Thursday, Jun 07, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #15 Part 1- Bye, Bye mac Mini!

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Download this episode (17 min)  
Even while at the top of its game, Apple Inc. can seemingly find faults with just about anything, including a bit of itself. The Mac maker is constantly evaluating the market segments in which it wishes to participate and those which it does not. It's an application of love-hate methodology that inevitably produces its share of casualties.

Take, for instance, the firm's petite line of headless desktop computers known as Mac minis. They retail between $599 and $799, catering to the once critical sub-$800 PC market. Conspicuously, it was that precise market segment in which Apple executives asserted little interest just months before introducing the first Mac mini at the Macworld trade show in January of 2005. Maybe management wasn't fibbing after all. Apple TV offers a way for consumers to unlock the videos, music, and photos on their computer for use in the living room on TV. The new device competes against a series of other products, including the least expensive option of simply running a long video cable from the computer to the television. Whether Apple TV is worth the price will depend a lot upon on how much users like iTunes already, and how they plan to make use of the Apple TV. Mac maker Apple Inc. saw retail sales of Mac units grow a solid 62 percent year-over-year for the month of April, which included a 94 percent spike in notebook sales thanks to solid MacBook and MacBook Pro momentum, as well as increased distribution. A fresh class action lawsuit charges Apple's iTunes, major online music shops, and top record labels with performing an end-run around a musician's permission and his royalty payments. An analysis of April unit data from market research firm NPD leads researchers at PiperJaffray to believe that iPod shipments for Apple's June quarter could come in around 9.5 million units, slightly below Street estimates of 9.8 million units. Apple seen unloading new MacBook Pros and (possibly) iMacs at WWDC! Being the exclusive U.S. provider for Apple's iPhone means that wireless carrier AT&T won't have to worry about a competing version of the device for rival cellular networks for at least half a decade. Apple's much heralded iPhone device may be made available as a prepaid handset, according to data recently culled from wireless carrier AT&T's internal account database. IBM has helped the PowerPC architecture regain some ground lost to Intel with the advent of a new supercomputer-class chip. Meanwhile, new anti-DRM advocate and iTunes partner EMI has agreed to be bought out by a private group. And hobbyists have put YouTube on Apple's network media device. AT&T on Monday confirmed plans to accelerate the re-branding of Cingular wireless stores under the AT&T umbrella ahead of Apple's iPhone roll-out, which the carrier is billing as "one of the most highly anticipated wireless products in recent history." Apple's exclusive CPU supplier has been busy prepping quad-core processor cost cuts, clearing lead from its next-generation architecture, and establishing a new flash partnership that could help future iPhones, iPods, and Macs. Apple's revised AirPort Extreme, introduced at Macworld Expo in January, offers several new features and significant improvements in wireless networking speed and reliability. Whether it is worth the upgrade price to move on up to the new 802.11n wireless technology depends upon the specific needs of potential buyers. Read all about it in our 4-page in-depth review. 2 reviews in just the first part is amazing!

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 11:52 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

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