Best Buy, which currently sells Apple’s laptops and desktops through its online store, has quietly updated its Web site with a note that in-store availability for the Mac mini and US$99 512MB iPod shuffle is “coming soon.” Best Buy will sell both the $599 1.42GHz and $499 1.25GHz Mac mini at its brick-and-mortar locations but has neglected to carry the $149 1GB iPod shuffle, although the diminutive MP3 player is available for order from its Web site.
The popular retailer had a falling-out with Apple in 1999, when the computer maker insisted that the company carry all five colors of the original G3 iMac. Select Best Buy stores started carrying Macs during the summer of 2003, but the pilot program ended last summer with no publicly announced plans to continue it. Best Buy has carried iPods in all its stores since September 2002, however, and its Canadian affiliate, Future Shop, will start stocking 512MB and 1GB iPod shuffles in its stores on Feb. 11.