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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

talmy said:
Apple doesn't see the market, probably because they were burned with the Cube.
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I doubt Apple is basing the decision on that; I think it's more likely that there simply isn't a market at all, or at least none significant enough to justify it. While people wanting a more powerful Mac Mini may be fairly common on a forum like this, in the wider market I expect we're a pretty small minority; at least the Mac Pro is a high margin device and can also push sales of the latest and greatest pro software (if Apple keeps developing it at least!), but a better Mac Mini model or something in between isn't likely to make a ton of money IMO, even though I'd jump at the chance personally.

So yeah, I believe that any hopes of the Mac Mini returning to a dedicated GPU or actual graphics cards of some kind is pure wishful thinking, and people hoping for it should know better than to do so by now 😉

Besides which the progress of integrated GPUs is proving that machines like the Mac Mini don't really need dedicated graphics to still perform well; the Iris Pro runs pretty damned well, it's just a shame you can't buy it for a hackintosh or I'd have been running one for several months by now!
 
I tend to agree with those that say that apple really won't ever sell a "maxi mini". While I might buy a machine like that, I wouldn't want Apple to be the kind of company that tries to go after every niche product someone would want. I bet that 90% of the people on here (or more) can name every single apple product. Can you do the same for lenovo or sony or LG? What Apple makes, imho, is quality integrated software/hardware. Once Apple starts trying to make a product for every niche market out there, I think that quality will get diluted over the different product lines they have.

Even now, they are integrating the products they have. They had a new product, macbooks with retina, and the old product, macbook, that they are now integrating into one product instead of keeping the old one around (or at least doing anything new with the old product. Same with ipod classic (which while still being sold, has essentially been replaced with the more functional ipod touch or iphone).

Apple has introduced new product categories in the past few years but all based on iOS and basically different screen sizes (iphone, ipod touch, ipad mini, ipad air) and we'll probably see something similar with the iWatch.

Every product category has a few different tiers, and older products serve as the "low cost" model.

Apple's not going to start making every appliance under the sun or have a million different laptops or different desktop configurations. Even though they are a large company with a ton of money, i still think that their products as a whole would suffer with this type of middle road type "maxi mini" product mentality where they need to have a different device for every possible person out there.

Also, while i really want an updated mini, this type of computer is not Apple's bread and butter. Steve Jobs emphasized that people wanted a computer that was intuitive to both set up and to use. That's why apple has had such strong emphasis on hardware/software integration and why Apple is big on all-in-one type machines. These are for everyone to use. Once you start catering to "gamers" or other small categories of people, you start straying from that original intent.
 
drsox said:
McGregor ?

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Maybe I'm a market of 1 but I want a headless compute server for less than a MacPro. I'm "making do" with an i7 Mini with an 840Pro SSD. No need for a monitor (still have my Win PC monitor - only for setup) and I still have some Apple peripherals from before.

I use this for all the heavy lifting apps that my i7 WinPC used to do.
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You're in a market of at least 2. That's what I use my mini for and it's really getting long, long, LONG in the tooth. I can't even put the latest OS X server on it and run the Xcode integration bots which I want to do.

I did tell myself jokingly when the Mac Pro was so unavailable that if it ever hit 24 hour availability before the mini got a refresh, I'd buy one. That of course was a hollow threat because there was never going to be 24 hour availability of Mac Pro in Singapore before the obviously impending mini refresh .. except there is now and the mini is still languishing.

I can't do it though, I don't even possess a monitor, so I don't need 2 GPUs, and I don't even need all the power even of the lowest spec'ed Mac Pro, although it'd be nice to have. Something a bit faster than the current mini would be suit for a fraction of the cost.

And yes I could buy a current model, if mine actually craps out I shall, I just don't want to pay full price for a 2-year old machine until I have zero choice.
 
rols said:
You're in a market of at least 2. That's what I use my mini for and it's really getting long, long, LONG in the tooth. I can't even put the latest OS X server on it and run the Xcode integration bots which I want to do.

I did tell myself jokingly when the Mac Pro was so unavailable that if it ever hit 24 hour availability before the mini got a refresh, I'd buy one. That of course was a hollow threat because there was never going to be 24 hour availability of Mac Pro in Singapore before the obviously impending mini refresh .. except there is now and the mini is still languishing.

I can't do it though, I don't even possess a monitor, so I don't need 2 GPUs, and I don't even need all the power even of the lowest spec'ed Mac Pro, although it'd be nice to have. Something a bit faster than the current mini would be suit for a fraction of the cost.

