The Mac Mini is Apple most affordable mac to date and is the entry one if you are switching from Windows and don’t want to spend too much money in your second computer, but I conducted a poll in my Graphic Design classes (4 courses with 35 students each) and found that a very small fraction of my students consider the Mac Mini a good choice when it comes to switching from Windows PCs.

The reason? Everybody wants an iMac, but the iMac is more than $300 expensive than the entry Dell PC and while the Mac Mini is cheaper than any other mac some people likes to buy the whole experience and not buy their computer parts from different places, so why Apple doesn’t keep the 17″ iMac as the entry mac, here is my ideas:

If the 17″ is offered in the product line and its price reduced to $700 there won’t be any more reasons to keep buying any other brand. If Dell, HP and every PC maker can offer affordable computers, Apple offer can be more attractive with the iMac 17″. Running Windows and Mac OS in the same computer is like having two PC.

Something that can attract even more Windows users is a trade program where you send your Windows licence to Apple for $100 reduction applied to your iMac price, this eliminate a Windows user off the street.

Take a look to the entry level PCS from Apple Rivals

Dell
Dell Insprion 530s
Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E2180 (1MB, 2.00GHz, 800FSB)
Monitor
19 inch S199WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor with TrueLife
Memory
1GB2 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drives
250GB5 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
PRICE: $499. There’s a $299 model without monitor.
There’s a cheaper model without monitor at Dell.

HP a6510t series
Processor
Intel(R) Celeron(R) Dual-Core processor E1400 (2.0GHz)
Memory
1GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (2×512)
Hard Drive
250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Monitor
HP w1707 17-inch widescreen flat panel
PRICE: $599.99 - $100.00 Instant rebate = Total: $499.99
HP offers a cheaper model without monitor and a $50 rebate on the monitor when buy together.

Apple hasn’t advertised the Mac Mini and I don’t think they will do so in the near future making even more difficult for a lot of people to know that there is an affordable mac available, but everybody knows the imac, a good factor if Apple decides to reach more Windows Switchers.

I am not taking into account the user experience, this is a factor that will always put the mac in the front line when compared with similar PC brands, I only took the money factor, what can you buy with $700 and the most common response wasn’t the Mac Mini. I attribute the inclination for the iMac to the screen and that a computer without screen doesn’t look so attractive and that in some form not much of my students know that the Mac Mini is so affordable.

When was the last time you saw a Mac Mini ad?

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