So recently as everyone here know, apple has increased the price of products in every lineup but the one that everyone fails to see is the base M4 mac mini price increase. Now yes, the mac mini M4 is £799 (or dollars, same applies) but there is a catch now that the mac mini M4 starts at 256gb, not the 512gb everyone thinks they are getting, the price of the 512gb model currently stands at £999.
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the mac mini increase that nobody is talking about.
- Thread starter Mrbiggestman
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turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
Yeah I noticed that also.
What a cynical and calculated move this was over the last few months.
They purposely removed the 16/256 model and raised the entry price to $799, and we're all thinking "well at least you get 512GB SSD now"
... and they very quietly reverted to a 16/256 model at $799
I mean ... just some sneaky cynical stuff from Apple here.
Really gives me a gross feeling.
What a cynical and calculated move this was over the last few months.
They purposely removed the 16/256 model and raised the entry price to $799, and we're all thinking "well at least you get 512GB SSD now"
... and they very quietly reverted to a 16/256 model at $799
I mean ... just some sneaky cynical stuff from Apple here.
Really gives me a gross feeling.
yeah, basically, the past couple months of apple's repuatation being the 'better value' is now crumbling in real time. i'm predicting that Q3 2026 sales will see a massive slump in profits. This is the new age pre-M3 pricing models now.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
Given how incredibly coordinated and planned everything they do is, it's hard to look at this situation as anything other than "really devious".
They essentially doubled RAM prices. It's $200 for 8GB now. The pricing is internally consistent. I don't understand what's devious about it? RAM got 300% more expensive compared to last year.
I posted about storage, not RAM. storage went down whilst price stayed the same. that's the devious part about it.
philipma1957
macrumors 604
I started my boycott today of :
1)Mac mini up grade
2 iPad upgrade
3)iPad mini upgrade and
4)Mac Studio upgrade
will try to not upgrade until 2028 or later.
1)Mac mini up grade
2 iPad upgrade
3)iPad mini upgrade and
4)Mac Studio upgrade
will try to not upgrade until 2028 or later.
Indeed. Unlike the "natural" chip shortages half a decade ago, there hasn't been an earthquake or anything else to trigger this one. The tech companies decided to orchestrate a shortage, and now they blame each other for it.
JPack
macrumors P6
I'm not sure what the point of this thread is.
Of course $799 is 16/256. If it were 16/512, then it would not be a price increase.
Basically, all 16GB products went up by $200 today. All 8GB products went up by $100. And 12GB went up by $150.
Of course $799 is 16/256. If it were 16/512, then it would not be a price increase.
Basically, all 16GB products went up by $200 today. All 8GB products went up by $100. And 12GB went up by $150.
'Of course $799 is 16/256. If it were 16/512, then it would not be a price increase.'- 16gb/512gb at $799 was how it was before the price increase. now that the mac mini has gone down in storage and kept its same price, it value of the mac mini has been decreased so therefore the mac mini has technically increased in price..
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
You missed what happened over the last couple months it looks like.
Apple bumped to $799 for 16/512 config for a while a month or two ago now ... and then reduced it back down to a 16/256 spec yesterday.
JPack
macrumors P6
I've been following very closely. There no "ah-ha" moment here. All computing products except iPhone and Watch increased in price yesterday.
What is the surprise that Mac mini 16/256 is $799?
M4 Mac mini was born at $599 for 16/256. Apple temporarily removed that config to reduce demand. They restored it yesterday with a price bump to $799. If Apple didn't restore 16/256, the mini would start 67% higher at $999 with 16/512.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
The "surprise" is that they removed the base config instead of just going right to 16/256 @ $799 when they did the switch to 16/512.
They didn't just wake up yesterday and decide on changes. This plan has been in motion for months.
Also, your comment about "temporarily removed that config to reduce demand" is complete speculation and nothing about any demand situation has changed at all in the last 2 months to line up with changes yesterday. In fact, I'd say Mini demand is likely to be as high or higher now than it was when they did the last tweak to the lineup.
