Mac Mini to be Discontinued?

The Mac Mini sucks anyways.

Well yeah. It's got a fan in it.

Dur!

And which of those services will sell or stream me 50 Mbps 1080p BD quality movies, or reimburse me for the $10 per movie that I have to pay for bandwidth charges to download them?

You're making it seem like the Mac Mini is the best for an HTPC, I never said that. I just said it's great.

Netflix streams 720p, iTunes' Movies are 720p. 720p is fine if you like use Netflix and/or buy/rent movies from iTunes.

Therefore it's a great device because 720p is HD.

I have my mini attached to my HDTV. It's great for watching Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, Youtube, all the stations that post full episodes on line and for just plain surfing the web with the advantage of a larger screen. This is my new mini purchased during the summer, my first mini PPC has met its end.

Did anyone bother to read this? Steve clearly says NO! $500 junk box meaning no he will not give the green light for a new Mini in the $599 $600 range.

One thing I've learnt being an Apple user and a member of this forum... is that never take what Steve says on face value. When he says yes, it doesn't mean it's going to happen (blu-ray burner in 1 year at MW2005 comes to mind), and when he says no doesn't mean he has something else up his sleeve in a new/different direction or take on the genre.

The Mac Mini can sell lots - if Apple wants it to. Simply put, the Mini has received little to no marketing or upgrade attention since it was introduced, which seems to me like it was a product of neccesity or by force - and not by will from Apple. They're clearly not interested in it - but it doesn't mean it's a bad product and hasn't sold in decent numbers up till now.

Hmmm….Mini and Apple TV merge, no optical drive or firewire (I know, don’t mention the ‘F’ word), 2gb fixed ram, 3.5” HDD for up to 1TB storage, HDMI and Mini Display port (or include an adapter), 3 USB ports with 1 on the front save for plugging in your camera or iPod to sync…$499? Maybe a bit far fetched…better go buy a mini just in case...

What about a merged Apple TV, mini, and Time Capsule? They all have the same form factor.

I do wonder if Apple will actually kill the Mini. If it was doing that poorly it wouldn't have lasted as long as the cube did. Instead its stuck around obviously selling enough for Apple to keep it available, with little effort on the r&d side. So thinking along those lines its easy to guess that Apple still have plans for the mini. As others have already suggested merging the ATV with the mini makes sense.

Lets hope they're brewing something new.

A keyboard computer? old school way? Hmm...

iMac: the screen is the computer!
iKey: the keyboard is the computer!

Could work :D

Mac Mini and Apple TV should be merged. TV outputs, Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse inputs, hard disk, superdrive. At a low, low price of course.

We really do need a cheap Mac, it made my friend switch. Had an old PC monitor and keyboard, spent $500 and got a nice Mac. Just like Apple wanted. Today, you can do the same. Let the TV be the screen, but be a full Mac.

Forget "Think Different" - The new Apple motto is...

"Lack of Choice Makes OUR Life Easier"

WRONG.

"A streamlined lineup ENSURES Apple's success."

Longtime Mac users like me know what a mess Apple was in back in the 90s, exactly because of so many models and specs. SJ came and cleaned up that mess, so as to give a CLEAR message to the market.

And this is one of the main reasons Apple is dominating this market. No branding confusion, no cryptic model names, no plethora of look-alike Macs.

It's one AIO, one professional desktop, one professional server and 3 notebook lines...there is space for only one more thing, and that's a single-model personal desktop.

I kinda like it and bought one for my parents. IMHO, its EOL status means either that a NEW Mini is coming, a NEW Cube is coming, or a lower-specced MacPro is coming...:rolleyes:

It has gone past the point where they should either kill it or upgrade it. It doesn't need to be bleeding edge, but it really needs to be more than it is right now.

Second option, cut the price by $100-150 and keep the current specs. They might find a new/bigger market at a lower price point. i.e. a starter pc for younger kids.