Mac mini Price Increases... why?

[Gordy]

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 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

I've just priced a sff based pc that is under £400 and comes with dvd writer a
AMD Sempron 3000+ (2.17ghz) CPU 512mb of ram etc and a better graphics card than the mini , with windows xp. The mini with dvd writer is nearly £500. So I think you can take back your owned...

 

[Mord]

i doubt thats retail, and it's probably a shuttle or clone, which is about 5x the size of the mini, only nano ITX pc's compare to the size, quote your source

i just speced out what you put forward with a shuttle case a 3000+ sempron with a combo drive 512MB ram a radeon 9200 an OEM copy of windows XP pro and it came to £485

 

[mpopkin]

welcome to the world of england only, these price increases are not seen in the recent release of mini's in the US, dont know why, but it probably has something to do with tariffs on imported goods. Sorry

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?

 

[plinden]

I've just priced a sff based pc that is under £400 and comes with dvd writer a
AMD Sempron 3000+ (2.17ghz) CPU 512mb of ram etc and a better graphics card than the mini , with windows xp. The mini with dvd writer is nearly £500. So I think you can take back your owned...

Whatever ... No one's stopping you from buying what you want. If you want the best computer experience money can buy, get a Mac. If you'll be happier with a PC, get a PC. Mac's sometimes cost a little more.

 

[Arcus]

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.

Umm...ok. Dont understand how that relates to my point that trying to milk as much money as a company can from a product is not exclusive to Apple as the person I originally quoted illuded to. Its not "Welcome to the world of Apple" its called "Welcome to capitalism" If companies stopped trying to make a profit from thier products I doubt most of us would continue to have jobs.

 

[Gordy]

i doubt thats retail, and it's probably a shuttle or clone, which is about 5x the size of the mini, only nano ITX pc's compare to the size, quote your source

i just speced out what you put forward with a shuttle case a 3000+ sempron with a combo drive 512MB ram a radeon 9200 an OEM copy of windows XP pro and it came to £485

Shuttle SK43g2.

And the size allows you to use proper parts that you can upgrade unlike the mini without being a stupid size.

Shuttle SK43G AMD SoA VGA Lan USB2 1394 SATA Raid 6Ch Audio
AMD Sempron 3000+ (SoA) (2.17ghz) CPU OEM
LG GSA-4163B Ivory 16x16 ±R Dual Layer + X5 DVDRAM DUAL LAYER DVD-Writer, OEM UK
80GB Excelstor ESJ680S (7200rpm, 2MB) SATA HDD
512Mb PC2700 (PC333) DDR Memory (Major) Retail
128M HiS Radeon 9550SE Tv/DVI
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Inc. SP2 OEM Single

V.A.T. £58.30

TOTAL £391.46

Umm...ok. Dont understand how that relates to my point that trying to milk as much money as a company can from a product is not exclusive to Apple as the person I originally quoted illuded to. Its not "Welcome to the world of Apple" its called "Welcome to capitalism" If companies stopped trying to make a profit from thier products I doubt most of us would continue to have jobs.

Making a profit is fine by me but don't try and pretend your stuff is better than everything else out there but isn't and then charge 15% more than the competition. Not to mention that this current system isnt working as its only the ipod that is making apple's real profit not the computers.

Sometimes how much people on this forum lap up everything apple/jobs says scares me. It really does. When they release a rubbish upgrade people defend them, when a product is released and is terrible (can you say the shuffle) everyone thinks its the best thing since sliced bread. When the up the prices and don't drop it like every other manufacturer do people say its great.

 

[Arcus]

Shuttle SK43g2.

And the size allows you to use proper parts that you can upgrade unlike the mini without being a stupid size.

Shuttle SK43G AMD SoA VGA Lan USB2 1394 SATA Raid 6Ch Audio
AMD Sempron 3000+ (SoA) (2.17ghz) CPU OEM
LG GSA-4163B Ivory 16x16 ±R Dual Layer + X5 DVDRAM DUAL LAYER DVD-Writer, OEM UK
80GB Excelstor ESJ680S (7200rpm, 2MB) SATA HDD
512Mb PC2700 (PC333) DDR Memory (Major) Retail
128M HiS Radeon 9550SE Tv/DVI
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Inc. SP2 OEM Single

V.A.T. £58.30

TOTAL £391.46



Making a profit is fine by me but don't try and pretend your stuff is better than everything else out there but isn't and then charge 15% more than the competition. Not to mention that this current system isnt working as its only the ipod that is making apple's real profit not the computers.

Sometimes how much people on this forum lap up everything apple/jobs says scares me. It really does. When they release a rubbish upgrade people defend them, when a product is released and is terrible (can you say the shuffle) everyone thinks its the best thing since sliced bread. When the up the prices and don't drop it like every other manufacturer do people say its great.

