Mac Mini to be Discontinued?

[milo]

If no upgradable minitower is coming, then bring on a new Mini with...

No thanks. There has never been much need for a mini unit, just go with a decent midsize case with all desktop parts, no more laptop parts. It would be great to see apple finally better able to compete on price versus performance in the desktop space.

They sell quite briskly.

Evidence? I'm skeptical.

It's reasonable that the people at Apple would set the low end price point at $1,100.

Is there an explanation for Apple being ignorant of what a budget machine should cost? Maybe. But I'd hardly justify starting at 1100 as "reasonable", that's a guarantee of killing market share.

 

[VoR]

I think a slightly souped up mini at a really aggresive price has incredible selling potential - Unfortunately I think if/when it comes they'll have different ideas on sensible pricing.

 

[i3iz]

for me Mini is oo much $$ for what you get
and TV is not enough flexability. I want to watch hulu or other FLVs from the nets.

Merge the 2 on the 8400m and give me 1080p hardware decoding.

 

[Don.Key]

Well.

If this is true, then I guess it is a time to order several efiX modules and build small desktops for all my workplaces which need upgrades.

 

[wizard]

Yep it does look like that!

maybe they are just upgrading it to the nvidia chipset??

Well I wouldn't call it upgrading per say as the nVidia chip will require a redesigned case to achieve acceptable cooling. In any event Nvidia did announce today new integrated chips that would be ideal for a Mini.

As a side note I'm surprised that everybody is getting worked up about a rumour that came from Europe. It doesn't matter if the information is true or not, it is obvious that Apple is currently in transition mode to a whole new set of products. The transition of Mini to something new should be a given.

Considering how well the Nvidia chips on the new Mac Books are working out people should be ecstatic that the mini is dead. It just means that a significantly better one is about to arrive.

Dave

 

[twoodcc]

not looking good for those mini lovers. i hope that this isn't true, but it looks like it

 

[BrokenChairs]

I only hope...

that Apple replace it with something better, perhaps not a new Mac Mini, but a low-end desktop. We bought about 15 of these for work and they work like a charm, especially since they are small and don't take up desk space. It will be sad to see these go, but I hope they are reborn into something better.

Of course, the Mac Mini was designed to bring over Windows people (BYO...) but perhaps with Bootcamp/VMWare it's become pretty useless.

 

[maccompaq]

They sell quite briskly.

If you have ever watched the Apple refurbs page, Mac mini's seldom last for more than a day before they are sold out.

They usually sell out in minutes.

 

[milo]

Yet not a single PC manufacturer ever released a competitive machine at a lower price.

Depends on how you define competitive.

For anyone who just wants a cheap desktop machine and doesn't care about size (for whom any reasonable non-huge desktop is competitive), the mini is horribly uncompetitive.

The problem with the box is that it puts all the expense into the feature that most people don't want, at the expense of the features most people do want.

Most people just want a box that's cheap, reasonably fast, and expandable. The mini fails at all three and instead offers SMALL which the average buyer could care less about.

Sure, if you NEED small, the mini is great. The problem is if you just want a cheap machine for basics and don't care about size, the only machine in that price range is the mini, which forces you to waste money on miniaturization.

Some people hate it when the mini is compared to other desktops that aren't "mini", but since that's the only budget desktop Apple offers, there is no alternative and that comparison must be made.

Every Mini since the Intel transition has allowed at least 2 GB.

And at MOST 2 gig. Along with small hard drives, ancient video chip, and not even the fastest wifi. The mini is the ugly stepchild of the Apple product line.

There will never be a midrange tower. It's just not how they do things.

The same was said about the mini, the air, the iPod, the apple TV, and the iPhone. Just because they've never done it before is no reason they won't do it, they have added at least one brand new product about every year. I don't know when it will happen, but eventually you will be proven wrong.

I expect Apple is aiming for an extremely simple line up:

Consumer Desktop
Professional Desktop
Consumer Portable
Professional Portable
Media Desktop
Media Portable

Consumer Desktop is the iMac.

