What few seem to mention (and is a concern of mine) is that the Mac Mini will essentially hold back OS X. For Apple to keep selling a machine 4 years old — requires them to include support in OS X as time goes on. Thus, if Apple introduced new advanced coolness a couple years from now, they would have to support hardware they shipped 6 year before.
While I'm at it, were I to speculate on the outcome of the new Mini, a small part of me says there's a tiny chance Apple will offer a very modular machine. In other words: forget "bring your own keyboard", it will be: bring your own GPU, storage, and all the other things that we typically rip out after 6 months. That also might tread into Mac Pro discussions of the same flavour. Will the new Mini actually be a Mac Pro? How can you distinguish between these two given the same approach has been rumoured for so long?
What I worry about — if an October event were to actually happen, is the mess of the whole product line Apple has set themselves up for. As tradition used to have it, Apple would roll out something new for each of the hardware things we expect. But with everything so far behind, the pain Apple will see in the next 12 months will hurt it's stock in a big way. You see, if you roll out everything at the same time (which is the case given everything is outdated), all products will cannibalize each other over a limited appetite from the mac user community. Do I need a new laptop? Yes. Do I need a new desktop? Oh yes! Can I afford both at the same time? No.
Lastly, the mess of rolling out multiple products at once will test Apple's ability to support so many new products at the same time. Every new shiny thing Apple pushes out there comes with a few weeks of issues Apple hasn't sorted out until everyone has field-tested it for them. Now do that with the Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Book, iPads, and everything else far over due, and you will have one giant pile of unhappy people all at once.
