Mac mini Price Increases... why?

[MacSA]

Why do you think Apple decided to increase the price of the mini in the UK? For the base model you're now paying for the extra 256 Mb, which doesn't really make it an update at all in my opinion. The iBook got qute a lot of new hardware and the price remained the same as did the rest of Apples hardware.

Anyone think the Mini doesnt really represent good value for money anymore - you're paying extra for exactly the same hardware you were 6/7 months ago?

 

[BlizzardBomb]

Why do you think Apple decided to increase the price of the mini in the UK? For the base model you're now paying for the extra 256 Mb, which doesn't really make it an update at all in my opinion. The iBook got qute a lot of new hardware and the price remained the same as did the rest of Apples hardware.

Anyone think the Mini doesnt really represent good value for money anymore - you're paying extra for exactly the same hardware you were 6/7 months ago?

Yup, base model got double the memory with an increase in price. Some update I guess they're trying to stop people buying Tiger with only 256MB of RAM.

 

[Gordy]

Why do you think Apple decided to increase the price of the mini in the UK? For the base model you're now paying for the extra 256 Mb, which doesn't really make it an update at all in my opinion. The iBook got qute a lot of new hardware and the price remained the same as did the rest of Apples hardware.

Anyone think the Mini doesnt really represent good value for money anymore - you're paying extra for exactly the same hardware you were 6/7 months ago?

Welcome to the world of apple, where they try to extract every last penny they can out of you for hardware two years old

I've recently switched to a pb but kept my pc as a main rig, I was wanting to get a mini as my main developement rig, but seeing as apple just gave a big two fingers up at those wanting a proper mini I won't be getting one.

 

[MacSA]

I'm thinking it would be better to buy the old model..if you want to upgrade the memory you have to take out the old stick.. you could use the money you save buy getting the old mini and put it toward getting a 1gb stick.

Also... what do you think is a beter buy right now, the Mac mini or the eMac?

 

[BlizzardBomb]

The only comprimise with an eMac is the space that will be taken up by it. If you're happy with that then you would find the eMac more suited to you. CRT after all doesn't get dead pixels and the eMac has a better graphics card. However, if you feel you want something that's a little more pleasing to the eye, the Mac mini is probably for you. Oh and make sure you decide whether you want a superdrive or combodrive for whatever you're getting, as this first step could save you a bundle.

But something that put me off the Mac mini was the fact it has only 2 USB ports and 1 firewire...

 

[SpaceMagic]

I couldn't believe it when I saw the price had gone up! I had said, if the mini goes to £299 - i'd buy one! But! No! They go UP, so you basically PAY for the extra ram! No thanks, I'd rather buy the old model and sell the 256 in there.. that way the money earned + the cheaper price of the old machine = enough money to buy a 512 or even a good part towards 1gb myself!

 

[BlizzardBomb]

Yup, very true. But putting RAM in the mini yourself is definately not for the squeamish. You have to jam a putty knife in it and hear some rather disturbing cracking sounds as the clips come undone. I couldn't bear to watch it when this guy upgraded his And one question... Who would buy a 256MB RAM stick for the mini if it only has one slot?

 

[javiercr]

Welcome to the world of apple, where they try to extract every last penny they can out of you for hardware two years old

yep, apple makes great stuff but nobody said they were nice people! they want to be dell and microsoft in one and if they were they would be even more evil!

 

[MacSA]

I was really excited yesterday morning - I was going to be switching that day. I even have a router ready to use. I wasnt expecting a huge update, but wow, I was expecting something better than that.

 

[BlizzardBomb]

So what would you plan on using your Mac for if you bought one then?

 

[MacSA]

Internet, email, some picture editing - word processing.

Whats sad is that in 6-8 months time Apple will still be selling this hardware - practically antique hardware by then lol

 

[BlizzardBomb]

Maybe you could pick up a 1.6Ghz iMac G5 from somewhere? More power and a better graphics card with the iMac's design. After a quick search I've found this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4603&item=5223453106&rd=1.

 

[TBi]

Welcome to the world of apple, where they try to extract every last penny they can out of you for hardware two years old

Which thankfully means your hardware will have a higher resale value than a windows PC. I bought an iBook G3 for my cousin and it cost quite a bit more than a PC laptop from the same era but at least it is still worth money.

