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Why the Mini Has Not Had a Refresh Since 2012
- Thread starter mad3inch1na
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Although I am not a Mac Mini owner, I can't see Apple dropping the series. I would be interested to see the Mac Mini sales broken out by country. While everyone seems to think that the new Mini will look like the nMP I suggest that it is more likely to look like the current version of Time Capsule.
I vote for the current classic design.
I still suspect, given the reason the Airport Extreme / Time Capsule were changed to a tall form factor, was to fit in tall, vertical antennas for 5ghz AC WIFI, that the next Mini will be a tall form factor. Something like an aluminium, or iPhone 5c bright coloured plastic airport extreme.
Perhaps it would be a cylinder - like a section of 3-4" aluminium pipe, but what it almost certainly won't do, is share the design language of the nMP. That would just dilute the visual branding of the top of the line.
Sure it has! The HD4000 is a GPU, it has dedicated silicon for image processing. It resides on the same die, SO WHAT? In 5 years ALL computers are 1-chip machines. Even the MacPro. And in 10 years, they have a motherboard looking like a Raspberry Pi, with just a little heatsink.
Same-die GPU is actually a benefit, since it does not have to deal with a cramped PCI-Express bus in between.
I thought the previous tower designs were fine right back to the G3. I do remember getting a shock though the first time I picked one up and wasn't expecting it to weigh as much as it did.
And yes I like the current mini design to.
I may be way off here,
So please don't shoot me down!
i thought it might be worth mentioning that there has been talk of Apple developing chips in house? As in pushing their mobile processors to become desktop class. It may be a way off, but perhaps not as far away as you think.
Super sized iPad?
MacBook Air?
Mac Mini?
Developing CPUs in house could mean good things for Apple, specifically not relying on intel for delayed updates.
Like I said, I'm probably way off the mark here, but it does suggest one thing:
Nobody here can know what Apple's plans are for a Mini update. Different form factor? Different processors? Just guessing really.
So please don't shoot me down!
i thought it might be worth mentioning that there has been talk of Apple developing chips in house? As in pushing their mobile processors to become desktop class. It may be a way off, but perhaps not as far away as you think.
Super sized iPad?
MacBook Air?
Mac Mini?
Developing CPUs in house could mean good things for Apple, specifically not relying on intel for delayed updates.
Like I said, I'm probably way off the mark here, but it does suggest one thing:
Nobody here can know what Apple's plans are for a Mini update. Different form factor? Different processors? Just guessing really.
Architecture compatibility with the Windows world is a very important aspect of the Mac these days. Back in the PPC days, Apple had to spend a fortune on performance comparison marketing. Now they don't have to worry about that - performance is standardised, and they can concentrate their resources on improving the power efficiency and battery life, which is where they have a major advantage over most PC manufacturers.
It's effectively low hanging fruit for them to make the "best" Windows laptop when using Intel chips. Also, they have full Windows compatibility for VM applications which is actually a major sales advantage. A lot of independent accountants and bookkeepers for example, use windows-only packages like MYOB in Parallels / VMWare on their macs.
As long as the PC industry in general uses Intel, there's no real benefit for Apple to switch away from it for the Mac. For other devices, they're effectively big enough relative to the market as a whole that those compatibility issues aren't as big a deal.
IMO, the Mac Mini is on the Apple back burner. There's little to no incentive to update it atm. It runs Mavericks pretty good and if it runs Yosemite the same i'm betting they will address the Mini when it fails to perform well with an OS upgrade.
The trend in OS development is to run new versions of the OS either the same or better. I have a 2007 IBM ThinkPad that has NO problems running Windows 7 or Windows 8 with 3GB of ram.
The trend in OS development is to run new versions of the OS either the same or better. I have a 2007 IBM ThinkPad that has NO problems running Windows 7 or Windows 8 with 3GB of ram.
So you think the mini is designed / targeted towards buyers focused on GPU performance??
At time when Mini was updated HD4000 was best possible GPU for Power Envelope that had Mac Mini, that was first reason, second - price. It was only GPU available for Mini costing 600 Dollars without destroying Apple's Profit Margin significantly.
See the difference? Its not the GPU target, but Price.
Right now - Apple has iMac as entry level computer, and has gigantic hole in their desktop computer lineup when you think about price and performance terms. The hole is between iMac and Mac Pro. Mac Mini with that setup is possibly best solution to fill that hole, and best computer for Windows switchers.
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Performance of Mac Mini is not better than a well-speced iMac, well, with the exception of the new,cheap iMac (which I don't understand). A maxed iMac is a very powerful workstation. A Mini and an iMac are not the same animal, build them out and then look at the specs. Price is the driving force for the Mini. And, there is nothing wrong with that.
