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It would be nice if all the major authorized resellers would remove this obsolete garbage from their shelves and tell Tim that they have a reputation to look after and therefore Mini is no longer available.

Probably not a good thing to have your latest phone product capable of beating one of your desk-top computing options in a benchmark shoot-out.
it is when you consider the phone greatly outsells their desktops. Let’s be real in 2018 how many consumers actually are looking to buy a new desktop machine
 
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I agree with ChrisMoBro. Apple has made not effort to provide users with a high performance computer that doesn't force you to buy a screen (iMac), pay a premium for portability (which I don't need) or isn't $5,000 (iMac Pro or Mac Pro). My mac mini server has been a great machine but I have been in the market for a new one for over a year now and Apple has just let this line flounder while the concentrate on their iPhone and iPad business. Pretty soon I will have to decide whether to stick with the compatibility of all Apple devices or just move my whole house to Windows 10. Selling 4 year old technology is just wrong.
 
This story is a joke.

Yeah right. Pros like small boxes that cannot be opened.

Will somebody please take away the keys to the Beamer from Timmy?

I'm sure there will be groups of pro users who don't necessarily need workstation level power. I would surprised if they didn't aim the new Mini at the education market as a cheaper, powerful base unit.
 
American corporations have life spans like Sears, Kodak, GE, and so many others. At their most successful it seems impossible that they would or could fail. But Apple is following the same path, going for the short term profit, abandoning their loyal customers, etc.

The iphone is great, but still is just a fashion toy and fashion changes. In 20 years Apple will be a memory.
You can’t really think the brand loyalty of the iPhone is going to be effected by the masses who only computer is their phones and never even consider buying a conventional computer. As long as iPhone is the best selling phone on the market app developers will still need to buy macs
 
The new iMac Pro, yearly updates the iMacs, and yearly updates to MacBooks and MacBook Pros are all evidence against your assertion. Just because Apple hasn't update the Mini and Mac Pro in years doesn't mean it's their policy to wait until products are obsolete.

I like the Mini - I have a 2012 model serving as a Plex and file server (upgrade to an SSD helped a lot) - and would love to see it updated but it was always a niche product.


Apple has 2 major holes in their lineup;

  • No proper stand alone desktop. I mean literally nothing. Mac Mini is the only option. Your only option is taking a Macbook Pro and closing the lip using an external monitor.
  • Their only stand alone workstation is 5 years old
 
Put me in the list of those who think there will be no October 2018 event. Also put me in the list of those who think any new Mac Mini will be an overpriced, lackluster let down with absolutely no user modifications allowed. At least my old late 2012 Mac Mini could have RAM added. They took away that user modification with the 2014 models so they could charge us ten times what the RAM should cost. Apple is NEVER going to make a truly modifiable Mac again. You need to go to a Windows box for that, then put up with all the MS garbage. I currently use my late 2012 Mac Mini i5 with 16GB RAM as a dual boot using Boot Camp to boot both Mojave and Windows 10. It runs very sluggishly under Mojave, but it still cruises along under Windows 10. Sad, but true...
 
The annoying thing is like the 2006 Mac Pro, Apple don't need to "innovate" here. The chassis is fine, just update the I/O ports and processor/GPU every couple of years, and people would be happy. Sometimes Apple tries too hard to re-invent things that don't need re-inventing - a box with some external ports and chips inside.
I can see a happy medium here. The cMP was a lot of material, with a 900W PSU. They could still make an upgradable model, but probably do so with 25lbs less aluminum and a lower energy demand. Much of that can be had simply through improved technology though. There was definitely better directions to go than the very limited cylinder model. Standard GPUs would be a great start.

Where the 2014 mini failed miserably is the lack of upgradability. No RAM slots, soldered CPU, HDD sitting behind secure screws. An updated model with quad and hex cores would be a great start. I'd love to see them adopt the Intel+Vega CPU (i7 8705G)--it's possible that very product was created by Intel for this very purpose.
 
I find it odd that they didn't even bother with a processor or graphics upgrade a couple years ago. Apple just let it sit and become outdated.

It’s fairly obvious if you think about it. It is the Mac Pro’s fault. They designed in in such a way that they couldn’t upgrade it with the later Intel chips. Apple couldn’t have their commodity mini box with better specs than their Pro machine so they chose to just sit on it.
 
because they sell it in the apple store as if it’s a modern brand new computer

try to imagine if you didn’t know any better and you went out and spent $500 and came home and turned on a computer with a 1.4GHz haswell i5, 4GB of ram and a 5400 rpm spinning disk and tell me you wouldn’t feel ripped off

It’s make or break for Apple. They can’t not know it. Fail here and there will be lots of disappointed potential customers. The iMac Pro is all well and good, but there’s a large appetite for modularity (Mini) and user customization (Pro).
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They haven’t made new ones in years. That’s what “ripoff” means to you? Please explain how this comment makes any sense.
 
