Apple Unveils Low-Priced Mac

January 13, 2005: Apple Computer has announced its first low-priced Macintosh computer, aiming it squarely at the home entertainment and communications market.
The new Mac Mini will be priced at around $US499 and will be sold without a keyboard, monitor or mouse. Apples CEO, Steve Jobs, said the package will settle long-standing complaints that Apple extracts too high a premium for its products. Scheduled to go on sale in North America on 22 January, the Mac Mini will come with Panther, the latest version of Apple’s OS X operating system, plus the iLife collection of digital media applications. It is expected to expand Apple’s audience beyond the Mac faithful.
Several other high-profile devices made their debuts at the Macworld Expo, including a tiny flash memory iPod, which will be available in two versions. The 512 MB model will sell for $US99 and hold up to 120 songs, while the 1 GB version is priced at $US149. Neither model has a navigation screen. Instead they are designed to be used in “shuffle” mode that serves up songs in random order. Both models are Mac and PC compatible.
Jobs also released details of iWork, a new software package that will take on Microsoft’s Office in the Mac software market. The package will include Pages, a new word processing program developed by Apple, and an updated version of Keynote, a slideshow application Apple introduced two years ago. He also provided more information about “Tiger,” the next version of the OS X operating system, but stopped short of setting a release date more specific than the first half of 2005. Jobs also highlighted growing support for high-definition video in an array of Mac products, including the new QuickTime and an HD-ready version of Final Cut Express, Apple’s hobbyist video editing application. “2005 is going to be the year of high-definition video,” he explained.