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Mac Mini To Be Discontinued?

thefnshow said:
i'm a pc guy and there's no way in hell that i'd buy a sony pc...i'm going to have to pick up a mac mini soon just to mess around with it.
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Likewise I'm a PC guy. BUT I'd really like a mac mini if they updated it to at least a Core2 and a reasonable price. I'd be happy to then pay for upgrades such as onboard HDMI (preferably off an ATI or nVida rather than Intel chip..) and even a Bluray or HD-DVD ROM disk. Would be my perfect vista media center hardware with the benefit of being able to mess with OSX too. Even the basic Core2/price part would be a minimal change for Apple to get the business of a number of PC users, even if the main OS used will be Vista (they still get the hardware and OSX licence, with possible long term conversion). I'm sure this is already happening with Mac Books (though to be fair high end PC notebook designs aren't too shoddy).

I'm just not interested in an iMAC (I have great screens already) and I have a powerful tower vista PC. A mini for the living room for me!
 
BSL4 Guy said:
the cube was definitely ahead of its time. Maybe its time has come.

I could see SJ actually liking the name iCube in his lineup. Even in the original form factor It would still be compact enough to awe switchers and satisfy Jobs, but with mid-range customizable desktop components (provided you could cool it), it might sell better than the mini ever did. iCube would combine a midrange tower with the mini replacement, satisfying everone.
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I'd think it would be named Mac Cube. Since SJ wants Mac in all its computer's names. (I'm suprised I actually got used to saying "Mac Pro,Macbook Pro ect ect)

On the threads subject:
I bought a Mac Mini earlier this year. For me, it was WELL worth my money. One of the best $499 spent. I got the 1.66GHZ $799 model for 499 at CompUSA when the newer 1.66/1.83GHZ line-up was intoduced.

The mac mini is a great computer for many people.

Also, whoever posted that GTA:SA runs fine. Thanks for the feedback. I need to go install it on the XP side of my Mini and test it out!
 
What bugs me about it most is the difficult to replace drive and RAM. If they fixed that, and upgraded to a Core 2, it would be a perfectly good system for basic office use. Of course throwing in a real GPU-even just an 8400GS would be nice too :)

They have this giant gaping hole between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro. The iMac holds no appeal for a lot of people (and has an even HARDER to replace drive).
 
Wolfpup said:
What bugs me about it most is the difficult to replace drive and RAM. If they fixed that, and upgraded to a Core 2, it would be a perfectly good system for basic office use. Of course throwing in a real GPU-even just an 8400GS would be nice too :)

They have this giant gaping hole between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro. The iMac holds no appeal for a lot of people (and has an even HARDER to replace drive).
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Completely agree with you, it would be Huge step forward for Apple, no doubt...
 
mid range tower= lots of switchers.


Run two operating systems..using their own monitors and accessories.....feel good hit of the summer.


Seriously....it would sell like hotcakes.
 
The iMac is a wonderful gateway drug

Getting rid of the low end machines would remove a critical slot in the halo effect, wouldn't it? One that's apparently been very successful...

I don't think of removing the "slot" as being net positive. Not everything worth doing shows up as a profit center where the MBAs can directly link THIS action to THAT reward and use it to justify continuing (or killing) a product line. Even if the iMac doesn't generate the margins that other products do, I think that it still serves a very important off-spreadsheet function of being a gateway drug for people who would migrate from the Windows world to the Mac world. The Apple brass may have concluded that a Mac Mini sale would have been an iMac sale if there was no Mini Mac to undercut the iMac. My counter to that is that the Mini Mac sale might also have been a Dell sale if there was no Mini Mac. Going from a beige box to a middle ground where someone can still use their old display and keyboard is a smaller emotional (and financial) step than having to jump all of the way to an iMac.

I think the Mac Mini serves a very important function. I think the Mini Mac should stay.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C25 Safari/419.3)

all we have is speculation, of course, and mine is that the Mini only has about a 10% chance of surviving this year.
 
I talked about this possibility in another thread...

Agent Smith said:
I'm still not totally convinced that the mini and the 17" iMac will be discontinued. If the rumours that the 17" iMac is to be discontinued are true in addition to the impending EOL of the mini, Apple would not have a viable, entry-level computer. I don't think that Apple is totally oblivious to the commonly held notion that people have about their computers being more expensive than standard PCs. This is who the mini was targetted towards: iPod buying PC switchers who already had the keyboard and monitor. Similarly with the 17" iMac, which has been kept on as a solution for the education market. As an elementary teacher, I cannot see a computer lab full of 20" monitored computers, both for space and cost reasons.

