2014 Mac Mini Teardown Highlights Increased Difficulty For User Upgradability

[occollegeboi420]

That is exactly the point I'm making. They seem to want you to upgrade regardless, as the new software/gadget/whatever the've brought out won't work with your old reliable Mac. They don't care or want longevity, it is not their business model anymore.

I know. And it's such a load of CRAP that apple tries calling itself a "green" company.

The fact that they are KING of engineered obsolescence means that they are very very UNgreen. Forcing people to buy another phone because the new software update requires more ram than the phone already has? That is complete bulls&$*. And they won't even allow you to DOWNGRADE your ios?

All that aluminum that needs to be mined, all those minerals used in the production of iphones. People who upgrade their phones every year, or every other year for that matter, should be forced to pay pollution taxes. And these stupid sheep just throw money at apple and they throw MORE aluminum and other minerals into landfills.

1. Not just apple, but the entire electronics industry is creating more e-waste than our planet can handle. People who continuously upgrade their phones are going to have a negative impact on me and future generations of this planet. So yeah- they can buy what they want, but they should have to pay a bunch of extra pollution taxes. The reason no one in this country thinks about the consequences is because at the moment, they are not at our front door. You don't all see the piles of e-waste you are creating - so it's easier to pretend it's not happening. That waste is polluting the water table wherever it is being stored.
2. We don't have enough natural resources to keep creating these things at the rate we are creating them. We are wasting valuable battery resources so that electronic companies can keep making profits to please their investors, when in reality, we can just create a really great phone product that would last 10 years. But they hold off on releasing some features so that they can sell you something new a year from now. It's called built in obsolescence.
3. I get upset about people buying stuff they can't afford because we all end up suffering as a society when most people are poor and can't afford to feed their kids and keep a roof over their head. 15% of the population is in poverty. 35 percent of American households live on $35,000 or less each year. How is it that Apple is selling so many of these phones year over year when most of the country can't afford the basics? How is it that reliance on govt. help is increasing and yet - so are iPhone sales. Those things should not be correlated. The exact opposite should be happening. I understand if we heard that the newest advancement in healthy food preparation was a big hit and people were spending 500 bucks on that. But a phone? One that most people already own but just want a better one? We have never been in a time where humans consumed this much of something they didn't NEED to survive.

 

[UpperQuadrant]

I know. And it's such a load of CRAP that apple tries calling itself a "green" company.

The fact that they are KING of engineered obsolescence means that they are very very UNgreen. Forcing people to buy another phone because the new software update requires more ram than the phone already has? That is complete bulls&$*. And they won't even allow you to DOWNGRADE your ios?

All that aluminum that needs to be mined, all those minerals used in the production of iphones. People who upgrade their phones every year, or every other year for that matter, should be forced to pay pollution taxes. And these stupid sheep just throw money at apple and they throw MORE aluminum and other minerals into landfills.

1. Not just apple, but the entire electronics industry is creating more e-waste than our planet can handle. People who continuously upgrade their phones are going to have a negative impact on me and future generations of this planet. So yeah- they can buy what they want, but they should have to pay a bunch of extra pollution taxes. The reason no one in this country thinks about the consequences is because at the moment, they are not at our front door. You don't all see the piles of e-waste you are creating - so it's easier to pretend it's not happening. That waste is polluting the water table wherever it is being stored.
2. We don't have enough natural resources to keep creating these things at the rate we are creating them. We are wasting valuable battery resources so that electronic companies can keep making profits to please their investors, when in reality, we can just create a really great phone product that would last 10 years. But they hold off on releasing some features so that they can sell you something new a year from now. It's called built in obsolescence.
3. I get upset about people buying stuff they can't afford because we all end up suffering as a society when most people are poor and can't afford to feed their kids and keep a roof over their head. 15% of the population is in poverty. 35 percent of American households live on $35,000 or less each year. How is it that Apple is selling so many of these phones year over year when most of the country can't afford the basics? How is it that reliance on govt. help is increasing and yet - so are iPhone sales. Those things should not be correlated. The exact opposite should be happening. I understand if we heard that the newest advancement in healthy food preparation was a big hit and people were spending 500 bucks on that. But a phone? One that most people already own but just want a better one? We have never been in a time where humans consumed this much of something they didn't NEED to survive.

