On Jan 13, 2005, at 5:40 am, Greg Chapel wrote: > > .... is that really the message Apple wants to send to potentially new > users. I think Apple made a mistake here. They should be offering > 512mb as > minimum config, and charging an extra $150.00 for the 1gb upgrade. They > should also drop AppleCare price to 10% of machine cost ~$50.00. Oh, come on! No-one else expects to sell computers at a loss! Whilst I agree that the price of factory-installed RAM for this machine is outrageous, a base of 512meg would increases the base cost of the machine. Since the miniMac should be placed to increase market share, there's no advantage to Apple to sell it with the kind of specification that enthusiasts like you & I would be happy with - it'll just hurt high-end sales. I do "small-office / home-office" computer support for a living, and it's worth remembering that the folks who are shopping around the low-end of the market don't want to spend money. I actually find it really hard to remember this, because I think that a £450 2.4gHz Dell with Windows XP is a complete bargain, and I'm surprised when customers with a 3 year-old Windows 98 machine don't jump at the chance to upgrade. In the UK Dell market their machines as starting at £349, but shipping & VAT add another £100 before you start. Since it is Dell that Apple are competing against with the miniMac, why should they price themselves up? Dell have a very similar pricing schedule to that we're complaining about here - adding a floppy drive to one of their machines costs £20, and a DVD-writer perhaps £80 or so. Considering that I can buy floppy drives & DVD-writers for £5 & £45 respectively, Dell must be able to buy them in volume for much less, so clearly this is where they're making their money. Again - why should Apple be any different? Now, I haven't read all the details on this, but if Apple say that any Apple reseller is allowed to upgrade the RAM for you without voiding the warranty, then it's a relatively trivial task, and anyone can do do it. I suspect Apple may not even be tying you in to their own RAM - all the Apple resellers I know buy memory from Cruicial or Kingston, and none of them are Apple qualified service engineers. The pricing of the miniMac is such that I can tell all my PC customers now - go out & buy a Mac. There's no cost disadvantage to doing so. Although this image <http://tinyurl.com/5dyqs> from the Apple website shows a unit plugged into a typical PC keyboard & monitor, I can see customers who are happy with the mini buying a "real" Mac with designer keyboard & monitor next time around. Stroller.