And yes I could buy a current model, if mine actually craps out I shall, I just don't want to pay full price for a 2-year old machine until I have zero choice.
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Thanks. I suppose you have considered buying an iMac and just not "using" the screen ? I don't have the space for that, even if I thought it was a good idea.
 
squirrrl said:
I tend to agree with those that say that apple really won't ever sell a "maxi mini". While I might buy a machine like that, I wouldn't want Apple to be the kind of company that tries to go after every niche product someone would want. I bet that 90% of the people on here (or more) can name every single apple product. Can you do the same for lenovo or sony or LG? What Apple makes, imho, is quality integrated software/hardware. Once Apple starts trying to make a product for every niche market out there, I think that quality will get diluted over the different product lines they have.



Even now, they are integrating the products they have. They had a new product, macbooks with retina, and the old product, macbook, that they are now integrating into one product instead of keeping the old one around (or at least doing anything new with the old product. Same with ipod classic (which while still being sold, has essentially been replaced with the more functional ipod touch or iphone).



Apple has introduced new product categories in the past few years but all based on iOS and basically different screen sizes (iphone, ipod touch, ipad mini, ipad air) and we'll probably see something similar with the iWatch.



Every product category has a few different tiers, and older products serve as the "low cost" model.



Apple's not going to start making every appliance under the sun or have a million different laptops or different desktop configurations. Even though they are a large company with a ton of money, i still think that their products as a whole would suffer with this type of middle road type "maxi mini" product mentality where they need to have a different device for every possible person out there.



Also, while i really want an updated mini, this type of computer is not Apple's bread and butter. Steve Jobs emphasized that people wanted a computer that was intuitive to both set up and to use. That's why apple has had such strong emphasis on hardware/software integration and why Apple is big on all-in-one type machines. These are for everyone to use. Once you start catering to "gamers" or other small categories of people, you start straying from that original intent.
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I find it unlikely that they will introduce a new mac mini maxi or sth. However they have to do one of these at some point;

1- make a cheaper mac pro for all these computer users and business type professionals and who knows what type of youngsters who want a computer. They did give a cheaper imac so you cant say they wouldnt. If they kill the mini they need to replace it with something. I dont want to buy a non-apple product simply because i use a mac computer and ipad. As soon as i am left with a pc that could change. Apple know that and provide us connected ecosystem of products.

2- bump up the specifications of the current mini to at least acceptable current standards.

Its not complicated. They overcame that cube trauma and mini is the proof. Only reason i can see that they bring new design is to popularize and modernize. They can go colorful plastic mini or that type of change as that has already started with iphone 5c.
 
talmy said:
The problem is that people have been asking for this for at least 10 years now (but called the midi Mac Pro rather than the max Mac mini). Apple doesn't see the market, probably because they were burned with the Cube.
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The cube was a proto-mini, and the problem wasn't that it was a "mini" Mac. The problem was that it was a low-end Pro crunched down into a cube that got very hot, lugging around a huge brick under the table, and lacking expansion in a day where cards were key to professional productivity.

Apples and lemons: you are comparing two dissimilar things and basing your assumption off of it.

Most likely Apple doesn't see the market because it doesn't present them with press, adulation, or large earnings.
 
Lesser Evets said:
The cube was a proto-mini, and the problem wasn't that it was a "mini" Mac. The problem was that it was a low-end Pro crunched down into a cube that got very hot, lugging around a huge brick under the table, and lacking expansion in a day where cards were key to professional productivity.

Apples and lemons: you are comparing two dissimilar things and basing your assumption off of it.

Most likely Apple doesn't see the market because it doesn't present them with press, adulation, or large earnings.
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I don't agree, the Mac mini have been a key strategy on market conversion from Windows to Mac, the most common first Mac for an former Windows user it's a mini or a MacBook Air.

The Mac cube, just resurrected but as a cylinder : the Mac Pro, and I believe the Mac Pro design will influence the next Mac mini more than the timecapsule done before.

My bet is the next redesign of the mini will look alike as amini-Mac Pro.

But it maybe not the next Mac mini, beware.

About the mini as high performance, if Apple doesn't interest to sell the mini as high performance, why have ssd and quad-core i7 as current options? Some people sees the mini as the Mac for poors while it doesn't.

I'm very confident the next Mac mini will have at least iris 5100 and core i7 as its options, and I bet will have an i7 w/ iris pro 5200 available as option or as top model. Among pcie ssd. Certainly not a garbage as some NUC.
 