Electronic equipment gets recycled. It doesn't get thrown in landfill unless you don't dispose of the equipment properly. Aluminum is one of the most recylced metals out there, why do you think people are bringing back their aluminum soda/beer cans to get cash back?? you think that metal goes into landfill? Yeah right. Maybe in the country you live in, but not in most industrialized nations. We've gone past the dark ages.

Now, if you look at Apple, when a new iPhone model hits the market, it runs the OS that was released at the same time, then you get 3 ADDITIONAL OS updates for a total of 4 years of usefulness of the hardware if you bought it the first day. Name an Android phone that had more than 4 OS updates during the life of the phone. The old Gingerbread phones that came with 2.2 aren't getting updated past Gingerbread. Let's look at the Samsung Galaxy SII, which was a popular high end Samsung phone when it was originally released in . It originally came in 2011 with what OS? Gingerbread, then it got upgraded to Jelly Bean (4.1.2, NOT 4.3.1 which was the last version of Jelly Bean) via Ice Cream Sandwich. That's it, so it only got 3 OS updates over the course of 3 almost 4 years and it's NOT running Kit Kat OR Lollipop. The IPhone that got announced in 2011 was the iPhone 4S, which got iOS 5, then 6, then 7, and now 8.1, so you can still effectively use it for another year until iOS 9 comes out and that'll probably be it's usefulness as far as running an OS. Now, because batteries don't last forever, people are VERY prone to dropping phones and there has been advancement in cellular technology as they went from 3G, to 3G+, 4G/LTE, etc. etc., that was part of the driving force of people upgrading because the cellular networks have been upgraded and people want to take advantage of these newer networks, so blame the cellular providers. The products (smartphones and tablets) in general are just not going to last as long as a desktop computer for the mere fact that anything electronic that gets tossed around, used in excessive cold/hot/humid, etc. weather simply doesn't last as long. It's just the way it is. Laptops can also fall into this category if the user doesn't take good care of their unit. It's just fact of life.

I didn't have to pay a dime to upgrade my old iPhone 4 8GB to a iPhone 6 16GB as they gave me credit for the 2 year version.

So, stop the bitching and complaining, Apple offers iPhones at a competitive price, they provide yearly updates to the OS like clockwork, they give timely updates for bug fixes and ALL of the iPhones they sell ALWAYS runs the latest OS. Not the case in the world of Android. In fact, MOST of the Android models on the market DON'T come or run the latest OS and they don't always get 4 years of OS updates from the original release date. In the case of Samsung SII, it only got 2 years of OS updates. Oops.

 

[occollegeboi420]

Electronic equipment gets recycled. It doesn't get thrown in landfill unless you don't dispose of the equipment properly. Aluminum is one of the most recylced metals out there, why do you think people are bringing back their aluminum soda/beer cans to get cash back?? you think that metal goes into landfill? Yeah right. Maybe in the country you live in, but not in most industrialized nations. We've gone past the dark ages.

Now, if you look at Apple, when a new iPhone model hits the market, it runs the OS that was released at the same time, then you get 3 ADDITIONAL OS updates for a total of 4 years of usefulness of the hardware if you bought it the first day. Name an Android phone that had more than 4 OS updates during the life of the phone. The old Gingerbread phones that came with 2.2 aren't getting updated past Gingerbread. Let's look at the Samsung Galaxy SII, which was a popular high end Samsung phone when it was originally released in . It originally came in 2011 with what OS? Gingerbread, then it got upgraded to Jelly Bean (4.1.2, NOT 4.3.1 which was the last version of Jelly Bean) via Ice Cream Sandwich. That's it, so it only got 3 OS updates over the course of 3 almost 4 years and it's NOT running Kit Kat OR Lollipop. The IPhone that got announced in 2011 was the iPhone 4S, which got iOS 5, then 6, then 7, and now 8.1, so you can still effectively use it for another year until iOS 9 comes out and that'll probably be it's usefulness as far as running an OS. Now, because batteries don't last forever, people are VERY prone to dropping phones and there has been advancement in cellular technology as they went from 3G, to 3G+, 4G/LTE, etc. etc., that was part of the driving force of people upgrading because the cellular networks have been upgraded and people want to take advantage of these newer networks, so blame the cellular providers. The products (smartphones and tablets) in general are just not going to last as long as a desktop computer for the mere fact that anything electronic that gets tossed around, used in excessive cold/hot/humid, etc. weather simply doesn't last as long. It's just the way it is. Laptops can also fall into this category if the user doesn't take good care of their unit. It's just fact of life.

