Thinkcorps

Nice graphic here charting out Apple’s supposed move into the mass market. I totally don’t buy it. There’s no reason to think that the Shuffle and Mac mini are going to take the mass market by storm, serving as some kind of tipping point. Besides, I don’t think products make tipping points, people do (read Gladwell’s book again).

These two new products are slick, but extremely stripped down. This makes them weak candidates for newbies, and better candidates for “switching” users (present PC users who want to try out the Mac way). But with limited power and feature sets, I think the biggest market is in present Mac users who want to expand their families. Both products make a lot of sense alongside their more powerful Mac brethren. Especially given their price points.

So mass market hit? I doubt it. But the genius here (not seen in the Cube) is that the appeal and price point of these products should drive their success purely within the confines of Mac users, while still appealing to PC “switchers” and newbies, growing the Mac universe. Lesson: Make money from your core users first, expand your customer base second.