It's entirely true that integrated graphics are now not only enough for common tasks, but they can even handle light to medium gaming with aplomb. The problem remains, however, that the Iris graphics are only going to get worse over time, whereas with a discrete GPU you can trade up.

But as soon as you have a discrete GPU, your footprint balloons. There don't seem to be many low-profile, <12" cards out there, so even with Apple's power of mini with every other component you're still looking at a VCR-sized box.
 
Apple could very easily come out with a Mac Pro with a couple of Nvidia cards in it (gaming Pro - yes, it would have to have racing stripes) and hit a whole new market for Mac Pro and the new 4K Thunderbolt Display.

Here's a fantasy. The new iMac is razor thin everywhere except for a cylindrical projection in the center. Unscrewed and placed on your desk, it becomes the new Mac Mini.
 
drsox said:
Thanks. I suppose you have considered buying an iMac and just not "using" the screen ? I don't have the space for that, even if I thought it was a good idea.
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Indeed not - I had to measure the space my current mini is in and make sure even the 'trash can' would fit, it would, with enough space to blast air although I'd probably put one on its side.

To buy an iMac with huge integrated monitor and not use the monitor would be rather sad.

This also why I think the mini keeps having a place in the lineup. You buy an iMac, which is a big screen with a computer in it, one day that computer is old, crap, broken, slow. You have a screen and a keyboard and a mouse, you buy the latest mac mini and plug it in with one thunderbolt cable, you now have a new PC.

I just had to do surgery on the HDD on my mini again after I made it convert video for 60 hours straight. It's not lasting much longer.
 
rols said:
Indeed not - I had to measure the space my current mini is in and make sure even the 'trash can' would fit, it would, with enough space to blast air although I'd probably put one on its side.

To buy an iMac with huge integrated monitor and not use the monitor would be rather sad.

This also why I think the mini keeps having a place in the lineup. You buy an iMac, which is a big screen with a computer in it, one day that computer is old, crap, broken, slow. You have a screen and a keyboard and a mouse, you buy the latest mac mini and plug it in with one thunderbolt cable, you now have a new PC.

I just had to do surgery on the HDD on my mini again after I made it convert video for 60 hours straight. It's not lasting much longer.
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What kind of surgery? What did you have to do?
 
imanidiot said:
It goes on and on and on...and nothing happens, and nothing will. This is really starting to get a little sad.

They do have 12-step programs for this sort of disorder, you know. Just sayin'...
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Sadly, your cynical attitude goes against the flow here.

The OP is likely correct that a new Mac Mini is coming, in some shape or form, if a little out in the estimate of just when.

Meanwhile folks are having fun speculating / dreaming about just what form it will take.
 
talmy said:
A "maxi Mac mini" would bring back the same issues. The original intent of the Mac mini was to be a gateway into Macs for Windows PC users. They were to attach their existing keyboard/mouse/display. It was never intended to be a power system and the price only makes sense if you already have the peripherals. If you go all-Apple and get the Apple keyboard, Magic Mouse, and 27" Thunderbolt display even the base mini costs almost that of the base 27" iMac, a more powerful system. A "maxi Mac mini" would deliver the same performance but at a much increased cost, and would have the same potential audience as the Mac Pro. It's not going to increase the customer base.
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I disagree. When they introduced the iMac, they also had a range of entry level desktops that were more expensive than the Mac Mini but they were full systems with just lower specs and less expandability than the higher end G3s of the time. A mouse, keyboard and a monitor can be had cheaply and inflating the cost of the Mac Mini by adding the 27" Thunderbolt display is pointless.
 
Mago said:
I don't agree, the Mac mini have been a key strategy on market conversion from Windows to Mac, the most common first Mac for an former Windows user it's a mini or a MacBook Air.
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Lower costs has more to do with that strategy than any notion of spec matching mainstream Windows desktops. There are more Windows users with budgets in these lower price points (which the MBA is aimed at this point ). It isn't so much Apple wants the Windows users as Windows folks as much as trying to get to people with hard budget caps (that happen to be Windows folks at the moment).

No keyboard or mice is as much to lower to cost (or boost margin depending upon your perspective) than an overt catering to Windows users. Because they already have keyboard/mice is nice spin when the competitive products all come with keyboard/mouse.

