Come on Apple...

[ijlakw]

...it's been 3 years since the last Mac Mini. No... I don't want a laptop. No... I don't want the iMac. I want a desktop computer that will allow me to run a wide screen monitor with GPU.

Is it beneath you to serve the very customers who were the foundation of what you've become? Do you realize that the only reason Apple is successful now is that the pro user gave the company the credibility on which you could build consumer products? When you abandon the pro user, after working so hard to gain their trust, they will also abandon the commercial products eventually.

Sure.. you have a lot of cash. If you aren't going to put it to work, as a fiduciary you are supposed to return it to shareholders .. and no buying your own stock by encumbering debt is not returning it to shareholders.

There's my sunday morning vent.... Come on Apple!

 

[leo-tech]

Well, what can I say, except of course "I feel your pain", and "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst".

If for whatever reason Apple no longer need my $1500-2000 for new updated high-end Mac mini, I will find somebody else who does—Intel, Supermicro, HP, Gigabyte, Dell...

 

[throAU]

I suspect there may actually be a coffee lake mini update.

Why?

Because there’s a bunch of things that ARE actually worthy of spending time on an upgrade, as opposed to the past 5 years of intel fiddling with irrelevant stuff to the mini (power consumption mostly).

A 6 core i7 or i5, thunderbolt 3, USB 3.2

It’s either time for apple to do a revision of it now, or its a dead product.

Up to this point, CPU upgrades from intel have been “meh” since sandy bridge unless you’re interested in notebooks.

 

[leo-tech]

I suspect there may actually be a coffee lake mini update

As times passes, and still no Mac mini update in sight now for THREE YEARS (and that after severely crippling Mac mini-2014, so realistically and practically it amounts to no meaningful Mac mini update for FIVE YEARS), I find it increasingly difficult to believe.

 

[Apple fanboy]

...it's been 3 years since the last Mac Mini. No... I don't want a laptop. No... I don't want the iMac. I want a desktop computer that will allow me to run a wide screen monitor with GPU.

Is it beneath you to serve the very customers who were the foundation of what you've become? Do you realize that the only reason Apple is successful now is that the pro user gave the company the credibility on which you could build consumer products? When you abandon the pro user, after working so hard to gain their trust, they will also abandon the commercial products eventually.

Sure.. you have a lot of cash. If you aren't going to put it to work, as a fiduciary you are supposed to return it to shareholders .. and no buying your own stock by encumbering debt is not returning it to shareholders.

There's my sunday morning vent.... Come on Apple!

The new Mac mini is certainly coming.

 

[Boyd01]

If for whatever reason Apple no longer need my $1500-2000

I think the reason is that they can get $1000 for an iPhone and will sell tens of millions of them....

 

[alien3dx]

I think the reason is that they can get $1000 for an iPhone and will sell tens of millions of them....

yeah.. is a phone company supporting hardware and software... It is no more software/hardware company.

What i heard before mac is superior compare to linux and windows.. But what i been used this few years.. It just have asthetic design value and if me i will fired those user experience manager .. Lazy..

Just to cut a file .. control aa aa a.. Freakin i just need ctrl +x ..
Lousy mouse
... no end for my grumbling using mac osx

 

[throAU]

As times passes, and still no Mac mini update in sight now for THREE YEARS (and that after severely crippling Mac mini-2014, so realistically and practically it amounts to no meaningful Mac mini update for FIVE YEARS), I find it increasingly difficult to believe.

Well, it depends how you look at it.

What new hardware has been available since 2014?
vs the haswell processor and GPU in it...

Broadwell = meh
Skylake = meh
Kaby lake = meh

All 3 of the above are mostly power consumption reduction for mobile. performance improvements have been negligible, 5-10% if that per generation on cherry picked intel benchmarks - and most people’s machines who aren’t pro users spend 80-90% of their cpu time idle anyway.

It simply hasn’t been worth doing an update. Irrespective of whether or not apple have abandoned the mini, there’s simply been no compelling reason to update the BOM for the segment it serves.


With Coffee Lake the new standard is 6 cores for i5 and i7, and even quad cores on the i3s (and presumably mobile low watt parts).

 

[Cloudsurfer]

The real crime here is they still continue to sell 2013 technology for the same price. And that Intel apparently is still producing Haswell dual core chips.

 

[Micky Do]

Well, it depends how you look at it.

What new hardware has been available since 2014?
vs the haswell processor and GPU in it...

Broadwell = meh
Skylake = meh
Kaby lake = meh

All 3 of the above are mostly power consumption reduction for mobile. performance improvements have been negligible, 5-10% if that per generation on cherry picked intel benchmarks - and most people’s machines who aren’t pro users spend 80-90% of their cpu time idle anyway.

It simply hasn’t been worth doing an update. Irrespective of whether or not apple have abandoned the mini, there’s simply been no compelling reason to update the BOM for the segment it serves.


With Coffee Lake the new standard is 6 cores for i5 and i7, and even quad cores on the i3s (and presumably mobile low watt parts).

I would add to this…..

Apple built its reputation on developing IT products (hardware and associated software) that can easily be used, without having to know much about computing…… Ideal for the average Joe or Jill who just wants to do stuff. Geeks with an inclination to tinker, and push hardware to its limits have a different point of view. iOS, iPhone and the like carry on down that path, and profitably…… maybe to the benefit of average folks using Mac OS / MacOS.

