Top 5 Apple Devices Overdue an Update

[jbiggerovski]

This article changed my recent thinking. For me, I felt like 2021 has been one of the most disappointing years for Apple in a long time. The iPad lineup/OS mess. An iPad with ONLY hover as a feature? The uninspiring iPhone 14 (even Jobs’ daughter dunked on them), all the 14 Pro hardware/software issues at launch, the hemorrhaging of talent in every department, the unhappiness of Apple Store employees. Maybe they have lost their way in areas on their way to becoming one of the most valuable companies in history, but this list reveals where their focus lies. I’d love to see all these updates so people can enjoy them, but are they absolutely necessary? Some more so than others, but the current machines are still great. The ones that don’t receive the most updates either don’t sell well, or there are practical reasons why they remain in the lineup as is. I’d rather get huge updates than small incremental updates. You know, like iPhones.

I’m late to the party, but I recently bought the APM’s and they’re one of my favorite products I’ve ever owned. Sure, there’s always room for improvements, but the amount of joy they give me is immeasurable.

In the end, the employees and the customers’ happiness is what’s most important.

 

[teh_hunterer]

The Intel Mac mini is end of life. There will be no refresh

Apple is done with Intel

I think the idea is the current Intel Mac Mini is the higher priced higher end one in the lineup, and so a replacement of this Mac Mini would be higher end as well, like an M2 Pro.

If Apple keeps the general lineup of the Mac Mini we're likely to get:

Replacement for M1 Mac Mini: M2 Mac Mini

Replacement for existing Intel Mac Mini: M2 Pro/Max Mac Mini

 

[turbineseaplane]

Is it weird that I’ve been kinda happy that model‘s stuck around so far? I expect that intel builds will probably last 3 years from the last intel mac sold, so the longer that machine sticks around the longer its likely my intel macs will be able to run later OSes, either supported or with OC

Just how I feel with my Hack!

Several great years still ahead

 

[boyarka]

I guess the closest thing from today’s Apple would be a wifi Apple Watch SE paired with your choice of AirPods?

Nope, iPod. No tracking and no useless info that you can really live without. Just music.

 

[2540497]

Nothing is “overdue”… there is absolutely nothing wrong with the M1 Mac Mini.

Yearly updates to mobile phones needs to stop as well… if we are serious about the environment. It’s also become so iterative there’s barely been a point.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

And strangely, these are almost all Mac products.

It's really a bummer that they won't update the iMac line with M2 though. I hope it's just because of the chip shortage, I see no other reason.

I think it is due to multiple factors — supply chain, factory output — and I think working from home hurt product development speed.

 

[Jack_SB]

Nothing is “overdue”… there is absolutely nothing wrong with the M1 Mac Mini.

Yearly updates to mobile phones needs to stop as well… if we are serious about the environment. It’s also become so iterative there’s barely been a point.

I agree 100%.
2 to 3 year cycles would have been great for consumers and for the environment, but not for businesses and investors.
I was thinking that if we “vote” with our wallets things will start to change, but apparently the only thing that changes is that the next model will be more expensive or just an incremental upgrade.

 

[Warped9]

Nothing is “overdue”… there is absolutely nothing wrong with the M1 Mac Mini.

Yearly updates to mobile phones needs to stop as well… if we are serious about the environment. It’s also become so iterative there’s barely been a point.

As much as I’m eager for the updated iMac this is indeed true.

Candidly the 7th, 8th and 9th gen iPads made sense. Despite them calling them different generations it was really the same chassis with periodic upgrades to the hardware. They could easily have called them iPad 7, 7-2.0 and 7-3.0. In terms of accessories it also meant the same cases could be used year after year. It was basically the same as what they do in the automotive market—release a model and periodically tweak it during it’s design life.

