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Apple to kill off Mac Mini?
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 22nd October 2008
The dinky Mac Mini - the critics loved it, but is Apple planning to scrap the product line in the face of poor sales?
According to a post on Gizmodo yesterday at least two major European retailers have been denied any more stock of the diminutive MacOS X-based machine, which means one of two things: a new version is due to ship real-soon-now, or the system is to be discontinued in favour of its more popular MacBook and Mac Pro brethren.
Hopes for the former are likely dashed with the further news that Apple is warning customers to expect “no more” of the Mac Mini – at all, ever.
While the box was launched to critical acclaim, and represented a surprisingly affordable entry into the world of Macs, it has certainly never been a great seller for the company. The current generation of the Mac Mini – last refreshed in 2007 – is pretty poor compared to the rest of the Apple stable, with no support for the faster 802.11n wireless networking standard and an older Intel 945GM chipset powering it all. If it's not due to die a death, then it is in sore need of a serious overhaul if it is ever to challenge its more expensive counterparts in sales figures.
Therein lies Apple's dichotomy: if it improves the performance of the Mac Mini with a hardware refresh, will it detract from sales of the more expensive – and therefore profitable – MacBook hardware? It could well be that Apple would profit by removing the lower-priced entry point, forcing users who want to “think different” to shell out on higher-end hardware.
That said, I'll be disappointed to see the Mac Mini go. It was an Eee Box before Asus had even consider the notion, and the performance from such a dinky device was nothing short of outstanding. Perhaps a hardware refresh isn't so unlikely after all - especially when you consider that this isn't the first time that the demise of the Mini has been predicted.
Do you believe that the world still needs a teeny-tiny MacOS-based system, or is that niche filled by the smaller MacBook systems? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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tbh short of getting a underpowered mini-itx based rig there is little else to match its footprint or overall size.
Its still bigger, not a lot mind.
Which is 165x165x50. Smaller than an epia.
oh and it runs OSX
We have these pieces of **** at work and never in my life have I worked anything as poor as these (mine lasted about 5min and is now sitting on a shelf turned off).
These things are so slow you would expect to find a steam engine were you to open them up. Most people around here have at least 1-2 crashes a week if not more.. especially if they are using powerpoint or photoshop.
But sure for web browsing and a youtube movie every now and then it's probably fine.
Though at least that Dell runs a normal OS... :p
Personally, I'd rather pick up some plexi, the new Jetway board and a couple of laptop drives... or build on of these:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1819022&postcount=33
Or a NES PC....
Yea you cant call the mac mini exactly fast, its growing quite old now. Theres some pics about of a mini mac tower which would be nice, only if they keep the price point at £400 thou
+1. I'd love a mini for a media center, might have to take the plunge and get one soon before they disappear from shops and the eBay market goes crazy.
I think apple could end up pricing them selfs out of the market as more people look to buy small cheap systems.
AppleTV anyone?
Your point is?
And yes, I was thinking about buying a Mini to use as a sort of home media server as well as a few other random tasks (SSH & WAP proxy, for getting on blocked sites at school and for getting free internet on my phone). But considering how outdated it is, I could get a new Intel G45 mini-itx board with a 45nm core 2 or pentium dual core and it would be a lot faster and more energy efficient, perhaps even cheaper.
tbh