Two recent developments in the Mac world indicate Apple is addressing new markets.
First – the Mac mini. The latest release of the mini shows that Apple is serious about this form factor. They’ve added gigabit ethernet, it has wireless out the wazoo, it’s available with a dual-core processor and they’ve addressed the biggest problem with the old mini by having two memory slots rather than just one. That increases the maximum supported RAM to 2 GB. Much more suitable. It’s certainly addressed all of the bugbears that I had with the previous mini. And integrated graphics? Not worried. They’re better than the Radeon 9200 that was in there.
Second – Tesco. Tesco is the biggest supermarket chain in Northern Ireland (and maybe the UK, I don’t know). They’ve been selling Apple kit in the Tesco in Milton Keynes since the beginning of the year. As the result has been positive, they’re extending the trial to 6 stores with an aim to extend it to 300 stores.
This all makes me question why anyone would want to open a Mac shop. Why compete against Apple and Tesco for low margin items.