The Evangelist

We've all heard of Apple's unique offerings in the consumer desktop segment, the Mac Mini and the iMac. While the iMac has sold decently, the Mac Mini evidently has not sold as well as Apple has hoped. In fact, there are rumors that Apple may phase it out completely.


While the Mac Mini is pretty neat when it comes to size, it is expensive for what you get, and there are no upgrade options. The iMac, on the other hand, is limiting; those who already have monitors or don't want to be restricted to one monitor don't want an all-in-one. If you do want upgradeability, the only option is the Mac Pro, which costs more than $2000 USD for a base model.

Why can't Apple release a machine for the rest of us?

I'm sure Apple is hoping that those who long for/need upgradeability will jump for the Mac Pro. However, I also think that Apple is losing quite a few customers here. Surely Apple, of all companies, could come up with something original that definitely isn't a commodity PC in form factor but that is capable of being upgraded to a good extent and can take a decent video card. It's not asking much. It seems to me that this is a pretty big problem for those who want OS X but need this kind of machine (not a Mac Pro).

With Apple suffering because of the economic situation, a product like this would be aptly timed and perfectly appropriate. The only question is whether or not Apple will see it that way.