It's March madness and the new M3 MBAs are out. Apple don't historically release partial product lines in the same month independent of one another. It's not what is said so much as what isn't.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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Sales of desktop computers have been going down. And for computers (not smartphones/tablets) in general.
Macintosh line as a whole seems to have continued on the past few years better than other companies' lines. And the Mac Mini is really a small market compared to the MacBook. The MacBook is the primary Mac product now.
I propose that Apple could drop the Mac Mini entirely and see a barely measurable dent in their bottom line.
Mac Mini is by far the best computer Apple makes or ever has made. They would be 100% INSANE if they dropped it. This is my opinion and I approve it!
Well, I think that is a distinct possibility. I also think it’s far from a certainty.
Well its pretty obvious that releasing the M3 mac mini before the Studio M3 would kneecap sales of the latter, if its not low already ... and they cant release an M3 max studio until the M3 ultra version is ready, can they ? so it probably depends on the M3 ultra release date imho
That’s not been the case in the past.
M2 Mini was release in Jan 2023. M2 Studio was release in June 2023.
Yes, thats true, but its a dumb idea and they may want to compress that from 5 months to a little less this time. Maybe 3 months ? We will see. Personally I would release the new mac mini at the same time... but that depends on the ultra m3 availability
I don't think Apple is going to update Mac Mini with every M* iteration, and it's OK. They could easily skip M2 Mac Minis too, should there had been MM M1 Pro. The performance difference wasn't that much to bother. If there is nothing revolutionary, they could update MM every other Apple Silicon gen, IMO.
So yeah... No new M3 Mac Minis. Game Over. )
So yeah... No new M3 Mac Minis. Game Over. )
SDRAM is a technology. UMA is a role. Apple uses standard LPDDR5 SDRAM for its UMA RAM.
Of course, that doesn't change even if there is an updated product after 12 months!
disagree, i bet an m3 mac mini is 'just around the corner' certainly by june.
Thank you for correcting me. My understanding was that because it is not pin-mounted using an external clock, it doesn't count as "S" DRAM. It sounds like I was wrong.
My larger point remains. UMA RAM has bandwidth comparable to VRAM on the PC side. I don't think the price comparison to slotted SD RAM makes sense.
I'll guess we'll see in the next month or so... Still haven't seen any hard evidence either way -- just speculation.
Any Apple product with the word "Mini" in the name is always an endangered species
Seems a bit dramatic don't you think? I reckon there's still going to be a market for the mini as long as the co-location guys buy them. They just might not have plans to upgrade them year on year. We've already agreed on here that the form factor is paid-for and fits into the spaces depicted in various co-location server rooms.
A new exterior design would bump up costs for Apple and co-location guys. If Apple don't have to devote resources to redesign the mini then future iterations just end up being a speed bump and call it a day.
One limiting factor that the itchy trigger finger guys might not have realised is that Apple will be unlikely to let the M2 CPU be the 'current' CPU in a Mac for too long because of the 'unwritten' general promise to support CPUs for 5 years after the product they are in is discontinued.
So at the moment the M2 lives on in the Mini, Studio and the Pro. Once these are discontinued (and hopefully replaced by whatever model they see fit) the clock starts on Apple's support - until then the users of those machines are safe in the knowledge that they probably have at least 5 years of software updates on the cards and no laptop batteries to get in the way.
I'm with you on that one, RIP iPhone Mini
Why wouldn’t Apple release M3mini, when M4 is announced?
Wouldn’t that make most sense economically?
I’d guess mini users are not super users, there is Studio for that…
Wouldn’t that make most sense economically?
I’d guess mini users are not super users, there is Studio for that…
The "revolutionary" change this round was allowing the M3 MacBook Air to drive two external displays.
That means that the M3 MBA is now a viable MM-replacement candidate for a lot of folks (myself included) - people who needed to run two monitors, but didn't want to pay the "Pro tax" for the MacBook Pro. If you were on the fence, there is a much stronger chance that you go the MBA route now.
And I say that somewhat sadly, as a long-time MM fan going all the way back to the G4.
Looking grim for a M3 MM anytime soon. Sadly, your prediction may have been correct.
I say wait for June during the developer conference. I think all 3 desktops will be introduced with the M3 variant.
When that sad day arrives, I do hope we can just request a change of the thread title to:
The new Mac mini is almost certainly not coming
That way we can surely keep going one more decade in one of the best threads ever on MR!
Seems plausible. There are limits to how much they can upgrade the Mini without putting the Studio's position in a bind, and the same goes for the Studio vs the Pro. With everything being on M2 chips, it's a clear "good/better/best" arrangement. But if the low end gets a bump but not the middle or top, it disrupts that balance.
The Mini will stay in it's lane as well as the other two. Each machine has its audience.
We're not here for nostalgia so much as to celebrate the birth of a new Mini in 2024 but that ain't happening. Game over.