The Hindu : Business : Basket full of Apples

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005

Business

Business

Basket full of Apples

By Anand Parthasarathy

— Photo: S. Subramanium

The Product Marketing Manager, Asia Pacific, Darren Sng, along with the Product Marketing Manager-Portables, Yeo Eng Yiong, at the launch of Apple's Mac Mini, and I Pod Shuffle at a function in New Delhi on Tuesday.

BANGALORE, FEB. 1. Apple today announced availability in India of all the new releases — two pieces of hardware and three software tools — that were unveiled three weeks ago in the U.S.

The new Mac mini PC — the smallest desktop machine to come from the company and the cheapest — will be available in two configurations: The 1.25 GHz version of the PowerPC G4 chip will fuel the model that comes with 256 MB of memory; 40 GB of hard disk and the combination DVD write and CD read-write drive. It will cost Rs. 32,200.

The version based on the 1.42 GHz processor, with 256 MB of memory; an 80 GB hard disk and the same CD/DVD drive costs Rs. 37,400. Neither machine includes keyboard, mouse or monitor — buyers will have to pay extra or use their existing accessories.

Also available here now is the iPod Shuffle, Apple's new version of its popular music player that now comes with 512 MB or 1 GB of space for storing a typical 120 or 240 songs.

These are cheaper than other iPods and at Rs 8, 500 and Rs 12,400 will compete in India directly with a number of clones from Korea and Taiwan.

The software lineup includes iLife 05, the suite of digital life style applications for the Mac PC that includes updates to tools like iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD, which together will help users edit pictures, create movies and cut DVDs to distribute them. The package also includes iTunes to download songs to the iPod but this is less meaningful in India where an easy online payment mechanism is not in place. iLife costs Rs. 4,710.

Also released is iWorks the productivity suite (Rs. 4,710) and the latest upgrade to its video editing software Final Cut Express HD (for High Definition Video).

This package, priced at Rs. 16,960, is possibly the most widely used amateur film editing tool and interestingly many professionals in India swear by it.

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