Why is Apple still selling the 2018 Mac Mini?

[The_Interloper]

A friend of mine recently picked up an Intel-based 2018 Mac Mini on eBay as he wanted a Mac that didn't break the bank (he only paid around £350) and needed to run a Windows VM on it. I had to pause when he said, "It'll be good for years. Apple is still selling them".

I checked, and sure enough Apple is still making and selling it. It's got an 8th gen (!) Intel chip that was released over 5 years ago and had production discontinued a year-and-a-half ago. Here in the UK, Apple wants £1099 for the i5 and £1299 for the i7. With 8Gb RAM.

What the hell is going on here? Why is Apple still selling these devices when they could simply slap an M2 into the existing enclosure and sell it alongside the M1 Mini? Or, at the very least, why haven't they updated it with a newer Intel chip? The Mini lineup looks very odd right now, to say the least...

 

[fwmireault]

Apple will probably get rid of it sooner than later. But I guess it kept it for so long for the same reason your friend picked one: there is still a market for headless Intel macs. Many people and businesses use them for servers, for virtualization, or if they need a specific intel app or workflow.

Apple only replaced the low end Mac mini, and at an higher end, they offered the Mac Studio. I guess they will get rid of this model and offer a middle end Mac mini with M2 Pro or something like that

I agree that buying that new from Apple at full retail price is not the greatest value indeed, but many businesses will not care

 

[iStorm]

We can only speculate on why Apple has decided to keep it around, but this Reddit post has a few good points:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/vlrsr0

• Cheaper alternative to the Mac Pro, which is also still Intel-based
• Development machine for those that need to develop for Intel-based Mac/macOS. Not everyone is switching to Apple Silicon overnight.
• Still a market for them
  • Can run Windows or Linux on it
  • Can use more than two displays and/or use eGPU (M1 mini is limited to two displays)
  • Some people use them for server farms

 

[MacsRgr8]

There are some reasons why some need a headless Intel based Mac... sure.

But there is one outrageous reason not to get that Intel based Mac mini: Price!!
When it was newely introduced the price was fair... but now... OMG... it's VERY hard to justify paying what Apple is asking for it.

 

[carylee2002]

Some people don't need the latest and greatest, especially those of use wants stability and at a decent price. Many people including myself is using Mojave because of the 32 bit access and just don't need to go crazy since we use eGPU setups.

 

[Hrududu]

It is curious. Mac Pro makes sense in that they haven't released an Apple Silicon workstation yet, but the Intel Mini has plenty of M powered alternatives. Just because its still for sale doesn't mean OS support will last long. The last of the PowerPC era only saw 1 additional major OS release (Tiger to Leopard) before the plug was pulled. Granted, in those days Apple didn't see the need to release a "new" OS every 12 months, but I'd be surprised if Ventura isn't the 2nd to last OS to support any Intel chips.

 

[EugW]

A lot software STILL has not yet transitioned to Apple Silicon (eg. plug-ins), and not everyone wants to spend the money on the Mac Pro.

I suspect it will be gone next year though.

 

[Fishrrman]

Even when Apple finally drops the 2018 Intel Mini, it will probably remain available (from them) for about 2 years more as an "Apple refurbished" item.

Some folks and businesses still want and need Intel-based Mac platforms.

 

[Boyd01]

There's been considerable discussion of this topic in other threads here. But I'm glad they do. Got a maxxed out 2018 Miini in 2020 which replaced both my 2012 Mini and HP Windows desktop. Now I run professional GIS software in a Windows 10 VM alongside my Mac apps. And I have pounded on it very hard ever since, processing around 8tb of geodata and creating around 40 million tiles for online maps in the past 6 months alone.

I just couldn't do this on an Apple Silicon Mac. And I really like having both MacOS and Windows on the same machine with data files on the same disks. I plan to stick with this setup for as long as I can, so it's great that the 2018 Mini is still being sold and supported. I think this will be the longest-selling Mini ever.