 

[Mord]

what was the original price of the mini?

 

[gwuMACaddict]

Yup, very true. But putting RAM in the mini yourself is definately not for the squeamish. You have to jam a putty knife in it and hear some rather disturbing cracking sounds as the clips come undone. I couldn't bear to watch it when this guy upgraded his And one question... Who would buy a 256MB RAM stick for the mini if it only has one slot?

it's incredibly easy to change the RAM in a mini

 

[MacSA]

what was the original price of the mini?

£339

 

[Mord]

it was probably due to the pound going down, they calculate the priceing at updates, sometimes it go's up sometimes down.

 

[Lancetx]

Yep, the US dollar has been much stronger lately, that's most likely the reason.

 

[caveman_uk]

The pound is about 10% weaker against the dollar than it was a few months back. For quite some time Apple's prices (especially powerbooks) were very high compared to the US but when the powerbooks were last updated the prices were adjusted to reflect the weaker dollar. Now the dollar is stronger the mac mini prices have gone up a bit. I realise the ibooks kept the same prices but I guess they haven't been updated in ages (so the difference in exchange mightn't be as much as when the mini's were introduced) and Apple likes the 'ring' of the prices - £699 and £899.

 

[Arcus]

Welcome to the world of apple, where they try to extract every last penny they can out of you for hardware two years old

I've recently switched to a pb but kept my pc as a main rig, I was wanting to get a mini as my main developement rig, but seeing as apple just gave a big two fingers up at those wanting a proper mini I won't be getting one.

Im not sure what planet you are on but the practice of trying to sell older models of anything to get all the money they put into R&D , tooling etc etc is NOT a practice that is exclusive to Apple.

How old is Win XP BTW? Hum...Hum?? Come on. Do tell.

 

[Gordy]

Im not sure what planet you are on but the practice of trying to sell older models of anything to get all the money they put into R&D , tooling etc etc is NOT a practice that is exclusive to Apple.

How old is Win XP BTW? Hum...Hum?? Come on. Do tell.

If the windows pc sellers tried selling the same level as hardware as apple are using in the mini it wouldnt sell.

Windows xp is fine speedwise , I don't see anything apart from os x out there that has beaten it. If OS X was released on non apple machines mac sales would die.

As someone has posted in another thread the 9550 chip will go straight into the mini and that would have made nearly all the detractors of the "update" happy.

 

[Mord]

If the windows pc sellers tried selling the same level as hardware as apple are using in the mini it wouldnt sell.

Windows xp is fine speedwise , I don't see anything apart from os x out there that has beaten it. If OS X was released on non apple machines mac sales would die.

As someone has posted in another thread the 9550 chip will go straight into the mini and that would have made nearly all the detractors of the "update" happy.

show me a pc equal to the mac mini in the same size bracket and it'll come to about 800 bucks, and thats with a crappy video card, the mac mini is the only sff computer (other than the cube) that people have the nerve to compare to full size towers and say "hey you can get a better deal"

heck and stop complaining about two year old technology, budget pc's use semprons/celerons which both go way back (the sempron more so all the way back to the 500MHz athlon classic)

lets go take a look at http://www.dell.com now we have a 2.4GHz celeron pc with crappy graphics 512MB ram no monitor no extra software, windows XP profesional 80GB HD one year warrenty firewire, and it comes to $537 add the bto cost of a HD for the mini and you have near equality, and the mac mini has a much better graphics card is a 20th the size has DVI, a cool ass slot loading combo drive ilife appleworks, those games they bundle, and of cource the best OS in the world.

OWNED

 

[shadowmoses]

I totally agree with hector......The mini regardless of its £20 price rise in the UK is still a great deal....

ShadOW

 

[SpaceMagic]

It cost a lot before in my eyes, and it now costs more. Unbelievable.

 

[solvs]

Whats sad is that in 6-8 months time Apple will still be selling this hardware

Actually by then, they'll be selling Macs with Intel CPUs. Remember the move to Intel? So they wouldn't have to keep selling 1.4GHz G4s.