You and me both, man - I've got a thousand bucks ready to soup up a mini and add it to my home theater system. I've had the money saved up for a year now ... it's tremendously dissappointing to see another event go by with almost no focus on the Mac. A $2,800 notebook? I know it has its place in Apple's lineup, but for the love of God, the Mini has been Apple's red-headed stepchild. They could have announced the 17" back when the 15" MBP and the MB were updated instead of wasting 20 minutes detailing a new battery - which I'm sure will cause a lot of people to bitch and moan since it's not replaceable by the user.
Yup, I'm disappointed as well. The economy is in the tank, so they intro a$2,800 laptio, and leave the Mini alone? Please. I want a souped up mini, mid tower or new iMac, and I have cash and I'm ready to order. They seem to be trying not to get my business lately.
And no mention of Snow Leopard? Really? This is a joke. Great way to go out at macworld. All we can do is hope they have another Tuesday announcement where they put out the Mini/iMac/Pro/Cinema displays, all of which badly need an update. I could care less about a tablet, I just would like to see the current line get updated at the same rate other computers do.
I totally agree. I know its not really possible to do this, but it would have been great if IDG would allow Apple to move the Expo around. Its simply not possible to do so because these Expo's need to be planned far in advanced and its not fair to IDG, nor Apple for that matter to have to do that.
Apple will release a new MacMini when they're ready to release it (if they're every going to release one). People need to stop getting their panties in a bunch over this.
The problem is that other companies offer far more visibility into their lineups. The big keynotes are where we find out anything ahead of time for their line up...mostly from items that ship later in the quarter.
The inability to decide when or if to get a new machine is often annoying. Folks know well enough not to get anything before a major keynote. With individual events scattered throughout the year and zero visibility into lineup changes it's a real crapshoot whether you end up with last year's technology at today's prices.
The problem is that other companies offer far more visibility into their lineups. The big keynotes are where we find out anything ahead of time for their line up...mostly from items that ship later in the quarter.
The inability to decide when or if to get a new machine is often annoying. Folks know well enough not to get anything before a major keynote. With individual events scattered throughout the year and zero visibility into lineup changes it's a real crapshoot whether you end up with last year's technology at today's prices.
That leads to serious customer dissatisfaction.
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head.
If you change one part of your business practice to enable you to be more spontaneous you've got to change the rest to match.
We're in 2009 and we still have that incredibly outdated mini with 1,83ghz for 499€?? (I'm Italian)
Come on! I can buy a desktop PC with monitor included that can burn it.
I'm not so angry for the iMacs... they're still pretty good in the overall and I think that they can last at least until the end of the month but come on... that's it? You really mean that I waited so long for the 17'' MBP (who was just late and should have been presented in november) iWork, iLife and DRM free songs? Cut me a break.. this is MACworld not EVERYTHINGELSEworld... I WANT MACS!!
It's upsetting.. this must be a joke. I HOPE (but I do not agree with it) they're planning an event for the 25th anniversary to present the new Macs but they will be late.. tremendusly late..
I think that with this Macworld the entire Apple community will be upset and all the Apple haters will have something (concrete) to blame on... I wanna also see how the AAPL will do.. I think it will loose about -3 -4 percent...
God what an awful Macworld.
EDIT:
I forgot one last thing...
THE ONE LAST THING WAS THE MOST DISAPPOINTING THING!!
When I readed in the Live Blog: "One last thing" i started to jump for excitement but when he said "iTunes" I was feeling like i could broke my MacBook Pro in pieces.. The iTunes thing it's a great thing but damn you could have said "There are 4 things today.. and none of them will make you happier" and not put it as the "one last thing".
I hope that tomorrow Steve will be at Apple with a flamethrower going on a rampage through all the campus.
The problem is that other companies offer far more visibility into their lineups. The big keynotes are where we find out anything ahead of time for their line up...mostly from items that ship later in the quarter.
The inability to decide when or if to get a new machine is often annoying. Folks know well enough not to get anything before a major keynote. With individual events scattered throughout the year and zero visibility into lineup changes it's a real crapshoot whether you end up with last year's technology at today's prices.
That leads to serious customer dissatisfaction.
