The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[fxbeta]

Now, let's imagine, they release a new Mac mini 2018, that will be CPU-wise even slower than the 2014 model and it will be fully soldered, not upgrade options. That would be a real surprise, right?

I would not be surprised. They could easily go with the "m" series CPU used in the Macbook. But "look at how thin it is! Isn't it beautiful? The simplicity of just one USB-C port makes it so clean and elegant. To make it 95% the speed of the previous [1.4GHz] model but at only 1/5th the size took courage. This is the best Mac Mini we have ever created."

 

[jasnw]

No doubt there’s some demand for a non-Mac Pro headless system, but it’s very small.

Call me a nit-picker (my wife certainly does!), but more like "... but it's probably very small". Two points: (1) no one outside Apple knows the breakout of sales in the various Mac computers in their sales figures, and (2) even if demand is low I would expect demand to be low if what you're selling is a pile of steaming brown emoji. No argument that Apple will never reap huge (direct) financial benefits from a well-designed and well-built line of headless Mac systems. If current-quarter ROI to shareholders is all Apple management cares about any more (which may be true enough) we'll never again see as good a line of Mac computers as Apple could make. We don't know what Apple management cares about, so we have to take clues from what they do. Releasing a POS Mac Mini replacement, or none at all, will speak volumes.

 

[EightyTwenty]

I would not be surprised. They could easily go with the "m" series CPU used in the Macbook. But "look at how thin it is! Isn't it beautiful? The simplicity of just one USB-C port makes it so clean and elegant. To make it 95% the speed of the previous [1.4GHz] model but at only 1/5th the size took courage. This is the best Mac Mini we have ever created."

RAM and the 5400 spinner are the main issues with the current mini.

A new mini with a m series CPU would be just fine, as long as it gets 8GB RAM and SSD.

The m series are fully capable of 4K @ 60hz. Current mini isn’t.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Call me a nit-picker (my wife certainly does!), but more like "... but it's probably very small". Two points: (1) no one outside Apple knows the breakout of sales in the various Mac computers in their sales figures, and (2) even if demand is low I would expect demand to be low if what you're selling is a pile of steaming brown emoji. No argument that Apple will never reap huge (direct) financial benefits from a well-designed and well-built line of headless Mac systems. If current-quarter ROI to shareholders is all Apple management cares about any more (which may be true enough) we'll never again see as good a line of Mac computers as Apple could make. We don't know what Apple management cares about, so we have to take clues from what they do. Releasing a POS Mac Mini replacement, or none at all, will speak volumes.

Well, we know from Apple’s own statements that notebooks are 80% of sales. The iMac line has to be at least 10-15% or it wouldn’t be updated every year. Mac Pro has been described as single digit percentage, which is not surprising.

That leaves relatively little market share for Mac mini. It’s hard to see how it could even be greater than 5%. Some will say it’s because it’s been neglected, but I’d be surprised if many think it ever sold, or ever will sell, more than a mid-single digit percentage of all Macs sold.

 

[Sam Luis Obispo]

It doesn’t take but 5 minutes to review all the Mac offerings on the Apple site. I’d guess that upper management has spent orders of magnitude more time debating the margins on the various BTO options on the MBP, than even THINKING about the Mac Mini. To me, that is pure negligence. Which is what we’ve been experiencing for years and years.

I doubt the higher ups even go to Apple.com, and only see the screen mock ups of specific offerings, before they go live.

They live in a bubble world, where certain parts of their own company, just don’t exist to them.

Negligence, pure disdain or ignorance - take your pick. Because it HAS to be one of those three options.

Are the higher ups using macs or iPads in their day to day work? If they do not have any day to day interaction with a mac mini, it is certainly understandable that the mac mini would escape their thinking.

 

[comptr]

I wonder how much a new Mac mini will start it and how much the Mac mini Pro model will start it ?

 

[Count Blah]

Are the higher ups using macs or iPads in their day to day work? If they do not have any day to day interaction with a mac mini, it is certainly understandable that the mac mini would escape their thinking.

It’s what they sell!

We aren’t talking about a C-Level executives of an e-commerce company, who don’t know what exact technology is running their site(s). Apple’s C-level executives are in charge of selling the hardware. They certainly don’t have day to day interaction, but they would be negligent to ignore products they are currently selling.

 

[Micky Do]

Still almost certainly coming folks, possibly 30 October......

Apple is planning to hold an event focused on Macs and iPads on Tuesday, October 30 in New York City, which is when we'll likely see the debut of the new Mac mini.

https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/mac-mini/

......... and following that, new Mac Minis will almost certainly continue to come from time to time for a while yet.

 

[Lammers]

Well, we know from Apple’s own statements that notebooks are 80% of sales. The iMac line has to be at least 10-15% or it wouldn’t be updated every year. Mac Pro has been described as single digit percentage, which is not surprising.

That leaves relatively little market share for Mac mini. It’s hard to see how it could even be greater than 5%. Some will say it’s because it’s been neglected, but I’d be surprised if many think it ever sold, or ever will sell, more than a mid-single digit percentage of all Macs sold.

