Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Plug & Play Hardware RAID up to 8.0TB. High Performance, Data Redundant Solutions. FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB2, or eSATA. Hot Swappable Bays, Data Rates over 200MB/s. Click here

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Stop the Noiz

Could a Minitower Mac Be Apple's 'Transitional Product'?

Frank Fox - 2008.07.24, revised - Tip Jar

Popularity: LEMLEMLEMLEM

del.icio.us Bookmark in del.icio.us

A new "transitional product" from Apple? What could it be?

The guesses have been a new Mac Tablet or an overhaul of the MacBook and MacBook Pro. for both of these guesses, I'm not impressed. Demand for tablet computers hasn't shown to be very high for the Window's version; I don't see a big drive for more. Overhaul of MacBooks may happen to keep up with new versions of Intel chips, but that doesn't support a "transitional product".

In the quarterly conference call, Apple Cfo Peter Oppenheimer highlighted the company's competitive pricing. Then there was discussion of expected growth to market share. Apple expects a growth to the retail channels overseas, because they will need more coverage to handle growth of Mac sales, not just iPods and iPhones. That sounds like plans for serious product growth.

for clues I think we have to look at Apple's current product lines. What areas of the market hasn't Apple cornered with their unique brand of cool looks and features?

Apple seems to have complete coverage of the mobile computing field. They have the ultraportable market with the iPhone. The lightweight laptop is pinned down with the MacBook Air. Between the MacBook and MacBook Pro, they cover from consumer to professional.

Sure a Mac Tablet could be squeezed in, but the notebook range is already full and selling well, 37% growth year over year. No obvious holes there.

On the desktop, we find only three choices: The Mac mini is appliance computing at its best. The iMac is a wonderful compact design with a large monitor for the average user. Then we have the top-end professional muscle of the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is multiprocessor power for heavy-duty video and design work. Desktop growth was fantastic, 49% year over year, but this was largely attributed to iMac sales

The only thing missing here is a low cost, high volume minitower for the consumer who doesn't need professional performance.

Apple vs. Psystar

The minitower is also where Psystar tried to generate sales that honestly weren't being satisfied by Apple. With Apple suing Psystar out of existence and dropping hints of a "transitional product", what could Apple be up to? Could it be thinking that it wants a clear field to launch its new product?

The Mac mini is nice. I own one that I'd like to move to the living room to connect to my HD TV.

With what should I replace it? The Mac mini has limitations because it is built like a laptop with no monitor and a notebook hard drive. That means small size at the expense of hard drive space and processor speed. Another mini is not quite what I want for an upgrade.

I need a different product to transition beyond the Mac mini.

Since I already have a monitor, I don't exactly need or want an iMac. I need a different product to transition beyond the Mac mini. I want an inexpensive desktop so I can get a nice performance boost today, but I don't want to spend much money. Besides the Mac mini design and performance hasn't gotten a lot of attention from Apple lately - I wonder why?

Maybe Apple, like me, is ready to transition away from the Mac mini. They need something to get sales really rocking in the desktop arena. Maybe a 49% growth rate isn't good enough. Apple is now shooting for the number 2 spot in computer sales, so look out HP and Dell.

Apple will need to target the consumer/business desktop market. To me, a great "transitional product" would be a minitower designed by Apple.

Impacting Gross Margins

A minitower would definitely impact gross margins. This was mentioned in Apple's last quarterly report, so that makes sense. Apple will have to be price competitive to fight for market share. I believe Apple can do it. It will have only one product to support instead of a dozen, like Dell or HP in this range.

During the conference call, Oppenheimer talked about how Apple is now pricing computers to beat the competition. I've written about this in the past: Mac Pro Beats HP and Dell at Their Own Game: Price and MacBook Holds Its Own Against Dell and HP Notebook Pricing.

The more of these computers they plan to sell, the bigger the hit to margin - and they are forecasting a big hit in earnings per share. Apple would take this loss in order to gain both market share and really establish the Mac OS as a contender in the market. It is also the right time to take away XP users before they switch to Vista.

The big question isn't what Apple is going to release, but what will it look like? What surprise is Apple planning for us?

I get excited thinking how far Apple will push the design to separate itself from the competition. Will it be small like the Mac mini, cube shaped, or some other form factor that makes you go Wow!

The funny thing is that even if Dell or HP knows that it is coming, they can't do a thing to stop it. They haven't done very good at beating Apple on design; I think this will be another smack against their bottom line.

I'll be saving my pennies and keeping the Mac mini working hard until it can be retired to the living room to enjoy an easy life. LEM

Recent Stop the Noiz Columns

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.