There’s an interesting article on home oriented network attached storage devices (NAS) running today at news.com. The piece makes some great points about the impending boom in (relatively) affordable network attached storage devices from Iomega, Seagate, Western Digital and others … but what’s most intriguing, or perhaps obvious, about the NAS home market isn’t mentioned …

I’ve been thinking about network attached storage devices for the home for a while now, and have come up with what seems like an obvious conclusion.

While the news.com piece does well to stress the importance of backing up digital media (largely photos, ripped music, and video), it fails to mention the 600 pound snow white gorilla that’s poised to pounce on the home NAS market.

The competition has cause for concern.

Lets take Iomega. There’s no denying the success that the company experienced with removable storage media devices. The Zip Drive, for example, was wildly popular in its day because it offered an inexpensive alternative to Syquest technology. But can Iomega repeat its success in the home network attached storage device market?

The keys to the home NAS market will be found in the interface, in the ease of installation, and the strength of the marketing effort.

There’s no company better positioned for success in this market than Apple. Walk into an Apple Store any weekend and you’re likely to encounter bedlam. (The iPod may just prove to be the best Trojan Horse since, well, the Trojan Horse.) I’ll go out on a limb and predict that variations of the Intel Mac mini just might develop into the ubiquitous small-footprint home NAS device.

Apple’s not selling a turnkey solution, just yet. While internal storage may be limited at present, a bunch of cool small profile external hard drive enclosures are designed to fit under the Mac mini. Take a look at the LaCie mini Hard Drive & Hub, the MicroNet miniMate, NewerTech miniStack, or even the Iomega MiniMax and it’s not hard to imagine a Mac mini as a home’s digital hub/network attached storage device … pulling in stuff from the Tivo and storing the family’s photo and music archives … all with a tiny footprint

And if it can run either OSX or XP …

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