I'd say that 90% of the market doesn't care about single or dual chips, or at least doesn't know enough to care. And 8 GB / 256 GB is still viable at the low end even in 2023. My daughter, son, and wife all use 250-256 GB machines.
I'm not saying that 8 GB / 256 GB is necessarily justifiable from the consumers' point of view at the usual price points Apple charges. I'm just saying that ignoring pricing for the moment, those SKUs actually make some sense in terms of performance and usefulness. And if we do consider pricing, the Mac minis are Apple's cheapest machines.
That's why I'm predicting the M3 Mac mini will again be 8 GB / 256 GB. In the coming year, this config can still make sense for students and teachers and people managing their recipe collections and the like. In three years with M4 though, all bets are off.
P.S. Up until a few years ago, I used to say that even 128 GB was enough storage. However, I've noticed of late that macOS is becoming more bloated so that it has a hard time managing with 128 GB on some setups, even when there isn't much user data stored. 256 GB doesn't solve the underlying problem, but gives enough breathing room so that Apple's mismanagement of the drive space can be masked.
Furthermore, what some people may not realize is that 256 GB base actually represents an increase. Before M2, you could buy some of the latest Macs with 128 GB in the education sector. I don't know if you can with the latest M2 models, but I haven't seen them. I believe even in education 256 GB is the minimum now with M2.
Apple has quietly included a 128GB M1 MacBook Air in the Apple Store for Education, priced at $799. This is $100 cheaper than the education deal on ...
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