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Mac Mini to be Discontinued?

dwl017 said:
I personally feel that Apple has no interest of any sort in the headless computer arena and have moved on without addressing all the winning crying little children that say there life is over with out a Mini replacement.
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This little kiddie ain't cryin'. I just bought me a new Mini. And I feel like a little kid again!
 
I am sooooo glad I bought my mini in July and upgraded it myself.:D

I believe that Macrumors has 4 active threads on the impending demise of the mac mini with a total of severeal thousand posts. There's going to be a lot of unhappy Appleboys if this is true and there is not a replacement.

Mac Mini may you R.I.P. :)
 
I do hope not, we use loads of Mac minis where I work as general desktop machines (all our machines are Mac, 60+ either eMacs being replaced with minis).

It wouldn't be an option for us to buy iMacs (we have had other clients have many problems with them), and we just cannot afford Mac Pros.

Plus, they are easier to move onto my workbench than an eMac!
 
Oneness said:
I am sooooo glad I bought my mini in July and upgraded it myself.:D

I believe that Macrumors has 4 active threads on the impending demise of the mac mini with a total of severeal thousand posts. There's going to be a lot of unhappy Appleboys if this is true and there is not a replacement.

Mac Mini may you R.I.P. :)
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MR is locking the other threads, stating to post to this one instead...
 
I wouldn't be completely surprised if the Mini is discontinued. My impression is that while Mac's have increased in market share that growth has been largely driven by sales of notebooks, desktops, and iMac's, with Mini's probably bringing in the last tier. Without numbers I can only speculate but I would think that Mini sales are flatlined.

Also, I think that Apple would be better off to improve the hardware for the Apple TV.
 
I think this would be a huge mistake by apple. The mini is a great entry point into macs and most of us already own monitors, keyboard and mice and don't need any. A headless option is great. I'd take a tower to replace it so I could upgrade the video card.

But integrated video has come a long ways and the mini could hopefully be upgraded with something worthwhile. A 9400m perhaps?
A mini with HDMI 1.3 would replace my current HTPC in a heartbeat.
 
It has presumed to be dead for so long I think they will keep it going until next year in Jan and update a new mini/:apple:tv unit :)
 
I'm sure there's a market for a slightly larger $749 Mac mini with a 250 GB 3.5" HDD, 2 GB RAM, 2.26 GHz, SuperDrive and a GMA X4500.
 
I didn't read through all seven pages of the thread, so this may already be covered in it.

Another forum I frequent has one of it members one of the lead engineers of the Mini. Within the past couple of months he has moved on to another group within Apple. He can't/won't say what he's moved on to, but he's no longer on the Mini team.
 
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. Professional Desktop is the Mac Pro. No need for the mini. They'll just release an iMac with a lower price point and smaller screen.

Consumer Portable is the MacBook. Professional Portable is the MacBook Pro. No need for the air. Portables just keep getting thinner/lighter... I think the air will be gone within 2 years.

Just the iPod Touch for media. The mini's only saving feature is it's low price point. As the cost of the parts for the touch get cheaper, it'll get booted out. The classic will also get the boot as the SSD drives get more capacity/cheaper. The iPod Shuffle... I'm not sure about it... I can easily see it getting kicked out too but being so dirt cheap and single purposed... of course Apple isn't the kind of company to make that kind of product. I think it's going the way of the mini.

The Apple TV will be the only desktop media, as it already is. I think it may be replaced with a literal TV though with the Apple TV software built in.
 
ChrisA said:
You have to remember that Apple is based in Cupertino California. Even with the current housing problem you can't really buy a house there for under $500K and double that price is not unreasonable. You have to figure that the Engineers and managers working at Apple are making enough to live near the campus. I can't imagine many of them making less then $6K a month first level managers would be at double that. To most of these people $1,100 is not so much that they'd need to talk it over with the wife before spending $1,100. Yes if you are working at a $12/hour job $1,100 is a big amount and you'd have to save up, but to anyone who works at Apple it is kind of at the top of the "impulse buy" range.

