I have a feeling that Apple will make another breakthrough again – finally establishing computer as an appliance, with the launch of Mac Mini.

People may finally start looking at computer as yet another household appliance – just like a microwave, fridge, washing machine, DVD player, etc. People will just use it, without needing to know much how it works under the hood.

It’s good because it’ll make computer more ubiquitous, and people will be able to benefit from it. It’ll hopefully enable people to do things they were not able to do before – sell their goods online / work from home, socialize with people on the other part of the world, finding out the knowledge pools on Internet, etc..

However, if that does happen, Apple will also need to think of a way to make sure that they all stay secure, seamlessly / without burdening the users. Something like Windows Update / Debian’s “apt” facility, but making sure that it won’t break things (unlike a few updates from Microsoft). It should be MUCH easier though, because Apple is working on a homogenic environment – unlike PC’s various configurations. So it’d be a complete disgrace if Apple failed to do this.

That said, I still won’t use Apple’s computers, because they’ve had bad track records on customer service – irreplaceable iPod battery, proprietary hardware/software, etc. I don’t like being locked into a certain vendor, it makes me feel like a hostage to their wishes. (and it has happened before)
However, don’t worry, I won’t criticise your personal decisions about this 🙂 I have too much things to do.

I’d be interested to see how the PC camp will react to this though.