M5 base price prediction -$799 again?

[Cape Dave]

At this point in time, I would be shocked if Apple ever releases another desktop computer again. Here in Japan, Apple stores are at 2.5 months to get something and authorized stores are all out of stock. It’s pathetic.

One really would think that a FOUR TRILLION DOLLAR company could find a way to work around these "shortages" and fill their lineup.

 

[Time89]

If, on Monday apple announce mac mini m5 - it will be be long delay for first delivery. I hope i am wrong, but everything that read last few weeks point to significant delay of mac mini m5 availability and not for few weeks - few months. 3 more days and we will knew.

 

[Defaulteds]

No reason to have a line-up if none of it is available or takes many months to get it. If we were discussing some new upstart with poor logistics, cool. This is Apple - the company everyone doesn’t mind paying a premium for because you get a premium experience, right? Well, this doesn’t look or feel very premium to me.

 

[Defaulteds]

Another thing is, with the “global memory shortage” - I went to the top 5 PC companies we stores, and they all have plenty of stock of desktop pc’s which I can have at my door in 7-10 days.

 

[Bazza1]

Fair to say the (available) product will see a boost in price, rather than hold-the-line - deleting the less-expensive models that made the product popular in the first place.

That said, the products my local Apple Store have available includes the 'inexpensive' Neo (512) at $CDN999, or similarly, the Mini (512) at $CDN1099. But then, now that the base MacBook Air (once the inexpensive de facto Mac for students, road warriors and cafe habitues) now costs $CDN1499, I guess they are cheap.

ADDENDUM: Base MacBook Air now $CDN1799. Pricier than the last base Macbook (which no longer exists) and a far cry from it's original price (or even just a couple of years ago).

 

[unkl bob]

Given yesterday's (05 JUN) stock market dive, I wouldn't venture a guess right now. NASDAQ losses were substantial. The IA bubble that Apple has scrambled to catch up to MAY have burst, thus lowering prices on a lot of tech. We'll see...

 

[Time89]

No Mac mini M5 announcement so far

 

[Richard8655]

Predicting M5 base starting at $899. As painful it is to say that.

 

[sevoneone]

If the M5 mini happens at this point, I think they've shown their hand for the pricing.
$799 Base M5 / $1599 Bas M5 Pro.
They do not want to face sticker shock on launch of anything new. This way people will at least have an idea of what to expect.

 

[JPack]

Today's $200 increase for 16/256 provides enough buffer for M5 to start at $799 again.

 

[Cape Dave]

This whole thing of raising all prices and raising all prices on things that have not even appeared yet is INSANE. Give us our M5 mini and shutup, Apple!

 

[RichardC300]

Yes. $100-200 over the lifetime of a Mac Mini is no big deal. Just give us the M5 Mac Mini!

 

[sublunar]

If the M5 mini happens at this point, I think they've shown their hand for the pricing.
$799 Base M5 / $1599 Bas M5 Pro.
They do not want to face sticker shock on launch of anything new. This way people will at least have an idea of what to expect.

Depends if storage and ram prices continued an upward trend. This might not be the last increase we hear of.

If that happens though the low end price points will start to look bare - A series CPUs must surely be on the drawing board for low end minis now

 

[opeter]

Maybe they will lower the RAM quantity to 4GB. Like some PC manufacturers do nowadays. Strange times.

 

[sublunar]

Actually makes you wonder if macOS is well placed for a couple of years worth of optimisation and bug fixing under the auspices of making it a very efficient OS due to short term RAM prices. Another side effect could be ARM Macs being supported for longer too. 😛

If we're having a couple of years of this then don't be surprised to see a 12Gb A19Pro powered base model Mini to sit under the M5/M6 which will surely drive the narrative of OS optimisation going forward - especially as more of the current model of Macs will have 8Gb of RAM thanks to the MacBook Neo.

To be fair we could yet see the Mac Nano (now more obviously called the Mac Neo) if M5/M6 prices continue to rise and Apple once again ditch base model - only this time it's a $799 16/256 model in favour of starting with 16/512 at $999.

A huge gap under that for a Mac Neo - but would Apple dare to put Thunderbolt ports on it? And would they then introduce a tvOS mode into macOS for people who don't think $250 for an A17Pro plastic box is worth it? and would rather convert an old M1 Mac mini?

 

[JPack]

Actually makes you wonder if macOS is well placed for a couple of years worth of optimisation and bug fixing under the auspices of making it a very efficient OS due to short term RAM prices. Another side effect could be ARM Macs being supported for longer too. 😛

If we're having a couple of years of this then don't be surprised to see a 12Gb A19Pro powered base model Mini to sit under the M5/M6 which will surely drive the narrative of OS optimisation going forward - especially as more of the current model of Macs will have 8Gb of RAM thanks to the MacBook Neo.

To be fair we could yet see the Mac Nano (now more obviously called the Mac Neo) if M5/M6 prices continue to rise and Apple once again ditch base model - only this time it's a $799 16/256 model in favour of starting with 16/512 at $999.

A huge gap under that for a Mac Neo - but would Apple dare to put Thunderbolt ports on it? And would they then introduce a tvOS mode into macOS for people who don't think $250 for an A17Pro plastic box is worth it? and would rather convert an old M1 Mac mini?

The only target group for such a cheap box would be schools. The current M4 Mac mini (20 months old) is still back ordered by 3-4 weeks, so Apple is in no hurry to do anything.