This is different from what Apple and Samsung do with their respectice phones. Every year it’s a different design and size. That means every year new cases have to be designed for something that doesn’t change much hardware wise year to year.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

This article changed my recent thinking. For me, I felt like 2021 has been one of the most disappointing years for Apple in a long time. The iPad lineup/OS mess. An iPad with ONLY hover as a feature? The uninspiring iPhone 14 (even Jobs’ daughter dunked on them), all the 14 Pro hardware/software issues at launch, the hemorrhaging of talent in every department, the unhappiness of Apple Store employees. Maybe they have lost their way in areas on their way to becoming one of the most valuable companies in history, but this list reveals where their focus lies. I’d love to see all these updates so people can enjoy them, but are they absolutely necessary? Some more so than others, but the current machines are still great. The ones that don’t receive the most updates either don’t sell well, or there are practical reasons why they remain in the lineup as is. I’d rather get huge updates than small incremental updates. You know, like iPhones.

I’m late to the party, but I recently bought the APM’s and they’re one of my favorite products I’ve ever owned. Sure, there’s always room for improvements, but the amount of joy they give me is immeasurable.

In the end, the employees and the customers’ happiness is what’s most important.

2021 was a good year for Apple — iPad Pro with XDR display, M1 Pro/Max MacBook Pro, iMac 24”. 2022 has been good as well — I’ve had zero issues with iPadOS and iOS 16, M2 MacBook Air is a nice upgrade, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the finest phone that Apple has made.

Every single company on the planet has some unhappy employees. It may have little to do with the company — it could be that the employee is just naturally miserable, they don’t jive with the culture, or they are not suited for the job.

Regarding updates, not everyone upgrades every year. A person with an M1 iPad Pro may not upgrade to an M2, but a 2018/2020 iPad Pro owner might. For some, an M2 Mac might be their first entry into the M-based Mac lineup. The last few quarters have seen up to half of their revenue coming from users new to the Mac. So a particular update may seem small to you, but it may be big for someone else.

 

[Greenmeenie]

The Intel mac mini? Um… no. The ipad mini however SHOULD be on that list!

An ipad mini with a promotion display please 😉 🙏

 

[PsykX]

I think it is due to multiple factors — supply chain, factory output — and I think working from home hurt product development speed.

Many people here point the finger at WFH, but I have a job where I worked downtown 5 days a week, now it's down to 1 and I'm more efficient than ever. I don't design hardware though.

What I thought was one Apple Silicon advantage is : when they released M2, they should have updated every M1 product with an M2 processor right away. Of course delivery times would have been impacted because the production is new and needs to catch up. At worst they could update every product over a few months. But here we are - we're most likely not getting new Macs until March 2023, nearly a whole year after M2 was released.

 

[PsykX]

Replacement for existing Intel Mac Mini: M2 Pro/Max Mac Mini

I hope so but I'm skeptical.

If they want to make an M2 Pro Mac Mini, then why don't we have an M1 Pro version as we speak?

The Mac Mini Intel is the most confusing Apple product at this point. It's a lot more expensive than the M1 counterpart, which leads many people to think it's much better, but it's in fact 2-5X slower. It should been killed the day M1 was released, regardless of their plans to release an M1 Pro or M2 Pro Mac Mini.

 

[BlairMALL]

So bummed apple didn't release an M2 mini before Christmas...

Totally agree… with concerns. I have said many times what a great value the M1 mini is and how great it is. The fact that they could have easily released an M2 version but didn’t leads me to conclude that the plan is to beef it up enough to move it out of the sweet spot/great value zone. Don‘t get me wrong, I’ll look closely at it, the moment it is released!

 

[Smartwatchlover]

What I would expect as refreshed product in 2023 is AirTag.

Slimmer, smaller, louder (when needed), different sizes (for different uses) just to name a few nice to have.

 

[xraydoc]

Cannot fathom why the iMac has not been updated to use the M2. If it’ll fit in an iPad’s thermal profile, it’ll fit in an iMac’s.

 

[EdT]

I hope so but I'm skeptical.

If they want to make an M2 Pro Mac Mini, then why don't we have an M1 Pro version as we speak?

The Mac Mini Intel is the most confusing Apple product at this point. It's a lot more expensive than the M1 counterpart, which leads many people to think it's much better, but it's in fact 2-5X slower. It should been killed the day M1 was released, regardless of their plans to release an M1 Pro or M2 Pro Mac Mini.

