The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[imanidiot]

All roads lead to October.

Historically, the mid-2010 Mac Mini was released the week after WWDC, and the mid-2011 Mac Mini was released a month after WWDC. The late 2012 Mac Mini came much later, in the end of October.

The other Apple line that hasn't been updated since 2012 is the MacBook Pro. It, too, is widely expected to based on and waiting for Intel Broadwell. More than one rumor site makes a strong case for the MacBook Pro being released in October.

Intel's CEO recently promised that Broadwell would be out at the beginning of the holiday season this year.

While there is no chatter at all about the Mac Mini in the rumor mill, this is probably because it is being made at Apple's new US plant. Other Apple hardware is made in China and rumors leak out months in advance there, but the Mac Pro was made at the US plant and no rumors at all preceded it.

I'm posting this on a 2006 Core Duo Mac Mini that I promised myself I'd run into the ground, and I sure have delivered on that promise. I should have bought the late 2012 Mini but other things were going on then and I couldn't think about buying until now - and I just can't make myself pay these prices for a two-year-old computer. So I shall wait for October; if there's no new Mac Mini in October, Apple has let the line die and I'll buy something else.

At long last, a voice af reason.

 

[ABCDEF-Hex]

Tim Cook will get right on this -

All roads lead to October.

Historically, the mid-2010 Mac Mini was released the week after WWDC, and the mid-2011 Mac Mini was released a month after WWDC. The late 2012 Mac Mini came much later, in the end of October.

The other Apple line that hasn't been updated since 2012 is the MacBook Pro. It, too, is widely expected to based on and waiting for Intel Broadwell. More than one rumor site makes a strong case for the MacBook Pro being released in October.

Intel's CEO recently promised that Broadwell would be out at the beginning of the holiday season this year.

While there is no chatter at all about the Mac Mini in the rumor mill, this is probably because it is being made at Apple's new US plant. Other Apple hardware is made in China and rumors leak out months in advance there, but the Mac Pro was made at the US plant and no rumors at all preceded it.

I'm posting this on a 2006 Core Duo Mac Mini that I promised myself I'd run into the ground, and I sure have delivered on that promise. I should have bought the late 2012 Mini but other things were going on then and I couldn't think about buying until now - and I just can't make myself pay these prices for a two-year-old computer. So I shall wait for October; if there's no new Mac Mini in October, Apple has let the line die and I'll buy something else.

After all, he doesn't want someone who buys a mini every 8 years being upset.

 

[Schnort]

That's exactly what I want... but for $700 not $1,400

Pretty sure you can do it for $700, not including the monitor.

 

[wiredup72]

Pretty sure you can do it for $700, not including the monitor.

With Broadwell and a separate graphics chipset? I hope so.

 

[Crosscreek]

With Broadwell and a separate graphics chipset? I hope so.

You won't see dedicated GPU but it would be sweet.

 

[Micky Do]

After all, he doesn't want someone who buys a mini every 8 years being upset.

That the average Joe or Jill can buy a Mac Mini, secure in the knowledge that it will be good for eight years, must be good for the fundamental image of Apple.

Fashionista geeks who whinge and (threaten to) go hackintosh, Windows, or whatever, to keep bragging rights to the latest and (maybe) greatest technology are irrelevant.

 

[talmy]

That the average Joe or Jill can buy a Mac Mini, secure in the knowledge that it will be good for eight years, must be good for the fundamental image of Apple.

Fashionista geeks who whinge and (threaten to) go hackintosh, Windows, or whatever, to keep bragging rights to the latest and (maybe) greatest technology are irrelevant.

Hear! Hear! The current minis, even for their age, will work perfectly fine for 99% of potential customers.

 

[philipma1957]

Hear! Hear! The current minis, even for their age, will work perfectly fine for 99% of potential customers.

Well at least 90% of use do not need a better machine.

 

[Crosscreek]

Hear! Hear! The current minis, even for their age, will work perfectly fine for 99% of potential customers.

I agree it is still a great little machine but to sell it at the 2012 price for a 2 year old machine is harsh.

 

[Silver78]

I would like to thank apple for saving me the 1000$ on a mac mini haswell.. Been waiting so long that broadwell is up and also...the 1000$ was spend on buying a garden instead .... Best money i ever spend.. Thank you apple for not letting me listen to 2 hours of "fantastic amazing increddible superfast beautifull amazing fantastic" brainwash wwdc

 

[wiredup72]

That the average Joe or Jill can buy a Mac Mini, secure in the knowledge that it will be good for eight years, must be good for the fundamental image of Apple.

Fashionista geeks who whinge and (threaten to) go hackintosh, Windows, or whatever, to keep bragging rights to the latest and (maybe) greatest technology are irrelevant.