Except that the iMac isn't really a desktop.

 

[Bootsy]

RIP Mini

I just read the notes from the Q4 2008 Results call and my guess in that the Mini really is dead for good, much to my chagrin.

"Jobs claims the cheap PC market isn't being created by the economic downturn; Apple would be "surprised" if large numbers of people moved to lower-cost computers during the period. The company "isn't tremendously worried.""

... and Apple probably 'isn't tremendously interested' in expending resources on a Mini-like Mac. Likewise the notion of a mid-range tower is blatant fantasy. But that leaves those of us who want the Mac experience on our HD televisions in their living rooms high and dry.

AppleTV doesn't cut it because I want iChat, iCal, iPhoto, Mail and Safari functionality too. Looks like I'll have to learn about computer hardware and build my own. But not until after MacWorld 2009 - just in case...

 

[1984]

- Q: Cheaper Macs? A: We chose not to serve a certain customer base. We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk.

The Mac mini used to cost $499 but that meant it was junk. Raising the price to $599 fixed that.

They used to have good price points. $499 for the Mac mini and $999 for the iBook. Okay, they now sell the previous generation MacBook for $999 as a holdover but I expect that to vanish as soon as manufacturing costs are down to the point where they can sell the new aluminum MacBook for the original $1099 MacBook price point. I guess with iMac updates coming up that would be the opportune time to update the Mac mini as well unless they really have decided to kill it.

 

[marbles]

Well I wouldn't call it upgrading per say as the nVidia chip will require a redesigned case to achieve acceptable cooling. In any event Nvidia did announce today new integrated chips that would be ideal for a Mini.

As a side note I'm surprised that everybody is getting worked up about a rumour that came from Europe. It doesn't matter if the information is true or not, it is obvious that Apple is currently in transition mode to a whole new set of products. The transition of Mini to something new should be a given.

Considering how well the Nvidia chips on the new Mac Books are working out people should be ecstatic that the mini is dead. It just means that a significantly better one is about to arrive.

Dave

Agreed.
If NVidia have announced today the new " ideal for Mini" chips & Apple have mentioned no more Mini to suppliers , this can mean one thing only , new machine on the way , I'm very happy , it just depends now on how long till this new machine gets released , ...I really hope it's November or before.

I've said it before , I think the current iMac rumour( for Nov release) is the new machine were talking about here and the actual iMac update will happen at MacWorld , makes sense when the MacPro is rumoured for then too , as I feel Apple is pushing the iMacs as a higher end machine more & more so makes sense to me to have those two products on stage at the same time , while updating the lil'box before the end of year shopping starts and letting that pick up sales from the recent release of notebooks from folk who don't have the money( or desire ) to spend over 1000$

 

[dwl017]

Someone please correct me if I wrong but in my opinion the Mini was never intended to be a main stream "desktop" system but simply a piece of cheese on the end of a string to lure Windows users over to the other side at a low cost.

My point is that the Mini has done exactly what it was intended to do just look at the numbers Apple put out today on page one of MR. I'm sure at some point the powers that be will offer a consumer mid range tower but in my opinion the Mini did its job and now its time to simply let it go.

 

[milo]

Apple will never sell a junk midtower expandable Mac and cannibalize their WORKING market strategy.

Did I mention that their market strategy WORKS. 20 billion bucks in the bank...

"Working" is a matter of degrees.

Sure, ten percent market share is better than five. But it's still pretty pitifully small. There's no question that apple has been able to grow without a decent entry level desktop, but who knows if they'd be growing much faster with a more strategic product line. Personally I think they would.

And all the talk of "cannibalizing" ignores that if you don't offer what customers want, someone else will. If people can't afford a mac, they won't buy one, and that IS apple's problem.

Some people refuse to move on to newer and better.