While the Mac hardware may not be cutting edge (and the Mac Mini has generally been last in the range to see updates), much of the latest hardware these days is indeed of more benefit to laptops than desktops. All the current Mac offerings run the latest MacOS and associated apps, and will continue to be supported through several updates.

When I got my first Mac Mini, the 2005 original, there were only 2 USB ports. Office for Mac came preinstalled, but licensing it was an extra cost. All up the base model, with 0.25 GB RAM cost me about 30,000 baht, before I bought a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, USB hub and a UPS. Upgrades to OS X came on a CD, and cost a pretty penny.

My second Mac Mini, the 2009 I am using now, cost about the same in base form. It came with 1 GB RAM and has 5 USB ports. I paid an extra 5,000 baht for iWork, for an all up cost of about 30,000 baht. An acquaintance had a spare copy of Office for Mac, which the shop installed at no extra cost…. I seldom use it now; iWork is fine for my needs. Upgrades to OS X were still expensive, and when I went up to Mountain Lion I needed more RAM, so I had an extra 4 GB installed.

Since then OS and app upgrades have been free, and iWork comes pre-installed at no extra cost…… Apple led the way in this, but would they have done so had they not been making huge profits from iPhone sales?

Now I could buy a base model Mac Mini, which would probably be adequate for my humble needs, for 19,000 baht, with the apps I use pre installed. The mid level Mac Mini would cost about what my 2009 base model Mini cost back then…… nearly a month's pay for me, then and now (I have had just one 1.5% "cost of living rise" from the Thai government in a decade.)

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rtainly-coming.1681773/page-427#post-25196364

When it does come again, sooner or later, the new Mac Mini will almost certainly be evolutionary, not revolutionary. It will no doubt run the latest monitors and other peripherals, and have the same ports as the current iMacs. It will almost certainly bring hoots of derision from quite a few here.

 

[Lesser Evets]

It would make sense to release a Coffee Lake MacMini... don't expect Apple to make sense. They stumble across randomly prudent moments every few years.

 

[Boyd01]

Now I could buy a base model Mac Mini, which would probably be adequate for my humble needs, for 19,000 baht, with the apps I use pre installed. The mid level Mac Mini would cost about what my 2009 base model Mini cost back then…… nearly a month's pay for me, then and now

Thank you for posting this @Micky Do , it helps to put your other remarks in the proper context. Here in the US, I believe an individual making under $12,000 per year is below the federal poverty line. Looking at a popular seller of the Mini here, the lowest configuration of the 2.6ghz model that they stock has 8gb RAM and a 1TB fusion drive for $850. I don't think I'd consider that quite "mid level" since there's also a 2.8ghz and 3.0ghz version. The 2.6ghz mini with 16gb RAM and 1TB Fusion drive is $1030 (by the way, isn't that outrageous when you can walk into a store and buy 8gb of RAM for about $30??). Anyway, that would be one month's pay for someone who is considered "poor" in the US. Some people might question whether that would be good use of scarce funds for such an individual.

But obviously there are some major cultural and economic differences between countries that make this kind of comparison difficult. OTOH, and individual income of about $30,000 is considered "middle class" in the US. The top configuration of the Mini at the same retailer - 3.0ghz i7 with 16gb RAM and a 1TB SSD is $1900. That would be well below the $2,500 monthly income of a US "middle class" person. I think that many people in that category would balk at spending this much on a computer however, unless they had specific needs.

Don't take this the wrong way, I am not trying to pass judgement on you or anyone else. I just think it's an interesting topic, and I had not thought much about computer prices in this context. So thanks again for bringing it up. And also note that these Mini prices don't include sales tax and the income figures are before income tax.

 

[alien3dx]

Thank you for posting this @Micky Do , it helps to put your other remarks in the proper context. Here in the US, I believe an individual making under $12,000 per year is below the federal poverty line. Looking at a popular seller of the Mini here, the lowest configuration of the 2.6ghz model that they stock has 8gb RAM and a 1TB fusion drive for $850. I don't think I'd consider that quite "mid level" since there's also a 2.8ghz and 3.0ghz version. The 2.6ghz mini with 16gb RAM and 1TB Fusion drive is $1030 (by the way, isn't that outrageous when you can walk into a store and buy 8gb of RAM for about $30??). Anyway, that would be one month's pay for someone who is considered "poor" in the US. Some people might question whether that would be good use of scarce funds for such an individual.

But obviously there are some major cultural and economic differences between countries that make this kind of comparison difficult. OTOH, and individual income of about $30,000 is considered "middle class" in the US. The top configuration of the Mini at the same retailer - 3.0ghz i7 with 16gb RAM and a 1TB SSD is $1900. That would be well below the $2,500 monthly income of a US "middle class" person. I think that many people in that category would balk at spending this much on a computer however, unless they had specific needs.

Don't take this the wrong way, I am not trying to pass judgement on you or anyone else. I just think it's an interesting topic, and I had not thought much about computer prices in this context. So thanks again for bringing it up. And also note that these Mini prices don't include sales tax and the income figures are before income tax.

In United State may be cheaper compare to my country (Malaysia) and the [@Micky Do] (Thailand). The price 2 grand or 2000 bath in thailand is average median salary or low poverty line. But still, the adoption of iphone to low, old spec quite a little high for women. For to see apple usage in average people quite rare unless it was software developer,making app, designer, video editor.. Some of them get income from USD from outsourcing which may a little afford to paid high Apple Tax.