I suspect Tim would arrange for the suppliers to stock product in their warehouse so that nothing would appear on Apple's books until it is on the way to being sold or being shipped to an Apple store.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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I'm also hoping for this weeks lottery numbers and for my doctor to recommend I eat more steak and chips for health reasons.
I second this. Which is certainly more serious than the title of this thread.
Almost certainly.
The new Mac mini serious thread is almost certainly coming.
Yay! Nostalgia Forums!
As for computers, Apple needs to address just three directions, both in desktop and portable form: Low-end, high-end, and middle-of-the-road. And we also want to see real innovation in products, and not in the form of minor upgrades in the existing line. It's been a long time already since we felt our hearts leap a beat like when Apple showed us the first iPhone, or the first iMac, or the MacBook Air, or the iPod, or the iPad, or the Mac Mini. It's like it has become a me-too company. Of course, it's a GREAT company, with great products and beautiful manufacture and operating systems and all. It might even be the best. But it's just not as surprising anymore. It's not like I read news about its products and I raise my eyebrows and exclaim "Whoa! WHAT? is that for REAL?" It's just news about lawsuits (one after another), patents filed, an OS upgrade being seeded, details about the new iPhone (bigger screen, resolution, earphones, etc.), how many users use Apple's services, be it music, video/TV/movies streaming, etc. The usual thing. We just don't feel the floor shaking under our feet every now and then as we used to.
I know I might be asking for a lot, but I indeed feel Apple should push for more and show us the degree of innovation we knew it had.
Sorry, long rant, bad English, bad formatting. Take me to the gallow.
then to the gallows you shall go ... but behold the line in front of you!
Just like many, we want "the next big thing" - but do we really want it - do we really need it? The smartphone ushered in a new wave of "dumb" (not to be disrespectful) people - it has inserted distraction into human processes and flows while empowering the meek to be strong and the oversized behemoths to be nimble - interesting trade-offs with everything not always beneficial in the long-run.
Those of us hoping for a new Mini have had to go on with life - and life has "gone on" well I might add. By the time my current platform dies or is made extinct I will cobble something together that bridges the gap until the ground shakes again - and repeat.
Not really, I'd be happy with good solid incremental improvements in both hardware and software with the occasional "giant leap forward". I've seen more sideways and backward "progress" (congress?) from Apple over the past decade than anything even remotely resembling improvements.
The entire Mac line is only 10% of Apple's revenue. What percentage of that can be attributed to the Mini? Why would anyone be surprised that they aren't updating it?
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/01/2q-2018-results/
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/01/2q-2018-results/
@Boyd01 - jeesh ... stands to reason when you look at the chart we are singing in the wind. Logically then, we are asking for the wrong thing from the wrong company - now that's a thought. Netting it out ... we are niche ... we are analogous to a small group of geeks making bothersome noise.
Not sure if I can relate to that reality ... so I will certainly entertain taking my money elsewhere if there's no change from Apple. If the Mini continues without the architecture of the mMacPro revamp it'll be the scraps and shards that fall of the table.
Not sure if I can relate to that reality ... so I will certainly entertain taking my money elsewhere if there's no change from Apple. If the Mini continues without the architecture of the mMacPro revamp it'll be the scraps and shards that fall of the table.
OK, so there are 200 people on a passenger jet airplane. If 1% of these people get mad and leave the airplane (the two pilots), all the rest are dead-people-flying. If Apple irritates the wrong small number of people who buy their products, specifically those to make content/apps for the rest of the Apple economy to consume, it could go badly for them.
The entire Mac line is only 10% of Apple's revenue. What percentage of that can be attributed to the Mini? Why would anyone be surprised that they aren't updating it?
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/01/2q-2018-results/
According to the transcript of the 2017 meeting between Apple and journalists regarding the Mac Pro, Phil Schiller admitted to an 80/20 split between laptops and desktops. He clarified that Mac Pro users make up single digit percentage of that 100% - by definition that's up to 9% but clearly the iMac will be the lion's share of that remaining 20%
Somewhere in the middle of all that the Mini languishes. Filling the niche that shareholders probably demand. It could be that Apple might decide that an ARM powered Mac Nano comes along later down the line for hobbyists and tinkerers.
Realistically we're looking at desktops making up 2% of Apple revenue, with Minis and Mac Pros becoming a rounding error. OK, the reporting periods don't match so there's some assumptions made there but the logical thing for Apple to do would be to merge the Mac Pro and Mini which has been discussed here before. With Apple allowing a variety of AMD GPUs to be officially added as eGPU one view to take would be for the Mini to linger on as long as the Pro does before both lines get replaced by a modular Mac Pro.
Apple provide a main box with integrated graphics - large choice of internal memory and storage options, perhaps even SKUs with the AMD Vega graphics courtesy of the i5-8305g for example. Anyone wanting better graphics will go with eGPUs of their choice but AMD appear to be officially supported.
