Closing the book on Apple's Mac mini

[Matt Penna]

On May 28, 2007, at 10:54 AM, Shawn Erickson wrote:

> I was originally thinking a dual PCIe mini-tower would be a great  
> thing for Apple to do ... but after what you stated above I also  
> now feel it would make sense for a single PCIe (16x lane ideally)  
> mini-tower with embedded graphics (using desktop class chipset),  
> one drive bay, one optical bay, 2 DIMM slots (maybe 4), and single  
> socket dual core (possibly quad core on the high-end BTO) could sit  
> nicely along side the iMac and with the right pricing won't damage  
> Mac Pro up sell (maybe place it in the $1,300-1,600 range).
>
> We would likely purchase many such systems as a second developer  
> and test system.
>

Shawn,

Apple did offer such a system a few years ago in the form of the  
uniprocessor 1.8GHz Power Mac G5 and it was actually a fine system  
for $1499. Apple could conceivably get the price down by sacrificing  
some of the expansion capabilities - fewer PCI slots, no off-board  
video card as standard (the G5 came with an FX 5200), DVD reader  
instead of Superdrive, etc. I assume they got rid of it because of  
slow sales, or decided it wasn't worth the lower margin and focused  
on their more profitable systems.

To date, it has not made sense for Apple to compete in the business  
market that has notoriously razor-thin margins. But Apple's market  
has changed since 2004 and continues to do so. They may find it  
advantageous to reintroduce something like this for their corporate  
customers who need something a little more customizable. I doubt the  
corporate market was much of a concern for them in 2004, but now it  
may warrant another look.

Oh, and I want the Mini to stick around. :)

	Matt