What Would You Pay for a Low-End Mac?

In days of yore, last century, last millenium, Apple had a reputation of selling expensive computers that were out of reach of the budget of the common man. Even the early iMacs were no gimme for the low end. However, early this millenium Apple finally satiated many folks' desire for a low-end Mac with the Mac mini.

But it has languished of recent times, forgotten, neglected. And now speculation is as strong as ever it will be dropped altogether. With this and other recent events, you must start to wonder if Apple if abandoning the Mums and Dads (ok, Moms in Americanese).

In July, Apple's Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, hinted Apple was on the verge of introducing something significant that would reduce Apple's bottomline but was obviously worth it. (On yesterday's there was in fact no decrease in profit margins to speak of.) Maybe it was really the cutting of the Mac mini and losing all that market... Although you'd think that wouldn't be as significant as Oppenheimer alluded - and anyway, when a company cuts a product line, it wwangles the books so it looks like it's better for the bottom line.

Without any evidence, as this is still speculation, all that can be said is, "Apple, please don't drop the Mac mini!"

I'd love to see a show of hands of people whose first Mac was a mini and that led them to other more expensive Macs.

It's also possible new low-end Macs are in the pipeline, and that is what Oppenheimer was referring too. But that bothers me if the there is a cost hit is because of some fancy-pants, show-off engineering. Maybe though, it will simply be very agressive pricing.

With the world lurching towards a financial recession of some sort or other, is it wise for Apple to return to its roots, return to the safety of its high place?

You can argue all you like about the Mac mini not selling sufficiently to warrant keeping it, but the argument flows the other way too, that is that Apple has done little to help it survive. Of course, one thing that's always hurt the Mac mini is the crappy onboard graphics. Nowadays that shouldn't be the case.

Steve said something interesting in the quarterly results conference call Q&A when someone asked if we'd see cheaper Macs:

We chose not to server a certain customer base. We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk. Our DNA will not allow us to ship that. We can continue to deliver value to customers we do choose to serve.

Come on, what koolaid drinking Mac fanboi is going to believe the almighty Apple can't make a decent device no matter what the market? I for one don't buy it. Steve keeps raving about his talented engineers and designers, but they don't have the talent to build a decent low-end Mac? Get out! Interesting too he suggests that price point, as the current Mac mini starts at $599, so is he suggesting it's bordering on being junk?

As I said last week, if Apple would compromise on clevereness and industrial design, it could make a cheap Mac that would still look damn good and not sacrifice quality of parts or technology.

Sorry, Steve, that one's a cop out. Give us a reason not an excuse.

However, you can understand Apple not wanting to get caught in a dog fight for the low-end dollar. Yet it's not that Apple would have to build a piece-of-junk $500 Mac, it's that it would have to cut its margins more than it wants to.

So a reason would be more like "The low-end of the market is so cutthroat, with vendors working off tiniest margins, it's not economically viable to compete there."

See, that wasn't so hard. Now you say it, Steve

But Steve, please don't kill off the Mac mini. Cut it back to one choice only if you like and at the higher pricepoint, but give it decent graphics and I reckon you'll sell enough to keep it viable. And you know what? We're not actually after a $500 computer. We just want something decent that costs a lot less than the low-end iMac, which currently stands at $1199.

It seems too that I'm not the only one concerned about losing the Mac mini. My favourite pop poll, MacRumors, has folks voting 11 to 1 against this (556 negative to 48 positive as I write).

So let's help Steve out. What do you think? What would you be prepared to pay for a low-end Mac or MacBook mini that wasn't a "piece of junk"? Would $700 be a fair price point?