First Mac mini, now Intel Mini

When Apple announced its innovative Mac mini and with the entire buzz that it generated at that time, I expected that other PC manufacturers will follow suit and join the ‘mini’ fever.

At Computex Taipei 2005 AOpen a maker of computer components in cooperation with Intel announced its new PC barebone which design looks very similar to Apple’s Mac mini, with a noticeable difference in putting the switch button in the front side while Apple Mac mini has it on the back side.







This mini PC will be based on Pentium M processors and Intel 915GM chipset with integrated DirectX 9.0 graphics core, and it will features audio, Ethernet, FireWire and USB 2.0 ports same as Mac mini, But due to the expensive parts used in this Cube mini it may be priced higher than Mac mini which costs $499.

By the time of its release we will likely see different versions from different system builders because AOpen intend to sell the Cube mini as a barebone which will let system builders or end-users to configure it according to their needs, certainly better that the limitations imposed on Mac mini with only 2 versions.

Although this mini PC is very similar to Mac mini, it will not pose a great threat to its market, because the majority of Mac mini buyers is PC owners who want to get their hands on affordable Mac, the battle between them will be on the Media Center (Living Room) market, which IMHO Mac mini is the winner because of its Software that simply destroys any PC Software on that level, as no Windows can challenge Mac OS X in security, ease of use or sexiness, Mac OS X is simply too sexy to be resisted, and the multimedia iLife suite offers amazing experience superior to any similar PC Software.

Personally I would go for a Mac mini for a second computer and not trade it for any similar PC, but that’s me.

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