In a Fool's view: the Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle

Alexander Turcic · 01-17-2005, 05:56 AM

Seth Jayson of Motley Fool offers some wonderfully wicked words about Apple's latest two products. An excerpt: "Oh yeah, the famously opinionated CEO derided the need for a display and visual user interface on this model, saying that it would be too small to be useful. Need I point out the irony in that point of view? It comes from a guy who expects people to pony up $500 or $600 for the privilege of squinting at their photos on an iPod screen that's smaller than a credit card."

Very funny read and definitely recommended to every Apple stock holder!

Colin Dunstan · 01-17-2005, 03:24 PM

Hahahhaa this one is great! I liked this one best:

Quote:

It [the Mac Mini] comes with no keyboard, no mouse, no monitor, no speakers. Kind of like Ford promising you a $7,000 car with no steering wheel or windshield. Long story short: Gathering the cheapest components I could find at Apple's online store, I came up with an $800 system before shipping (and the low-end monitor had a wait of six weeks).

And this one:

Quote:

I'm sure Mac-happy Walter Mossberg will go into one of his uncharacteristic fits of apoplectic ecstasy when he gets his hands on one of these.

*GRIN*

Gatton · 01-17-2005, 04:45 PM

Ahh that's funny. I love the line about Mossberg. He does tend to go overboard fawning over the latest from Cupertino.

Being a Mac fan I'm sure lots of people will deride the Mac Mini's lack of any peripherals. I was surprised it didn't at least come with a mouse and keyboard. I think the Mac Mini though is aimed squarely at long time Windows users who already have some old equipment laying around. Maybe that's a skewed point of view coming from someone who builds their machines but I can imagine lots of people who already have a spare keyboard and mouse from their last upgrade. For those people they would finally be able to pick up a Mac relatively cheap and see if it's for them. Whether they have a spare CRT laying about however is probably a better question.

I'm not the first person to suggest it but I would guess these two new products (the other being the iPod Shuffle) are intended to try and get people in the door with the hopes they'll upgrade to a G5 and a 60GB iPod Photo someday. My inclination is to say it won't work but then I've been wrong about Steve before. We'll see if they can pull it off.

PhillyPocket · 01-19-2005, 03:51 PM

Well as one long time windows user I can tell you it's not very appealing. I feels like someone taking a leak on my back and telling me it's raining. Since they are already providing an under powered unit they really should have made it a complete unit. My days of getting a low end unit not ready to run out of the box have been gone for about 7 years.

There were actually a couple of good points in the article. I hadn't even thought about the fact that if you were buying the mini mac (at least in part) for it's cuteness the last thing you'd probably do is attach it to an old beige keyboard, mouse and monitor. And who would have thought Dell's margins were higher? Although as I look around our office and at my own system and pda I can see why. They sell. And they work.

I did actually see someone come up with a realistic argument for a pc user to purchase this. As a test bed for a web developer. Relatively inexpensive and accurate for multiplatform testing. And I could even see them pluggin it into their beige monitor, mouse and keyboard.

01-17-2005, 05:56 AM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	In a Fool's view: the Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle Seth Jayson of Motley Fool offers some wonderfully wicked words about Apple's latest two products. An excerpt: "Oh yeah, the famously opinionated CEO derided the need for a display and visual user interface on this model, saying that it would be too small to be useful. Need I point out the irony in that point of view? It comes from a guy who expects people to pony up $500 or $600 for the privilege of squinting at their photos on an iPod screen that's smaller than a credit card." Very funny read and definitely recommended to every Apple stock holder!

01-19-2005, 03:51 PM	#4
PhillyPocket Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 80 Join Date: Jan 2005 Device: Axim X50v	...well I don't know.... Well as one long time windows user I can tell you it's not very appealing. I feels like someone taking a leak on my back and telling me it's raining. Since they are already providing an under powered unit they really should have made it a complete unit. My days of getting a low end unit not ready to run out of the box have been gone for about 7 years. There were actually a couple of good points in the article. I hadn't even thought about the fact that if you were buying the mini mac (at least in part) for it's cuteness the last thing you'd probably do is attach it to an old beige keyboard, mouse and monitor. And who would have thought Dell's margins were higher? Although as I look around our office and at my own system and pda I can see why. They sell. And they work. I did actually see someone come up with a realistic argument for a pc user to purchase this. As a test bed for a web developer. Relatively inexpensive and accurate for multiplatform testing. And I could even see them pluggin it into their beige monitor, mouse and keyboard.

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01-17-2005, 04:45 PM	#3
Gatton Groupie Posts: 150 Karma: 368 Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Charlotte, NC Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2021, assorted Fire tablets.	Ahh that's funny. I love the line about Mossberg. He does tend to go overboard fawning over the latest from Cupertino. Being a Mac fan I'm sure lots of people will deride the Mac Mini's lack of any peripherals. I was surprised it didn't at least come with a mouse and keyboard. I think the Mac Mini though is aimed squarely at long time Windows users who already have some old equipment laying around. Maybe that's a skewed point of view coming from someone who builds their machines but I can imagine lots of people who already have a spare keyboard and mouse from their last upgrade. For those people they would finally be able to pick up a Mac relatively cheap and see if it's for them. Whether they have a spare CRT laying about however is probably a better question. I'm not the first person to suggest it but I would guess these two new products (the other being the iPod Shuffle) are intended to try and get people in the door with the hopes they'll upgrade to a G5 and a 60GB iPod Photo someday. My inclination is to say it won't work but then I've been wrong about Steve before. We'll see if they can pull it off.