I don't disagree, but it my situation shows exactly why the mini line is overdue. I use a 2006 MBP. IT has a ssd and it's ok, but things are getting slow and I reinstall the OS twice a year and keep the fans and motherboard clean.

Similarly my wife is in a MB 2007.

I really want a mini for our nice Dell monitor, need something that can run SPSS (which is ridiculously bloated, but necessary for my wife) and I like the mini form factor, price, and would like to be able to run an OS newer than 10.7

I do not want an iMac, my money is better spent on peripherals I need and other stuff.

Point is: it is the line I want, but I don't want two year old technology for a their current price. My argument is that the current mini WONT be good for another 8 years for how we use our computers and that is around how long I go between purchases. My previous computers before my MacBooks were pc's and bsd boxes I built in 98 and 99 and a think pad from 1998.

 

[Boyd01]

my situation shows exactly why the mini line is overdue. I use a 2006 MBP.

If you're using a machine of that vintage, the current bottom of the line Mini would surely be a big upgrade. I have a 2008 15" MBP 2.4 ghz c2d and upgraded in 2011 to an i5 MBA - the CPU was about twice as fast. The current mini also offers benefits like thunderbolt, HDMI and USB3 too.

I now have a 2013 MBA with the i7 and you really see the difference between the 2008 MBP when ripping a DVD in handbrake. Takes about 90 minutes to do a ~1 hour TV show on the 2008 c2d machine, takes 15 minutes on the 2013 i7 machine.

Those old core2 duo machines were great in their day - I remember marvelling at how my 2008 MBP was faster than my PowerMac dual G5. But today they are really showing their age.

I think Crosscreek has nailed it. There's nothing all that wrong with the specs on the current mini lineup, but the prices should be lowered.

 

[scottsjack]

I now have a 2013 MBA with the i7 and you really see the difference between the 2008 MBP when ripping a DVD in handbrake. Takes about 90 minutes to do a ~1 hour TV show on the 2008 c2d machine, takes 15 minutes on the 2013 i7 machine.

Exactly. My late 2009 2.66 with 8GB RAM and a 7200rpm HDD was pretty good for its time. Compared to me 2012 2.3 with 16GB RAM and using the OEM HD the old one barely moved.

I would have paid more in January to get a Haswell/HD5000 but I'm beginning to question whether Apple really cares about mini owners. It seems to be all about iOS and ghettophones lately.

 

[SoCalReviews]

I like the backward compatibility and connectivity options that the 2012 Mini offers. The two year old Mini's only major drawback compared to newer systems is it's moderate video graphics performance. Desktop CPU technology hasn't changed much in the last two years. Haswell and the upcoming Broadwell are designed to improve low power usage. I'll take compatibility and upgrade ability over lower power usage for a desktop any day. The video processing has been improving incrementally and will continue to advance to support greater than 1080p video as 4K becomes the new standard. For the next major improvements in video we will have to wait for integrated Broadwell CPU/GPU solutions and beyond.

 

[X-Ravin]

I'd buy a Mini right now if it wasn't for a lack of support for native dual 1440p monitors. That's a deal breaker for me. I know some of that is due to the older Intel graphics, so I'm hopeful the new Mini will have dual mini DP ports. Hopefully Apple doesn't go and lock them to Thunderbolt displays only

 

[OneMike]

Last June I read a similar thread. I went ahead and purchased anyway. At this point I doubt I would.

 

[haravikk]

I would have paid more in January to get a Haswell/HD5000 but I'm beginning to question whether Apple really cares about mini owners. It seems to be all about iOS and ghettophones lately.

Continuity/Handoff suggests otherwise IMO; okay, so I'm still bummed that we haven't seen a Mac Mini yet, as I really need to replace my computer but the Mac Mini is the best option for me (or it will be once it has some more graphical clout).

However, the Continuity features suggest that Apple really wants to push the halo effect that drives Mac sales among iOS owners, by making sure that although you can use iOS devices with Windows, you'll get the best experience with Mac. This makes the Mac Mini even more crucial, as the number of iOS device owners with Macs is a tiny fraction of the total iOS devices out there, so getting them to switch to a Mac still requires a good entry level machine.

For this reason I'm hoping that when we do see an updated Mac Mini that Apple might either include a cheaper low-end model, or keep the current generation around but with slashed prices. After all, even a cheaper Mac is still a pretty big up front cost if you don't take out a payment plan, which can be off-putting; while iOS devices aren't cheap themselves they're heavily subsidised (or "free") thanks to their contracts which makes them seem a lot cheaper, even though on Pay as You Go they actually cost about as much as a Mac Mini does! Point being, Apple really needs an even more enticing model for new buyers, while retaining the more powerful, maybe smaller, new model for the wealthier new customers or for existing customers who understand the benefits.

 

[keekl]

All roads lead to October.

