More Mac Mini Speed Bumps?

Should have been done two months ago. What has Apple got against the mini? Why do they insist on giving it the smallest incremental updates possible. Surely this is suicide from a marketing perspective.

true the added wireless and BT and a lowend user needs that after he needs high ghz what would have been nice would haev been this upgrade and the last mixed in one well know apple has to fix its mistake

Provided they don't "bump up" the price too (UK-style), then this can only be a good thing. Though quite why they waited i don't know.

I believe they should place a new graphics card, it is the thing which makes the mini unappealing for quite a few.

I agree......... it definately needs the graphic card the iBook has - thats it's biggest problem.

Sadly, I doubt any of this is true though:

"According to an entirely unconfirmed report" :eek: lol

Should have been done two months ago. What has Apple got against the mini? Why do they insist on giving it the smallest incremental updates possible. Surely this is suicide from a marketing perspective.

I agree, especially considering that such a minor speed bump is no upgrade at all. We all have read about people overclocking their minis to those speeds so it doesn't even require a new chip. Apparently, all is needed it to change a couple of jumper settings...1.42 are stable at 1.5 while 1.25 processors are stable at 1.33.

What kind of update is this???? :mad:

I have been waiting for a new mini revision since it came out. I already have a DVI monitor and a 5400 rpm drive...All I want is a better video card.... So I just ordered myself a Sonnet 1.8 upgrade for my 867 G4 and a box of ears plug to help me keep my sanity until the intel minis are released next year, hopefully without an integrated (shared) intel video.. :eek:

If true, may represent a departure from Apple's previous major-update intervals and more of a gradual upgrade cycle.

I would welcome a shift to a more gradual upgrade cycle. It would make rumors less important for purchasing decisions. The right time to buy would be whenever you need it. You would still have to keep alert for updates a couple of weeks away. However, there would be no need to sit on your wallet for months waiting for an update.

I don't think this will be too bad from a marketing perspective since it has always been difficult to sell most users on the benefits of particular internal hardware that they probably know little about. It is much easier to sell to most people on innovative design rather than hardware.

Those people who do know a lot about internal hardware will almost certainly perform effective comparisons on their own anyways. Those who don't know much probably also won't care much - they may just want "fast enough". So either way it is pointless to spend a lot of energy and resources on marketing in regards to internal hardware. Just supply the specs for those who know and reassure those who don't that it is good enough. Just my humble opinion.

I believe they should place a new graphics card, it is the thing which makes the mini unappealing for quite a few.

Bingo, but with very poor advancement in G4 apple was forced to using cheap and cheaper video to distinguish between products. Look at the books for a example. Macmini needs the fx5200 64mb chip in it to complete it. Plus those cpu speeds can be accomplished on mini's the past year with slight bumps. A 1.5 G4 along with a fx5200 64mb would make for a solid lil machine. I give our Mini a 4 out of 5 stars for its weak video.

Macmini needs the fx5200 64mb chip in it to complete it.

So true. I have a PowerBook and soon I'll be buying a Mac Mini to replace my stationary PC. It just sucks that my laptop will have more GPU power than my stationary. Give us more GPU power in the Mini! A slightly faster CPU is really not that important to me.

I would welcome a shift to a more gradual upgrade cycle. It would make rumors less important for purchasing decisions. The right time to buy would be whenever you need it. You would still have to keep alert for updates a couple of weeks away. However, there would be no need to sit on your wallet for months waiting for an update.

I agree. Doing PC-like, quiet incremental updates would mean faster technology increases for the end-user (since Apple won't have to hold back putting in new tech until enough new features accumulate to justify an update) and probably better sales for Apple, at least from the hard-core installed base that keeps track of rumors for purchasing decisions. If these users new that small updates could happen at any time, they'd have no reason to delay purchases (and knew that even if an update came out, it would be relatively minor). The company of course could still save the razzle-dazzle changes for big Jobs' keynotes. The only reason I can't seeing them doing this is that since his return Jobs has systematically tried to simplify and rationalize the product line (pro "power" line, consumer "i" line, although as with all things the simple scheme is starting to fall apart with time with the intro of the mini, etc.). This simplifies purchasing decisions for end-users, support provision by the company, and retail inventory logistics. All of that will become incrementally more difficult as more 'minor' update models get introduced. For example, its pretty easy to call and get support for an imac G4 because of the small number of updates covered by that model. Who wants a return to the 'yikes', 'sawtooth' confusion of years past?