How does more ram for the exact same price equate to a bad thing? The Mac Mini was 499 two weeks ago with 256 and now it has 512 for the EXACT SAME PRICE?

And like I said , trying to get the most money you can get from an old product is not something that is unique to Apple, but you wont address that issue since agreeing with me would end your Apple bashing streak.

 

[mad jew]

How does more ram for the exact same price equate to a bad thing? The Mac Mini was 499 two weeks ago with 256 and now it has 512 for the EXACT SAME PRICE?

The thread is talking about a country outside of the USA called... Ah nevermind... Anyway, in this country they charge a higher price for minis now.

 

[Mord]

Shuttle SK43g2.

And the size allows you to use proper parts that you can upgrade unlike the mini without being a stupid size.

Shuttle SK43G AMD SoA VGA Lan USB2 1394 SATA Raid 6Ch Audio
AMD Sempron 3000+ (SoA) (2.17ghz) CPU OEM
LG GSA-4163B Ivory 16x16 ±R Dual Layer + X5 DVDRAM DUAL LAYER DVD-Writer, OEM UK
80GB Excelstor ESJ680S (7200rpm, 2MB) SATA HDD
512Mb PC2700 (PC333) DDR Memory (Major) Retail
128M HiS Radeon 9550SE Tv/DVI
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Inc. SP2 OEM Single

V.A.T. £58.30

TOTAL £391.46



Making a profit is fine by me but don't try and pretend your stuff is better than everything else out there but isn't and then charge 15% more than the competition. Not to mention that this current system isnt working as its only the ipod that is making apple's real profit not the computers.

Sometimes how much people on this forum lap up everything apple/jobs says scares me. It really does. When they release a rubbish upgrade people defend them, when a product is released and is terrible (can you say the shuffle) everyone thinks its the best thing since sliced bread. When the up the prices and don't drop it like every other manufacturer do people say its great.

first off it's not fair to compare a self build, it's great for those able (me included, i type this on my 2.8GHz athlon with an x800XT PE 1GB ram which cost next to nothing) but if you compare apples to apples the mini is not bad value, the mini is a complete RETAIL product, and the thing is small, it's one of it's selling points back in 2001 i bought a g4 cube that matched pretty much any sff pc it has an AGP slot (and i put a 9700 pro in it latter on) upgradeable to dual cpu's (dual 1.7GHz G4's) you could upgrade the 3.5" HD upgrade the optical drive add wireless, you could even replace the modem with an ADB port, but people compared it to towers and it died, the mini is made from low power components and is smaller than a FW HD, if you compare a mico ATX pc to the mini it comes out normally costing more and being slow as ****.

now lets play your game with shuttle on even terms, and use the 1.42GHz combo drive mini as comparison that comes to $600 compared to the shuttle retail G 4300h which has a 2400+ sempron windows XP pro 512MB pc3200 (running at 166MHz) an 80GB HD combo drive a radeon 9550 802.11g and it comes to $819 and it dose not even have bluetooth, sure the graphics card and cpu are a little faster (not by much the G4 beats the K7 clock for clock at most things and the 2400+ only have a 200Mhz advantage)

the funny thing is you mock the mini for useing old hardware then choose to compare it to an athlon K7 which is even older than the G4 and you have the nerve the compare it to a shuttle in a different class that you spec from the parts not as a complete system, the mini is not aimed at hardware freak, although it dose not stop it being popular with them, if apple has one trouble each mac competes so well in it's class people compare them to 2" thick brick laptops or 60lb towers.

 

[Arcus]

The thread is talking about a country outside of the USA called... Ah nevermind... Anyway, in this country they charge a higher price for minis now.

And does this have to do with Apple or taxes / fees imposed by the government??

 

[Gordy]

first off it's not fair to compare a self build, it's great for those able (me included, i type this on my 2.8GHz athlon with an x800XT PE 1GB ram which cost next to nothing) but if you compare apples to apples the mini is not bad value, the mini is a complete RETAIL product, and the thing is small, it's one of it's selling points back in 2001 i bought a g4 cube that matched pretty much any sff pc it has an AGP slot (and i put a 9700 pro in it latter on) upgradeable to dual cpu's (dual 1.7GHz G4's) you could upgrade the 3.5" HD upgrade the optical drive add wireless, you could even replace the modem with an ADB port, but people compared it to towers and it died, the mini is made from low power components and is smaller than a FW HD, if you compare a mico ATX pc to the mini it comes out normally costing more and being slow as ****.

now lets play your game with shuttle on even terms, and use the 1.42GHz combo drive mini as comparison that comes to $600 compared to the shuttle retail G 4300h which has a 2400+ sempron windows XP pro 512MB pc3200 (running at 166MHz) an 80GB HD combo drive a radeon 9550 802.11g and it comes to $819 and it dose not even have bluetooth, sure the graphics card and cpu are a little faster (not by much the G4 beats the K7 clock for clock at most things and the 2400+ only have a 200Mhz advantage)

the funny thing is you mock the mini for useing old hardware then choose to compare it to an athlon K7 which is even older than the G4 and you have the nerve the compare it to a shuttle in a different class that you spec from the parts not as a complete system, the mini is not aimed at hardware freak, although it dose not stop it being popular with them, if apple has one trouble each mac competes so well in it's class people compare them to 2" thick brick laptops or 60lb towers.