Consider for a moment if a new case were able to dissipate 140w TDP. And that could manage some or all of the following styles of SKU:
1. A very powerful Xeon - add your own eGPU because the case will be at the TDP limit
2. A 100w i7-8809G with AMD Vega graphics - eSports buyers wanting an all-in one solution.
3. A basic Xeon option with many drive bays for server use.
Rather than annually updating the modular Mac Pro because they have to keep up with GPU developments, Apple can leave that to people who want to upgrade their own GPU - externally. One possible source for delay could be PCIe 4.0 and the subsequent Thunderbolt 4 standard.
If you re-use the existing Mac Pro case we could see additional space within going towards heatsinks for prolonged silence, drive bays or cubbies for SATA 3 or M.2 devices. Or with a reduced TDP to look after, Apple could unify against a smaller case which will interest lower end buyers.
The only way Apple could accommodate a PCIe x16 graphics card into a modular Mac Pro design is if they felt that demand from Pro users was sufficient to include one. I'd say that their backing of eGPU makes it easier to design an enclosure with predictable heat dissipation and they'll not be including such a slot going forward.
They have upwards of a year for eGPU to mature well.
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I am most impressed by the depth, logical forethought and industry insight I pick-up here ... I do listen and sometimes wish some of these insightful folks were Apple Board members or had pipelines into Apple but sadly no matter what's spoken here Apple will not be transparent with regards to product-line and product plans - that aspect has grown "old and tired" at the expense of using EOL or soon -to-be EOL hardware.
You can't talk intelligently about strategy or funding plans - can't even speculate what they'll do next ... it's sorrowful.
You can't talk intelligently about strategy or funding plans - can't even speculate what they'll do next ... it's sorrowful.
Mac Mini users can crash Apple's airliner? Really? I find that very hard to believe.
I have 3 mini's and each is great for its intended purpose. But if Apple kills the Mini, there's probably an iMac in my future. It's just not that big of a deal for me, all of my screens are 1080p (or less), so I'm not against the idea of an "all in one" machine. And I'm not too worried about the screen dying before the computer (like some people around here). Have owned a number of iMacs in the past with no issues. Got one for my daughter's family in 2007, it never had any hardware problems. Replaced it in 2017 with a 2012 Mini.
Mac Mini users can crash Apple's airliner? Really? I find that very hard to believe.
I have 3 mini's and each is great for its intended purpose. But if Apple kills the Mini, there's probably an iMac in my future. It's just not that big of a deal for me, all of my screens are 1080p (or less), so I'm not against the idea of an "all in one" machine. And I'm not too worried about the screen dying before the computer (like some people around here). Have owned a number of iMacs in the past with no issues. Got one for my daughter's family in 2007, it never had any hardware problems. Replaced it in 2017 with a 2012 Mini.
How many of us would (reluctantly) buy an iMac if the Mini were discontinued? For me, it wouldn't be a massive problem because with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C you can use external storage for your data if you don't want it trapped inside the iMac and run it at some sort of decent speed (if not the full PCIe 4x speed of the internal SSDs). You could even use an eGPU for more graphics performance thanks to the latest macOS.
The only variable is preferring the form factor of the Mini (and waiting for a good iteration of that) or wanting to find out the price at the which the modular Mac Pro starts at, so Apple might conceivably not get any money from some folks who don't immediately see a compelling product to buy but either hope for a good product they want (Mini) or will wait to see what the Pro is about.
The number of those folks, though, isn't as high as business users who must have a Mac by a certain deadline and just pick from the available selection, or college buyers who need one for university work and do the same thing.
As the 2014 Mini becomes less and less value for money you have to look at the value proposition presented by the various iMacs. Once 2018 Coffee Lake iMacs come out with 6 cores where does that leave the feeble CPU power delivered by a 2014 Mini? If you can spare the desk space for a 2018 iMac of some description it's possible that some decent work could be done. Face facts for a moment, Apple probably don't believe the number of buyers for a Mini will be worth the engineering effort.
Instead, having a tiny machine on the desk appears to be the stuff of laptops going forward. If only the 2016/17 model MacBook Pros didn't have questionable keyboards, small battery, pricey touch bar etc.
There's a good number of us who have moved onto traditional desktop PCs in various forms. Those kinds of budgets probably don't interest Apple or happen in anywhere near the volume they's be interested in serving.
In terms of sheer value we might not see a compelling sub $499 'Mac' until one comes along with ARM CPU so Apple no longer have to commit to buying in volume for a niche product and can spend the budget on SSD storage and not paying Intel. This is already the reason why the Mini over the years piggy backed onto the parts bin from the MacBook Pro.
I just miss the days when MP was ”power to the people”. Average Joe could get the power of workstation with little more than 2k$. With reasonably priced options to upgrade, expand and prolong the life of a mac. Great value for the money. You didn’t have to be dollar digging pro to use pro tools.