I didn't have to pay a dime to upgrade my old iPhone 4 8GB to a iPhone 6 16GB as they gave me credit for the 2 year version.

So, stop the bitching and complaining, Apple offers iPhones at a competitive price, they provide yearly updates to the OS like clockwork, they give timely updates for bug fixes and ALL of the iPhones they sell ALWAYS runs the latest OS. Not the case in the world of Android. In fact, MOST of the Android models on the market DON'T come or run the latest OS and they don't always get 4 years of OS updates from the original release date. In the case of Samsung SII, it only got 2 years of OS updates. Oops.

But with android, you don't even really NEED to have the latest version. Doesn't anyone understand this?

And who cares that apple puts out more updates per phone, the LAST update ALWAYS is the one that cripples the device. So, in ESSENCE, an iphone doesn't REALLY get that many USEFULL updates.

And you're wrong, I still have a 2g iphone that gets used as an ipod touch, still works fine, still holds a charge. It is 7 years old. Still holding strong. You have no logic on the whole longevity of hardware issue.

 

[UpperQuadrant]

I know. And it's such a load of CRAP that apple tries calling itself a "green" company.

The fact that they are KING of engineered obsolescence means that they are very very UNgreen. Forcing people to buy another phone because the new software update requires more ram than the phone already has? That is complete bulls&$*. And they won't even allow you to DOWNGRADE your ios?

All that aluminum that needs to be mined, all those minerals used in the production of iphones. People who upgrade their phones every year, or every other year for that matter, should be forced to pay pollution taxes. And these stupid sheep just throw money at apple and they throw MORE aluminum and other minerals into landfills.

1. Not just apple, but the entire electronics industry is creating more e-waste than our planet can handle. People who continuously upgrade their phones are going to have a negative impact on me and future generations of this planet. So yeah- they can buy what they want, but they should have to pay a bunch of extra pollution taxes. The reason no one in this country thinks about the consequences is because at the moment, they are not at our front door. You don't all see the piles of e-waste you are creating - so it's easier to pretend it's not happening. That waste is polluting the water table wherever it is being stored.
2. We don't have enough natural resources to keep creating these things at the rate we are creating them. We are wasting valuable battery resources so that electronic companies can keep making profits to please their investors, when in reality, we can just create a really great phone product that would last 10 years. But they hold off on releasing some features so that they can sell you something new a year from now. It's called built in obsolescence.
3. I get upset about people buying stuff they can't afford because we all end up suffering as a society when most people are poor and can't afford to feed their kids and keep a roof over their head. 15% of the population is in poverty. 35 percent of American households live on $35,000 or less each year. How is it that Apple is selling so many of these phones year over year when most of the country can't afford the basics? How is it that reliance on govt. help is increasing and yet - so are iPhone sales. Those things should not be correlated. The exact opposite should be happening. I understand if we heard that the newest advancement in healthy food preparation was a big hit and people were spending 500 bucks on that. But a phone? One that most people already own but just want a better one? We have never been in a time where humans consumed this much of something they didn't NEED to survive.