The shuttle prebuilt units are massively overpriced.

I think the the amd will more than beat the g4, they are comparable to a 3ghz p4 which are being used in the g5 intels I believe.

Anyway we are getting away from the point, in the UK the price has gone up but the USA price went down. In the pc world , what happens is the price at release is high then drops down over 6months , apple don't do this.

 

[Mord]

The shuttle prebuilt units are massively overpriced.

I think the the amd will more than beat the g4, they are comparable to a 3ghz p4 which are being used in the g5 intels I believe.

Anyway we are getting away from the point, in the UK the price has gone up but the USA price went down. In the pc world , what happens is the price at release is high then drops down over 6months , apple don't do this.

the socket A semprons PR rateings equate to celeron D's are just thougherbread core socket A cpu's a 2400+ is a 2000+ thougherbred which is a three year old cpu and a 3000+ is the same core as a 2600+ tbred which is again three years old, you complain about apple selling old hardware and that any pc company that dose would go out of buissness which is plain wrong, the mini is fastest retail sff pc in it's price range and dose pretty well against full desktops too.

now your attempt to get back on topic to avoid the fact you were wrong, now i'm not saying it's a good thing the price went up but the pound lost value and apple recalculates priceing at each update, now the dollar had been falling for the last few years so things have been getting cheaper but things change, deal with it the 1.42GHz mac mini now comes with BT and airport and only costs a little more this was an update in a good direction but just dident do much for the 1.25GHz mac mini.

if you think shuttle is overpriced take a look at this http://www.bban.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=MS-SFF32 and compare that to the mac mini, 256MB ram integrated crappy graphics, and windows XP home.

 

[BlizzardBomb]

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

I didn't say it was difficult. I just said its not for the sqeamish...

 

[uaaerospace]

The thread is talking about a country outside of the USA called... Ah nevermind... Anyway, in this country they charge a higher price for minis now.

Folks! If you don't like the price increase of the mini in the UK, don't buy it! Apple is not forcing people to buy their products. You are welcome to go buy any PC you heart desires. If Apple is more expensive and you pay that extra amount, then you must like the mac better in some fashion. Otherwise you would go buy a PC. Don't come on here complaining about a price increase. Also, don't cry about unfairness in the US vs. UK. Apple is a US company, so I would expect things to be cheaper over here as would I expect UK goods to be more expensive in the US. Just stop with the complaining, PLEASE!

 

[MacSA]

Folks! If you don't like the price increase of the mini in the UK, don't buy it! Apple is not forcing people to buy their products. You are welcome to go buy any PC you heart desires. If Apple is more expensive and you pay that extra amount, then you must like the mac better in some fashion. Otherwise you would go buy a PC. Don't come on here complaining about a price increase. Also, don't cry about unfairness in the US vs. UK. Apple is a US company, so I would expect things to be cheaper over here as would I expect UK goods to be more expensive in the US. Just stop with the complaining, PLEASE!

Not forced to buy a Mac? Go buy a PC instead?... unfortunatley or Apple, that's just what some people are likely to do.

I think people are just unhappy with Apple ****** on their international customers.

 

[uaaerospace]

Not forced to buy a Mac? Go buy a PC instead?... unfortunatley or Apple, that's just what some people are likely to do.

I think people are just unhappy with Apple ****** on their international customers.

I'm sure the marketing people at Apple considered this. I'm not going to speculate, because no one knows the mac market better then they do. They have the numbers, the complete history sales in relation to price drops/increases, and a roadmap for the future that we users simply don't have. If they thought that it would drive many people away or if it was avoidable, then I'm sure they wouldn't have done it. I hate to see price increases as much as the next person, but just don't whine about it and cry unfair.

 

[MacSA]

I hate to see price increases as much as the next person, but just don't whine about it and cry unfair.

That's the point.. YOU haven't seen a price increase.

 

[quidire]

Folks! If you don't like the price increase of the mini in the UK, don't buy it! Apple is not forcing people to buy their products. You are welcome to go buy any PC you heart desires. If Apple is more expensive and you pay that extra amount, then you must like the mac better in some fashion. Otherwise you would go buy a PC. Don't come on here complaining about a price increase. Also, don't cry about unfairness in the US vs. UK. Apple is a US company, so I would expect things to be cheaper over here as would I expect UK goods to be more expensive in the US. Just stop with the complaining, PLEASE!

