The Apple rumor sites now all concur that there will likely be a special event on January 26th. That event is most likely going to focus on the long rumored Apple tablet.
There has been much debate amd speculation on what OS that tablet will run. Will it be Mac OS X or will it be iPhone OS?
I believe it’s almost certain that the tablet will run some version of iPhone OS. The reason, two words: App Store. Apple is almost certain to want to leverage the success of the iPhone App Store for its new tablet device. With over 100,000 available apps, the App Store is perhaps the most successful software distribution tool ever developed. And so any device Apple will introduce will need to tap into that ready-made resource.
Even if the tablet’s OS is more of a cross between iPhone OS and Mac OS, it will almost certainly be made capable of running iPhone apps in order to tap into the App Store in its current form. Beyond that, I would even venture to say that some version of the App Store for the Mac may be forthcoming as well.
Well, Apple’s last keynote appearance at MacWorld in January of 2009 has passed. No new Macs… unless you count the refresh of the 17-inch MacBook Pro to the new unibody aluminum stylings of its 15-inch and 13-inch siblings.
Then at the beginning of March, Apple somewhat surprised the Apple-watching world with updates to the iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini. While the fact that they were updating these systems was not surprising at all – both the mini and Mac Pro had not seen notable upgrades in well over a year – the timing was surprising. Thanks to some rumors in February, the consensus was that Apple would announce these hardware updates on or about March 24th. As for the updates, the Mac Pro got welcome updates to the new Intel Nehalem architecture and a new high-end graphics option in ATI’s Radeon HD 4870. The iMac saw the least notable spec upgrades with slight proessor bumps and a switch to Nvidia’s newly rebadged GT 120, GT 130, and ATI’s HD 4850 (as a BTO option). No quad core Core 2 processors nor Core i7 (however, in fairness, we must remember that there isn’t a quad core mobile i7 available yet). The entire desktop line added Mini DisplayPort and phased out Firewire 400 in favor of Firewire 800.
The Mac mini (the subject of my personal Mac lust) saw the most notable upgrades, finally bringing it useable graphics in the form of Nvidia’s 9400M chipset, just like the MacBook. The only problem many critics have had with the mini updates is that there was no improvement in price. At least the iMac saw effective price reduction by moving the price of the entry-level 24-inch model down to $1499. The entry mini remains at $599. Granted you are getting notably better graphics performance (from woeful Intel GMA950 to Nvida 9400M), slightly improved CPU capability (bumped from 1.86Ghz to 2.0Ghz the bus going from 800Mhz to 1066Mhz), and slightly increased hard drive size (80GB to 120GB). But given the passing of time from the last update a little more hard drive space at least would have been nice. Worse, the higher end model shares the same 2.0GHz CPU, an extra 1GB or RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. Nice, but somewhat overpriced at a whole $200 step up. If Apple had given that model, oh, say an included 2.26 GHz CPU that is otherwise available as a BTO option, then the $799 model would be a decent value.
That all being said, I do believe that the new entry level Mac mini is a good system and worth the price, especially considering that you can perform your own RAM and hard drive upgrades if you wish or need to. If I had the extra $600 laying around, I’d snap one right up yesterday.
And, actually, by NOT dropping the price on the mini too much, Apple has left themselves room to do so if they see the economy and demand wane further as the year progresses. Given that recent articles have implied that demand for the new desktops is unexpectedly high, I don’t expect any such price adjustments any time soon.
So what is Apple up to for its rumored March 24th event? Probably nothing, because they have just announced an invitation-only press event for March 17th. The topic… much like last March, a new iPhone OS! More on that in part 2.
On the stock front, while it looks like the DOW as a whole continues its tumble, as of this hour, AAPL is rising, no doubt on the expectations of new competitively priced (hopefully) products next week. As we have seen in the past, trading prices of AAPL seem to always get a good boost in the run-up to an announcement event and during the event itself. After the events, the stock often loses a bit of value as “analysts” kick in with their “disappointment” in whatever announcement that’s made not being as unrealistically fantastic and/or low-priced as they had wanted.
While we know there are to be notebook updates on October 14th, I myself am still holding out some hope for an update to the Mac mini, especially a graphics boost (to at least Intel X3100 or X4500) and even a price cut – can you say $499 or even $399 (the latter being serious wishful thinking)? The mini’s current graphics engine, the Intel GMA 950, is at least two generations old and way underpowered for today’s software. And updates to processor technology, memory capacity and hard drive size are needed.
In light of that need for substantial updating, how can Apple actually drop the price? Well, one way to upgrade and to reduce the cost of the mini would be to, like the MacBook Air, remove the optical drive. This would also allow a substantial reduction in size. Without an optical drive (but able to connect the Air’s own external drive via a powered USB port) Apple could even rename the mini to be the “Mac Air.”
Why do this? I think a $399 mini (or whatever it is named) could really drive sales volume in the current market. Pre-loaded with OS X, iLife, and perhaps even a fully-licensed copy of iWork, a revamped mini would be a very attractive value machine at $399 right out of the box. And with parts costs having dropped of late, it would also not be too much of a hurt on Apple’s margins.
The mini as it stands this moment is actually way overpriced for what’s in it. At $399 a new, improved small headless Mac like the mini would once again be a tempting option for home users, potential switchers, and others with a need for a small second machine. $499 would be good, but $399 would be the sweet spot at which it could really make a dent in sales to those otherwise looking at low-cost entry-level PCs from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. Such an aggressive move by Apple could really aid in growing the market share of OS X and move Apple toward further growth. Get people hooked on OS X and they might want to move on up later to a nice iMac, MacBook, or even Mac Pro. And such a move would help to extend the “halo effect” from all the new Apple customers brought in by the iPhone 3G.
srhawk.com 