Cult of Mac: a blog about the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone - and the people who love them

19 comments

Way to overpriced! you might aswell save up those pennies and go for a mid range or entry level iMac with hell of a lot more power and an actual screen. I have been massive fan of the Macmini for years now but this price bump seems unjustified especially in the current economic times, I was also looking forward to a complete design overhaul which upart from an extra USB port and the options of two display out puts which i really don’t understand and quite clearly baffles me i am not all that impressed. I think its time i invested in the 1TB bad boy that is the new iMac

Danny Policarpo, on March 3rd, 2009 at 9:39 am

I ordered one on Amazon, thought twice about it, and cancelled it. I’ll probably change my mind in a few months and end up getting one anyway.

The main thing I’m after is better/faster graphics. I use my current Mini as a media server/DVR and at 1080p it struggles at times.

I’m waiting for the graphics benchmarks.

Tarus, on March 3rd, 2009 at 9:54 am

Really not helping themselves with the recent surge in ‘Hackintosh’ builds.

Built one myself about a month ago now and was quite worried about the new lineup, but find myself laughing now. £500 for the mini or £300 for 3.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram and 1TB drive?

Adam, on March 3rd, 2009 at 9:55 am

The more you cut the price on the mini the more you undercut the sales of the iMac. That is probably the overall philosophy in keeping the price higher on them.

badedukation, on March 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 am

I’ve been waiting for a few months for Apple to update the Mini. I finally gave up and bought a used iMac on Craigslist for $600! The iMac has the same specs as the new Mini (minus the nvidia graphics and the mini display port of course) so I’m pretty happy with my choice not to wait. I don’t think they upgraded it enough for the price. It should at least have the same 2.66Ghz processor the iMac has!

Jeremy, on March 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 am

They’d sell a bazillion of these if it looked like a Mac Pro left in the dryer too long. It’s a stylish box, but maybe too stylish. A miniature Pro says it’s a workhorse, not decor.

imajoebob, on March 3rd, 2009 at 10:46 am

For 250 more you can get a refurb MacBook or iMac

solarpos, on March 3rd, 2009 at 11:17 am

May have to spring for the new one, the price doesn’t look bad, same as my ‘05 1.42 GHZ. Might wish to wait for 10.6 and save $129, but it does remedy what I’ve found lacking in the original, memory capacity and graphics.

Tim, on March 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am

Unless Apple can provide a 19″ LED Display for $299, there will be very little traction here. In fact, if they did that I would buy two monitors. One for my house and one for my office. It would be nice to bring a mac into my office every once in a while.

DaveJB, on March 3rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm

I agree with the author that the VALUE of the mini has diminished. It used to seem like such a good deal, back when you could get one for just $499. The resale of these machines is incredible. I wish some of the speculation I read about the mini had been true: that is, that it would have some sort of processor (Atom?), architecture, and design reconfiguration. I think a new mini that was just marginally faster than the old model, looked better, and was CHEAPER (cheaper to produce, thus cheaper for the consumer) would really win out right now. And with a configuration such as this, I doubt it would cannibalize iMac sales too much. Although I use an iMac at home now, I want my next machine to be a mini. I was hoping this version, but now I doubt I’ll get this one. I want a headless desktop and don’t want to shell out for a MacPro. Maybe next time.

JC, on March 3rd, 2009 at 12:15 pm

$200 for 1GB of ram and 200GB of slow HD space is insulting. They should have used the 2.26ghz processor in the “high-end” model.

The only good thing out of this “updated” mini is it uses Socket P processor which means there is a chance of being able to upgrade to the Quad-Core QX9×00 processors! If only that quad 2.53GHz wasn’t $1,100…

Lance N., on March 3rd, 2009 at 2:20 pm

You’d think by now the Internet and its collective wisdom would understand Apple does not make computers for bargain basement shoppers. You pay a premium for OSX/iLife/design. Please Internet, accept it, I’m sick of hearing about it. If you don’t accept the premium — don’t buy it.

Sinister Joe, on March 3rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm

If Apple was worried about cannibalizing the iMac sales then why not just EOL the mini and put us all out of our misery. The original idea behind the mini was great. Produce and affordable machine that PC users could use with their existing monitor, keyboard and mouse thereby wining them over to OS X and driving future sales. It seems that the affordable part has been thrown right out which leaves PC users with either more Windows or a Hackintosh. I just can not see the logic behind this.

Shawen Donnellan, on March 3rd, 2009 at 3:20 pm

If no one is complaining about the price, you’re not charging enough.

The thing finally supports 4 gigs of RAM and two monitors. I’m pretty happy, and may replace my aging desktop G5 with one, and finally have a desktop that can keep up with my MacBook Pro.

Jeremy, on March 3rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm

I, like so many others, have been waiting patiently for an update, and finally it is here, and I think it is just perfect !!

Now, you can always discuss price. To cheap, and it will undercut the more expensive products. To pricey, and it won’t sell.

Now I understand that people compare it to other peecee vendor products, to see if you can get a little more juice for less bucks. This however, have never been an issue for me. Buying a product from HP or Dell also mean that I support those companies.

Buying an Apple products says the following to me:
- I support a company which I really admire.
- They don’t fire people just because Wall Street is in panic.
- They have long time goals.
- I don’t just buy a product, I buy a lifestyle experience.
- They are not perfect, but they try hard to make perfect products.
- I support open standards.

So, there you have it. Price is just one of many points.
You can say its like buying a car. If I really want the right one, okay, I might have to save for a few more months. But when I get it, I just have that smile on my face, knowing that I got the very right product, for the very right reasons

Nash, on March 3rd, 2009 at 5:45 pm

Apple is shooting itself in the foot. They monitors they sell are not competitively priced for low-end computing, so they know they will lose a substantial amount of display sales with sales of the Mini, so they are trying to make up for it with higher desktop prices (while still claiming the Mini is the most affordable Mac).

Sorry, but it’s not a great value in price/performance, and new Mini purchasers are going to be PI$$ED when they discover they have to shell out $130 for Snow Leopard in the summer. Better to wait until Labor Day, get a machine with 10.6 installed and back-to-school deals in place.

Tokoha, on March 3rd, 2009 at 5:53 pm

I was waiting to buy a mini but after seeing the specs and price won’t be purchasing one anytime soon. Compared to the Dell studio baseline (2.1mhz, 2gig ram, 160hdd) for $449 I think these will become hackintoshes of choice vs a mini.

I love OSX and how it runs but I don’t follow it blindly paying retarded prices for their products. I thnk $599 is to much simply for the Apple badge/form factor. It’s not unique to the market anymore. I would consider $599 for 2.4mhz, 2gig, 250HDD, until they close the gap and show some value for the money it’s moving to the bottom of the wish list.

JD, on March 3rd, 2009 at 7:39 pm

I have an old clunker of a PC that I use as a spare. I bought a 20″ wide screen LCD so the kids could play some basic games. I was looking forward to this refresh so I could just swap out the box and swap in a mini.

I’m OK with this upgrade. I was hoping for nice a nice graphics bump and I think that is mainly what they delivered… so I’m getting one.

plm, on March 4th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

Apple execs are having a Lsd flashback to the 90’s when Apple products were overpriced. The mac mini and mac pro prices are insane. I’m actually hoping Windows 7 is good at this point so I can switch. A sad day.

JAmes D, on March 4th, 2009 at 9:47 pm