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I think that an ARM chip in the future MacBook and possibly the Mini makes sense. There is certainly speculation that Apple will have chips which will be competitive vis a via Intel's offerings soon. The price differential would be a strong motivating reason to make the switch. With emulation you would still be able to run your favorite OS X programs sans bootcamp.
I vote for the current classic design.
Actually, I do as well, with one exception.
I'd like to see the Mini's "top" become removable, made into a "top plate".
This would provide access to the hard drive area without having to disassemble the machine. Four bolts (one in each corner), or eight (two on each side) is all it would take...
*discrete GPU
He was referring to the height of my render not being sufficient for a GPU like the card in the Mac Pro, which the Mini does not have.
Also, the Raspberry Pi DOES have two separate chips for CPU and GPU.
Nope, the Pi has a SOC (system on a chip):
Even the RAM is integrated.
And a discrete GPU is on the same road as the DODO. It will become a high-end niche product. The average personal computer* won't have any in a couple of years.
* desktop, phablet, telephone, smarttv or whatever you like to name your personal computer.
My guess is that (a) the target market audience for and the vast majority of the userbase for the Mac mini doesn't care that it is still sporting Ivy Bridge and not Haswell. This gives them time to (b) plan a design refresh.
You may balk at this, and while the current design has only has a few releases; give thought to (i) the 2013 Mac Pro, (ii) the Late 2013 retina MacBook Pros, (iii) the 2013/2014 MacBook Air, and lastly (iv) the 2013 iMacs (especially this new low-end 21.5" crap). What do these four have in common? PCIe SSDs in the form of proprietary form factor mSATA sticks.
They could make a prettier looking version of the Gigabyte Brix. They could have DDR3L SO-DIMMs for RAM (if they don't go the annoying soldered route) and an ULV ultrabook/MacBook Air style CPU with Two Thunderbolt 2, One HDMI, Four USB 3 and a lone audio out port. They could make it barely larger than the current AppleTV/AirPort Express units. Boom.
Honestly, this is where I see the future of the Mac mini line. Especially with the drastic reduction in power from the new Mac Pro, it'd make sense that they'd reduce the size of the Mac mini.
Then again, I'd imagine, in the not-too-distant future, Apple will only sell three lines of Mac: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro; most consumers will gravitate to the laptops while the pros that NEED a desktop will still get the option of the Mac Pro.
Most people that have IMac's and Mini's won't gravitate to a laptop. Just my opinion.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Why doesn't GM put the Corvette's body on a Chevette's guts?
I can imagine the Mini looking like the Maxi but I would think Apple would want to avoid the association that the cheapest Mac appears much like the most expensive Mac.
Personally, I think the current design is just fine. But If I was guessing about a redesign, I suspect another step toward a box like
TV vs. something toward Mac Pro. And, if so, hopefully they keep the HDMI port and resurrect the Front Row concept so that maybe this Mini could be the TV pro.I don't love the idea of ever-thinning "desktops" as I don't see much point in having a "thinner" and "lighter" desktop computer but, knowing Apple, they love to spin "thin" so it's easier to imagine a shrinking mac mini new design than it is to imagine taking the higher price design and bringing it to the lowest priced Mac.
not to mention, cannibalize imac, and $2000 mbp if apple puts an iris igpu in the mac mini w/ a haswell refresh. apple knows the kind of people that buy the mini:
poor aspiring professionals looking for an apple computer to use logic pro, fcp x, motion 5, etc.
i bet you that 70-90% of mac mini owners are using this for pro apps and not just as an overpriced hptc or as a means to somehow introduce nonapple users into their ecosystem.
poor aspiring professionals who need to use apple pro apps w/ reasonable or expected performance are 70-90% of mac mini owners.
this is why apple is waiting. they're waiting for their other, much more expensive apple products to be somehow more alluring to these people. by more alluring, meaning much more powerful so these poor professionals will somehow overlook the mini as a viable pc and/or tool.
thanks tim cook.
thank you apple.
tim cook: you're welcome!
me: FU!!!!
dr. dre: what did you say, son?
me: im not scared of you MFer!!!
Here's an addition to the possible form of the next mini design: something similar in size to the current mini, but round in the shape of the new Cupertino campus without the donut hole but with an indentation in the center. You could custom paint it to look like the campus. Get out the magnifying glass - is that Steve Jobs looking out the window?
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Of course they will. If the new mini is anything besides a speed bump, it'll have soldered on RAM and a small, slow, HDD with custom firmware - or an anemic amount of SSD storage.
Exactly! I have a 2012 MBP 2.3 i7, 16GB RAM, M500 960GB SSD. I also have a 2012 mini 2.3 i7, 16GB RAM, M500 960GB SSD. Other than the dGPU on the MBP they are essentially the same computer in different containers.
That said, they are very different computers for different uses. I would not substitute one for the other, nor would any iMac model fit my system.