apple mac mini gets warm welcome the mac mini has been welcomed by apple fans industry experts and pc users the release of the tiny lowcost machine is seen as a good move for apple which currently has a small share of the desktop computer market mac watchers and some analysts say the mac mini will go a long way to help apple appeal to the mass of consumers they speculate that the mac mini will be bought by ipod owners and those wanting an easytouse and administer second home computer it s the bravest move they have made yet said jonny evans news editor at macworld magazine mr evans said the combination of low cost small size and huge numbers of ipod users could make it a big success he thought that the machine would appeal to those that like apple technology but who before now have balked at paying high prices for its hardware it s deeply affordable he said plus you know that you do not get viruses or all of the associated problems already he said pc owning friends had declared that they would be buying one interest in the new products launched at macworld expo was so strong that websites for apple s store and the show struggled to cope with demand according to response statistics gathered by netcraft many visiting the apple store in the wake of mr jobs speech suffered lengthy response times the macworld expo site was completely overwhelmed and went offline i think fundamentally it s a good idea because it s cheap even for a pc said nick ross deputy labs editor at pc pro apple s work on making things easy to use would also help the mac mini win fans he said i think people expect it just to work now and really it should hesaid the mac mini could find a role in homes that need a second computer that is easy to install and administer he said for browsing the web email and all kinds of basic duties it s going to be absolutely adequate said mr ross ian fogg broadband and personal technology analyst at jupiter research agreed that the mac mini could be very popular apple has been hoping that sales of the ipod will have a halo effect on the sales of the mac he said before now he said apple has been seen as a premium brand but he said the mac mini changed that perception it s a particularly good price when you see that it s apple that is doing it he said apple expects the mac mini to sell for 339 in the uk and 499 in the us adding extras such as a larger hard drive more memory and networking options will increase the basic price it will go on sale from 22 january for consumers interested in style design and small size which is what the majority of ipod customers are interested in it s