The upcoming Mac mini

[Taeme]

They buy the iPod because it's "the best."
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No, they buy the iPod for the same reason they drink coke or eat at McDonald's. Apple is a brand. Macintosh is a brand. People LOVE brands. It's not that Apple's marketing of the iPod is a great success where a little company totally invigourated a field out of nowhere. It's that Apple is, by and by, far more well known than any of it's competition in that field. It's true that the iPod is a success, of course, but it's not a giant turn around. It's a good company going into a field and kicking around a bunch of nobodies.

Not that I wouldn't rather buy an iPod than whatever Dell or Creative put out. Eww.

I rather take issue with the comment that a barebones PC is going to have "crap" inside. Apple buys and uses products from the same vendors to assemble their machines. There is little or no price difference between normal products and the cheapo stuff that actually isn't that bad these days.

The proliferation of Macintosh hardware is only going to accelerate the spread of spyware, adware and so forth that is going to be targeting Macs. The innate protection Macs have from such problems lies mostly in the simple fact they represent such a tiny market share.