Mac Mini – is the strategy right?

Faustus

Faustus

Faustus

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Price apart do you think Apple have got it right with their marketing strategy for a product like the Mac Mini.

The reason I raise this as a point for debate is that my neighbour has purchased a Mini this week (I did advise against as I considered them to be far too expensive for what they are but that’s another issue entirely). However, having seen the Mini in operation and used it myself I have to confess to having a grudging admiration for the device as it really is very nice to use and much faster and responsive than I imagined it to be plus it does look very chic.

However, the argument that keeps circulating in my mind keeps asking is the Mini the real deal? Apple market the Mini as a first step for Windows “switchers”. When I look at my neighbours Mini what I see are all the Windows peripherals i.e. a black plastic monitor, keyboard and mouse. Now I know that Apple have always marketed the Mini as a BYOKDM (bring your own keyboard display and mouse) device but my question is – is this a true Apple experience. With the Mini what else is the user getting except the opportunity to use OS X? Surely to my mind the Apple experience is about using all the Apple hardware i.e. screen, keyboard, mouse, as well as the hardware platform? Without the rest of the equipment I feel you might as well load up a Linux CD and give that a try too.

Can others see the point I am trying to make?
 
OSX is the biggest part of the Mac experience. The keyboard and mouse make no difference. Well the keyboard does.

Also, in my experience there are as many Mac Minis under televisions and acting as home servers as there as normal desktop machines, and I think Apple are aware of this. Well the clearly are aware of it, hence the Mac Mini Server.

It's got a dual purpose.

a) to be marketed to switchers (which I don't think it's all that successful at, although in fairness my first Mac at home was a Mini, integrated with my PC setup)

and b) a tinker toy/server/htpc which I think it is much better suited to, but still too expensive lately. The base model price being upped to £649 is very bad in my estimation.

£500 was *just* within what I could justify for an HTPC/download box/browsing on the telly machine, and that was because I already had a wireless keyboard and wireless mighty mouse kicking about, and if I'm honest I used my monster Apple discount as well. At full price, I just don't think I could have brought myself to spend it, and at £649 absolutely not.

Also I know you said price apart but I think, and a lot of people think, that the price is the only way they've cocked it up. It's not even that it's too expensive for what it is, it's that it's too close to the price of the iMac, especially as in store they present them with Cinema Displays, which even no are £649, the 27 will be even more expensive.

I think even if the machine was considerably less powerful, and cheaper, it would sell better and bring more people over from Windows. It's not the way they do things and it won't happen, but that is what I'd like to see. Price in the region of £349/449 and built down to that price.
 
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No. I bought a mini as my first mac allowing me to use my existing keyboard mouse and display and I also used a cheap kvm to use them and my pc with he same peripherals, my mac usage increased and my pc usage decreased to the point where I was only booting it up for games, as far as it being judged as a good device for switchers I would say at that point it is pretty much "job done".
 
I think people like you and I, Sareth, who set it up with a KVM, are pretty rare. 95% of people who come in and talk to me about Mac Minis are looking at iMacs within two minutes, once I've actually laid out the price to them.

Most people don't even know what a KVM is.
 
I was looking at Mac Mini as a way to test out a mac however the price has increased too much. About £500 for the base model was a bargain however 649 for something with an old core 2 processor, no keyboard and mouse is a bit much.

I think Apple have spotted the HTPC market with the recent update as they added the HDMI output, they should have updated the CPU at the same time.

Dave
 
PardonTheWait said:
It's got a dual purpose.

a) to be marketed to switchers (which I don't think it's all that successful at, although in fairness my first Mac at home was a Mini, integrated with my PC setup)

and b) a tinker toy/server/htpc which I think it is much better suited to, but still too expensive lately. The base model price being upped to £649 is very bad in my estimation.
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I think this is about right. If their strategy is to convert Windows users then then, for me, they fail. Big time. The cynic in me says they really go after market b), particularly existing Mac users, who would swallow the bitter pricing pill more easily as it goes with the territory.

I do think the OP has a good point though. What is one of Apple's biggest strengths? User interface. For the extortionate price of the Mac Mini they could at least throw in a Mac keyboard and mouse to get the full "Mac experience". If the Magic Mouse is so great then let's see it. Instead they run the risk of someone putting a crappy PC keyboard between themselves and the Mac Mini.

The truth is Apple aren't really that interested in aggressively going after Windows users on the desktop, at least not anymore, because it's a battle they won't win. They'd rather keep the price/exclusivity high and pluck a few curious customers than drive the price down low and make Macs for the masses.
 
I would prefer a simply macbook equivalent of the the mac mini, cheaper plastic materials to be used. I suspect they fear they would only undermine their current customers who pay for the imac as the mini is just too poor value for money.
 
