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Mac Mini End Of Life?

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snberk103 said:
of two reasons.
1) User swappable parts. It becomes very difficult to design and support an OS that works with the nearly infinite combinations of parts that users will want to put into a mid-range tower. It is amazing that MS and Linux manage to do it as well as they do, though they are far from perfect. Thats why MS and Linux can't use "It just works" (aside from the TM issue).

Yes Apple could dictate that only a limited number of Apple certified parts be used, but then that sort of defeats the purpose of having user swappable parts in the first place. Many people will add the $35 HD, despite it not being "certified", and then complain to everybody how crappy Macs are when they discover data corruption.

2) A mid-range tower competes directly with - well - practically everyone. Quite honestly, how many people are going to pay any kind of a premium price for something Apple makes that they can get cheaper (perhaps much cheaper because of shoddy design work) from anyone else. For the most part, people who buy iMacs and Minis pay the premium because of their respective form-factors. These form-factors don't really compete with much else. Yes, I know that there are other AIOs and Minis - but they don't get promoted much, nor are they as easy to find as Apple's offerings.

Economics 101: The vast majority of people base their purchase decisions based solely on price. Thats why they fly on discount airlines, and then complain about the lack of service. Thats why they shop at Walmart, and then complain that "things aren't made to last like they used to". Apple does not compete on price. Thats why we have a superior product from them. The only way to sell a mid-range tower that competes with everything else out there is to compete on price. I don't want Apple to start cutting corners that why.

There, I've said it....
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Just wanted to put the post on the thread as I thought it interesting - it would definitely be a great question to ask Woz or Steve - Why no mid tower?
Seeing it from the perspective of KISS makes sense.

CWallace said:
It may very well be. Snow Leopard will take advantage of the four and eight-core Core i7 /Nehalem CPUs and might very well be able to leverage Larabee's "CPU swarms".

Snow Leopard will also leverage CUDA and that means Apple needs to add a discrete nVidia GPU to the MacBook and Mac Mini if they stayed with Intel's chipsets and that would add costs. But by moving to nVidia's chipsets, they now get the nVidia GPU integrated.
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Would Apple make a push into HPC or Enterprise servers - or will they be passive aggressive like Enterprise? The 209 tech of using GPGPU, graphics cards for power, Larrabee, Hydra etc - all of this is tech that gets more powerful by upgrading adding. Will Apple use the Mac Pro as a springboard to open up the possibilities of letting people add as they go, or just make it BTO options?
It seems you have to pay a lot before you can get a more easily able to upgrade Mac.
Actually forecasting what Apple will do Graphics card wise for the different lines seems a big headache, as there's so much going on, and with potential decisions needing a lot of behind the scenese work if they're not going to pin their colors to one particular graphics card manufacturer. Having said that, isn't AMD hence ATI really struggling? Nvidia has CUDA, and potentially a big round of headaches from any more failing chips in the next year.
 
snberk103 said:
It becomes very difficult to design and support an OS that works with the nearly infinite combinations of parts that users will want to put into a mid-range tower. It is amazing that MS and Linux manage to do it as well as they do, though they are far from perfect. Thats why MS and Linux can't use "It just works" (aside from the TM issue).
Click to expand...

I would argue it is that "commoditization" of hardware that contributes to Wintel manufacturers creating so many different models in a desperate attempt to try and come up with something "different" to try and make some more sales. This adds complexity and becomes a source of issues.


t0mat0 said:
Would Apple make a push into HPC or Enterprise servers - or will they be passive aggressive like Enterprise?
Click to expand...

I don't really see it as a future core competency of Apple in terms of either hardware or software. XServe (the hardware and software) is a nice basic package, but you're unlikely to run a Fortune 5000 company off of it, much less a Fortune 500 or 50.
 
i love my mac mini

i am on my second mini. it is one of the cheapest out there when you consider that you get leopard and ilfe in the deal and this summer apple store was giving free printers with the mini.
i had them add memory though i can do it cheaper because i wanted to keep it under warranty until it checks out.
my first mini had a dying hard drive, so i bought a new one for it. i am disgusted by the idea of taking the thing apart--it is a bit too much like having sex in a phone booth.
if you really think the dell is cheaper you haven't calculated the cost of good m$ software. i can compile a lot of good free software in the xcode3.1 environment and using fink. the other good stuff i use like nisus and devonthink cost less than 100 usd each. there is no cheap windows software because everybody who uses windows is a closet pirate and the software foundries have to make up the difference off the few honest folks who saddle up to the bar.
i also used to build pc s as a hobby. you can build your own pc pretty cheap but it wasn't until recently that you could run a high performance pc in a real 64 bit operating system with windows software and leopard is way better than vista especially before the first vista service pack came out.
the only thing i really needed windows for was a lot of foreign chess training and database software that never makes it over here. pcs are also very good for watching cable tv with better fidelity than the cable box but now that tv tuners aren't analog soon this is a waste.
about all those boxes at your maryland computer store, i once worked in retail-- maybe those boxes were out of reach because they are small enough to be easy to steal. also inventory is dynamic these days so if the boxes were sitting in a warehouse that would spell trouble. since the boxes are in the store someone in management believes that theses minis will sell well at this store location. it is not the condemnation you think it is.
i'd rather have a mini with a cheap big monitor from costco than any cutesey imac. and i love my bluetooth kb and mouse which are sold at apple stores but never seem to be displayed because they are too easy to steal too.
-marc :apple:
 