Similarly the Mini largely piggybacking off the parts of the highest volume Macs ( the laptops ) is largely aimed at cost containment; not Windows desktop parity. The mini is in odd place now as to whether track the MBA (go smaller and dramatically plateau on performance ), rMBP, or iMac 21.5" model. The latter itself is at least temporarily being dragged back to toward the MBA as it uses the same CPU-GPU package for the lowest cost version. The old role that the classic MB and entry MBP models played that the Mini followed for volume has evaporated. That is probably playing a major role in this Mini update hiccup.



The Mac cube, just resurrected but as a cylinder : the Mac Pro,
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Not really. The cube was somewhat a vanity thing of trying to fight the NeXT cube battle over again. NeXT had a cube so Apple should have a cube... that is about the "depth" that was there. Similar to Pixar had a Luxo Jr. so Apple should have a Luxo jr ( that dubious transition Apple made past CRTs with the iMac. ).

The cube was almost thermodynamics clueless while the new Mac Pro someone didn't snore their way through thermo.

The new Mac Pro is also partially a 'bet the farm' on connectivity that the Cube never was. Mac Pro is being influenced by the rest of the Mac line up that has TB. The cube did nothing particularly new in I/O other that put the sockets/slots in novel locations.


and I believe the Mac Pro design will influence the next Mac mini more than the timecapsule done before.
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Depends upon which way they go. If tightly coupled to the MBA they won't need much Thermal management or space for a HDD drive.

The Minii as primarily being a "headless" iMac is a fratricide battle I don't think Apple wants to slide into. The Mini could move to tracking the lower end iMacs at which point it would need a better thermal solution than what it has classically used. Depends upon how large of a volume leverage is big enough to make Apple happy.
 
Hey, anyone seen the very legitimate rumor over at the MacBook Pro Forum?

A Photo with upcoming MacBook pronSpecs for a Release as soon as next week!!!

If they don't release the haswell mini at the same time, then I would be very very disappointed
 
deconstruct60 said:
Lower costs has more to do with that strategy than any notion of spec matching mainstream Windows desktops. There are more Windows users with budgets in these lower price points (which the MBA is aimed at this point ). It isn't so much Apple wants the Windows users as Windows folks as much as trying to get to people with hard budget caps (that happen to be Windows folks at the moment).

The Minii as primarily being a "headless" iMac is a fratricide battle I don't think Apple wants to slide into. The Mini could move to tracking the lower end iMacs at which point it would need a better thermal solution than what it has classically used. Depends upon how large of a volume leverage is big enough to make Apple happy.
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I believe Apple redesigned the Mini with Broadwell in mind because the Haswell Iris and Iris Pro U chips were to expensive to make the Mini profitable enough and thermal issues.

Intel through a monkey wrench into Apples Mac's this year.

Mini could live on in the old case with a Haswell but if they put a Iris Pro in it it will be more expensive than the 2012. I don't think we will see it.

Brix are very noisy with them and it would take a lot of cooling to make it work in the Mini.

Broadwell or Skylake would be the best choice IMHO.
 
This thread is 8 months old in a couple of weeks time - says it all really.

It should be renamed the desperation thread. 🙄
 
Crosscreek said:
I believe Apple redesigned the Mini with Broadwell in mind because the Haswell Iris and Iris Pro U chips were to expensive to make the Mini profitable enough and thermal issues.

Intel through a monkey wrench into Apples Mac's this year.

Mini could live on in the old case with a Haswell but if they put a Iris Pro in it it will be more expensive than the 2012. I don't think we will see it.

Brix are very noisy with them and it would take a lot of cooling to make it work in the Mini.

Broadwell or Skylake would be the best choice IMHO.
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There is only thermal differences (from motherboard) among Haswell and Broadwell, since both shares chipset and BGA socket.

So if Apple designed the nMacMini around Broadwell, means they bet on lower TDP, maybe for an smaller case or a fanless one.

But I'm curious why to restrict TDP so tight that no allows slightly hotter cpu (as Haswell or a more powerful Broadwell).

Plus, why optimize on an short live solution, since Broadwell will be succeed soon by Skylane an totally new platform.

1st the logic is that hardware manufacturer update their system when Intel releases the TICK architecture update (as Haswell) and then update it to TOCK (Broadwell) when the successor is released, meaning a longer market presence.

To me this could mean 2 things: Apple missed to update to Haswell due internal issues at R&D, or they just want to pass away the mini.

The 1st scenario could mean a new model to come soon as TICK then later 2015 to receive TOCK update, then at mid 2016 the mini will see a last the new Skylane architecture.

I bet on this. So we will see soon a totally redesigned mini with Haswell which will stay here 18 months, else will no see any new mini, just as the last mini it's sold, then RIP Mac mini.
 
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