Historically, the mid-2010 Mac Mini was released the week after WWDC, and the mid-2011 Mac Mini was released a month after WWDC. The late 2012 Mac Mini came much later, in the end of October.

The other Apple line that hasn't been updated since 2012 is the MacBook Pro. It, too, is widely expected to based on and waiting for Intel Broadwell. More than one rumor site makes a strong case for the MacBook Pro being released in October.

Intel's CEO recently promised that Broadwell would be out at the beginning of the holiday season this year.

While there is no chatter at all about the Mac Mini in the rumor mill, this is probably because it is being made at Apple's new US plant. Other Apple hardware is made in China and rumors leak out months in advance there, but the Mac Pro was made at the US plant and no rumors at all preceded it.

I'm posting this on a 2006 Core Duo Mac Mini that I promised myself I'd run into the ground, and I sure have delivered on that promise. I should have bought the late 2012 Mini but other things were going on then and I couldn't think about buying until now - and I just can't make myself pay these prices for a two-year-old computer. So I shall wait for October; if there's no new Mac Mini in October, Apple has let the line die and I'll buy something else.

I'm using same computer, same situation, same plan ~I didn't think I'd still be using it 8 years later..it's only been opened once to add RAM and otherwise trouble-free...

 

[iMacBooked]

More than 1,800 days since I updated my Mac Mini, and about 600 days since I upgraded the RAM….. and still don't give a hoot, but find this thread amusing none the less.

Tomorrow is…...

Yeah quite fun reading all of this lol.

 

[con19m31]

I just ordered the quad 2.3 with SSD and will put 16 G in myself. For me in Canada, buying an SSD and the data doubler would not be far off the SSD upgrade and I just want it out of the box.

2 year old technology feels a little odd but I have a deadline to complete a project this fall and have been using a slow hackintosh. I need it for xCode only and have never had an SSD so I believe this will be great for my needs.

If all goes well I will get a rMBP 15 when they refresh and sell the mini or give it to one of my kids. Worst case I look at it as a rental for getting my project done.

Really excited to receive my first real MAC!!

 

[mojolicious]

I just ordered the quad 2.3 … 2 year old technology feels a little odd but I have a deadline

I doubt that the fabled nMm (?) will offer anything new and spectacular: certainly nothing as fundamentally 'big' as the move from USB2 to USB3.

Not sure I understand why so many people here are opposed to the current Mini on the grounds of its age. Is it fear that the moment they order one, a new model will be announced? Is it the feeling that the price should have fallen? If the latter, does anyone know if the component cost has fallen significantly in the last two years?

 

[cypriot]

I doubt that the fabled nMm (?) will offer anything new and spectacular: certainly nothing as fundamentally 'big' as the move from USB2 to USB3.



Not sure I understand why so many people here are opposed to the current Mini on the grounds of its age. Is it fear that the moment they order one, a new model will be announced? Is it the feeling that the price should have fallen? If the latter, does anyone know if the component cost has fallen significantly in the last two years?

For me: both. I was disappointed when my 2 months old ipad 3 became old and laggy after ipad 4 came so soon. I wont buy old hardware ever.

 

[scottsjack]

Continuity/Handoff suggests otherwise IMO; okay, so I'm still bummed that we haven't seen a Mac Mini yet, as I really need to replace my computer but the Mac Mini is the best option for me (or it will be once it has some more graphical clout).

However, the Continuity features suggest that Apple really wants to push the halo effect that drives Mac sales among iOS owners, by making sure that although you can use iOS devices with Windows, you'll get the best experience with Mac. This makes the Mac Mini even more crucial, as the number of iOS device owners with Macs is a tiny fraction of the total iOS devices out there, so getting them to switch to a Mac still requires a good entry level machine.

For this reason I'm hoping that when we do see an updated Mac Mini that Apple might either include a cheaper low-end model, or keep the current generation around but with slashed prices. After all, even a cheaper Mac is still a pretty big up front cost if you don't take out a payment plan, which can be off-putting; while iOS devices aren't cheap themselves they're heavily subsidised (or "free") thanks to their contracts which makes them seem a lot cheaper, even though on Pay as You Go they actually cost about as much as a Mac Mini does! Point being, Apple really needs an even more enticing model for new buyers, while retaining the more powerful, maybe smaller, new model for the wealthier new customers or for existing customers who understand the benefits.

Well said.

 

[squirrrl]

It would be pretty sick if they added a projector to the Mac mini. Just saying. It would be useful for me though I'm not sure how many others would use it.

 

[Micky Do]

It would be pretty sick if they added a projector to the Mac mini. Just saying. It would be useful for me though I'm not sure how many others would use it.

I have added a projector to my Mac Mini several times.

We had them installed in the classrooms where I teach last year. It just takes a minute or two to unplug my Mini at home, and about the same to plug it in to the system when I get to class.