Which is exactly why Apple needs to get rid of doing MacWorld keynotes. Nobody else holds a special even every time a new product its released. Its just simply released. Of course Apple isn't going to come out and say, hey don't buy a new Mac now because new ones are coming out.
On the other side of computing (PC Side) people just buy computers. Its not a big deal. The problem with some Mac users is, they always think they need the latest and greatest. Its not like Apple or Mac vendors design their hardware/software so you have the run the latest and greatest all the time to make it work properly. This is just rubbish thinking!
The only dissatisfaction is people who read things that aren't true and then blame Apple. Its not Apple faults MacRumors, or Engadget, or even AppleInsider provided bad information is it?
You and me both, man - I've got a thousand bucks ready to soup up a mini and add it to my home theater system.
Me too. But instead of spending $800-$1000 on a new high-end mini I just spent $450 on the current low-end mini. I'm too tired of waiting in the hopes of desired specs within my price range. I'll just have to settle for a stand-alone Blu-ray player and everything else on my mini.
I think Apple must have put out some serious misinformation leading up to this Keynote!
Pretty much all the reputable rumor sites were unanimous about the surety of mini updates and major focus on Snow Leopard. (I think everyone was probably rightly suspicious of the iPhone Nano rumors).
In fact the things we got were all discussed only in last-minute hurried rumors, and the stuff the sites have been talking about for months are nowhere to be seen.
I think Apple must have put out some serious misinformation leading up to this Keynote!
Pretty much all the reputable rumor sites were unanimous about the surety of mini updates and major focus on Snow Leopard. (I think everyone was probably rightly suspicious of the iPhone Nano rumors).
I think they are right about the time frame for mini and iMac updates. It's that they were wrong with the MW09 being the time and place for the announcement. I think it's going to be like last year. Announcements of revised products every Tuesday.
A lot of the rumors stem not from Apple, that's as tight a ship as anything we've seen including the professional spy orgs, but come from companies affiliated with Apple: ad agencies, suppliers, plants, software support contractors, etc. The mini and iMac updates are coming, just not at MWSF09.
Btw, wow, I love what they did with the MBP 17". Wish it all trickles down to the MB 13" and 15".
I think the reason for these excessively slow updates is due to the fact that Apple does not make any desktop computers. What I mean by that is that the Mini and iMac basically use laptop parts. And due to their extreme emphasis on "thin" it means it is hard to keep desktop class parts like the CPU, GPU, RAM, and Hard drive cool enough not to mention space constraints. The Mac Pro is really a server class computer with the Xeon, so also not a true desktop.
The real sweet spot in Intel's line in terms of power and price is in their desktop line, especially the Quad Core duo and Nehalem Core i7 range. Until Apple chooses to swing the pendulum back a little towards functionality and away from form, I think the Mini and iMac will continue to lag way behind and be far too little value for the money. Would anyone care if the iMac were 2 inches thicker if you could get a quad core i7 with a Nvidia 9800?
The Mini was just that far ahead of its time! I bought mine over a year ago and it is STILL the top-of-the-line Mini...
That's funny and painful at the same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by meelash
I think Apple must have put out some serious misinformation leading up to this Keynote!
Either that or the info wasn't meant for MacWorld. Apple's 25th anniversary of the Mac is January 24th in just over 2 weeks.
I actually think they should have used the MW stage to announce a series of product updates due to ship on the 24th.
They may have a special event though and a special product to go with it such as a touch tablet. It is after all the 15th anniversary of the Newton this year too.
I think the big problem with the mini no-show was that Apple themselves (via that infamous e-mail to a potential customer a few months ago) said "be patient" about the mini. There's not much logic in asking the public to be patient if you're not going to do something about it within any kind of reasonable time. Most people assumed that Macworld 09 was the end of that reasonable window. Apparently not and so the reaction, rightly or wrongly, is that we've been duped.
Every month that passes encourages me to get a new machine, but to get value for money I'd have to either go windows or get an apple laptop that I don't need. If they'd have known that there were no speed boosts at Mac World then why not just add value to the machines before Xmas with simple tweaks to stop the marketshare loss?
I agree with you there, if the new iMac would not be out until Feb - March, then a quite speed bump in November before the Christmas selling season would help those who could not wait 4 to 6 more months to get next significant updated iMac. The current iMac was released on April 28, 2008 so a speed bump in November would have been acceptable.
