...actually we are very pleased to see this. If this is not market comfirmation nothing is.

When we see the Mac Mini, we have the impression that it is targeted to compete with the ODW. Interestingly, the Mini has an external power supply (which our opinion is too big). We had expected Apple to reuse the ibook/powerbook adaptors.

A good strategy for Apple would be to make these machines detect each other using wireless/bluetooth. Want an eight-way cluster, just stack eight of them on top of each other and there you go (idea ). It will even be possible to market the Mini as a blade, given an optional frame to add them to a blade chassis (another idea!).

However, we think they made a big mistake by not introducing a screen to go with this. A 12-inch ibook TFT in an ALU case would have been an excellent choice. Customers visiting the San Francisco store after the keynote are going to visit the Dell shop a few blocks down the road to buy a cheap PC monitor. An Apple mouse and keyboard cost almost half price of the machine! The current Apple monitors are way too expensive to be usable with this new product. Most people would rather spend $5000 on an expensive PowerMac and a cheap monitor, than $5000 on an expensive monitor and a cheap computer. There is clearly a gap left to be bridged by a system manufacturer

R&B