Thanks for the generous offer, but I didn't say their market share would skyrocket by 50%, I said that 50% of the potential customer base would buy a consumer-line Core i7 minitower. And by potential customer base I mean the existing one plus a lot of people who keep dreaming about Macs but never buy one, because the iMac isn't their idea of a desktop, the Mini is non-expandable and underpowered, and the Mac Pro would put them in debt for 16 years. The "Mac" (meaning Mac Pro minus Pro) would sell like hotcakes to existing Mac users too, just like people who already had one or more Macs bought Mac Minis in sixpacks. As for undermining Mac Pro sales, well... professionals and enthusiats who need the full power of a Mac Pro wouldn't be interested, and people who don't need a Mac Pro shouldn't have to buy one, and in most cases don't. They could make it really small for a desktop, something like Dell's Optiplex microtowers so that it's big enough to hold a couple of free PCI slots and dualhead video card, but still small enough to be an extra Mac you can put just about anywhere, like the Mac Mini, as a multimedia machine hooked up to your flatscreen TV or whatever.
Then again, the "Mac" would be eligible for home repairs according to the AppleCare agreement, and judging by their unbridled enthusiasm over the prospect of extra labor, I can see why they're holding back the "Mac".
BTW, as I mentioned in an earlier post Dell just launched the Nehalem Precision line, and I repeat - for once I gotta hand it to Apple; Dell has apparently mistaken the Nehalems for Picasso paintings.