The people that are in the lower half of income aren't necessarily buying new iPhones, they are probably the dirt cheap Android phones for $100 unlocked. If you look at the average iPhone consumer vs the average Android consumer, the average iPhone user typically is older, has more formal education and has a higher income. Now, I do not know where you get your information from, but iPhones and Android phones are getting recycled. If you are that concerned with the state of the world pollution, then you should get people to stop overpopulating the world, that'll help a lot more than getting people off of smartphones. Maybe you should get sterilized and not have any kids if you are so concerned with the world pollution problems.

 

[UpperQuadrant]

But with android, you don't even really NEED to have the latest version. Doesn't anyone understand this?

And who cares that apple puts out more updates per phone, the LAST update ALWAYS is the one that cripples the device. So, in ESSENCE, an iphone doesn't REALLY get that many USEFULL updates.

And you're wrong, I still have a 2g iphone that gets used as an ipod touch, still works fine, still holds a charge. It is 7 years old. Still holding strong. You have no logic on the whole longevity of hardware issue.

Most Android users couldn't even tell you what version they have anyway.

Some people were still using old 3GS after iOS 7 came out and it only ran iOS6, but the average person upgrades their phones every year or two years anyway. That's what the industry does. As far as Android users, I find a lot of teenagers and younger adults buying several Android units a year as they always want to brag about what model they have, so either they stick the older model in a drawer and don't use it, or they sell it on eBay or Craigslist. But if you look at the internet usage, iOS users use the internet a lot more than Android users which means the Android users barely use their products.

If you read what F-Secure labs says about security, Android is F-d up. Anything running an older version than 4.3 or KitKat is totally open to all kinds of malware and problems. That's about 70% of the Android install base. Google admitted not too long ago that they had a problem stemming back many years that they took their sweet time in fixing and this issue impacts the majority of Android users, but the typical Android user is completely ignorant of this. Oh well.

 

[Moto G]

I can't believe that the "teardown review" in this post is no such thing whatsoever - she just talks about a teardown, after the fact, with still images.

THIS is a teardown...

Welcome to the world of WYSIWYG, Apple-iances. That's ALL you're getting, EVER.

"Our 'Creative Engine' Has Never Been Stronger" ... Creative writing? Creative with the truth?

 

[tcarlaw]

I am disappointed with the latest 'upgrade' for the new Mac mini. I have been watching the Mac rumor website and thinking about upgrading my Mac mini for the past year. I use my mac mini to run a low traffic personal website, and having a relatively low power consumption mac to run my server is a much better option then running a Mac Pro.

The MacRumor advisory of wait for the newest upgrade has cost me the opportunity to upgrade my very old Mac mini to the 2012 version which is far more upgradeable.

When I purchased my original Mac mini, I was misled by the Apple website into purchasing a 2008 model in 2010(11?) ten days before they updated their model, and purchased several apple tv's with the expectation that Mountain lion would allow screen mirroring.

While I appreciate that there are processor limitations for air mirroring, the lack of information, and the presence of plainly misleading information on Apple's website led to several purchases that have left me less than satisfied.

While Apple is plainly enjoying unprecedented levels of success in the consumer electronic market, it also seems to be positioning itself as a supplier of disposable computers.

Microsoft's decline is a reflection of how short sighted this approach is. The assumption that everyone wants to purchase new products every year and dispose of old devices that are perfectly functional has led customers into staying with old operating systems that support legacy hardware. To some extent Apple has capitalized on this by releasing a small number of devices and offering a longer life cycle.

Unfortunately for myself and users like me, Apple's policy of making their products less upgradeable, and overcharging for memory and other hardware options is rapidly making their products undesirable. An Imac with a beautiful monitor that is only going to be functional for a fraction of its usable lifetime, or a mac mini with limited storage options, are both environmentally unfriendly, and difficult to justify from a business users standpoint.

Apple also seems to be alienating many industry partners such as Google, Samsung, and Adobe by either trying to undermine their market with copycat products, or using anti-competitive lawsuits to stifle competition.

Several products I use daily have been broken multiple times through Apple's upgrade process, and utilizing the network functions in my Apple products are cryptic at best.

