Exactly the LC/Performa series left some very bad tastes in all computer user minds, if anything these lines contributed to many of the anti-Apple rhetoric that Mac users still have to deal with to this day.
I'm not saying that I don't want see a lower price solution from Apple, I do, but I would suggest a word of caution to anyone suggesting that they lower their standards with less than quality products and degrading their quality of computers, they would simply asking for trouble and repeating the past if they did this again.
I even think w/o hurting their dually processor PowerMacs or even their iMacs I think do that they have left themselves open for a new cheaper product that could easily be marketed, it would essentially be a headless iMac just a single processor, no screen ,no PCI slots, and up to a Gig of RAM.
I suggested a solution earlier in this thread (the iHub, Gobi G3, starting at $699) it could easily be this cheap Mac, But I suggested it being something like a Media Center Mac (even better name MacMC) because I think in this already computer saturated market you have to put clear goals for what your computers are made for (hello Cube), and I think Apple needs to change the rules on what a computer is suppose to do (again), because as computers become more as an appliance to deliver and receive content, it will increasingly be on what gives me the best user experience for giving that very content.
As we all know Apple's forte in computers has always been the best user experience, so I would think that it would be foolish not to for them not to go after the PVR market and sell a low cost computer with specialized software. This would extend there market to three different tiers, Power Macs as digital workstations, the iMac as a home low-end digital content creator, and MacMC/iHub as an appliance digital content receiver.
