We took the kids to Vegas this past weekend. I wanted to check out the new iMac Mini so we went to the Apple store located at Fashion Show Mall on the strip. The store was so crowded I couldn’t make it into the store with the stroller, so I handed the kids off to Kim and made my way into the store.
Although Apple has featured the iMac Mini on their website for some time, you’d never know this product existed if you just visited their store. I walked around the store twice before finally spotting the Mini hooked up to a Cinema Display near the front corner of the store. I walked over to take a look. I cannot believe how small and quiet this machine is. It’s really a work of art. I launched a few programs and surfed the web a bit to give me an idea of its performance which is adequate, although I’d want to load it with more memory than the standard 256 MB. When I started configuring the options, that $499 barebones price tag didn’t seem so enticing.
Apple might as well change the stores name to “The Apple iPod” store. It seemed like everyone in the store was listening or waiting to listen to the display iPods. The register was packed 10 customers deep, and I noticed quite a few people purchasing iPod Shuffles 3 or more at time. It’s as if the Shuffle has become the new pack of gum impulse buy stores place near the register.
It was fun to see a group of people so excited about a product although I just couldn’t justify spending $700+ to configure the Mini how I’d want it. For now I’ll stick with my PC but maybe next time.
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