01/28/2005, 7:45am, EST
Friday, January 28th
Merrill: Best Buy may sell Mac Mini at select stores
"Half the 48 stores had Apple-badged employees, which we think resulted in higher sales and made clear that Apple-savvy sales people would be a requirement. We venture that the additional cost of dedicated sales people combined with Apple's lower volume of $1,300+ computers made a deal unworkable at that time."
In a report to clients, Merrill analyst Steven Milunovich said that the introduction of the new Mac Mini could be the catalyst for a limited roll out to select Best Buy stores. "Because showing how the Mac Mini connects to peripherals is so important, either Apple-badged or knowledgeable Best Buy reps (more likely) must be involved. The analyst said that Best Buy currently allows other companies' sales representatives to sell their own company's products and that its retail stores already feature small vendor-specific, such as those for Canon printers, Sony digital video cameras, and Linksys networks.
The Apple-Best Buy partnership could further accelerate the halo effect of the iPod by providing yet another outlet for Apple to reach out to the larger consumer market, according to Milunovich. Merrill reiterated a "Buy" rating on Apple with a price target of $85 per share.
Filed under: Apple
, 
, 12
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
Anyway, a nice side benefit is that Best Buy and Target have better retail promotions than the Apple store. So you can use things like Best Buy's frequent buyer card to collect coupons to pay for the mini or 10% off coupons at Target. And people are more likely to get Target and Best Buy gift cards as gifts. I hope it works just so I can trade my credit card points for Best Buy cards and get the mini for free!
And no one seems to be complaining here that the PCs that are sold tend to start out at 256!
Oh, and the review on MacsOnly did not state 512 was a must. So there's one, at least.
Apple's not going to succeed in the retail stores unless they've got the personnel that can sell the difference between Macs and Windows. And even then they have to battle against the sales associates who'll make more kick-back money for selling PCs then Macs.
But Best Buy does have that cool Geek Squad! Because we all know the only ones who can work on computers are guys with glasses with black frames, white shirts, and pocket protectors (no stereotypes here!)
I read the Anandtech article and what he's forgetting is that most budget PC's also come with 256MB of shared RAM too. And those perform ABYSMALLY when multitasking too. Been there, done that.
Also, him reccomending or comparing a Dell is not a good idea. Dell builds crapboxen, not quality computers.....
Target dropped out because they could not get confirmed ship dates. This is not unusual for a new box, as demand and supply have not been well matched. Since I waited for five weeks for a new Dell last year, this is typical for the industry.
As far as needing more RAM - I have tried OS X on a powerbook with 256, and it is quite usable for mail and safari.
Scott