I'm also not totally convinced that Apple will release an upgradable mini-tower. Apple has historically had control over the upgradable parts that require drivers in their computers; I cannot see Apple's software engineers writing a series of drivers for every graphics card that might fit into such a machine.

My hope is that the mini will be continued as the machine with the older technology with a cheaper pricetag. That said, I can see a potential mini upgrade get a 1.83 and 2.0 Ghz Core2Duo. Ideally they'd get a discreet video card (the x1600?), but I doubt that they would exceed the specs of the MacBook, so I can see them sticking with the GMA 950. I don't think they'd go with the GMA 965, although that would be kind of nice.
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Agent Smith said:
I talked about this possibility in another thread...
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I have noticed the same thing (the hole in the product line-up if both the mini and 17" iMac are eliminated).

At my University, we buy boatloads of the 17" iMacs (for computer labs), and use the minis for entry level secretarial people.

I am thinking that *maybe* this is part of the "product transition" being talked about, and we will see something really new. They pretty much have to have *something* in the entry-level educational price range, and if we are lucky it will be a brand new machine that no-one expected.

Perhaps this will be the "one more thing" of the event?

However, whether it's the revamped mini, the entry of the fabled mini-tower, or something else entirely, they have to continue with this general product category.
 
So far, I am in agreement with everything written. I love the Mini for a inexpensive, but very capable business desktop. However, the Mini is pretty much a 'fixed' piece of hardware.

You cannot add much to the current design except a memory upgrade, larger HD. There is absolutely no room and it is fairly difficult to work with. So, a new entry-level, but expandable Mini would be a great solution to suggestions raised here.

I like to small footprint. But, I think you could keep a small form factor and still provide some expendability. Apple has be best engineering and I expect them to come out with a machine that can cover the low-end market, and the mid-sized market. If the new iMac arrives with an aesthetic appeal, then I do not think the two machines would need be rivals. They could appeal to different markets.
 
if they remember the "rest of us" ....

The only reason Apple would improve the Mini by making it a capable, upgradable box would be if they decided they really wanted to take over a whole lot of home and office desktops.

Right now there's no alternative to the Windows boxes except the Mini, and nobody's ready to jump at those unless Apple either drops the price of the current ancient model by half, or comes out with an upgradable box at the current price.

Apple is as likely to do that as to bring Wozniak back, I think.

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2007080130935.jpg
 
I think that the Mini will either be discontinued or updated before october, since Leopard is 64 Bit they would want all of their currently shipping computers to take advantage of that. My guess is that if the mini is to be discontinued then it will be done at this event, otherwise it will be announced sometime in september that the entire mac line is now 64 bit with the mini being updated to C2D, and shipping in october with Leopard.
 
If Apple is seriously considering this I hope they do some research into recent switchers. I was a PC guy all my life and used to laugh at Apple and their products in the 90's. My MP3 collection was growing and I decided that I wanted to go ahead and rip all of my CD's to MP3's and needed a program to rip them and mange the library. I'd heard good things about iTunes and when it was released for Windows I tried it and loved it.

I loved it so much that after a few months I bought my first iPod. I had nothing but good experiences with the iPod and iTunes and then when the iTMS came online I tried that and really liked the experience too.

When the Mac Mini was announced it was the perfect fit. I didn't want to shell out a bunch of cash for a higher end Mac because I wasn't sure if I'd like the Mac experience. Needless to say I loved the Mac experience and I don't think I'll ever go back to a PC. My G4 Mac Mini has worked like a charm and I'm still using it at home today. It would be shame if they got rid of them.

Yes, since the switch to Intel processors it's possible to install and run Windows on a Mac so the more tech savvy switchers could by a Mac to try OS X and then install Windows if they didn't like the experience and hang on to the hardware, but there are lots of less tech savy users out there (like my parents for instance) who I've convinced to switch to a Mac and to do so by purchasing a new Mac Mini when they buy their next computer. They wouldn't shell out the cash for a higher end Mac if the Mini's are discontinued and they don't want to buy a refurbished or used unit. They want something new, that's lets them do the basics (word processing, browse the internet, send and receive e-mail, rip their CD collection and burn mixed CD's) plus all of the multimedia things that iLife let's you do (manage digital photos, etc.) and they want it to just work out of the box. The Mac Mini is the perfect system to entice less technical switchers. Even if it's losing money, I think if Apple did some research into switchers they'd find that it's a loss leader. It certainly was for me. If not for the Mac Mini, I wouldn't be a Mac user at all. I'm also now the proud owner of an iPhone, which I never would have purchased if I hadn't switched to a Mac first.