And Mac is around 10% of Apple’s overall revenue, so if Mac mini is 5% of Mac revenue (and personally I find it hard to believe that it’s that high) then it means that Mac mini is 0.5% of Apple’s revenue. And headless Mac mini is again some fraction of that. And yet people here find it outrageous that Apple doesn’t put more effort into solving that. The reality is that it’s just not worth bothering.
[doublepost=1540104898][/doublepost]

It’s what they sell!

We aren’t talking about a C-Level executives of an e-commerce company, who don’t know what exact technology is running their site(s). Apple’s C-level executives are in charge of selling the hardware. They certainly don’t have day to day interaction, but they would be negligent to ignore products they are currently selling.

That’s based on the assumption that they are neglecting it or ignoring it. It’s also very possible - even fairly probable in my view - that Apple’s approach with the Mac mini has been entirely deliberate. They may have done the analysis of the cost versus benefit of doing all the things that people in this thread want them to do and come to the conclusion that it’s just not worth it, and they’ve been content to just sit tight with the existing product (that is presumably high margin for them at this point in its lifecycle).

 

[Miat]

a pile of steaming brown emoji.

then it means that Mac mini is 0.5% of Apple’s revenue. And headless Mac mini is again some fraction of that.

Wot?

The Mini is headless. Or I have missed something in your comment?

 

[Crosscreek]

I'm checking back in after months of being away to see if people are still waiting on a new Mac Mini that is almost certainly coming......and probably the last Intel Mini if it does appear. At the least you all may see a quad core Mini once more.

Good luck to you all

 

[Lammers]

Wot?

The Mini is headless. Or I have missed something in your comment?

I mean the use case of running it headless, as opposed to running it with a monitor.

 

[Miat]

I mean the use case of running it headless, as opposed to running it with a monitor.

Ah, I see.

As you were.

 

[revmacian]

I'm checking back in after months of being away to see if people are still waiting on a new Mac Mini that is almost certainly coming......and probably the last Intel Mini if it does appear. At the least you all may see a quad core Mini once more.

Good luck to you all

I'm waiting to see what emerges later this month. I just bought my second Mac mini a few days ago and I love them.

 

[Lammers]

Good luck to you all

Pfft, we don’t need luck. Because if the rumors are true, the new Mac mini is almost certainly coming!

 

[jasnw]

I mean the use case of running it headless, as opposed to running it with a monitor.

While you are technically correct, for the sake of discussions in this thread I think most of us use "headless" to differentiate between the iMac AIO systems and the Mini/Pro systems. Maybe "non-AIO" is more precise/correct, but headless is, if nothing else, far more visceral. It's also the point - we want to buy a system that has everything except the head. As an aside, many of us would also like a gutless option (no memory and no storage) as well, but that is, to quote Monty Python, "right out".

 

[dirtylilhobo]

So, Tuesday October 30 may be the big day! The day we’ll see a knockout Mini upgrade and across the board Mac updates or the final nail in the coffin for Mac hardware..?

 

[opeter]

So, Tuesday October 30 may be the big day! The day we’ll see a knockout Mini upgrade and across the board Mac updates or the final nail in the coffin for Mac hardware..?

Final nail in the coffin for Mac hardware? No... one thing for sure, that will got some update will be the iMac. Afterall it is 20 years old.

For the Mac mini... well, yes, it will be the judgement day.

 

[Lammers]

So, Tuesday October 30 may be the big day! The day we’ll see a knockout Mini upgrade and across the board Mac updates or the final nail in the coffin for Mac hardware..?

Are those the only two options?

 

[opeter]

Are those the only two options?

Yes, more or less.
Maybe at the end of the show they will present the prototype of the "modular Mac Pro" and tell, that the the lowest cost version will be also the Mac mini's successor.

 

[Lammers]

Yes, more or less.
Maybe at the end of the show they will present the prototype of the "modular Mac Pro" and tell, that the the lowest cost version will be also the Mac mini's successor.

Really? So either Apple announces a “knockout Mini upgrade and across the board Mac updates” or it’s “the final nail in the coffin for Mac updates”? There are no other possible outcomes of something maybe in between those two extremes?

 

[294307]

Really? So either Apple announces a “knockout Mini upgrade and across the board Mac updates” or it’s “the final nail in the coffin for Mac updates”? There are no other possible outcomes of something maybe in between those two extremes?

Well after four years of no updates, what are consumers otherwise expected to assume? This isn't some charity event where we're expected to wait until Apple is ready to talk. To ignore your customers for four years is just disrespectful. I think it's entirely reasonable for a customer at this point to allow Apple up to October 30 to demonstrate that they are going to update the Mac mini or to start looking for alternatives elsewhere.

The problem with Apple is that they find it acceptable to ignore customers and don't seem to realise just how underhand that is. It is the only reason they had to apologise for the delayed Mac Pro – because they decided to insult the professional community by remaining silent. Their apology was actually for remaining silent, not for the delays, because that's what forced professional users to start thinking about moving away from the Mac platform.

It's a culture of arrogance instilled by Steve Jobs which still permeates throughout the company. You just need to witness how they deal with your bug reports to see their culture of arrogance in action.

