Mac Mini excluded from Back to School Campaign

[Ridley]

About a month ago I developed a need for a mac mini. To my surprise it was still running on silicon from 2012! So out of principle I couldn't pay the same price now as it was almost two years ago! That bafflement brought me here, and I'm therefore, like most people here, waiting for an updated Mac Mini.

That said, I'm starting to wonder if Apple intends to update it at all. I found it suspicious that the Mac Mini is excluded from the $100 Apple Store credit that they are giving to students.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/back_to_school

You can still get educational pricing (which is about $50 off), but the fact that it is not advertised as a product in the link above makes me wonder if Apple is trying to get rid of the line?

Does anyone remember if the Mac Mini was included in these promotions in past years? I'm looking for thoughts or clues to base my decision on what computer to buy. I run a triplehead2go screen array so there is no room or need for an iMac at my desk, and mac pro is too extreme for my needs. Thanks

 

[ColdCase]

Yeah I noticed that too, ended up going the refurb route.

Perhaps base MB air or MBP is an option. You spend some extra money for a screen you won't use much, but it is portable.

 

[fa8362]

The Mini is usually not in that promotion. That has no bearing on Apple's plans for the Mini. Some people have been saying that Apple is dropping the Mini since 2006, and it hasn't happened, and it's not likely to happen anytime soon.

 

[COrocket]

When I got education pricing America it was only around $20 off IIRC, so it doesn't surprise me that the mini is excluded this year. This leads me to believe that apples profit margins are much better on their laptops and iMacs hence their ability to offer deeper discounts.

 

[Ridley]

The Mini is usually not in that promotion. That has no bearing on Apple's plans for the Mini. Some people have been saying that Apple is dropping the Mini since 2006, and it hasn't happened, and it's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Thanks, if you are sure its been omitted from the campaign in the past that is re-assuring!

 

[Ridley]

Yeah I noticed that too, ended up going the refurb route.

Perhaps base MB air or MBP is an option. You spend some extra money for a screen you won't use much, but it is portable.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I currently have a MacBook Pro from 2006. I LOVE / LOVED it. I use the DVI out to run three screens via the triplehead2go. Then i use PCI express to either run an external GPU (which can drive another 2 screens, and allows me to program openGL for reals) or turn it into an esata port for my backup drive/bd rips.

My trouble is sometimes I want to have the laptop drive my TV for when I'm actually watching those bd rips. Its not a deal breaker but I run optical audio to my receiver and have to switch around my DVI connection (DVI to HDMI). So mac mini would be PERFECT (except for the openGL stuff but I haven't done that in a while).

Another laptop might also fit the bill since it finally has multiple display outputs. Thunderbolt is glorified display port + pci express. As you can see from my current setup there is something to be said for keeping those separate. My biggest thing though is storage. I like to have my iphoto library local and so I don't have to worry about it I'd like to have a TB of storage. Thats prohibitively expensive on the MBP's since they are all solid state now.

For that reason I really dig the idea of the Fusion drive. I'm REALLY hoping that 1) Mac Mini with haswell comes out soon 2) It uses Iris Pro graphics, which would put 4 cores in the baseline i5 (a much better value for $599) 3) The RAM is still user upgradable 4) I can shoe horn my own SSD as a second drive for a cheaper Fusion option.

If all those come together I would be VERY VERY happy! Plus DIY project are fun for me. However I have a feeling Apple will solder the RAM in the next iteration : ( I want it bad enough that i'd pay for Apple's own Fusion drive but the premium for RAM is a little silly. Ugh, Apple love/hate