The Mac mini is Dead? Long Live the Mac mini!
12:33 pm, March 3rd, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
If nothing else, Apple’s product refresh announcements Tuesday serve notice that even when the world around them seems to be coming apart at the seams, the product teams in Cupertino can be counted on to refine and improve the company’s product line at regular intervals.
And to, more often than not, prove the Apple commentariat wrong in the process.
A case in point is the refresh of the Mac mini. Written off almost a full two years ago by AppleInsider as a dead item, Apple has since then made THREE updates to the product line, two of them substantial. AI were originally saying the mini wouldn’t make it to Intel.
And then, just last fall, Gizmodo tried to bury the mini under rumors that European inventories were being allowed to thin.
The truth of the matter is that as much as great thinkers in the press and great dreamers among the consuming public may want Apple to craft product in the image of their hearts desire, the producers and designers inside One Infinite Loop have their own vision and their own timelines to which they prove, again and again, focused and true.
Yes, the era of locked-down secrecy may be at an end, as leaks and (invariably badly lit) spy-shots tend to precede product announcements more these days, but those who would seek to bury an Apple product before the company itself issues an EOL statement are more likely than not digging a hole they might look to crawl into months or even years down the road.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Hardware, Opinions | Comment on this article
Wow. When the leaked photo’s/specs of the Mini appeared last week, I thought that there was no way that Apple would boost the Mini so much w.r.t. even the MacBook. With FW800, separate Nvidia GPU and multiple monitor support, this is as close as Apple as come to making a Quadra 700 again (still missing any expansion slots).
This looks like a solid upgrade from Apple.
dave, on March 3rd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
While the product itself may not be dead, it does seem like less than a good idea to introduce a new model that is more expensive that the model it replaces. When the economy was roaring along I think this would have been a great idea. Now that the economy seems to be going south faster than senior citizens in winter a more expensive product seems like a bad idea. Time will tell wether this sells or not but I for one will not be replacing my G4 Mac Mini with the new model. I was hoping that a new mini would drive down the cost of the previous generation Intel minis but that looks less likely now so it looks like I am going to be stuck at 10.5 for some time now. Oh well.
Shawen Donnellan, on March 3rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
feel bad for folks so tight financially they feel stuck with only a four year old PPC Mini. i’ve still got one, but it is my light duty home office workstation. slow with anything graphic. but still plenty good otherwise (using it now).
whereas the new model with NVIDIA graphics will be a kick-a** HTPC.
but for $599 you can’t get a better, comparably loaded, HP or Dell PC. same price as before by the way, but certainly more for the money.
AlfieJr, on March 3rd, 2009 at 10:41 pm