MacNight is a blog to humorously extoll the vitues of the Mac and Apple products. Its all in good fun, and please talk it up.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Speaking of Mac Mini
So, you can buy a Mac Mini for $800 that has a Core Duo. But, you can get a Core Duo for $1,100 in the form of a laptop in the MacBook. Isn't the pricing a little too close together?
Hey Man, $300 is nothing to sneeze at! Portability always costs more than stationarity, if I may be so bold! We have always paid a premium for portability, and given that the computing power is on par, I don't think $300 is out of the ordinary. What have you been smokin?
Once again, you seem to be completely missing the point. What I was indicating is that why buy a Mac Mini, when you can get a MacBook for only $300 more? Of course it's a premium for portability, and I am saying that the premium doesn't seem like enough to place the Mac Mini in the 'lower-priced' competitive niche, when it has no keyboard, no monitor, no iSight, etc.
$1000 is the sweet spot, and below $1000 is what the average consumer looks for! In addition, the two machines are aimed at completely different audiences, so the argument "why buy a Mac Mini when you can get the Macbook" misses the point. The Mac Mini is "Lower priced Competetive" because it is sub $1000. The average comsumer looking for a cheap desktop computer will not want to go over their "limit" of $1000, and the Macbook isn't what they're looking for in the first place.
Gentlemen, you are both right. There is some trick pricing going on here. Lets compare:
Mac Mini (top model): $800 1.66GHz 512MB RAM 80GB HD Superdrive (DVD burner)
MacBook (bottom model): $1099 1.83GHz (better!) 512MB RAM (same) 60GB HD (worse) Combo Drive (CD only burn) (worse) iSight (better)
So Apple giveth and taketh away. But lets upgrade them to be about the same machine. (512MB,80GB HD,SuperDrive,iSight,keyboard and 20" monitor) MacBook price: $1349 MacMini price: $1776 ($1277 if you get a $300 flat screen instead of Apple's)
So if you actually compare Apples to Apples, the MacBook is about the same price as the equivalent Mini. The small difference could be the slower clock speed. So I would have to say with the portability of the MacBook, it wins out. Of course these are for two different types of markets. The mini is for someone who already has a monitor and keyboard and it interested in an inexpensive way to switch or check out Apple. The MacBook is I believe Apple's "loss leader" product. It is attempting to use the synergy of the iPod to prompt sales by I would guess mostly college students. At least that is my take.
Thank you for your excellent analysis, and I do see how you came to your conclusions. In my book, it seems that the MacBook is by far the better choice, which is why I feel the Mini should be no more than $650 to really be in the 'lower-priced' niche.
Lo is, of course, without objective opinion, as he is always trying so hard to justify anything and everything that his God - errr...I mean Steve Jobs - does.
5 comments:
Hey Man, $300 is nothing to sneeze at! Portability always costs more than stationarity, if I may be so bold! We have always paid a premium for portability, and given that the computing power is on par, I don't think $300 is out of the ordinary. What have you been smokin?
Lo,
Once again, you seem to be completely missing the point. What I was indicating is that why buy a Mac Mini, when you can get a MacBook for only $300 more? Of course it's a premium for portability, and I am saying that the premium doesn't seem like enough to place the Mac Mini in the 'lower-priced' competitive niche, when it has no keyboard, no monitor, no iSight, etc.
-Le
$1000 is the sweet spot, and below $1000 is what the average consumer looks for! In addition, the two machines are aimed at completely different audiences, so the argument "why buy a Mac Mini when you can get the Macbook" misses the point. The Mac Mini is "Lower priced Competetive" because it is sub $1000. The average comsumer looking for a cheap desktop computer will not want to go over their "limit" of $1000, and the Macbook isn't what they're looking for in the first place.
Gentlemen, you are both right. There is some trick pricing going on here. Lets compare:
Mac Mini (top model):
$800
1.66GHz
512MB RAM
80GB HD
Superdrive (DVD burner)
MacBook (bottom model):
$1099
1.83GHz (better!)
512MB RAM (same)
60GB HD (worse)
Combo Drive (CD only burn) (worse)
iSight (better)
So Apple giveth and taketh away. But lets upgrade them to be about the same machine.
(512MB,80GB HD,SuperDrive,iSight,keyboard and 20" monitor)
MacBook price: $1349
MacMini price: $1776
($1277 if you get a $300 flat screen instead of Apple's)
So if you actually compare Apples to Apples, the MacBook is about the same price as the equivalent Mini. The small difference could be the slower clock speed. So I would have to say with the portability of the MacBook, it wins out. Of course these are for two different types of markets. The mini is for someone who already has a monitor and keyboard and it interested in an inexpensive way to switch or check out Apple. The MacBook is I believe Apple's "loss leader" product. It is attempting to use the synergy of the iPod to prompt sales by I would guess mostly college students. At least that is my take.
Stitch,
Thank you for your excellent analysis, and I do see how you came to your conclusions. In my book, it seems that the MacBook is by far the better choice, which is why I feel the Mini should be no more than $650 to really be in the 'lower-priced' niche.
Lo is, of course, without objective opinion, as he is always trying so hard to justify anything and everything that his God - errr...I mean Steve Jobs - does.
:-)
-Le
Post a Comment