p2pnet - rss feed: Mac mini makes little, Big
p2pnet.net News:- The Power of Music isn’t to be denied.
Apple’s Mac mini was an instant Big Hit with the media. And now Steve & Co are set to duplicate the success of the Apple iPod.
Or to put it another way, the world’s love of music has driven Apple from being the maker of expensive computers and software not many people wanted, to a house-hold name. It’s been listed as Brandchannel’s name with the most global impact for 2004, usurping Google.
iPod came along when the press was looking something to love and, boosted by iTunes sales, it’s become the Sony Walkman of the 21st century.
Now it looks like it’ll be déjà vu all over again for the Mac Mini, or the Mini Mac – you pays your money and you takes your choice.
“Even the most hardened Mac critic has to admit that Apple have pulled off a coup with the Mac Mini,” says Media Center PC News. “The buzz surrounding this tiny computer has been phenomenal and sales look like being spectacular as well.”
It goes on, “Although we have previously reported on the Mac Mini’s shortcomings as a media center replacement (unless you spend as much again on extra hardware anyway), there’s no denying that the size of the thing is amazing.”
Small is Big
And will it now force other computer makers to do an mp3 on their systems – that’s to say shrink them, making them more portable, but losing quality in the process?
SFF (Small Form Factor) PCs have been around since Shuttle launched its first model, the PC-SV24 four years ago, says Media Center PC News, going on:
“Although there is no definition of a small PC, they are generally cube-like in shape, roughly twice the size of the Mac Mini. Most are sold as barebones systems, containing the case, the motherboard and the PSU – what else gets squeezed in is up to the user. This is still not technology for the faint-hearted and most SFF PCs are sold to experienced PC builders.
“This is expected to change. The success of the Mac Mini is forcing the major manufacturers to look again at SFF. If a company like Apple with only a 2% share of the overall personal computer market can sell that many Mac Mini’s, think how many Dell, or HP, or even Shuttle themselves could sell if they produced a fully-features, pre-setup SFF PC.
“Expect to see SFF creeping steadily into the mainstream in 2005. This can only be good for media center PC enthusiasts, used to paying over the odds to get a smaller, sexier case. Apple have shown that small does not have to mean expensive and its competitors will have to realise that if they hope to fight off the charge of the Mac Mini.”
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See:-
house-hold name - Apple: Brandchannel’s new No 1, p2pnet, January 30, 2004
Small Form Factor - Media Center PC News, Will The Mac Mini Drive Down The Size Of Your PC?, January 31, 2005
