journalweblogthing

So again like last year the Mac Mini has been pronounced dead, this time it seems more likely as it’s not a rumour site reporting. Hearing from a couple of European retailers, Giz sez they aren’t able to order any more in- I’ll back that up as well, working in retail has it’s perks…

The John Lewis stores in the UK now class them as discontinued on their stock and ordering system, and we’re certainly running out of them all over the country. Some are hoping for a replacement mid-range standalone machine but with such a strong lineup for Macbooks and iMacs, (due for a replacement very shortly, no doubt) I don’t think it’ll happen. Much hoped for among the community are cheaper lower-end Macs to tempt people into switching, and I can’t help thinking that once the Vista Issue ends and Windows 7 comes out, the sales of Mac may start to slide a bit. This may be some time off and we shall have to see whether Microsoft manage to mess that up as well.

The Mac Mini, despite needing all the peripherals on top was a good machine, if somewhat stunted in it’s speed. (Essentially notebook components in a small enclosure) With the Apple TV updates this year and the fact that the iMacs are still very neat and portable for moving around the house, for most people having a separate unit isn’t what they want. Also by bringing up the price for the cheapest MacBook to £719, even though it has gained a Superdrive (finally ditching the pretty crappy Combo CD Writer/DVD) Apple are putting off those wanting a lower-end computer who are tempted to move over. This is not to say that they will likely ever bring out a cheap mac, but people never have the right perception of what you get for the price.

I digress. The Mac Mini was a great machine but to be honest just isn’t wanted as much. In over 2 years of working in a John Lewis I think I’ve sold only one or two, compared to hundreds and hundreds of iMacs and the Macbook range, which people are still buying despite the price jump. I was doing an extra day on Monday as a favour to one of my Section Managers and someone came in and bought the high end 15″ MacBook Pro off of me during his lunch break- all £1,749 of it. (Yes for you Americans doing the math, over here we get completely screwed over the price. So stop whining about your little price problems!) People have come in wanting to buy a Mini and ended up with an iMac because of the lack of need to plug in anything but the power cable. (Using a wireless keyboard and mouse, anyway.)