It's reasonable that the people at Apple would set the low end price point at $1,100.
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No, it's not. It's called market research, and every company even 1/100th the size of Apple does it.

In other times this kind of move might fly, but if the Mini is indeed cancelled with no replacement then I think this is gonna bite them in the ass in a year or so. Especially if the white MacBook is phased out too (not sure of their plans there.)
 
Their own doing

Maybe it did not sell well, but it was their own doing. The Mini was overpriced and underpowered for the price and on top of that they failed to update it for over a year. Everyone been waiting for an update and holding to purchase a beefier Mini now have no choices other than the current model or eBay.

Sucks
 
Of course they're discontinuing it. First of all, it's got Firewire, so right away that's a no-no. :p And second, why produce a product where the customer has to supply their own keyboard, mouse, and display when they would happily supply you with all that stuff, for a premium.....

I don't expect much out of Apple anymore. Their keynotes starting back in 2007 at the developer's conference, to date have been totally lackluster. They are now pulling out features on their products (firewire anyone??) in order to save money, even though they are saving money in the long run with their new laptop production process.
Pro-level hardware and software have taken a BACK SEAT in favor of the quick-buck consumer gadgetry. (*not saying that the mini is a pro level product by any means). That's where the money is, and that's ALL that Apple cares about. And with 20 BILLION in cash lying around, I cannot for the life of me figure out why Jobs and Co. are hell-bent on fleecing the customer by charging high prices and systematically stripping their products of features.

Remember when the remote CAME WITH their laptops? Remember when the mini-dvi to dvi and vga cables CAME WITH the MBP's and Powerbooks? My 12" PB CAME WITH both connectors. It also came with FIREWIRE and a matte display.

Snow Leopard? "Here's what Leopard should have been, but we redirected too many resources to the iPhone" operating system. Yeah, they'll only charge you $129 for the feature set you should have had with leopard in the first place.
Remember .Mac? Why they changed the name is beyond me. And how they completely screwed up the MobileMe launch is also a mystery. Took them almost three weeks to straighten that fiasco out.

Lackluster keynotes and developer conferences, stripped-down (not in price) product offerings, waning pro-level hardware offerings, glossy this: glossy that. Welcome to the NEW Apple.........minus the Mac Mini. :rolleyes:
 
G4R2 said:
I wouldn't be completely surprised if the Mini is discontinued. My impression is that while Mac's have increased in market share that growth has been largely driven by sales of notebooks, desktops, and iMac's, with Mini's probably bringing in the last tier. Without numbers I can only speculate but I would think that Mini sales are flatlined.
Click to expand...

I don't have numbers either, but suspect you are partly right - but have they flatlined because it has been neglected for so long, almost becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

If it had been upgraded, even lagging behind the Mac books slightly, I think it would maintain sales at that end of the market.at.
 
That's too bad if it's true. I used to have a Mini and it was a great little machine. It would have a lot of potential if they uped the specs and redesigned it to be black and aluminum. It seems like this rumor might be true because the new Apple display is non-compatible with either the Mini or the Pro, which is not the way I'd go if I were in charge of these decisions. I hope we see a revamped model soon instead of just casting it aside because it is not a failed product, just a neglected one. :apple:
 
A keyboard computer? old school way? Hmm...

iMac: the screen is the computer!
iKey: the keyboard is the computer!

Could work :D
 
If this is true, it's indeed a sad day. The Gen1 Mac mini was the most solid computer I've ever owned. It never gave me any problems and while it wasn't a speed demon, it was peppy enough for most tasks and got the job done 100% of the time. I'll miss ya :(
 
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I think it would be difficult to fit some of the newer technology into the mini. It makes a great test server though in an Xserve environment
 
Mac nano

C'mon people. Enter the Mac nano. Right out of the iPod playbook.

nVidia chipset - smaller PCB
1.8" hard drive (80 or 120 GB)
Likely no optical drive
Firewire - probably not
Mini Displayport for new LED display(s)

New Apple TV = New Mac nano ??

:apple:
 
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