mrglsmrc said:
my first mini had a dying hard drive, so i bought a new one for it. i am disgusted by the idea of taking the thing apart--it is a bit too much like having sex in a phone booth.
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You say that like it's a bad thing. :)

i'd rather have a mini with a cheap big monitor from costco than any cutesey imac. and i love my bluetooth kb and mouse which are sold at apple stores but never seem to be displayed because they are too easy to steal too.
-marc :apple:
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The ability to choose a cheap, or expensive, display for a Mini is one of its biggest advantages. It would be a sad day if the Mini goes away without a comparable replacement.
 
Cave Man said:
The ability to choose a cheap, or expensive, display for a Mini is one of its biggest advantages. It would be a sad day if the Mini goes away without a comparable replacement.
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Who knows what kind of measuring stick Amazon.com is. Both minis are typically in the top 25 desktop computers being sold there, with the low-end model usually in the top five. It seems that's a lot of buyers Apple would be alienating if they quit selling the mini or a similar headless model.
 
Eric S. said:
Woz?? :confused: He hasn't had input on these decisions for about a quarter of a century.
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o.0 Schiller. Getting my AAPL peeps mixed up hehe.

I don't like it how one article (The recent AppeInsider roadplan article) gets turned into Mini going to be 5 more months, because it took that long from the stage it's at now for the MacBook Air, to get to release.

Few days and we'll know I guess. Till then - anyone know a good way of getting an alert when the UK refurb page changes? I might be soon looking for a refurb Mini...
 
I just did a search on this thread and with over 2000 posts, nobody has mentioned GMA 4500MHD. Why is that? Amongst other things, it's "capable of high def 1080p playback". Whatever that means. I always thought any reasonably equipped PC these days could do that. I imagine it shifts the load off the CPU, which would be a big thing for a media computer, on which you don't want the fan running. It was released July 16, 2008, so the timing is right.
 
spatlese44 said:
I just did a search on this thread and with over 2000 posts, nobody has mentioned GMA 4500MHD. Why is that?
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Probably because no one ever thought it'd be this long before we'd see a Mini update.

Amongst other things, it's "capable of high def 1080p playback". Whatever that means.
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It probably means it's HDCP compliant. The current Mini can play 1080p Blu-Ray video just fine, if you remove the HDCP restriction.

I always thought any reasonably equipped PC these days could do that. I imagine it shifts the load off the CPU, which would be a big thing for a media computer, on which you don't want the fan running.
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Not with Mac OS computers. The cpu does all the decoding work. The gpu simply displays the content.
 
I will be happy with really anything apple does with the mini. I wish they would either cancel it so we know we can try the hackintosh route, or if they would just update the darn thing and we would just buy that. I am looking for the mini to by my everyday computer to replace my aging G4 AGP Graphics.
 
Demodex said:
I will be happy with really anything apple does with the mini. I wish they would either cancel it so we know we can try the hackintosh route, or if they would just update the darn thing and we would just buy that. I am looking for the mini to by my everyday computer to replace my aging G4 AGP Graphics.
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People just do not realize how powerful the Mini is. It is not a game machine, but who buys it for that?
 
Demodex said:
I will be happy with really anything apple does with the mini. I wish they would either cancel it so we know we can try the hackintosh route, or if they would just update the darn thing and we would just buy that. I am looking for the mini to by my everyday computer to replace my aging G4 AGP Graphics.
Click to expand...
The Mini is at least 4 times faster than your current G4. I don't know why people put the Mini down.

I almost bought a Mini, but then the challenge of building a Hackintosh was too great. My Hackintosh works great, but the Mini is an amazing machine.
 
I own 3 minis

I have a DC 2.0 with 3 GB Ram and a Ministack External HD 500 GB, a DC 1.83 DC with Superdrive, 2 GB RAM and a Minstack 80 GB (Home built) External HD, and a DC 1.83 with 2 GB Ram and Combo Drive.

All are boot-camp and parallels enabled. And am thinking of buying a 4th one for my daughter. None of us do any hard core gaming, and, truth be told, Mac Halo runs fine on my sons 1.83 combo drive, as does Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (in Bootcamp), one of his favorite games.

The mini has always felt like the bastard step child in the Mac Line-up. But you can do nearly ANYTHING with it you can with an iMac. And, I have a beautiful LG 22" Widescreen LCD hooked up to my 2.0-a far better monitor than the expensive and washed-out looking 20" iMac monitor.

Here's to hoping Apple will give us about a 2.8 with 2 GB RAM and at least GMA 3100...
 
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