You are being ridiculous; these products aren't made in the US. You are saying you expect to be charged less for the same goods just because Apple's engineers are in the US? How very American of you.

I suppose if Apple decided to charge Southerners more than everyone else you'd deal with this with the same equanimity? I'd certainly support price discounts for the Northeast and the Pacific coast; we pay a lot more in our mortgage or rental payments!

Apple is being quite silly; I'd expect the European market to be one where they could do better than the US. The only explanation is they assume the market will bear that price *sigh*.

Well I feel bad for the OP, even if the gentleman from Tennessee or Alabama does not.

-RS

EDIT: Just saw your second post. Obviously they can do this, and have an interest in market segmentation. Equally obviously we can dislike this behaviour and complain about it. If it is fair for Apple to do what is in its interests re: pricing, isn't it fair for Apple customers to complain about that pricing, lower prices being in their interest?

 

[uaaerospace]

You are being ridiculous; these products aren't made in the US. You are saying you expect to be charged less for the same goods just because Apple's engineers are in the US?

Never did I say I expected to be charged less. The prices in the US did not drop, therefore the US market is not being charged less. The prices in the UK increased; therefore they are being charged more. That is a distinction you have to make. It's not like the US is getting something special here just because it is the US. There is a reason that the prices went up in the UK. lol, I don't think that Apple said, "Lookie there, those idiots across the Atlantic look like some suckers. Let's increase the price just for them." All I am saying is that there is a reason that the prices climbed. Instead of complaining about the prices going up, why not try to find out why? Judging from the original topic "Mac mini Price Increases...why?" I would assume that is what the thread is supposed to be about.

I suppose if Apple decided to charge Southerners more than everyone else you'd deal with this with the same equanimity? I'd certainly support a price discounts for the Northeast and the Pacific coast;

Again, there is no discount. For no one does the price go down. There is an increase in price for one (maybe more?) nation. Also, this is common practice in the US. You and I walk into a grocery store or a convenience store. I would bet that I walk away with the same items for less money than you do. It even happens in a single city. Prices vary widely from one part of town to the next. Ride down the road and look at gas prices. Stations owned by the same people will charge different prices. Even you admit your rent is higher. Prices are not always equal, and more often than not they simply aren’t. Companies charge what people will pay. The more you pay, the more they will charge.

Apple is being quite silly; I'd expect the European market to be one where they could do better than the US. The only explanation is they assume the market will bear that price

You may be right about the potential for Apple to excel in the European market compared to the US. However, if sales in Europe are much greater than in the US, why not increase the price in Europe? That's the most basic principle in Econ 101. There is an equilibrium point somewhere and Apple may just be trying to find it to maximize profits. If that means selling a few less machines at a slightly higher profit, why not increase the price a bit? If this is indeed the case, and people stop buying the mini because of the price, then Apple will realize their mistake. However, if sales continue or drop only slightly, Apple will have made the right business decision. Despite all of our desires (including mine), Apple is in business to make money, not to please everyone at all times.

Well I feel bad for the OP, even if the gentleman from Tennessee or Alabama does not.

Never did I say that I didn't feel bad for the people facing higher prices. My comments were addressed to those that were crying about them. Every time I go to the store, something has increased in price. Still, I don't run out of the store crying about it. You are not complaining that I can get a fancier house then you for much less money simply because of location. Yeah, I guess you can get on macrumors and complain if it makes you feel better, but it will do nothing to bring the prices back down. Only sales numbers will do that.

Edit: Yikes, that was a long post. Sorry guys

 

[quidire]

uaaerospace

I just wanted to apologise; it had been a tiring day and I was a bit cranky. My tone was very much unwarranted.

I did have a point I wanted to make. I understand that market actions happen, and that there are very reasonable reasons why they happen. Apple will increase the price in the UK if they think the market will bear the price increase. That this is in fact the fiduciary duty of Apple's officers doesn't mean that UK consumers can't feel a bit taken for a ride; it is exactly that sort of sentiment that provides the incentive for lowering prices (or at least not raising them).

There is a bit of a stigma attached to questioning market decisions. There is nothing holy about those decisions, and where a community doesn't approve of a market equilibrium they can take action (simply by their personal choices) to alter the inputs to that decision. Coming together to begin the accumulation of support for such a collective action may seem silly, and may fail most of the time, but is hardly any more pointless than collective political action, and that last has shown some rather dramatic results now and then.

Anyway, again, I apologise for my tone. This isn't the only thread that I behaved inappropriately in.

-RS

 

[uaaerospace]

No apology needed. You raise valid points. ~Josh