SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 -- Apple is going where it has never gone before -- the discount end of the price scale.
Chief executive Steve Jobs opened the Macworld Expo trade show here Tuesday by unveiling a new desktop computer and a new music player, both priced far below its other Macs and iPods.
"We want to price this Mac so that people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses," said Jobs in the two-hour keynote address as he showed off the new Mac mini, a small rectangular device smaller than some laptops. It will go on sale Jan. 22 for $499 and $599, depending on processor speed and hard drive size.
"This is the most affordable Mac ever; in fact, it's the cheapest computer Apple has ever offered," Jobs said.
Neither model will include a keyboard, mouse or display. Apple expects customers to bring their own, possibly by using whatever came with the PC already at home.
To go with that baby-sized computer, Jobs introduced an even tinier music player, the iPod shuffle. "It is smaller than most packs of gum," said Jobs, clad in his usual black mock turtleneck and jeans.
"It weighs about four quarters."
The iPod shuffle will sell for $99 and $149, less than many competing players with less memory than the 512 megabytes and 1 gigabyte of flash memory Apple will include.
Unlike other iPods, the shuffle lacks a display to show what song is playing, but it connects to Apple's iTunes software just like its larger, pricier siblings. (The shuffle's name refers to its ability to play through a set of music at random, a popular feature on Apple's music players).
Both the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle sell for two-thirds or half the price of the next cheapest Apple model in each category. That represents a departure from its oft-invoked goal of being the BMW of the computing market, selling precision-engineered, artfully designed machines at a slightly higher price than most.
