Opinion: Mini Options

Frank Hayes , Computerworld ’s aged news columnist , has covered IT for more than 20 years . Contact him atfrank_hayes@computerworld.com .

Will it weigh ? Will the world really change now that Apple is rolling out a sub-$500 Mac name after a precious short car ? Will the Mac miniskirt have any impact on incorporated IT at all ? The answer are pretty clear : Yes , no and sure , but not the mode Mac fan might expect .

Let ’s get the obvious analysis out of the way upfront : A $ 500 price tag wo n’t make incorporated IT shops crave Macs . Heck , if Apple present them away with a $ 500 bill beg to each machine , we still would n’t employ them . The transition costs would be too high .

But will the Mac mini have an encroachment on us ? in all likelihood . And it ’ll belike almost all be good news .

We ’re used to indite off Apple as irrelevant because Macs do n’t run Windows software . ( stringently speaking , they can , but it ’s normally not worth the trouble to make that happen . ) There might be some Macs in marketing or some other odd recession of our corporate world . But Macs — with a miserable 3 percentage securities industry part in desktop computing gadget , by whole shipped — are n’t mainstream . They ’re not for us . That ’s corporate IT gospel .

But notice : Even at just 3 pct , there are still only seven companies in the universe that sell more computing machine than Apple does . And most of those seven companies are sweating , because there ’s not much they can do to innovate or secern in the curl - footstep , beige - corner game .

Meanwhile , irrelevant Apple gets to do pretty much whatever it require . Because incarnate IT shuns Macs , Apple does n’t trade to us . It sell to the Mac faithful , who will buy almost anything with an Apple logotype . And to minuscule businesses that ca n’t deal with Windows kludginess . And to pupil who require to be hip . And to grannies who just want something childlike they can use to e - chain armour , surf the Web and look at pictures of the grandkids .

So if Apple want to abandon floppy phonograph recording or sell electronic computer in laughable colors or shapes , it can . In contrast , PC Almighty have been trying since 1999 to get off from the beige tower and bequest features . So far , they have n’t even managed to get rid of parallel printer ports .

PCs do n’t change because corporate IT wo n’t rent them . We do n’t purchase Macs , so that ’s where the interesting thing find — things that sometimes filter down to us .

This time , the interesting things will in all probability be price and phase factor .

terms ? This is the cheapest Mac ever . It ’s no more information processing system than customer can get from anyone else for $ 500 , but the “ wow ” factor and Apple ’s pricey report will make it more attractive than an equivalent microcomputer . That will squeeze the low end of microcomputer pricing down even further .

That will drag down the whole microcomputer pricing schedule — and IT will do good .

Form factor ? Where Macs lead , microcomputer follow . Dictionary - size personal computer have n’t locomote much in the U.S. in the past times . But if the Mac mini becomes a fad item , personal computer trafficker will finally extend really small personal computer that are severe for users to diddle with .

That form of PC is easier to lock down than a beige pillar . It ’s sluttish to back and quicker to swap out . It wo n’t be for all our users , but it ’ll be a squeamish option to have .

What if the mini takes off ? The Mac might edge into being a executable option for corporate IT . Then we ’d have three options on our scant list : generic Windows PCs , generic Linux PCs and Macs . Remember the “ 10 and 2 ” normal : “ Ten is too many ; two is not enough . ” It would be really ripe to have three flavors to use in playing vendors off one another .

Of of course , if the Mac mini does n’t take off , we ’ve lost nothing . For corporate IT , there ’s no downside to the miniskirt . And any top side will take a year or so to hit us . It ’ll be a while before we see whether Apple creates as heavy a bombilation with the mini as its four - wheel namesake .

In the meantime , we can enjoy the drive .

See more about Mac mini at Macworld ’s Mac miniskirt page .