I know, probably thinking SPAM, but if you want to look into a Mac, Apple is offering a 30 day money back guarantee on the Mac mini through their online store.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?family=testdrive
I don’t like this. It makes you wonder where all the returned Mac minis go. I hope they aren’t sold as new units.
Also, it’s not really a deal where you would do it to get a computer to use for 30 days because you still have to put up the money for it. It is more one of those things where “if you really wanted it but got it and now you really don’t lik it and can’t stand the sight of it in your house anymore” then you can send it back. At least that’s the way it seems intended to me.
It sounds like a desperate move to really move rapidly into the mainstream PC’s. I highly doubt Apple would be quite so stupid to resell used PC’s as new. That’s been tried and failed many times before. Also seeing the typical prices on those machines, I believe they could make a very lucrative selling aspect selling cheap refurbished machines. Anyway, my thoughts after 4.5 years of business college.
They’ll probably sell them in their “Special Deals” store (the big “Save” tag on the bottom right of store.apple.com.) for a reduced rate. Honestly, I doubt they’ll have a huge number of returns. That’s just the way Apple is… their computers are very well-built and honestly, kind of addictive (fellow Mac users probably know what I mean.)
Oh, I also think it’s a pitch by Apple to show Wintel users OS X. The OS X x86 has certainly caused a big buzz, and I’m sure there are folks out there that are wondering if they’d want to switch but don’t know (or want to) the first thing about downloading a vmware image, dd’ing it over top of their Windows installation, etc. I think they’re stretching for it, but if OS X is made to run on non-Apple machines, they’re going to lose a ton of cash (would you rather sell a $3,500 computer or a $130 OS?) Hook people onto their beautifully designed hardware before it’s too late.
This might have been a perk from the new switch campaign that was canceled. They might have decided to run without running the ads instead.
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0508switch.html
Or it could be that they just want to move excess inventory
BTW IBM does the same thing from time to time
Hmm, well, no worries as to where the abandoned Macs will go after all…
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5845443.html
The apple store link from above now points to the main Apple Store page…
umm sorry to point this out but the deal expired…
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170102700 :o http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050831-5266.html
Man, I’d do it if it wasn’t expired…Thanks for the info though!