Apple is slipping?

Kosmo

Apple has usually been very keen on keeping it's patents and designs secured by legal actions. And rightfully so, they propably use more money on their design department than any other computer company out there.

But why is that there are popping up computers similar to Apples latest addition to their product family Mac Mini?

Namely "Intel mini"


and Aopen "Pandora" or "Paradox"

Minisweeper

Stuff like this had to happen with the vent of nano itx boxes. The paradox really is identical though, granted.

lech

I think the main reason behind that is for the fact that apple probably wasn't the first to concieve a computer that small. Remember those mini ATX boards that you could fit into nearly something of the same size? There have been a few niche computer makers that probably came before the apple mini in that respect so apple is probably riding the wave there. As for the rest of their towers and such, copying one of those might be some kind of design infringement or something, I dunno.

Kosmo

I have always wondered, Intel has a big product design department, so how come their products always suck? They are blocky and have hard edges and somethow the designers always seem to find THE materials that look cheap even if they are good quality. It's a talent I tells ya!

lech

Ehh, well you need to remember, Intel makes the chips, and rarely the boxes to house the hardware. They have a very small design dept and most of their financing goes directly back into research for new chips and programming. Any left-overs usually leave us with dinky little web-cams and random other toys but nothing serious. I don't much mind what things look like as long as it stays in one piece and has some decent construction. I'm going to hide it somewhere anyway, in a drawer, under the desk, into a rack, whatever. It's a computer, not a statue, better to be used, not seen.

Kosmo

Actually Intel design department is rather large and their budget rival many gadget designer companies like some cell phone companies. I was at one of those big corporate happenings, and as our company is going to shift more focus on how our products look I looked around the design firms. I was talking to some fellow who does design in plastic and he had done some prototypes for Intel, and he said that they have one of the biggest and finest design departments in the world. I think the prototypes he made was for the Intel Aztech back in 98 or 97. But those were designed by Ziba Design, Intels own designs are all toys made out of toy quality materials with toy design.

lech

Yeah, that probably leads me to believe their design dept is small because of all the tinker toys they're releasing instead of properly designed utilitarian type systems. At least that's the way it was in the past, who knows what the future will hold. The intel mini doesn't look at all half bad even if it is a prototype. If I can flush mount it into my desk somewhere, I'm fairly happy with it.

Kosmo

But they actually DO design chassis, storage systems and rack servers from start to finish. Not that there is alot to design in server hardware, they are fugly :D

lech

Well, there have been a few well designed chasis as well as some very poor ones, major thing with rack-mount chasis is that ventilation is key since it's in such a tight space sometimes, height in-mind. Then just about everything else comes secondary.