Because there has been a chip shortage for a couple of years mostly due to politics and disease. It also doesn't help that everything is now trying to connect to the web (refrigerators, ovens) and so they too need processors and supporting electronics. Until the plants in the US get up to speed, probably at least a few years from now, we better hope that tensions between Taiwan and China doesn't turn into a shooting war, because most of Apple's CPU's come from Taiwan.

 

[ltd73]

What the AirPod Pro needs more than anything is a bloody off switch!

Why the flying funk do the AirPod Pro need an off switch??? can´t remember that Any other true Wireless earbuds have an off switch…..?

 

[Biro]

Cannot fathom why the iMac has not been updated to use the M2. If it’ll fit in an iPad’s thermal profile, it’ll fit in an iMac’s.

I suspect the real issue is M2 chip supply. But I'm no longer waiting. Eventually, I'll have an updated iPad or high-end Mac Mini. But the pool of money I would have used for it will now go elsewhere.

 

[LyndoW76]

I also need them to upgrade the PowerBeats Pro or release a similar AirPods version. The ear hook is a must for me!

this feels very overdue and sadly like it might never happen. Powerbeats pro 2 with ANC, a slightly smaller case and usb-c charging would be brilliant

 

[Bonte]

Nothing is “overdue”… there is absolutely nothing wrong with the M1 Mac Mini.

Yearly updates to mobile phones needs to stop as well… if we are serious about the environment. It’s also become so iterative there’s barely been a point.

Then don’t buy a new iPhone every year, problem solved.

It is true that the M1 is capable enough but Apple has taken the correct route by making the newer chips more energy efficient instead of only focusing on speed as Intel and GPU chips doe. Slowing this process doesn’t make the older machines better for the environment.

 

[guzhogi]

For the AirPods Max, I'd like maybe some wifi functionality, with the option to turn it off as to not drain the battery. End goal is to finally support lossless playback, preferably Hi-Res lossless. It sucks that there's no Apple products that offer both lossless & spatial audio.

As for the Mac Pro, I don't see how it'll stack up well against the current Mac Pro in terms of modularity. RAM & SSD are integrated into the CPU. And amount of RAM is much less. Current Mac Pro can have up to 1.5 TB of RAM, with a separate 64 GB on the GPU. The Mac Studio's M1 Ultra comes with only 128 GB of unified (regular+graphics) RAM, so not even 1/10 of what the Mac Pro has. Add to that no support for extra GPUs, meaning it supports far less monitors, and who knows how many PCIe slots a new Mac Pro will have.

 

[JerryDon]

Oh how I wish to replace my 2017 27" iMac. Perfect form factor for my needs, except 27" already feels cramped, so even updated 24" is a no go. Dream specs - 32" 6K 120Hz M2 iMac (iMac Pro?).

Agrre with you on larger iMac - the 24" is flaming joke . . . (size wise anyway).

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Nonsense. The M2 will not improve the 24" iMac enough to even justify the price hike through inflation. It can wait for the M3. Same for the Mac mini. And the Mac Pro shouldn't be updated before there is a new larger iMac.

Very wrong, on multiple levels. Buyers are conditioned to (correctly) understand that tech constantly improves. A user ready to upgrade some device after 2-6 years of use wants the latest tech right now. Suggestions like "...can wait for the M3" are absurd, because the potential buyers already waited 2-6 years while their existing product aged out. Further waiting means lost sales for Apple and/or discounting, which creates its own problems.

 

[Warped9]

If the iMac had been upgraded with the M2 and 24GB RAM I probably would have gone for it. As things are, though, since I’m not in a desperate situation for a new computer I can wait for the M3 iMac. If it comes with 24 or even 32GB RAM option then I’ll be quite satisfied.

In the interim I can mull over whether to go for the blue or green colour…

 

[Falhófnir]

I guess it would've been nice to see a new iPad Pro (design wise) for 2022, after the same chassis has been in use since late 2018. It's now likely to be early 2024 before we see the new models so this is another example of them really getting their money's worth out of a design. I think the 18 month product cycle works ok (indeed probably an advantage for consumers) but it does mean using one design over several generations makes the product look a bit stagnant after revision 2.