Like any person, you don’t judge a company by its words, but by its actions. It was a Mac designed to exploit the huge interest in Apple’s products generated by the hugely successful iPod, a Mac for PC switchers. In use, the fact is that Apple’s most affordable Mac betrays how little the company cares for value-conscious customers - even though the little device helped it grab a nice chunk of PC market share when it was originally introduced. (The latter being fast, responsive, portable, and capable of handling modern multimedia standards and useful for a fast-growing range of productivity tasks.)
Though Mac mini still has some use as a Mac server, or as a gateway Mac drug for PC switchers, when it comes to more intensive work you’ll inevitably choose a higher-end Mac or an iOS device. And while you may have all these things somewhere in your home, the cold reality is that the existing model is completely outclassed by the entry-level iPad in performance terms.
A Mac for under $500 is still a really attractive choice for many in the market for a new computer, and Apple certainly sells lots of these to people who don’t want the best Mac but still want a Mac.