Apple has 2 major holes in their lineup;

  • No proper stand alone desktop. I mean literally nothing. Mac Mini is the only option. Your only option is taking a Macbook Pro and closing the lip using an external monitor.
  • Their only stand alone workstation is 5 years old
It’s most likely because the desktop market is so small today the average consumers are not buying them
 
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because they sell it in the apple store as if it’s a modern brand new computer

try to imagine if you didn’t know any better and you went out and spent $500 and came home and turned on a computer with a 1.4GHz haswell i5, 4GB of ram and a 5400 rpm spinning disk and tell me you wouldn’t feel ripped off

It reminds me of the Steve Jobs quote years ago ;"We don't know how to make a $500 computer which isn't a piece of s..t.".
Yes you do.
 
It’s most likely because the desktop market is so small today the average consumers are not buying them


Well $ wise it makes more sense to sell all-in-ones and laptops over desktops. And their last workstation design ended up being a bust which they are not suppose to correct until next year with a new Mac Pro.
 
I am still happy with my MacMini (late 2012 2,6 GHz). macOS has become faster and more powerful since then, and therefore I am even satisfied with the computing power for e.g. FinalCutPro.

Nevertheless Apple seems to want to do without my money.
If Apple would finally sell a reasonable combination of a computer (4K-MacMini) and its own, matching fancy monitor, they would have my money immediately. Unfortunately I now have to spend the money on other non-Apple things.

I'm frustrated that Apple is exclusively dealing with the saturated and overheated mobile phone business, in which (beyond the hot camera) it only contributes superfluous gimmicks or reacts to the zeitgeist (oversized rounded unwieldy devices for the Chinese market, which are badly in hand to spare people the investment in the matching device "iPad").
 
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I bought a second hand 2014 i7 16 gig machine this past winter and updated it with a 256 pcie ssd and 1 tb Samsung sata ssd. I can’t feel any speed difference from a sky lake or newer dual core machine. The lack of hidpi graphics sucks but let not act like these machines can’t still do what they were intended to be- light to medium weight workstations for the average joe.
 
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Don’t get too excited about what may be announced, if anything.

Past events have set the path going forward ... anything announced this month will most likely be disappointing.
 
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Totally unacceptable and embarrassing that a company with the vast resources of Apple can’t maintain a simple, well liked and best selling product line like the Mac Mini.

I'd kind of question the bold (well, where "liked" relates to sales), like this user pointed out:

It’s most likely because the desktop market is so small today the average consumers are not buying them

All the "Apple is this/that/other" aside, i.e., their slow uptake on newer components for their computer line (I'd agree with), I think the Mini is so far off the rails in terms of consumer interest / market viability, it's gotten an extra dose of delay.

You've got the mobile market which is where most consumers are directing their interest, then the computer market, where a huge majority of computer sales/interest is in notebooks (of the people who want/ need something beyond a tablet), and then in that small market (of the overall "computing device" space), the leftover segment for non-portable machines (outside of servers) where I'd imagine most of the interest for Apple is an iMac, a few specific market segments like video work using MPs, and this general space diluted by the PC/gaming segment, cheap cubicle Windows desktops.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a good candidate for a Mini, I even owned two, but I realize I'm in an extremely tiny consumer segment.
 
Sell the MAC computer division.

Macs are held hostage by Apple who clearly do not want to spend any resources on them. Look at an iPhone and look at a 15" Macbook Pro.

Which has the higher profit margin?

Put a $499 Mimi next to an iPhone and it's worse.

Macs are dead unless they are broken off and sold to a Dell or HP who would be thrilled with their profit margins.
 
"Pro focused event." Then get on CUDA support in Mojave, Apple. Just that alone would do WONDERS. You don't even have to officially support eGPU nVidia cards, just get CUDA support back in the OS and then let the community at egpu.io do your work for you (again).

From nVidia:
Apple's recently released macOS 10.14 (Mojave) does not support CUDA. For CUDA developers who are on macOS 10.13, it is recommended to not upgrade to Mojave. Developers may not be able to use Xcode 10 to build GPU applications or run CUDA applications. Both macOS 10.13.6 and Xcode 9.4 support CUDA and work great with CUDA 10. NVIDIA is working with Apple to get Mojave to support CUDA.

Apple's official eGPU support was the sole reason I bought a Mac instead of another godforsaken PC. It has been a nice first step, but I really can't find the specific Vega 64 cards these eGPU units officially support at a decent price. At some point, the overpriced under performing AMD cards combined with the higher end eGPU enclosures (with power supply needed to run those watt hungry Vega cards) add up to a pretty substantial cost that a reasonable person could just throw at a PC. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't also issues with running eGPUs on Macs running bootcamp.

Damn it, Apple. DAMN. IT. Even when you offer an olive branch, it's too short. How did you get so bad at this?

I love my iMac, but it might have to get sold. Apple doesn't understand pro software. They don't understand the software and hardware people use to create Apple's own commercials. And when they ask apple boot licking pundits like John Gruber at Daring Fireball, he tells them the wrong info, because he doesn't know either.

Apple, stop talking only to your worshippers... and start talking to those who are leaving your church.
 
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