We'll have to agree to disagree here I think.
Some of what they did makes sense, but they roped in a bunch of other price hikes "because they can".
✌️
JPack
macrumors P6
Memory prices continued to climb (a lot!) between May 1 and June 25. The situation was and remains very dynamic.
May 1: Apple temporarily removes 16/256 in hopes to preserve the lower starting price. If Apple increased to $799 that day, the headlines would be "Apple increases prices" and not "Apple removes 256GB config."
June 25: Apple learns that LPDDR5X prices increased by 89%. No choice now, Apple has to formalize the price increase across the lineup.
Mobile DRAM Prices Forecast to Surge 89% Amid Consumer Memory Shortage
Mobile LPDDR5X DRAM prices are projected to surge 89% quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2026, hitting $145.9 per unit, as wafer capacity shifts to HBM and AI server memory.
Tim Cook during the last conference call stated Apple was limited by SoC supply. It's common sense (at least to me) that Apple would cut the 16/256 to reduce demand. The waiting list was months long. If one customer is willing to pay $599 and another $799 for the same M4 chip, why not serve only the $799 customers? Without the 256GB model, they could shorten the growing wait list.
dukebound85
macrumors Core
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
Actually, looking at this again, I was not confused 🙂 This is still internally consistent. The sales of the 256GB model was suspended for a while (and I agree that this was most likely to reduce the supply pressure), and now it came back with a price bump, just like every other model.
conmee
macrumors 6502a
Looks like everyone on this thread is correct just from different perspectives. I think the issue OP has raised is that for the non-MacRumor normie interested in a Mac mini, they saw the 16/256 removed a few months ago and the entry price was then $799 for 16/512 and they are now conditioned to consider 16/512 the base model. After yesterday's price increases, if you weren't paying close attention, you would be forgiven for thinking "ok, prices went up, but the entry Mac mini is still $799" mistakenly thinking that you'd still be getting a 16/512 for $799 when instead, Apple simply brought back the lower spec 16/256 at $799 so there was still a sku at that price point. It's a bit of a shell game if you aren't paying attention (most of us here are paying attention). For all the other price increases, they simply raised the prices on everything. In this one unique case, they brought back a lower spec device to maintain an existing price point ($799) and this could catch some folks off guard. In that respect, it's a little bit sneaky even if there were legitimate supply/demand issues. But pretty sure someone configuring a Mac mini would catch this during the config/add to cart process.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
JPack
macrumors P6
Now that you put it that way, I better understand the other perspective.
In terms of being "sneaky," how could Apple make it more clear? You have to click "256GB" when checking out. There are no pre-configured/stock options, which means you can't just accidentally check out with a random $799 product.
Someone would have to be really zoned out to click 256GB and assume 512GB.
That is a very sane take at the positions so far in this thread. Something I'd like to point out is that the "non-MacRumors normie" is very unlikely to know the historical price points and spec fluctuations of Mac models. Regular customers either look at the specs (which are clearly advertised) or just go with whatever the sales representative recommends (and here is where you get a lot of questionable tactics). The only customer who is likely to be confused is the one who was eying the $799 Mini for a while, and decided to buy one after the price hike has already happened. But that is not specific to a Mac Mini and I don't see what this has to do with the SSD size.
The bottomline is — all Macs got more expensive. And it is entirely possible that some customers will get confused, especially if they were looking into purchasing a model at a specific price level for some time. At the same time, it's a uniform, clearly communicated price increase, so I don't follow how this I supposed to be some sort of a psychological trap set by Apple for unsuspecting customers.
Long time Apple users know Apple will charge as much as the market will bear, once in a blue moon, it does something unexpected (M4 2024, Neo) and if one is been watching will jump at it, but do not think that all of a sudden Apple has become a value manufacturer.
