Apple invitations used to tease what was coming via the graphics, wording. It seems like in recent years, there is less of this. With "peek performance" and the AR image, hopefully these are actual clues and not just cool things that are unrelated. Do any of the old programmers out there remember PEEK and POKE from the days of yore? I used to do programming in BASIC and Assembly language. Two extremes at the time.
I'm definitely in the camp of speculation that Apple will be giving us a peek at what's on their roadmap for Pro-level Macs, including the iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and yeah, maybe some kind of Mac mini Pro - along with a few more pedestrian updates like an iPhone SE re-pop and an spec updated Mac mini.
If Apple shows us one or two new Mac minis that are a decent upgrade over the current M1 version and available now or very soon, but also teases us with one or two models with much higher specs that are coming "this summer" I don't think too many folks would be disappointed.
The current M1 mini is a little workhorse, so fleshing out a few key things on it and bumping it up to a new SoC would be a win. Giving us a peek of a coming version of a Mac mini that captures some of the use cases that are currently served by Mac Pro and iMac Pro would definitely pique my interest. Some people simply want to spec out their own video solution, especially when it comes to multi-monitor users. While the high-end iMacs have a spectacular built-in display, it still gets a little clunky when you want to add a second, third, or fourth display to an iMac/iMac Pro if for no other reason that mounting them all up in a tidy arrangement is difficult with the iMac's chin and (in some cases) lack of VESA mount.
If Apple puts the same guts that they'll put in an updated iMac Pro, sans built-in monitor, into a Mac mini like form factor with the requirement that you need to bring-your-own display(s), that would in my opinion constitute a product that could be legitimately be sold as a "Mac mini Pro" or whatever they'd want to call it, e.g., "Mac Workstation." In essence, it would be a headless iMac Pro, but undoubtedly a Pro class desktop productivity/creative focused workstation.
Apple invitations used to tease what was coming via the graphics, wording. It seems like in recent years, there is less of this. With "peek performance" and the AR image, hopefully these are actual clues and not just cool things that are unrelated. […]
Mostly in the past two years the art/graphics has just been a teaser for the look and feel of the opening sequence of the presentation. It starts at the invitation image, and there is an opening sequence featuring music that ends up with Tim Cook saying hello. Only once has the graphic had a clear hint, the specific colors of the rainbow apple peel image for the April 2021 “Spring Loaded” event that introduced the current iMac and its colors.
The only invite image that didn’t fit this pattern is the most recent (October 2021), “Unleashed,” which used a sort of warp-drive imagery, while a sound, the Mac startup chime, was featured at the start of that presentation. [I’ll guess that originally the plan was to use the startup chime with the warp-drive imagery, but it was too abstract, so they went with the original iMac in a garage.] That was one where the name and image make a kind of sense, as it was where the M1 Pro/Max were introduced.
The names haven’t been wildly useful, but they’re not nothing. As far as I can tell, Apple doesn’t continue to feature them (or even use them at all) beyond the invitation. They do, I think, indicate a focus, “Time Flies” ( Watch), “California Streaming” (ProMotion displays), “Hi, Speed” (similar pun high/hi, to peak/peek, for the 5G introduction), and “One More Thing” (the M1 launch, which wasn’t really a secret, other than the M1 name, Apple Silicon had been announced at WWDC).
... Giving us a peek of a coming version of a Mac mini that captures some of the use cases that are currently served by Mac Pro and iMac Pro would definitely pique my interest. …
I'm definitely in the camp of speculation that Apple will be giving us a peek at what's on their roadmap for Pro-level Macs, including the iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and yeah, maybe some kind of Mac mini Pro - along with a few more pedestrian updates like an iPhone SE re-pop and an spec updated Mac mini.
...
Seems like too much of this would be self-defeating for Apple. Advance previews of hardware upgrades undermines sales of current hardware. They might tell you a few months out about a new product, but not about plans for existing lines.
"What IF" Apple introduces 2022 iPhone SE 5G with Touch ID integrated into its power button like 4th gen iPad Air, increase the screen to edge-to-edge in the same frame ?
I'm definitely in the camp of speculation that Apple will be giving us a peek at what's on their roadmap for Pro-level Macs, including the iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and yeah, maybe some kind of Mac mini Pro - along with a few more pedestrian updates like an iPhone SE re-pop and an spec updated Mac mini.
...
Seems like too much of this would be self-defeating for Apple. Advance previews of hardware upgrades undermines sales of current hardware. They might tell you a few months out about a new product, but not about plans for existing lines.
Uh, what current hardware? Do you mean the Intel iMac and Intel Mac Pro? Like they aren’t already undermined? Releasing a Mac Mini Pro and announcing a coming iMac Pro and iMac Max, not to mention an M1 Mac Pro with the current form factor, might actually increase sales of the Intel hardware as its discontinuation approaches…
I'm definitely in the camp of speculation that Apple will be giving us a peek at what's on their roadmap for Pro-level Macs, including the iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and yeah, maybe some kind of Mac mini Pro - along with a few more pedestrian updates like an iPhone SE re-pop and an spec updated Mac mini.
