This isn't what I intended to write about tonight, but when I discovered it, plans changed. The online Apple store allows you to change certain components in Macs that you order online, in what Apple calls the \"Build To Order\" (BTO) process. So, I now present to you two different Mac mini's:

Two Mac mini (Late 2009) BTO configurations from the online Apple store

Can you spot the difference? The Mac mini on the left has a 2.53Ghz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB disk. The Mac mini on the right has the exact same specifications. Yet the Mac mini on the left costs \$949, while the identical machine on the right costs \$799.

Give up? For the Mac mini on the left, I started with the base 2.26Ghz model (\$599), and upgraded the CPU (\$150), RAM (\$100), and hard disk (\$100). The Mac mini on the right is the stock 2.53Ghz model, which includes all of the upgrades that I added to the base model.

Apple's BTO pricing has really gotten screwy with this latest update. Maybe it has always been this way, but somehow I would think there would be more griping about this. Or maybe Apple's penchant for letting marketing set the prices of components, instead of letting the market set the price, has finally caught up with them.

-Andy.