My best option from a network perspective is to use Virtualbox which seems to give me more control over my network functions than Apple's configuration tools, and Apple Server. I can only hope that Oracle continues to support the development of this product for Apple, as my Apple products do not function adequately as Servers without this product.

I also hope that Apple grows up and decides to provide its customers with a vision of what their company plans to do, instead of playing a childish game of cloak and daggers, that misleads their customers and stabs their partners in the back. All of the money Apple has spent on lawsuits, would have been better spent on keeping their customers informed so they could make informed decisions, instead of trying to stifle competition.

 

[fmaxwell]

But - right now they are just annoying all the potential buyers

Stop being a drama queen. Most potential Mac Mini buyers are happy that the price dropped $100 and many who were hesitant to try a Mac at $600 will be willing to for $500.

, in the hope that the common man will. But he either buys a laptop. They either shot themselves in the foot, or they are just trying to piss people of. Either way, their move suck.

While it might upset you, it is a shrewd business move, typical of Apple, and one which I expect to pay off handsomely. Apple doesn't care about a handful of whiny cheapskates. That's not their target demographic.

I've got 2,800 shares of Apple stock and have made about $230K profit, so I've got a pretty good understanding of Apple's strategy and its potential for success.

----------

wrong.

You're not qualified to pass judgment on my posts.

The MINI does not fit into Apple DREAM of its future.

Apple does NOT want to keep building the Mini.

If they did not want to keep building it, they would have ceased doing so -- just as they recently did with the iPod Classic.

Apple barely cares about the Mac Pro and it comprises almost NOTHING in its profit margin
NOTHING.

The Mini is not much better in their eyes or future.

Wrong on both counts. Both are key to Apple's strategy. The Mac Mini is the entry-level Mac that allows PC users to inexpensively enter the Mac world, bringing their keyboard, mouse, and monitor with them. Once there, many remain. Apple doesn't need to make a lot of profit on the Mac Mini, but they don't want it to be a system that gets upgraded for four years, allowing the user to put off purchasing an iMac or MacBook.

At the other end of the scale, the Mac Pro is Apple's flagship product and an engineering tour de force. It's key to anchoring the high-end and getting technophiles in the door. Just as the Corvette Z06 gets gearheads into Chevy dealerships, the Mac Pro gets technophiles into Apple stores. It also gets Apple a foothold in the enterprise, where many CAD, video, and graphics professionals choose the Mac Pro.

Hopefully, you now better understand Apple's strategy and how the Mac Mini and Mac Pro fit into it.

 

[5232152]

Stop being a drama queen. Most potential Mac Mini buyers are happy that the price dropped $100 and many who were hesitant to try a Mac at $600 will be willing to for $500.

Wrong. You dont get the Apple strategy enough to figure, that people who buys the product are so deep in the Apple eco-system, they actually know what they are doing. Anyone else would buy a laptop.

Don't play smart, when you can deliver the results.

 

[fmaxwell]

Wrong. You dont get the Apple strategy enough to figure, that people who buys the product are so deep in the Apple eco-system, they actually know what they are doing.

From the introduction of the original Mac Mini in 2005: "And we want to price this Mac so that people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses." Source: Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

From the press release for this latest Mac Mini: "People love Mac mini. It’s a great first Mac..." Source: Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

The current value of my Apple stock is a little over $340K on an initial $85K investment, so I "get the Apple strategy."

Anyone else would buy a laptop.

Smart people who need desktop computers don't buy laptops instead. They understand the advantage of full-sized, external, replaceable, upgradeable keyboards, pointing devices, and displays. They don't pay for an unneeded battery and battery charge management circuitry, small screen, cramped keyboard, and undersized trackpad.

Don't play smart, when you can deliver the results.

You need to back off with the insults. You're not talking to someone who 'plays smart'.

But - right now they are just annoying all the potential buyers.

No, they are annoying an insignificant number of people. Most buyers of Mac Minis never open the case -- or pay anyone else to. Most people don't upgrade computers. That's a fact. I am sorry if that upsets you, but it's true. I do upgrade computers. So I bought two Mac Pros and don't have a Mac Mini.