...
Seems like too much of this would be self-defeating for Apple. Advance previews of hardware upgrades undermines sales of current hardware. They might tell you a few months out about a new product, but not about plans for existing lines.
Uh, what current hardware? Do you mean the Intel iMac and Intel Mac Pro? Like they aren’t already undermined? Releasing a Mac Mini Pro and announcing a coming iMac Pro and iMac Max, not to mention an M1 Mac Pro with the current form factor, might actually increase sales of the Intel hardware as its discontinuation approaches…
Agreed. Apple's transition plan for Apple Silicon was supposed to be "about two years" and was announced in June 2020. The Osborne effect isn't really relevant when everyone with the slightest clue knows that the days are very numbered for the Intel iMac and Mac Pro.
Still, I'm not sure why Apple would preview the hardware when they don't need to.
I'm definitely in the camp of speculation that Apple will be giving us a peek at what's on their roadmap for Pro-level Macs, including the iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and yeah, maybe some kind of Mac mini Pro - along with a few more pedestrian updates like an iPhone SE re-pop and an spec updated Mac mini.
...
Seems like too much of this would be self-defeating for Apple. Advance previews of hardware upgrades undermines sales of current hardware. They might tell you a few months out about a new product, but not about plans for existing lines.
Uh, what current hardware? Do you mean the Intel iMac and Intel Mac Pro? Like they aren’t already undermined? Releasing a Mac Mini Pro and announcing a coming iMac Pro and iMac Max, not to mention an M1 Mac Pro with the current form factor, might actually increase sales of the Intel hardware as its discontinuation approaches…
Agreed. Apple's transition plan for Apple Silicon was supposed to be "about two years" and was announced in June 2020. The Osborne effect isn't really relevant when everyone with the slightest clue knows that the days are very numbered for the Intel iMac and Mac Pro.
Still, I'm not sure why Apple would preview the hardware when they don't need to.
One reason might be because they want it out of the way now, before they introduce the M2 at WWDC this year. I think there is a lot of potential for confusion if the desktop M1 SoCs are introduced after the M2. There are a lot of people who don’t really grasp these things and will without question think M2 > M1+ … Apple will want to get out ahead of it, so when they (or others) present comparisons between the M2 base and the M1 variants, the differences are not small, but rather orders of magnitude. It should be crystal clear that the M2, while a big improvement over the M1, is no match for the M1 Max/Dual/Quad or whatever. Maybe M2 competes with the M1 Pro in its base configuration, but not in all areas.
Apple needs to make it clear that if you’re waiting for the entry-level M-series to catch up with the full power of any of the Pro/Max variants, you’re going to be waiting for a very long time. They can’t really do that if the M1 desktop SoCs are still under wraps when the M2 comes out…
Comments
If Apple shows us one or two new Mac minis that are a decent upgrade over the current M1 version and available now or very soon, but also teases us with one or two models with much higher specs that are coming "this summer" I don't think too many folks would be disappointed.
The current M1 mini is a little workhorse, so fleshing out a few key things on it and bumping it up to a new SoC would be a win. Giving us a peek of a coming version of a Mac mini that captures some of the use cases that are currently served by Mac Pro and iMac Pro would definitely pique my interest. Some people simply want to spec out their own video solution, especially when it comes to multi-monitor users. While the high-end iMacs have a spectacular built-in display, it still gets a little clunky when you want to add a second, third, or fourth display to an iMac/iMac Pro if for no other reason that mounting them all up in a tidy arrangement is difficult with the iMac's chin and (in some cases) lack of VESA mount.
If Apple puts the same guts that they'll put in an updated iMac Pro, sans built-in monitor, into a Mac mini like form factor with the requirement that you need to bring-your-own display(s), that would in my opinion constitute a product that could be legitimately be sold as a "Mac mini Pro" or whatever they'd want to call it, e.g., "Mac Workstation." In essence, it would be a headless iMac Pro, but undoubtedly a Pro class desktop productivity/creative focused workstation.
The only invite image that didn’t fit this pattern is the most recent (October 2021), “Unleashed,” which used a sort of warp-drive imagery, while a sound, the Mac startup chime, was featured at the start of that presentation. [I’ll guess that originally the plan was to use the startup chime with the warp-drive imagery, but it was too abstract, so they went with the original iMac in a garage.] That was one where the name and image make a kind of sense, as it was where the M1 Pro/Max were introduced.
https://www.apple.com/apple-events/
Sounds like something AR/VR related.
Still, I'm not sure why Apple would preview the hardware when they don't need to.
Apple needs to make it clear that if you’re waiting for the entry-level M-series to catch up with the full power of any of the Pro/Max variants, you’re going to be waiting for a very long time. They can’t really do that if the M1 desktop SoCs are still under wraps when the M2 comes out…