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Mac mini officially dead? (WWDC photo)
- Thread starter Eminemdrdre00
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I hope the mini is not dead. As cool as the minis I have are, they won't last forever. I also loved my round blueberry iBook and thought Apple could have kept that roundish form factor and put in bells and whistles of increasingly modern Macbooks into them, but they ditched the look for a more Sony VAIO looking form factor that dons the Macbooks today.
But if the mini is dead I can see why. The mini served its purpose. Back when the mini came out there was a move to have people switch from PC to Mac but the focus of the company has truly gone to iPhone, iTunes, and iPad.
Also instead of today's buyer now going after universally accepted Macbooks and iMacs, there wasn't as much traction for Macbooks and iMacs that many years ago and mini needed to introduce people to Macs and OSX. But now the cat is out of the bag and Macs and OSX are as common as pie, then a person wanting a Mac will get one and it won't be a surprise and people already know what positives we have going.
Even Apple Inc with all their money has to make a profit and if mini doesn't have a purpose and sales to back it, then it's dead.
Also there will come a time when it's possible to load up an iMac with virtually everything a Mac Pro can have in terms of storage, speed, and graphics and there may one day never be a need for Mac Pro. A consumer iMac could handle what most of us do but a "pro" iMac could do the heavy lifting. For some designers I think they have the iMac doing all they need at their job.
But if the mini is dead I can see why. The mini served its purpose. Back when the mini came out there was a move to have people switch from PC to Mac but the focus of the company has truly gone to iPhone, iTunes, and iPad.
Also instead of today's buyer now going after universally accepted Macbooks and iMacs, there wasn't as much traction for Macbooks and iMacs that many years ago and mini needed to introduce people to Macs and OSX. But now the cat is out of the bag and Macs and OSX are as common as pie, then a person wanting a Mac will get one and it won't be a surprise and people already know what positives we have going.
Even Apple Inc with all their money has to make a profit and if mini doesn't have a purpose and sales to back it, then it's dead.
Also there will come a time when it's possible to load up an iMac with virtually everything a Mac Pro can have in terms of storage, speed, and graphics and there may one day never be a need for Mac Pro. A consumer iMac could handle what most of us do but a "pro" iMac could do the heavy lifting. For some designers I think they have the iMac doing all they need at their job.
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But, the Apple Store is not down. So.... no new hardware being released today.
Probably not, and that's not a surprise as they generally don't do that on WWDC
People keep (incorrectly) saying that. New hardware has been released at 5 of the last ten WWDC keynotes.
Mostly iPhones not Macs. Yes there have been new macs, but mostly its been a iOS focus at WWDC
If other hardware was announced & the mini was left out, I would believe it, but because there was no hardware announcement at all, I think there is still hope.
I wouldn't say that; it's a developer conference after all, and there's a lot of exciting stuff for OS X and iOS, though as usual I'm more interested in all the extra goodies they don't mention on stage, low level system features and other APIs, gonna be interesting to see once the advanced features section for Yosemite pops up.
I am bummed at the lack of hardware though; I was really hoping they had a cool new Mac Mini to show off and that that was why it has been delayed. This to me means they're almost definitely waiting for Broadwell, which means we're stuck till later this year, which is very disappointing as I want a new machine, but the current Mac Mini is just a tiny bit short of what I need (and no, I don't want a machine with a built in screen).
I definitely don't think the Mac Mini is dead though; small desktops are pretty active at the moment, and Apple already has one, all they have to do is update it, maybe make it a bit more attractive to new customers (e.g - have a cheaper low-end model). Especially with this big Continuity feature in both OS X.10 and iOS 8, as it means that having a desktop alongside your iPhone or iPad is more useful than ever.
Tim just took the stage at WWDC to talk about the Mac, and the mini was absent.
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R.I.P. Mac mini
I have to agree unless a silent update happens. I'm just glad I got mine right after the last update came out
Apple loves to tell us what we want. They may have intended the Mini to entice non-Apple computer users over but the type of people that want a Mini is greater than that niche. What a shame Apple is incapable of exploring opportunities with this little machine and realizing a slightly more powerful model would fill the hole left by the Mac Pro (pricing) for people who need a bit less than a Mac Pro and a bit more than the screen of the iMac. Having had all three, I use a Mac Mini for lesser graphic work along with a superior screen to the iMac (NEC PA series) for graphic/photo work.
We can only hope that Apple either makes a lower end Mac Pro or continues a good roadmap with the Mini. We shall see.
Having just had my first Windows 8.1 experience, I really don't understand why Apple doesn't push the Mac Mini as an alternative to a basic PC. I got my parents a Lenovo, Core i3, 1T hard drive and 6 mg ram -- with tax it was about $500. Having used Windows since the beginning, Win8 seems like a deliberate attempt to encourage people move to Apple.
Hey, I thought the announcements and features for the upcoming 10.10 and iOS8 releases were awesome. I can't wait to get my hands on them.
I was disappointed that there were zero hardware announcements, but oh well. 10.10 and iOS8 still look pretty epic.
I was disappointed that there were zero hardware announcements, but oh well. 10.10 and iOS8 still look pretty epic.
I know a lot of people were upset about no new mini been announced but unlike past WWDC's this was purely a software event. There was no hardware announced at all. As far as I read it new hardware updates will be announced when the latest versions of OS X and iOS are available. Seems simple - announce new software in summer, release it in fall along with new hardware.
I think the mini will be updated as it makes sense to do so as an entry point Mac, but we won't see it for around 4 months.
I think the mini will be updated as it makes sense to do so as an entry point Mac, but we won't see it for around 4 months.
Mistaken. A few past WWDC's did show some hardware. Not all, but some of them
http://www.itbusiness.ca/slideshows/best-moments-from-past-10-years-of-apple-wwdc-keynotes