I could justify a $300 dollar MP3 player when I bought the iPod because it was large enough for me to carry my entire MP3 collection and navigate through it on the go with ease. There's no way I could have justified $600 on the iPhone without experiencing OS X and Mac hardware firsthand. I bet there are a lot of other users out there just like me. Drawn in by the iTunes / iTMS / iPod, made to switch thanks to the Mini and now own some of the more expensive gadgets and/or have moved on to a higher end Mac.
 
Luscious said:
If Apple is seriously considering this I hope they do some research into recent switchers. I was a PC guy all my life and used to laugh at Apple and their products in the 90's. My MP3 collection was growing and I decided that I wanted to go ahead and rip all of my CD's to MP3's and needed a program to rip them and mange the library. I'd heard good things about iTunes and when it was released for Windows I tried it and loved it.

I loved it so much that after a few months I bought my first iPod. I had nothing but good experiences with the iPod and iTunes and then when the iTMS came online I tried that and really liked the experience too.

When the Mac Mini was announced it was the perfect fit. I didn't want to shell out a bunch of cash for a higher end Mac because I wasn't sure if I'd like the Mac experience. Needless to say I loved the Mac experience and I don't think I'll ever go back to a PC. My G4 Mac Mini has worked like a charm and I'm still using it at home today. It would be shame if they got rid of them.

Yes, since the switch to Intel processors it's possible to install and run Windows on a Mac so the more tech savvy switchers could by a Mac to try OS X and then install Windows if they didn't like the experience and hang on to the hardware, but there are lots of less tech savy users out there (like my parents for instance) who I've convinced to switch to a Mac and to do so by purchasing a new Mac Mini when they buy their next computer. They wouldn't shell out the cash for a higher end Mac if the Mini's are discontinued and they don't want to buy a refurbished or used unit. They want something new, that's lets them do the basics (word processing, browse the internet, send and receive e-mail, rip their CD collection and burn mixed CD's) plus all of the multimedia things that iLife let's you do (manage digital photos, etc.) and they want it to just work out of the box. The Mac Mini is the perfect system to entice less technical switchers. Even if it's losing money, I think if Apple did some research into switchers they'd find that it's a loss leader. It certainly was for me. If not for the Mac Mini, I wouldn't be a Mac user at all. I'm also now the proud owner of an iPhone, which I never would have purchased if I hadn't switched to a Mac first.

I could justify a $300 dollar MP3 player when I bought the iPod because it was large enough for me to carry my entire MP3 collection and navigate through it on the go with ease. There's no way I could have justified $600 on the iPhone without experiencing OS X and Mac hardware firsthand. I bet there are a lot of other users out there just like me. Drawn in by the iTunes / iTMS / iPod, made to switch thanks to the Mini and now own some of the more expensive gadgets and/or have moved on to a higher end Mac.
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My G4 Mini is still going strong and has the original OS X install on it. Never had to reinstall the OS and although it is a tad slow for some strenous tasks, the machine is in daily use. I cant get rid of it because its still usefull! /me hugs Mac mini
 
seriously, the concept will live on but the current firm factor can't be around forever. right now, it's a good way to use up old MacBook parts.

Something new is in the works. This refresh doesn't really mean that we'll be seeing the mini (as we know it) around for a long time.

I think with the pro is updated, you'll see a new mini form factor too.
 
mrkramer said:
I think that the Mini will either be discontinued or updated before october, since Leopard is 64 Bit they would want all of their currently shipping computers to take advantage of that. My guess is that if the mini is to be discontinued then it will be done at this event, otherwise it will be announced sometime in september that the entire mac line is now 64 bit with the mini being updated to C2D, and shipping in october with Leopard.
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What worries me the most is the GMA950. It only supports OpenGL 1.4.
 
BSL4 Guy said:
seriously, the concept will live on but the current firm factor can't be around forever. right now, its a good was to use up old MacBook parts.

Something new is in the works. This refresh doesn't mean that we'll be seeing the mini (as we know it) around for a long time.

I think with the pro is updated, you'll see a new mini form factor too.
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I don't know...I think that the Mini is doing what it's meant to do. It is using up older parts (and cheaper Intel chips) and making money based off of its form factor rather than its technological merits. It's pretty small and good looking (IMO). Perhaps a simple color change will be enough when it's ready to be updated again.
 
The Mac Mini is a very effective gateway drug

Virgil-TB2 said:
At my University, we buy boatloads of the 17" iMacs (for computer labs), and use the minis for entry level secretarial people.
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Funny that you should mention the university computer labs. Rumor is
that the University of Pittsburgh just replaced a roomful of Dells with a
roomful of Mac Minis. Why? Because it saves them (the university) from
having to make a decree of whether students shoud use Windows or
OS X. With a Mac Mini running Parallels, the computer lab is androgenous.
 
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