apple news/media reports
09/08/2006, 10:20am, EDT
Friday, September 8th
Patent suggests Cube revision
A recent patent filing suggests that Apple is continuing to rethink the design of its Power Mac G4 Cube, which sold no more than 150,000 units and was discontinued a year after its launch. The Cube was an example of design conflicting with market demands, according to Electronista, and consumers ultimately rejected the Cube due to limited expansion options and a high price relative to full-sized towers. Filed on May 5th, the "Ultra compact computer arrangement" illustrates a design that addresses flaws in the original Cube. The casing as described would feature two removable panels that allow greater access to the inside of the case for hard drives, memory, and multiple expansion cards. The new design would also incorporate a CPU fan alongside a heatsink - doing away with the earlier fanless concept which was prone to overheating.
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But the ONLY problem anyone had with the cube was the price (or, if you want, the price vs. options ratio). If it were sold for $1000-$1200 rather then $1700, it would have sold a ton more.
Oops
It wouldn't be the first time though. Remember the 20th anniversary mac?
I hope they don't make those mistakes again.
Oops
It wouldn't be the first time though. Remember the 20th anniversary mac?
Well, that was different. They thought people would spend 3x the money for a cool looking, futuristic computer to celebrate Apple's 20th anniversary ($7500 for a computer? Are you kidding me????? They set it up for you though). It wasn't about small as much as the cool factor.
But still the same mistake. As opposed to a lot of their other mistakes (1000 different Performa 6000 models??? The Performa itself??? The eMate? The MacTV? Oh, I really don't want to go on....)
Meanwhile, about a year ago, I picked up a 20th Anniversary Mac, free, from an engineer at work. I think it had originally been bought for competitive analysis.
A bit of cleanup, installing OS and applications, and it went to a local family that can't afford anything close to a modern computer.
Works great, and they do like the Bose sound system that's built in to the system.
Put a three inch clear Lexan pedestal under your Mac Mini
When the Mini first came out, I thought that Apple had done just that ...reinvented the Cube. And this time around they got the price right.
If they want to make it a REAL cube again, they have to make it twice as high. The basis for one side of the cube will always be the diameter of a CD/DVD, as you can hardly go smaller than that without dropping the optical drive.
So, there. Maybe this patent covers some idea they have for a future Mini revision. For some strange reason MacNN and many of the zealots seem to think "Patent filed = actual product just around the corner". Most of the time Apple (and other companies) just patent stuff to put a tab on their ideas, whether that's gonna lead to some actual product or not.