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AppleInsider cites source sources 'for whom it holds the utmost respect' that point to the mini's 'imminent demise', killed off by an apparent lack of interest from Apple itself and by Apple TV, whose very existence would appear to owe much to the diminutive Mac.

'In fact, it was about that time in early 2006 when Apple TV really began to take shape inside Apple and the development of the mini began its slow, inevitable decline,' notes AppleInsider's Kasper Jade.

Mac mini was introduced By

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs in January 2005 and at just £339 for the 1.25GHz version it was easily the cheapest Mac ever. Shipping without a keyboard, mouse or monitor, it was designed for PC users who were looking for a cheap means of switching to the Mac. Whether it has had that effect is arguable, but certainly the anecdotal evidence is that Apple's laptop MacBook has been the switcher's Mac-of-choice, not the less versatile mini.

Certainly since Apple began fitting Intel Core 2 Duo chips in iMacs and MacBooks, the mini has lacked the power of its fellow Macs, although its Core Duo compares very favourably with the Pentiums and Celerons still common on low-end PCs.

None of that necessarily means that the mini is dead. But for many it was, like the Cube before it, the odd-one-out in Apple's consumer-professional/laptop/desktop product paradigm. Some have even speculated that Apple only introduced it to please shareholders. However since its unveiling Mac sales have increased by 50 per cent and almost all that growth is in attributed to laptops; desktop sales have hardly shifted.