If any of you have looked at the new 21.5" iMac 2017 then it now has REMOVABLE memory and REMOVABLE CPU! This sounds like it might be the future direction of next year's Mini. Does that mean Apple has been listening to us on here? Are we now the real influencers of Apple design on this humble message board? I haven't felt this positive about the Mini's future in a long time.
Those are desktop CPUs vs likely mobile ones though. And it's already been suggested that the reason why is that the Kaby Lake CPUs on offer aren't available as soldered onto the motherboard BGA versions as the Iris Pro R series were.
Add to that the fact that Apple want to roll back towards more modularisation to improve their own repair costs. Imagine how silly it is to bin an entire motherboard with CPU and RAM because one component on it has become defective? This is Apple and Tim Cook making things more cost effective for them, not easier for upgrade hobbyists
The 21.5" remains effectively inaccessible for user repairs - you'd have to be brave enough to crack open a 21.5" iMac to effect your own repair and if you do Apple will consider the warranty void if it's not done by an authorised technician.
If a 'cheap' Mac Mini is going to be successful Apple should really sell it maxed out with slotted RAM (at their prices, e.g. 16Gb out of a possible 32Gb) and with a generous SSD on board (e.g. 256Gb Samsung EVO 960) but slotted with a traditional M.2 slot.
That way people buying it are actually getting a machine which is serviceable rather than something that loses profits for Apple because people are upgrading it themselves on the cheap. The thing is, slotted means desktop class CPUs rather than mobile ones.
Let's bear in mind that External GPUs will be a thing by Spring 2018 along with Intel CPUs that are more likely to be multi-core devices. Home brew merchants will be looking for one way to get a Mac Pro on the cheap.
Apple will also have one eye on Intel tech notes that could declare the Haswell Iris Graphics CPUs End of Life (that's why the Mac Pro 2010 had to be upgraded; it could also be why the Broadwell CPUs in Macbook Air were mildly bumped if Apple are intending to keep the MBA on life support for a few more years)
I'd still wager any Mini will be restricted to the 15w CPUs that are currently in the non-touchbar Macbook Pro and the base level 21.5" iMac - currently using the
i5-7360U - if we're having another Mini just so nobody can turbo charge it with an external GPU and completely avoid buying an iMac.
