 2003 at the same time. Could your Windows machine be bogged down with malware?

I have a Mac mini 1.42 GHz (full specs in sig) on the way. I just ordered last week and it is supposed to ship on March 3rd. I am expecting my Mac mini to be on par with my PC perhaps a little snappier with Apple's software since it's optimized for their hardware. I played with a mini at the local Apple store and performance was decent, but it only had the stock 256 MB. I'm getting 512 MB in my mini because I didn't want to pay Apple for the gig stick. How much memory did you get in your mini? I'll probably be asking around the boards if 1 GB really helps the mini fly I might upgrade it myself. Most reviewers said 512 MB was the sweet spot, we'll see.

Still, if the mini performs as well as you say I will be very impressed. Now I just have to wait...

I have 512 in it but may stick in 1 gig so it matches my quicksilver. My mini is a 1.42. I have never been impressed by the multitasking of my 3500+ but again it had to be running antivirus all the time.