Well, it depends if they release "newer and better" at about the same price or have a huge increase in the cost of entry. If the cheapest mac goes from $599 (and at that price it was way overpriced) to $999, people are going to complain about it. And it's a legitimate complaint, not "whining".

 

[dwl017]

"Working" is a matter of degrees.

Sure, ten percent market share is better than five. But it's still pretty pitifully small. There's no question that apple has been able to grow without a decent entry level desktop, but who knows if they'd be growing much faster with a more strategic product line. Personally I think they would.

And all the talk of "cannibalizing" ignores that if you don't offer what customers want, someone else will. If people can't afford a mac, they won't buy one, and that IS apple's problem.



Well, it depends if they release "newer and better" at about the same price or have a huge increase in the cost of entry. If the cheapest mac goes from $599 (and at that price it was way overpriced) to $999, people are going to complain about it. And it's a legitimate complaint, not "whining".

But in my opinion the Mini was never intended to be more then a huge piece of chum that was thrown off the boat a few years back and trolled around the world as bait. Looks like the powers that be have decided its time to reel it back in and move on. How can anyone argue that this is not the case given it was not intended to be a main stream desktop but rather a switcher box to lure folks over.


For those of you not familiar with the term:

chum2 /tʃʌm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[chuhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, chummed, chum·ming.
–noun
1. cut or ground bait dumped into the water to attract fish to the area where one is fishing.

 

[Melodic]

I've been patiently waiting for apple to update the mini so I can replace my aging G4 mini and now this news comes out. I truly hope this isn't true because the I believe the mini is a great machine with great potential. If this rumor ends up being true I guess I will be building a hackintosh as a replacement

 

[milo]

- Q: Cheaper Macs? A: We chose not to serve a certain customer base. We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk. Our DNA will not allow us to ship that.

But sadly, they DO know how to make a $599 and $799 computer that is a piece of junk. And they have no problem shipping it.

Someone please correct me if I wrong but in my opinion the Mini was never intended to be a main stream "desktop" system but simply a piece of cheese on the end of a string to lure Windows users over to the other side at a low cost.

My point is that the Mini has done exactly what it was intended to do just look at the numbers Apple put out today on page one of MR. I'm sure at some point the powers that be will offer a consumer mid range tower but in my opinion the Mini did its job and now its time to simply let it go.

So Apple has lured over enough windows users and no longer needs to do that? "We have enough customers already, no thanks". That's pretty ridiculous, if they don't offer a reasonable "switcher" machine less people will switch.

But in my opinion the Mini was never intended to be more then a huge piece of chum that was thrown off the boat a few years back and trolled around the world as bait. Looks like the powers that be have decided its time to reel it back in and move on. How can anyone argue that this is not the case given it was not intended to be a main stream desktop but rather a switcher box to lure folks over.

As I said above, how do you expect to lure switchers without a box that can appeal to them?

 

[Eric S.]

2741. And they just killed the thread!! I'm more upset about that than the Mini being dead.

Either that means that the mini will soon be gone, or just that the thread moves here.

Bad sales, a product gets discontinued. News at eleven.

It's not that simple. Products need to be updated periodically and promoted in order to be successful. It's not the mini's fault that these haven't happened.

Longtime Mac users like me know what a mess Apple was in back in the 90s, exactly because of so many models and specs. SJ came and cleaned up that mess, so as to give a CLEAR message to the market.

True, only now Apple has swung too far the other way. Too few choices, leaving customers unsatisfied no matter which option they select.

I suspect in Apple's mind, the Mini no longer is necessary to bring people to OS X, and serves only a negative purpose - it allows people who would otherwise buy a more expensive machine to spend less money. And we all know that's something Apple can't stand!

Excellent reasoning.

Apple believes there to be a market for a $600 Mac as much as they believe there's a market for consumer Firewire equipment...

On the contrary, they believe there is a such a market. But they also believe they won't make sufficient profit if they go after it.