The truth is Apple aren't really that interested in aggressively going after Windows users on the desktop, at least not anymore, because it's a battle they won't win. They'd rather keep the price/exclusivity high and pluck a few curious customers than drive the price down low and make Macs for the masses.
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I think this is right. I read an article only recently about the birth of the Mac Mini and what it was hoped it would achieve. Apparently before sales of Apple products were as firm as they are today the Apple board were obsessed with having a sub $700 PC in their portfolio as this price point is seen as the tipping point for PC sales both in the US and across Europe. This was a market that the Apple board thought they had to get into to survive. However, SJ thought otherwise which is why he has never been keen on the Mini. There's been a battle going on ever since and a number of attempts have been made to kill off the Mini. However, up to now this is one battle SJ hasn't fully won hence the new Mac Mini. You may have noticed though that apart from PC World there are no stores with physical stocks of the Mini, they have to be ordered online (Apple stores apart that is, though not all of them have stock). Now what's all that about other than an a deliberate effort to promote sales of other Apple products and hide the Mini?

Perhaps I am unusual as you will see from my signature that I am not loving the switch to a Mac. Don't get me wrong, I love the hardware but I can take or leave OS X. I think that not to long ago the lure for many switchers was OS X. However, I think that lure has been very much diluted with the arrival of Windows 7 and for me OS X doesn't do anything that W7 can't do and I prefer the gloss of W7.
 
Its a shame its a little too expensive and only has the lower spec mbp graphics card in it, lop £50 off the price and change the card to something slightly more powerful (im looking at its ability to run games really) and they have a big seller.

Wont happen though as the imac is designed to cover this area.... :( (even though the imac is beautiful)
 
I still use a "Windows" mouse and keyboard with my iMac, as I'd get it in the neck from the wife over the weird keys on the Mac keyboard and the Magic Mouse is rubbish.
 
vonhelmet said:
I still use a "Windows" mouse and keyboard with my iMac, as I'd get it in the neck from the wife over the weird keys on the Mac keyboard and the Magic Mouse is rubbish.
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Hells teeth I bet that looks a bit eclectic, the beautiful lines of the iMac complete with Windows keyboard and mouse - they're not black are they?:eek:

The MM is fine when you get used to it though it is a bit shallow.
 
GFX Card in the mini does me fine, runs RE5 better than it does on my PS3, so I'm happy.

Wouldn't have paid full price for it though, got mine for £570 with 4GB RAM, which is still a little expensive.
 
The Mac Mini is the perfect media centre PC. Capable and versatile.

I use mine as my main machine for browsing / iTunes and general photoshopping, but the Mrs' has been trained to boot up Plex when she wants to watch a movie. In the new house it's going to be rack mounted and strictly media centre / server duties only.

For first time buyer's they are pretty good if they have a keyboard and mouse, but they are a bit expensive for what they are.
 
They are amazing machines. Quiet and run pretty much the same as a MacBook which is beautifully (unless you're wanting to play games).

They were also £250 cheaper. While some of that can be due to the exchange rate currently approx £120 of your money goes "missing" in the exchange rate conversion :eek:

Very definition of the "Apple Tax" :(
 
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Faustus said:
You may have noticed though that apart from PC World there are no stores with physical stocks of the Mini, they have to be ordered online (Apple stores apart that is, though not all of them have stock). Now what's all that about other than an a deliberate effort to promote sales of other Apple products and hide the Mini?
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I worked in an Apple Store for two years and aside from just after launch, we had stocks of all Mac Mini models in constantly.

I work at an APR now and we always have at least one in stock which is replaced within a day or so of being sold. Usually more.

You're right in that the people who end up buying Minis usually know they want one already though. A fair few people think they might want one and end up with an iMac, I'd say at least 9.5/10 people who initially look at the Mini end up with an iMac once you've actually shown them the price of the two setups.

It's just not what is should be, on the switcher/starter front.

It's my opinion that really it belongs under a TV or in a cupboard or something.
 
I have a Mac mini at home and the studio. Its used for everything including as a MAMP development machine, photoshop, office, vmware etc. Its loaded with 8GB of ram and its very fast.

I went for the mini as I already have dual monitors that I wanted to keep. I did spec the mac wireless KB and mouse on both systems though.

If you dont need it for gaming or heavy 3d rendering then why do you need anything faster?
 
Were I to buy a Macintosh, it would almost certainly be the mini. Had I not discovered Linux I'd have done so by now, so I think they've got it about right. I'm still playing with the idea of getting one, as a htpc / learning osx effort.

Cheaper would lead to more sales, but that's true with most things. Apple's marketing team is ridiculously skilled, so there's probably good reasons why the mini costs so much more than its components would suggest.

I can't see the appeal of an imac over a macbook myself, so struggle to understand the imac removing sales from the mini. I'm not disputing that this happens, just saying that I don't follow why it would.
 
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