Now you pay 5k$ for non-upgradeable design thing with awful double-glassy display.
Every time they release a new mac, the foremost feeling is: what do they take away this time and how much more should I pay for that convenience?
No fun.
Apple should just let macs to have own company.
Why not?
Somebody should really ask Cook, why not just let the macs go free? Apple has no need for macs.
Now you pay 5k$ for non-upgradeable design thing with awful double-glassy display.
Every time they release a new mac, the foremost feeling is: what do they take away this time and how much more should I pay for that convenience?
No fun.
Apple should just let macs to have own company.
Why not?
Somebody should really ask Cook, why not just let the macs go free? Apple has no need for macs.
I’m wondering more and more. So what if macs are only 10% of revenue... what is the market share? Is there really a nonexistent market for macs? It’s comparing apples to oranges when people bring up that argument. If that is truly the case go ahead and spin off a Mac company/team and let them go-or license macOS to builders who will make some kick ass machines. When you have VR leaders saying “yeah-If Apple had a decent machine we’d develop for the platform... but they don’t” really says a lot about VR and AR... iPhone might be paying the bills at the moment but the future is always looking for more power...
I don't know when these "good old days" were, but I go back a long way with the Mac. Just looked through old files and found this spreadsheet that I did in 1995, and a portion of the fax I sent to the company where we made the purchase. I got a $10,000 grant to buy this system and used every penny. In addition to the computer we also got a Radius VideoVision Studio card that cost about $3,400, $370 for a 1gb SCSI hard drive and $940 for 32mb additional RAM - friends would visit just to see a computer with 48mb of RAM.
There was also some other expensive software and stuff. Couldn't afford the disk array that was fast enough to support realtime playback of SD video, 320x240 was as big as it could handle without lots of stuttering.It was all a lot of fun, but I can't find my "rose colored glasses" when I look back at Mac prices. They have always been very expensive.
Perhaps around the iMac G4 era, when a low-end Powermac ($1599) was cheaper than a mid-end iMac ($1799). A mid-end Powermac was $2499.
I don't know when these "good old days" were, but I go back a long way with the Mac. Just looked through old files and found this spreadsheet that I did in 1995, and a portion of the fax I sent to the company where we made the purchase. I got a $10,000 grant to buy this system and used every penny. In addition to the computer we also got a Radius VideoVision Studio card that cost about $3,400, $370 for a 1gb SCSI hard drive and $940 for 32mb additional RAM - friends would visit just to see a computer with 48mb of RAM.
It was all a lot of fun, but I can't find my "rose colored glasses" when I look back at Mac prices. They have always been very expensive.
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MP = mac pro.
10% of $61 billion (last quarter revenue) is still a HUGE amount of moolah.
If an AIO is my only option from Apple at my next hardware upgrade, then I will switch to Linux. Reluctantly, and a little sadly, but it will happen.
I can't afford to run an AIO. Have to be able to replace and upgrade individual hardware components (and relatively easily and cheaply), which rules out an AIO. Especially Apple's increasingly unserviceable AIOs.
Yep. Been buying Macs since the late 80s. There has never been a golden age of cheap Macs.
New ones, at least.
Refurbs, on the other hand, are real value if you know what you want and can wait for it. My 2012 i7 Mini is a refurb, and I got it at its lowest price point ever. Partly luck of timing (mostly an unusually favourable exchange rate), partly informed choice. My best value computer so far.
Refurbs, on the other hand, are real value if you know what you want and can wait for it. My 2012 i7 Mini is a refurb, and I got it at its lowest price point ever. Partly luck of timing (mostly an unusually favourable exchange rate), partly informed choice. My best value computer so far.
Still kicking myself that I didn’t buy a 2012 refurb when I had the chance. CDN $ was at par then. Think it was only $469 and plenty were always available... until they weren’t.
They are still on eBay for around $900-1000 AUD. Which is better than I was expecting, and an interesting possibility.
Though that increasingly pokey HD 4000 iGPU would make me pause before buying. Becoming a bit limiting. Wouldn't mind moving up to 4K @ 60Hz. But still an interesting possibility.
MAC revenue, all of ‘em, accounts for a whopping ten percent of Apple’s products and services. The lil’ Mini likely then is barely 0.001% of revenue. We see where Apple’s emphasis is going and it’s not for desktop machines anymore. Corporate may have stated recently that the Mini is a viable and important Apple product but when we see that the majority of technology and innovation has been directed to iPhone and iPad there leaves no doubt Apple is leaving behind their startup resource. The Mini is likely soon to be discontinued despite a large number of customers wanting a Mini refresh... Reality is that the remaining MAC line is in danger of being on the way out unless the recently announced technology for processors results in an innovative boost and subsequent regeneration of the MAC line...