I don't know why Apple still sells them... maybe it's just for me? 🤣

 

[EugW]

I don't know why Apple still sells them... maybe it's just for me? 🤣

In essence... yes... and the many other people like you.

Even when Apple finally drops the 2018 Intel Mini, it will probably remain available (from them) for about 2 years more as an "Apple refurbished" item.

Probably true, but after a while it won't get the same type of OS support that a Mac still sold at retail would have gotten (if that matters).

 

[ian87w]

Many developers are still supporting intel macs, so they still need an intel machine for testing/development. This is not for regular consumers (as such, it's a higher pricing tier, to discourage a regular consumer from buying it).

 

[ignatius345]

There are some reasons why some need a headless Intel based Mac... sure.

But there is one outrageous reason not to get that Intel based Mac mini: Price!!
When it was newely introduced the price was fair... but now... OMG... it's VERY hard to justify paying what Apple is asking for it.

It's an insanely bad deal unless you truly need it (like @Boyd01 above). Apple is also really stubborn about not marking down products even when they've been out forever.

 

[Gudi]

Apple is also really stubborn about not marking down products even when they've been out forever.

No, that's a great strategy. This way the customer knows, whenever he wants to buy an Apple device, it is always going to be the best price Apple will ever call. Waiting is absolutely useless. The more interesting question is, do they still produce 'new' 2018 Mac minis or do they sell from stockpiles?

 

[R2FX]

Been using maxed out 2012 with eGPU for past few years and recently purchased maxed out refurbished 2018. Say what you want about pricing, but possibility run natively older 32bit software is priceless.

My expectation is to get at least another 10y out of it like the 2012 model. I’ve been using Macs since iBook G4 era, been through Intel transition and have used several first gen products. No matter how much praise M1 gets it’s still a closed,“beta” hardware to me

 

[EugW]

Been using maxed out 2012 with eGPU for past few years and recently purchased maxed out refurbished 2018. Say what you want about pricing, but possibility run natively older 32bit software is priceless.

My expectation is to get at least another 10y out of it like the 2012 model. I’ve been using Macs since iBook G4 era, been through Intel transition and have used several first gen products. No matter how much praise M1 gets it’s still a closed,“beta” hardware to me

I've been using Macs since the iBook G3 era, been through the Intel transition, and have used several first gen products. Personally I think the M1 Mac mini is amazing and am glad I chose this instead of the 2018 Mac mini to replace my 2014 Mac mini.

I haven't seen the need to run older 32-bit software, but I have old Intel Macs anyway if I really needed to do that. The only complaint I have with the M1 is its pickiness with monitors. Old monitors may not work properly, but many modern ones do.

 

[R2FX]

I've been using Macs since the iBook G3 era, been through the Intel transition, and have used several first gen products. Personally I think the M1 Mac mini is amazing and am glad I chose this instead of the 2018 Mac mini to replace my 2014 Mac mini.

I haven't seen the need to run older 32-bit software, but I have old Intel Macs anyway if I really needed to do that. The only complaint I have with the M1 is its pickiness with monitors. Old monitors may not work properly, but many modern ones do.

Each to its own.

I’ve got a collection of SW that’s locked to my old machines plus actively using older 32bit apps that just won’t run well in VMware Fusion. And don’t even get me started on decent replacement of Dashboard 🤬

You did at least one right to right the wrong 😉
(Mac mini 2014 was strangest “upgrade” ever)

 

[Peter_M]

No, that's a great strategy. This way the customer knows, whenever he wants to buy an Apple device, it is always going to be the best price Apple will ever call. Waiting is absolutely useless. The more interesting question is, do they still produce 'new' 2018 Mac minis or do they sell from stockpiles?

True, if Apple actually updated their products within a reasonable timeframe. The fact that Apple still sells an 8th gen Intel CPU computer at full price (and not having updated it more recently) is simply outrageous.

 

[topcat001]

While it’s convenient to have a Windows VM, a PC is so much cheaper and better suited for the job. Probably worth setting up before Intel based systems are discontinued entirely.