I think the big problem with the mini no-show was that Apple themselves (via that infamous e-mail to a potential customer a few months ago) said "be patient" about the mini. There's not much logic in asking the public to be patient if you're not going to do something about it within any kind of reasonable time. Most people assumed that Macworld 09 was the end of that reasonable window. Apparently not and so the reaction, rightly or wrongly, is that we've been duped.
Apple didn't ask the public to be patient. What they did do was ask a major customer to be patient in a likely private communication. That's entirely different.
This is just the classic case of rumors hyping up the event and then the inevitable disappointment afterward. It happens every single time.
What did you expect? This happens every god damn year...people read too much into stuff and then get mad when Apple doesn't release something spectacular.
The Mini doesn't need to be spectacular, it just needs an update. Apparently they're not able to do that in under 2 years.
Which is exactly why Apple needs to get rid of doing MacWorld keynotes. Nobody else holds a special even every time a new product its released. Its just simply released. Of course Apple isn't going to come out and say, hey don't buy a new Mac now because new ones are coming out.
On the other side of computing (PC Side) people just buy computers. Its not a big deal. The problem with some Mac users is, they always think they need the latest and greatest. Its not like Apple or Mac vendors design their hardware/software so you have the run the latest and greatest all the time to make it work properly. This is just rubbish thinking!
The only dissatisfaction is people who read things that aren't true and then blame Apple. Its not Apple faults MacRumors, or Engadget, or even AppleInsider provided bad information is it?
You pretty much know that the PC world follows Intel in lockstep. With Apple, not so much.
Contrary to your assertion, many manufactures do release near a major tradeshow or at least SHOW what's in the pipeline. Notice the current CES coverage at the major tech sites? There are quite a few new laptops appearing. The HP Firebirds just released. Lenovo launched it's AIO. Sony has a new laptop on Jan 9th. Ballmer is going to talk Win 7 tomorrow.
The current dissatisfaction is with the mini needing a badly needed update. Pre annoncing one even in Feb or March would have been fine. At least then we KNOW it's in the pipeline somewhere.
Comments
You and me both, man - I've got a thousand bucks ready to soup up a mini and add it to my home theater system. I've had the money saved up for a year now ... it's tremendously dissappointing to see another event go by with almost no focus on the Mac. A $2,800 notebook? I know it has its place in Apple's lineup, but for the love of God, the Mini has been Apple's red-headed stepchild. They could have announced the 17" back when the 15" MBP and the MB were updated instead of wasting 20 minutes detailing a new battery - which I'm sure will cause a lot of people to bitch and moan since it's not replaceable by the user.
Yup, I'm disappointed as well. The economy is in the tank, so they intro a$2,800 laptio, and leave the Mini alone? Please. I want a souped up mini, mid tower or new iMac, and I have cash and I'm ready to order. They seem to be trying not to get my business lately.
And no mention of Snow Leopard? Really? This is a joke. Great way to go out at macworld. All we can do is hope they have another Tuesday announcement where they put out the Mini/iMac/Pro/Cinema displays, all of which badly need an update. I could care less about a tablet, I just would like to see the current line get updated at the same rate other computers do.
I'm waiting a month, then its Psystar time.
I totally agree. I know its not really possible to do this, but it would have been great if IDG would allow Apple to move the Expo around. Its simply not possible to do so because these Expo's need to be planned far in advanced and its not fair to IDG, nor Apple for that matter to have to do that.
Apple will release a new MacMini when they're ready to release it (if they're every going to release one). People need to stop getting their panties in a bunch over this.
The problem is that other companies offer far more visibility into their lineups. The big keynotes are where we find out anything ahead of time for their line up...mostly from items that ship later in the quarter.
The inability to decide when or if to get a new machine is often annoying. Folks know well enough not to get anything before a major keynote. With individual events scattered throughout the year and zero visibility into lineup changes it's a real crapshoot whether you end up with last year's technology at today's prices.
That leads to serious customer dissatisfaction.
The problem is that other companies offer far more visibility into their lineups. The big keynotes are where we find out anything ahead of time for their line up...mostly from items that ship later in the quarter.
