How Apple makes more profit on their systems...

Shawn O'Shea shawn at eth0.net
Sun Oct 4 12:29:57 EDT 2009


A couple of notes about the Mac Mini. The general stance Apple has taken
over the years is that the Mini only exists because customers insisted there
be a model like it in it's price range. It is not Apple's "you're new to
Mac, but this system." When Apple wants to sell a new-to-Mac user a machine,
the iMac and Macbook are the target systems. (I'm not claiming any right or
wrong here, just stating my experience and what I've read about Apple's
albeit unofficial stance and policies)

That aside, I do think the MIni is a good starter system, otherwise I
wouldn't have bought one for my mom in June. However, I handled her switch,
being very familiar with Apple hardware and OS. I verified all her hardware
from her PC would work with OS X, and made sure she had all the right
connections, and got her a MiniStack for backup with Time Machine.

Two other specific notes for you with this person you are working with. I
had a lot of problems getting the system to work with VGA. The VGA adapter
just didn't work, even after applying a firmware update on a working Macbook
Pro. I ended up having to connect it to DVI. I would highly recommend anyone
with a VGA only monitor jump up to an LCD with at least DVI, if not
DisplayPort these days, especially for a newer system. It will make a world
of difference. I use the higher end Dell monitors at work all the time, and
they are my preferred displays over Apple's displays (ie the 2408WFP is a
24"widescreen display. I have the previous model, the 2407WFP on my desk at
work on a Macbook Pro and at home on a Mac Pro).

Secondly, be aware that Apple is refreshing a bunch of models any day now,
allegedly to include the Mini. This is a fairly common time of year for
Apple to do this, so even though it is currently just rumor, things like
stock shortages even at Apple stores point to an update. See this article
for some more info:
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/30/rumor-roundup-imac-and-mac-mini-due-to-refresh-before-october-9/

-Shawn

On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 9:12 AM, Alex Hewitt <hewitt_tech at comcast.net> wrote:

> Yesterday some friends asked me to accompany them to the Apple store in
> Salem to help them purchase a Mac. I had talked to them previously about
> some of the advantages of the platform including decent reliability and
> in their case the much lower amount of malware targeting the system.
>
> But before going I decided to check out the Apple web site. They were
> planning on buying a Mac Mini which is probably Apple's best bargain for
> their budget. Recently a customer had purchased the current (early 2009)
> model and I already knew that if they were going to use their VGA CRT
> type monitor they were going to need an adapter. The Mac Mini used to
> have a full size DVI connector on the back capable of both Analog and
> Digital connections. The new model has removed the DVI connector and
> replaced it with two much smaller connectors. An included adapter
> produces a DVI-D connection (single link, Digital only) and the other
> connector requires a "miniDisplayPort to VGA" adapter. That has a
> standard VGA connector (what they needed). The miniDisplayPort adapter
> costs $29.95 (and probably costs $2.95 to manufacture in China). I
> actually don't know the right combination of cables that would allow you
> to connect most current digital flat panels. The Apple site doesn't
> provide that information and they don't seem to offer the correct cable.
> They definitely don't tell their customers that they won't be able to
> connect their current monitor unless they are just plain lucky.
>
> I asked the sales guy (who was quite pleasant) why the Apple web site
> doesn't provide enough information for a customer to properly connect
> their new Mini to their existing monitor and he essentially said that
> Apple wants these customers to buy one of their nice shiny "Cinema"
> displays. Of course the Cinema display comes with precisely the correct
> cable to hook up to the digital only DVI-D adapter and only costs $899
> (which is $100 more than the higher end Mac Mini).
>
> My conclusion - Apple isn't in the business for their health. If an
> unsuspecting customer walks through their door and all they needed was a
> decent low end system to web surf, read their email, play their music
> and view their photographs, they will walk out of the store about $2,000
> to $2,500 lighter in the wallet. The Mac Mini is actually a pretty
> decent value for a small form factor system. They have upgraded their
> graphics from the sorry Intel video they previously used to a decent
> nVidia 9400 based chip set. That's all to the good but taking big chunks
> of cash from unsuspecting customers seems to be on the verge of bait and
> switch.
>
> -Alex
>
> P.S. There are a lot of ways to spin this but for me it has a bad smell.
>
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