People are judged by their actions. I don't care if they need to ignore bug reports to avoid promising something that can't be delivered. It is not hard for an engineer to acknowledge to us that a bug is being investigated and to let us know when a bug we've filed is fixed or can't be fixed. I manage a SaaS platform for Agile devs. I would be slaughtered by users if I chose to ignore their bug reports like Apple does. Remind me again why Apple gets away with it and I can't?

This is a serious problem with Apple and it's pissing off many of us within the pro community. So mark me unsurprised to see Apple remaining as silent as day one on the status of the Mac mini. The only thing we've heard is from Tim Cook and Phil Schiller to let us know "it's an important product". Don't forget Tim Cook mentioned that one year ago. Unless their entire engineering organisation left all at once, what possible justification have they got for this ridiculous delay? Had it ever taken Apple four years to update Mac hardware under Steve Jobs?

 

[BarbaricCo]

That Mini will became essential Lego brick of new Mac Pro seems like a way to go for Apple.

After all, updated Mac mini with quad cores i7, SSD, thunderbolt 3 for eGPU and reasonably priced seem so good opportunity that Apple will not gonna delivered it.

 

[Cape Dave]

Well after four years of no updates, what are consumers otherwise expected to assume? This isn't some charity event where we're expected to wait until Apple is ready to talk. To ignore your customers for four years is just disrespectful. I think it's entirely reasonable for a customer at this point to allow Apple up to October 30 to demonstrate that they are going to update the Mac mini or to start looking for alternatives elsewhere.

The problem with Apple is that they find it acceptable to ignore customers and don't seem to realise just how underhand that is. It is the only reason they had to apologise for the delayed Mac Pro – because they decided to insult the professional community by remaining silent. Their apology was actually for remaining silent, not for the delays, because that's what forced professional users to start thinking about moving away from the Mac platform.

It's a culture of arrogance instilled by Steve Jobs which still permeates throughout the company. You just need to witness how they deal with your bug reports to see their culture of arrogance in action.

People are judged by their actions. I don't care if they need to ignore bug reports to avoid promising something that can't be delivered. It is not hard for an engineer to acknowledge to us that a bug is being investigated and to let us know when a bug we've filed is fixed or can't be fixed. I manage a SaaS platform for Agile devs. I would be slaughtered by users if I chose to ignore their bug reports like Apple does. Remind me again why Apple gets away with it and I can't?

This is a serious problem with Apple and it's pissing off many of us within the pro community. So mark me unsurprised to see Apple remaining as silent as day one on the status of the Mac mini. The only thing we've heard is from Tim Cook and Phil Schiller to let us know "it's an important product". Don't forget Tim Cook mentioned that one year ago. Unless their entire engineering organisation left all at once, what possible justification have they got for this ridiculous delay? Had it ever taken Apple four years to update Mac hardware under Steve Jobs?

I completely 100% agree with this. It is as lame as it gets the way Apple has handled this situation. I would think anyone who really needs pro has left long ago. Putting enough resources into a mini refresh redesign should be a rounding error for them at this point. And it would have made so many so happy.

 

[spacebro]

Well after four years of no updates, what are consumers otherwise expected to assume? This isn't some charity event where we're expected to wait until Apple is ready to talk. To ignore your customers for four years is just disrespectful. I think it's entirely reasonable for a customer at this point to allow Apple up to October 30 to demonstrate that they are going to update the Mac mini or to start looking for alternatives elsewhere.

The problem with Apple is that they find it acceptable to ignore customers and don't seem to realise just how underhand that is. It is the only reason they had to apologise for the delayed Mac Pro – because they decided to insult the professional community by remaining silent. Their apology was actually for remaining silent, not for the delays, because that's what forced professional users to start thinking about moving away from the Mac platform.

It's a culture of arrogance instilled by Steve Jobs which still permeates throughout the company. You just need to witness how they deal with your bug reports to see their culture of arrogance in action.

People are judged by their actions. I don't care if they need to ignore bug reports to avoid promising something that can't be delivered. It is not hard for an engineer to acknowledge to us that a bug is being investigated and to let us know when a bug we've filed is fixed or can't be fixed. I manage a SaaS platform for Agile devs. I would be slaughtered by users if I chose to ignore their bug reports like Apple does. Remind me again why Apple gets away with it and I can't?

This is a serious problem with Apple and it's pissing off many of us within the pro community. So mark me unsurprised to see Apple remaining as silent as day one on the status of the Mac mini. The only thing we've heard is from Tim Cook and Phil Schiller to let us know "it's an important product". Don't forget Tim Cook mentioned that one year ago. Unless their entire engineering organisation left all at once, what possible justification have they got for this ridiculous delay? Had it ever taken Apple four years to update Mac hardware under Steve Jobs?

Apple would have been updating the Mac mini if they intended a future for it. They're probably going to completely change and rebrand the mini. I don't think anyone here will be happy with the changes, they will be intended for new customers. What if the new Mac mini is iOS-only but it runs a version of iOS that supports keyboard/trackpad and it can run Xcode?