The inability to decide when or if to get a new machine is often annoying. Folks know well enough not to get anything before a major keynote. With individual events scattered throughout the year and zero visibility into lineup changes it's a real crapshoot whether you end up with last year's technology at today's prices.
That leads to serious customer dissatisfaction.
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head.
If you change one part of your business practice to enable you to be more spontaneous you've got to change the rest to match.
I am really pissed off.
This must be a joke.
We're in 2009 and we still have that incredibly outdated mini with 1,83ghz for 499€?? (I'm Italian)
Come on! I can buy a desktop PC with monitor included that can burn it.
I'm not so angry for the iMacs... they're still pretty good in the overall and I think that they can last at least until the end of the month but come on... that's it? You really mean that I waited so long for the 17'' MBP (who was just late and should have been presented in november) iWork, iLife and DRM free songs? Cut me a break.. this is MACworld not EVERYTHINGELSEworld... I WANT MACS!!
It's upsetting.. this must be a joke. I HOPE (but I do not agree with it) they're planning an event for the 25th anniversary to present the new Macs but they will be late.. tremendusly late..
I think that with this Macworld the entire Apple community will be upset and all the Apple haters will have something (concrete) to blame on... I wanna also see how the AAPL will do.. I think it will loose about -3 -4 percent...
God what an awful Macworld.
EDIT:
I forgot one last thing...
THE ONE LAST THING WAS THE MOST DISAPPOINTING THING!!
When I readed in the Live Blog: "One last thing" i started to jump for excitement but when he said "iTunes" I was feeling like i could broke my MacBook Pro in pieces.. The iTunes thing it's a great thing but damn you could have said "There are 4 things today.. and none of them will make you happier" and not put it as the "one last thing".
I hope that tomorrow Steve will be at Apple with a flamethrower going on a rampage through all the campus.
The problem is that other companies offer far more visibility into their lineups. The big keynotes are where we find out anything ahead of time for their line up...mostly from items that ship later in the quarter.
The inability to decide when or if to get a new machine is often annoying. Folks know well enough not to get anything before a major keynote. With individual events scattered throughout the year and zero visibility into lineup changes it's a real crapshoot whether you end up with last year's technology at today's prices.
That leads to serious customer dissatisfaction.
Which is exactly why Apple needs to get rid of doing MacWorld keynotes. Nobody else holds a special even every time a new product its released. Its just simply released. Of course Apple isn't going to come out and say, hey don't buy a new Mac now because new ones are coming out.
On the other side of computing (PC Side) people just buy computers. Its not a big deal. The problem with some Mac users is, they always think they need the latest and greatest. Its not like Apple or Mac vendors design their hardware/software so you have the run the latest and greatest all the time to make it work properly. This is just rubbish thinking!
The only dissatisfaction is people who read things that aren't true and then blame Apple. Its not Apple faults MacRumors, or Engadget, or even AppleInsider provided bad information is it?
You and me both, man - I've got a thousand bucks ready to soup up a mini and add it to my home theater system.
Me too. But instead of spending $800-$1000 on a new high-end mini I just spent $450 on the current low-end mini. I'm too tired of waiting in the hopes of desired specs within my price range. I'll just have to settle for a stand-alone Blu-ray player and everything else on my mini.
Since the Mini was last "updated"? Isn't is close to 2 years now? I am surprised Intel even makes those hopelessly out of date CPU's anymore.
Intel stopped taking orders for those chips last June or something. Old chips can go for ages though, the ATVs use Pentium-M chips.
God what an awful Macworld.
It's a shame to see their last keynote being one of their worst. You'd think they'd put in a little more effort to make it memorable.
Pretty much all the reputable rumor sites were unanimous about the surety of mini updates and major focus on Snow Leopard. (I think everyone was probably rightly suspicious of the iPhone Nano rumors).
In fact the things we got were all discussed only in last-minute hurried rumors, and the stuff the sites have been talking about for months are nowhere to be seen.
The Mini was just that far ahead of its time! I bought mine over a year ago and it is STILL the top-of-the-line Mini...
Now THAT is the power of positive thinking! I guess I just wanted a bigger memory...
I think Apple must have put out some serious misinformation leading up to this Keynote!
