I'd missed this rumor from AppleInsider at the end of last month that the Mac Mini was soon to be discontinued. It's a shame; we've got a Mini, and quite enjoy using it. It's as portable as most external hard drives, extremely easy to set up to your existing peripherals, and at the price overall seems like the perfect box for potential switchers. The sites that offer Minis as web servers via colocation are cute little testaments to the slick design.

Which is why I don't quite understand this comment from AppleInsider:

There is some speculation that Apple conceived the Mac mini under pressure from shareholders who wanted a sub-$800 Mac, but never really saw much in the design itself. It's almost as if the mini stood in direct contrast to Apple's fundamentals from the get-go.

What's against the fundamentals? That it's simply not expensive enough? It's not like the entry-level iMac is particularly powerful under the hood, especially for gaming, one of my biases.

I wonder what the breakdown is for the systems all the first-time mac buyers Jobs bragged about at WWDC? I bet they're disproportionally Minis, though apparently not enough to move the bottom line. Still, I wonder how many were lured in by the thought of a $600 Mac, only to be seduced by more impressive and expensive iMacs once they're in the Apple Store's door? (Those screens are nice, but very VERY hard to reuse...)