I see it as the new 'cube'.
It'd be a great little computer for grandma and grandpa. I wouldn't buy one for a kid in college. As long as Apple markets it honestly, it should do okay. I doubt it will be the cash cow the iPod is.
Nah, Shuttle XPCs are the new cubes. The Mac mini is just a good accessory computer. I certainly wouldn't mind having one for the day-to-day computing routine. It just doesn't make a good HTPC, which is a market Apple needs to enter. Partner with M-Audio to get their sound solution, get nvidia's DVD decryption going for the video, and add an HTPC program in Tiger.