Pretty much all the reputable rumor sites were unanimous about the surety of mini updates and major focus on Snow Leopard. (I think everyone was probably rightly suspicious of the iPhone Nano rumors).
I think they are right about the time frame for mini and iMac updates. It's that they were wrong with the MW09 being the time and place for the announcement. I think it's going to be like last year. Announcements of revised products every Tuesday.
A lot of the rumors stem not from Apple, that's as tight a ship as anything we've seen including the professional spy orgs, but come from companies affiliated with Apple: ad agencies, suppliers, plants, software support contractors, etc. The mini and iMac updates are coming, just not at MWSF09.
Btw, wow, I love what they did with the MBP 17". Wish it all trickles down to the MB 13" and 15".
The real sweet spot in Intel's line in terms of power and price is in their desktop line, especially the Quad Core duo and Nehalem Core i7 range. Until Apple chooses to swing the pendulum back a little towards functionality and away from form, I think the Mini and iMac will continue to lag way behind and be far too little value for the money. Would anyone care if the iMac were 2 inches thicker if you could get a quad core i7 with a Nvidia 9800?
The Mini was just that far ahead of its time! I bought mine over a year ago and it is STILL the top-of-the-line Mini...
I think Apple must have put out some serious misinformation leading up to this Keynote!
Either that or the info wasn't meant for MacWorld. Apple's 25th anniversary of the Mac is January 24th in just over 2 weeks.
I actually think they should have used the MW stage to announce a series of product updates due to ship on the 24th.
They may have a special event though and a special product to go with it such as a touch tablet. It is after all the 15th anniversary of the Newton this year too.
Every month that passes encourages me to get a new machine, but to get value for money I'd have to either go windows or get an apple laptop that I don't need. If they'd have known that there were no speed boosts at Mac World then why not just add value to the machines before Xmas with simple tweaks to stop the marketshare loss?
I agree with you there, if the new iMac would not be out until Feb - March, then a quite speed bump in November before the Christmas selling season would help those who could not wait 4 to 6 more months to get next significant updated iMac. The current iMac was released on April 28, 2008 so a speed bump in November would have been acceptable.
I think the big problem with the mini no-show was that Apple themselves (via that infamous e-mail to a potential customer a few months ago) said "be patient" about the mini. There's not much logic in asking the public to be patient if you're not going to do something about it within any kind of reasonable time. Most people assumed that Macworld 09 was the end of that reasonable window. Apparently not and so the reaction, rightly or wrongly, is that we've been duped.
Apple didn't ask the public to be patient. What they did do was ask a major customer to be patient in a likely private communication. That's entirely different.
This is just the classic case of rumors hyping up the event and then the inevitable disappointment afterward. It happens every single time.
What did you expect? This happens every god damn year...people read too much into stuff and then get mad when Apple doesn't release something spectacular.
The Mini doesn't need to be spectacular, it just needs an update. Apparently they're not able to do that in under 2 years.
Which is exactly why Apple needs to get rid of doing MacWorld keynotes. Nobody else holds a special even every time a new product its released. Its just simply released. Of course Apple isn't going to come out and say, hey don't buy a new Mac now because new ones are coming out.
On the other side of computing (PC Side) people just buy computers. Its not a big deal. The problem with some Mac users is, they always think they need the latest and greatest. Its not like Apple or Mac vendors design their hardware/software so you have the run the latest and greatest all the time to make it work properly. This is just rubbish thinking!
The only dissatisfaction is people who read things that aren't true and then blame Apple. Its not Apple faults MacRumors, or Engadget, or even AppleInsider provided bad information is it?
You pretty much know that the PC world follows Intel in lockstep. With Apple, not so much.
Contrary to your assertion, many manufactures do release near a major tradeshow or at least SHOW what's in the pipeline. Notice the current CES coverage at the major tech sites? There are quite a few new laptops appearing. The HP Firebirds just released. Lenovo launched it's AIO. Sony has a new laptop on Jan 9th. Ballmer is going to talk Win 7 tomorrow.
The current dissatisfaction is with the mini needing a badly needed update. Pre annoncing one even in Feb or March would have been fine. At least then we KNOW it's in the pipeline somewhere.