I took a quick jaunt down to our local Best Buy today to pick up a tripod and check out if they had the Mac mini’s on display yet. See our previous best buy stories here and here.
I was pleased to see that they did and that the Mini display was in a prominent position — albeit not facing the main isle — clean and displayed well with an Apple Pro mouse & keybaord and a nice 17-inch LCD.
Best Buy is selling the plain jane 1.25GHz Mini for $499 and as a bundle (Mini+LCD) for $699:
Overall I was pleased that the Mini was being displayed as a first-class citizen and that this is the manner in which Apple is expecting Best Buy to showcase their products. I’ve personally heard varying reports from people across the country who’ve told me that the Mini’s at their local Best Buy were not being maintained well or that the display and/or placement was substandard to their x86 counterparts.
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April 10th, 2005 at 8:48 pm
t fit quite right, returning) a camera tripod from Best Buy We also caught a glipse of the Mac Mini’s at Best Buy: While down in Florence we took a trip over to […]
April 10th, 2005 at 9:35 pm
My local Best Buy (Federal Hwy in Fort Lauderdale/Oakland Park) didn’t have any Mac Minis when I was there yesterday.
April 11th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
Congrats for making the front page of MacNN!
April 11th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
My local Best Buy (brand new, Broadway + Houston in NYC) had a mini on display like the above. HOWEVER, it was the usual incompetent/sabotaged condition. iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie had been deleted from it. The resolution was shitty on the LCD monitor, with no option to change it… Apple needs to address the 100% likelihood that any Mac on display will be willfully negligently set up and totally useless and unattractive as a demo machine. Everyone email schiller@apple.com and go on Apple’s feedback page http://www.apple.com/feedback/ to let them know what’s up, and to find a remedy to the problem. (Nightly DVD-installed wipes of the system, for example.)
April 11th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
It’s my opinion that both Apple and Best Buy are displaying this machine completely wrong. It should not be by itself hooked up to it’s own keyboard and mouse. It should be beside a Sony or HP XP machine using its keyboard, mouse, and a KVM to demonstrate that you can have your Mac and keep your PC too without investing in a new keyboard and mouse. If I was an average PC user and saw that I had to buy my keyboard and mouse seperately, I’d feel as though I wasn’t getting much for my money. In my layout, the PC user sees that the stuff he/she already has will work great with the Mac Mini. It would be like adding an iPod to the PC, with a lot more to offer. I posted this same thought in DealMac’s forums and sent an e-mail to Best Buy. Perhaps I should try Steve Jobs as well.
April 13th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
I work at the aforementioned Ft. Lauderdale Best Buy and spent a good chunk of today moving laptops around to display the Mac mini. I ended up putting a 21″ Samsung monitor with it, which isn’t too bad because it draws people in. The bad news is that the actual computer is inside a case because of Loss Prevention issues. There’s no easy way to put it out there without having it open to be stolen.
Ours iis just on the regular desktop, no demos or anything. I put in some files from a DVD they sent us so that the reps can show customers iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and Garageband. Everyone digs it so far.
I’m proud to share the Mac love.
May 14th, 2005 at 10:24 pm
Just my opinion–The unfortunate truth is that if Bestbuy sells this computer with their
typical complete nitwit and inadequate sales staff, it’s going to be a mess. I won’t even mention what will happen to someone if they have a technical issue or ever try and return it. A great company, apple, has affiliated itself with what I feel is one of the worst retailers in regards to customer service. Just google,”Bestbuy complaints” and see what comes up.