With the current enclosure, it is not possible to add an internal GPU; it would far exceed the thermals of that case. Those who need more GPU performance will have to use an eGPU.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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I am not defending Apple's pricing, but you'd better get used to it. The days of the $500 Apple desktop and $1000 laptop are over. Of course, the change is most noticeable in 60% increase Mini price, as opposed to the 20% increase in the cheapest MacBook Air. I guess Apple thinks you should get an iPad if you can't afford the entry Mac price... or maybe just get an Apple TV?
It's pretty clear that they don't care what you (or I) feel is a "reasonable" price. I rarely buy entry level products, so this doesn't affect me all that much, and a case can be made that the base 2018 Mini is still a decent deal considering all the improvements over 2014. But I gave a new MacBook Air to my daughter's family for Christmas, and they really only need the basics. So I would have been much happier with a $1000 laptop.
It’s my belief that the bifurcation of income is part of this. Our household income is almost twice median income and we don’t have loans, but that mini at $1500 took a chunk of our savings. There’s middle and lower income that can no longer afford Apple, and then there’s upper middle and way up there income that can. Apple isn’t geared toward my household anymore and that is a sad reality.
As always, I view the purchase of a computer as "added value over 5-years" vs my current state ... when I take everything into consideration the value must exceed the cost - this tends to simplify my decisions albeit more difficult as Apple compresses the "life" of any given system.
I think that it bears repeating again: It's pretty obvious that Apple no longer views the entire Mac line as something for consumers to purchase. Apple views the entire Mac line as a corporate product that they'll also sell to consumers if you're willing to pony up the money
You start with the T2 chip in everything (which is definitely an enterprise corporate feature), and then add 10G ethernet support, small and fast storage (fits with the typical corporate networked workflow), replaceable memory, and then the pricing being in the typical corporate desktop range
Apple has deliberately segmented their market into Mac = corporate/enterprise/professional and iOS = consumer
As for how long the Mini has to live, let's just say that corporate mac sales are very heavily tilted to the laptops.. I'd say there's a very good chance that this is the last one
I think the more interesting question is how long the Mac line will live. You add mouse + monitor + storage support to iOS, then my guess is that Macs will quickly move up even more in price and have the number of models quickly shrink. Not a deadline cutoff, but a forced shrinking of sales until it becomes not worth their while anymore
You start with the T2 chip in everything (which is definitely an enterprise corporate feature), and then add 10G ethernet support, small and fast storage (fits with the typical corporate networked workflow), replaceable memory, and then the pricing being in the typical corporate desktop range
Apple has deliberately segmented their market into Mac = corporate/enterprise/professional and iOS = consumer
As for how long the Mini has to live, let's just say that corporate mac sales are very heavily tilted to the laptops.. I'd say there's a very good chance that this is the last one
I think the more interesting question is how long the Mac line will live. You add mouse + monitor + storage support to iOS, then my guess is that Macs will quickly move up even more in price and have the number of models quickly shrink. Not a deadline cutoff, but a forced shrinking of sales until it becomes not worth their while anymore
That’s a good way of looking at it. I daresay there’s a lot more value and much longer lifecycle to the $799 2018 mini (3.6Ghz 65W quad-core/8GB RAM/128GB SSD) vs the $499 2014 mini (1.4GHz 15W dual-core/4GB RAM/500GB HDD). The socketed RAM will make for inexpensive RAM upgrades in the future, if necessary. And four Thunderbolt 3 ports give you all the I/O bandwidth you could ask for in an $800 computer.
Even if you have to save for an extra few months to get that extra $300, it’s definitely worth it.
It's just the desktop CPU Intel option Apple choose.
Much, much tinier and closed MBP has vega so I don't see any reasons why it can't fit into mini.
For basic surfing and accounting you don't need more GPU power but for anything else you really need it, especially as it's the field with most advancement in recent years (unlike CPUs).
Again, mini is pointless as a home comp if you can't play the round of a modern game on it.
There are some households that don’t play ANY games on their desktops. Ours is one of them and we have 4 desktops.
I don’t agree at all. There’s plenty of corporate usage of iOS devices, and consumers are hardly priced out of a $800 mini or a $1200-1500 MacBook/MacBook Air/MacBook Pro.
It’s all about priorities and what you value. People will spend $150/month on cable and in the same breath complain about an “outrageously expensive, overpriced” Mac that’ll cost less than $20/month over it’s useful life.
Nice household
I'll buy one mini for business accounting needs. If I buy it for home, I would definitely add eGPU but typical user just want more powerful graphics built in and I think MBP vega sales results will show that data to Apple.
Ok, first of all, APPLE themselves stated that the new Mini would have "more of a professional bent". In Applespeak, that really means more of a corporate bent, because that's the only real growth market for Macs right now. "Professional" just sounds a lot better than "Corporate"
Next, I had already said that Apple was perfectly fine with selling Macs to consumers willing to pony up the money. That said, $800 actually is a lot of money to the average person. (Not to me and probably not to you, but to most people it is)
I also never said that Apple doesn't sell a lot of iOS devices to corps. They do. However they really don't do much at all to help corps integrate iOS stuff, basically leaving the devices at consumer level capabilities and then letting the corps deal as best they can with the other issues.
Basically I meant exactly what I said in my original post and nothing more. Macs are now focused on the corporate market and iOS devices the consumer market. Apple will sell to whoever is willing to pay, but they really do have primary market targets for these products. (Really, they'd be stupid not to target development of them for their most important markets)
Yeah, next mp will have mass storage soldered on the motherboard!
"Because modularity just is in our DNA.
We also created this amazing modular mass storage. It's called Fusion drive. But you don't want that, believe us. Because, why would you like to have big AND fast storage? C'mon it's 2019, we want you to buy small and expensive storage from us.
And when it fries, you'll be lucky since you get to buy a whole new computer. And it will be even better than the old one. Or the real thing."
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The window of opportunity for Apple in the corporate space has come and gone several times - it's really not realistic to expect Apple to replace cheaper laptops in the corporate sector because they buy in bulk and it's a MS world within their corporate desktop walls.
And it's probably going to remain like that for the foreseeable future. That said, there's a growing number of companies that have been going Mac only, mainly because of the lower support costs and fewer security issues. In addition, several significant markets have become Mac dominated (such as about everything related to personal machines for cloud work). In the last several years, Apple and 3rd parties have also increased corporate IT support tools for Macs. So while Macs are never going to take over Corporate America, this has become a significant (and profitable) growth area when it seems like most other Apple products are dropping in sales
Agreed, certainly after purchasing an iPhone they no longer have any money to throw at the desktop.
Apple refurbs for 2018 are online! The New Mini is certainly coming back to the Apple store!
Yeah, that is bizarre. LOL. Angela isn't even gone 5 mins and standards are slipping already.
The whole filtering section stinks now. Things that were 1 click away, are now several more clicks.
... and so goes this thing called "progress" after its discovered how to motivate you ... it's then determined to undermine you (profit) ... so it seems the strength is in "legacy" or shall we say lowest common denominator - "can you start a fire without a match?" ... I'm sure there's an app for that - so striking that Apple insures obsolescence as we become more finely tuned to excellence and respect as they exude less overall quality.
We can't let this thread die! It's been too long in the making. Certainly a new MacMini is coming this year... Right?
Sure you can get one, just order it from the store! Anyone waiting for the next Mac Mini must be planning on keeping their current machine at least three years IMO.
The amount I spent on mine, I certainly am!
Well I retired my late 2012 iMac when they launched the mini, so I suspect mine will be around awhile!