Today's Apple is all about the "i": iPod, iPhone, iMac. If the mini goes, the Mac Pro's days are numbered. And the Mac laptops are already the neglected stepsister of the family. Yeah, the new models are pretty nice. But they could have been nicer and arrived sooner if Apple hadn't been focusing on new iPhone, MobileMe, and new iPods all summer.

 

[dwl017]

But sadly, they DO know how to make a $599 and $799 computer that is a piece of junk. And they have no problem shipping it.



So Apple has lured over enough windows users and no longer needs to do that? "We have enough customers already, no thanks". That's pretty ridiculous, if they don't offer a reasonable "switcher" machine less people will switch.



As I said above, how do you expect to lure switchers without a box that can appeal to them?

The Mac Book is the new switch machine, walk around any computer shop and you will notice how small the desktop section is unless you are a business looking to buy several hundred machines etc.. Laptops are in like it or not.

 

[milo]

The Mac Book is the new switch machine, walk around any computer shop and you will notice how small the desktop section is unless you are a business looking to buy several hundred machines etc.. Laptops are in like it or not.

Regardless of how small the desktop market is, it has to be big enough to justify more than ONE true desktop model, right? And no, I don't consider the iMac to be a real desktop.

 

[marbles]

I just hope whatever Mini replacement Apple bring out doesn't have the audio issue that some users are reporting is on the new Alu Macbooks ......just the same as it was on the previous gen MacbookPro's

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/586031/

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

I bought a Mini 'to see what all the Apple fuss was about'.

Since then, my family has bought the Late 08 Macbook Pro, the first gen Macbook Air, an iPod Touch, and my wife and I will be getting a pair of iPhones once our Verizon contract is up. Not to mention iWork 08 and iLife 08 and Leopard retail.

Not bad for offering a Mac Mini. Which now serves as an EXCELLENT Home Theater PC.

My story is very similar. Three years ago I was fed up with my windows machines... one D*** thing after another. Walked into CompUSA looking for some solution to my problems. I was directed to the Apple corner. I honestly did not know apple made computers; they just were not on my radar. The sales guy made it sound like macs were less trouble and I decided on the spot to buy a mini for $499. Almost an impulse buy. Now, all together, my family and business has 7 macs. If the price of admission had been much higher, I might not have taken a chance.

 

[seanm9]

My mini fills a need.

I am a long time Mac user...Performa 575, Beige G3/233, PowerBook 1400, Strawberry iMac, iBook G3, Snow eMac, G4 Mini, MBP C2D. My workhorse is the MPB, but the mini is still working in my RV... it is the perfect computer for an RV. When traveling size is every thing and the DVI to HDMI cable, along with bluetooth mouse and keyboard, make the mini perfect... it hooks up to my 19" LCD HDTV and I can then use it as a media center/DVD player, I can check my email and favorite websites... my MBP could do this but it is too large. The loss of the Mini in the lineup would suck...

 

[oldwatery]

If true......very sad indeed.
I know it was only introduced as the switcher machine. Maybe Apple believes that the day of people having monitors and keyboards laying around are history now that almost everyone has a laptop.
I'm not convinced by that argument or logic.
And judging from the thousands of posts on the subject a lot of people agree.
I just cannot see how this type of computer hurts the other products sales.

I won't buy another laptop for my media streaming needs but I would buy a Mini at a heartbeat.

Apple have a history of baffling us with their decisions This is one of the biggest head scratchers yet.

 

[Srai-W]

What are Apple doing! The Mini is the machine that got me, and I suspect a lot of others, started with Apple. Since then I've gone on to purchase two iMacs and a MacBook. I really can't understand the reasoning behind dropping this machine unless they have something in mind to replace it. The next lowest priced Mac the is nearly twice as much.

I have been using Apple's since like 1990 or something, but when my mom wanted a computer she got a Mini. I built a Shuttle and it has recently died and I wanted to get what?? A Mini as I have a display, keyboard, mouse and don't need a Pro... Hmmm, if they were to kill it I think then as much as I hate Vista it will be a Dell for me. Dammit!