Apple Unveils New Mac Mini Powered By M1 Chip, Pricing Now Starts at $699

[milescortez]

mostly agree, though Apple Silicon does offer more than walled garden advantages. the build quality has certainly collapsed from when I started using Apple ][ all those years ago. my MBP 2015 has had two screen/lid replacements under factory warranty and the ports are all playing up with intermittency issues which is as funny as a funeral. Apples has moved into that Luxe attitude that people like Woz and the guy who SJ's stole the Mac project from stopped it from becoming. Sales now run by former Burberry CEO and watch bands by Hermes.

It sure has changed from the company I loved so much, but then so has the world. There's gonna be a day fo (climate) reckoning sooner than many think though, and the consumerism era will be a distant memory. Speaking of which, I think that's why Apple removed ear buds and chargers, I think it's a legitimate desire on the VC of Sustainability's part to reduce landfill waste. If they made Macs that didn't hardware fail so quickly that would also achieve a lot less landfill.

Yeah--- I never bought the eco-argument on the earbuds and chargers. I'm a finance guy so it looked like a cost saving measure to me and the eco-friendly argument provided a nice excuse. Either way the two dovetailed nicely. I still see it as a money move but I acknowledge when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Pretty sure Apple is trying to set up the Macbook line like the iPhone (iOS) where you need to buy a new MacBook every couple of years if you want the latest software (OS). Right now the # is 7-8 years. Mini-2011 won't run Catalina (2019) but a Mini 2012 will run Catalina. Pretty sure you will see this number shrink dramatically over the next 5 years to drive profit (along with the other methods to improve margin)

 

[Velli]

the point is existing intel Mac minis have four TB3 ports (intel iMac doesn't, MBP does, iMac Pro does). and have done since 2018. It's really important not to daisy chain certain devices on TB or even have on the same TB bus (I believe there are two buses for four ports on the intel Mac mini 2018/20). So it appears that Apple have chosen to hobble the TB side of things for the M1 mini, perhaps to stop the M1 mini taking sales from iMac, MBP before they get a AS makeover.

I think people are getting way too riled up about this. Apple is rearranging the differentiation between models as part of the makeover. Nothing shocking about that. Four ports will be in the higher-end versions. If you need more than two TB ports, you’re very likely (not 100%, so spare me your individual stories please - one story doesn’t change statistics) to be a power user that would never buy an i3. The issue here is that power users also tend to be first movers, so they want to buy this, even though it’s not built for them. In other words, just wait it out, your machine arrives next year.

In fact, I’d argue that this is a good test: Would you have bought a Mac with an i3 processor before? If not, then M1 Macs are not for you.