Closing the book on Apple's Mac mini

[Ashley Aitken]

Howdy All,

My opinion is that we should expect the mini to lag (way) behind the  
other machines, it is supposed to be a Mac experience machine, not  
the best Mac.  I don't see it going away and I think it will be  
updated in due course (before Xmas buying season?).

At the very least, I hope it will stay around since it fills a niche  
(see below).  I believe they could enable the video to do VGA and DVI  
at the same time (not possible now), to allow a monitor and a  
projector (for example), but I don't think they will ever go to 2 x DVI.

I believe there is room for a mini-tower with room for an extra hard  
drive, upgradeable graphics card, and perhaps and extra PCI? slot.   
That said, Firewire drives are reasonable for additional space, and  
what would the extra PCI? slot be for?

In fact, I believe they could probably make the iMac a little  
expandable (graphics card) rather than ultra-thin, and how about DVI  
or HDMI output on the iMac (to fill that need for a monitor to go  
with the projector).

I believe the days of just an all-in-one iMac and tower Mac are over,  
considering the rise of the notebook, Apple needs to sell to many  
niches in the non-notebook arena, and none of this "hoping they'll  
buy a tower even when they don't really need it" business.

Target the different niches, let a person who wants a mini-tower buy  
a mini-tower rather than a full tower.  Sure they'll lose some sales  
from the tower but they'll gain some sales on the mini-tower (people  
who just wouldn't buy the tower).

Cheers,
Ashley.