I believe the one thing that truly proves how overpriced these machines are is the fact they ship with the absolute bare minimum amount of memory and hard drive space. They should've come standard with at least 16 GB of Ram a 250 GB SSD drive. It shouldn't cost anything more than $300 to to upgrade 32 GB of RAM. Where do they get that 32 gigs of RAM is going to cost $600?! Seriously, I think Apple is really starting to lose it on the greedy train.
The article is suggesting to defeature further to try to hit a psychological $500 price tier. So, obviously it is not bare minimum. For example:
i3-8100B -> Celeron G4920 (2 Coffee Lake cores at 3.2 GHz) 8 GB RAM -> 4 GB RAM 128 GB SSD -> 64 GB Flash 2 TB3 controllers -> 0 TB3 (USBC only) T2 controller -> no T2 controller (You know, this may actually be faster than the old 2014 mini base model at $500.)
This isn’t bare minimum either, as Apple could sell it like Intel sells NUCs without RAM, storage, and operating system.
Really, the people who write for the site and most of the posters here are perfectly capable of outfitting a mid tower box with an i3-8100, 16 GB RAM, 250 GB SSD, and a NVIDIA 1050 for $800, assuming they have an existing Windows license (which is a nontrivial $150 for Win Pro). But then, you are left with a mid tower box that you have to build and service yourself, have an inventory for parts, and it won’t have the TB3 I/O capabilities in the box. Heck, I’m doing this for my boy (gaming PC).
But I would get a Mac mini for various purposes as it is a nice small, quiet box with a good performance and capable of driving high resolution displays.
Hardly anyone was buying the Mac Mini for switching from PCs to Macs. Those days are GONE. Apple realized that the primary buyers of Mac Minis were using it for more professional purposes - such as servers, server farms, etc. So it made much more sense to create the Mac Mini Pro to sell to the ACTUAL USERS of the Mac Mini. And as such, it is FANTASTIC!
This guy gets it.
IME as a former Apple tech and Apple salesperson, when a PC person decides to switch, it's because they have gotten to a point where they HATE Windows, or at a dead minimum they've noticed that their Apple/Mac using friends never seem to have the endless issues they do. They generally tend to want to switch over to a machine similar to or better than the one they're coming from -- having finally figured out after a lifetime of wasted effort, money and time that a good value is better than the cheapest thing possible that will just barely get the job minimally done.
It was usually just a matter of listening to what it was they did with their old computer, alongside what they'd like to do but don't feel they can reach to on their present machine, and then suggesting the model of Mac that best meets their needs. The price wasn't much of a barrier at that point, because they finally figured out that their time was more valuable and their frustration level was unhealthy and not worth the few dollars they might save over the long haul.
I thought reports said the new Mac Mini only had a single TB3 controller. Was that incorrect? The Vega expansion chassis is definitely an appealing option, but the loss of ~20% performance through TB3 is unfortunate, especially for roundtrip rendering tasks. Add that to sharing bandwidth (assuming one controller) with the eGPU and external RAID storage, and you've got some substantial performance bottlenecks. The new T2 chip is definitely interesting and I'm intrigued to see what future generations bring. Obviously, it's a boon for HEVC, but there are still lots of ProRes and mpeg4-based files and operations (and even mpeg2 variants) that typically won't benefit from HEVC hardware depending on the project(s). All of those go back to the processor and integrated graphics. Intel does have some hardware optimizations for mpeg4 in their integrated graphics, but AMD Vega should still be faster.
You can pay the 20% eGPU tax or the ??% thermal throttling tax with the iMac Pro...
Apple is much too greedy these days. The price for their machines education or otherwise is insane. They also used to have special purpose Macs for education and not just cheaper versions of the same one. Witness the eMac for example. Instead of putting the $329 IPad for education in such an expensive cover and keyboard for education, why not get rid of the expensive aluminum and wrap it in plastic with a kickstand for kids? Would be cheaper for schools. I remember when Steve was on stage and he would announce the next generation of the same product he would say and it is STILL xx price but now it is more like xxx price + $200 more.
nht said: ... What's the advantage for Apple to trash ASPs and sell $499 machines instead $799 machines? ...
Who cares about ASPs? Go back and read what Jobs said. He also had ulterior motives to hook the kids, who'd one day be Mac-buying adults, but he also seemed to actually care about helping education and computer exposure, etc. He also didn't seem to let Wall Street dictate how he made his decisions.
I thought reports said the new Mac Mini only had a single TB3 controller. Was that incorrect? The Vega expansion chassis is definitely an appealing option, but the loss of ~20% performance through TB3 is unfortunate, especially for roundtrip rendering tasks. Add that to sharing bandwidth (assuming one controller) with the eGPU and external RAID storage, and you've got some substantial performance bottlenecks. The new T2 chip is definitely interesting and I'm intrigued to see what future generations bring. Obviously, it's a boon for HEVC, but there are still lots of ProRes and mpeg4-based files and operations (and even mpeg2 variants) that typically won't benefit from HEVC hardware depending on the project(s). All of those go back to the processor and integrated graphics. Intel does have some hardware optimizations for mpeg4 in their integrated graphics, but AMD Vega should still be faster.
You can pay the 20% eGPU tax or the ??% thermal throttling tax with the iMac Pro...
There are 2 TB3 controllers.
re: tsxbaker75 - there shouldn't be round-trip rendering tasks, as the mini doesn't have a display. You'd be plugging the display into the eGPU.
re: 2 TB3 controllers.... really? All the initial stuff said one. If two, that is really great to hear!!!
I thought reports said the new Mac Mini only had a single TB3 controller. Was that incorrect? The Vega expansion chassis is definitely an appealing option, but the loss of ~20% performance through TB3 is unfortunate, especially for roundtrip rendering tasks. Add that to sharing bandwidth (assuming one controller) with the eGPU and external RAID storage, and you've got some substantial performance bottlenecks. The new T2 chip is definitely interesting and I'm intrigued to see what future generations bring. Obviously, it's a boon for HEVC, but there are still lots of ProRes and mpeg4-based files and operations (and even mpeg2 variants) that typically won't benefit from HEVC hardware depending on the project(s). All of those go back to the processor and integrated graphics. Intel does have some hardware optimizations for mpeg4 in their integrated graphics, but AMD Vega should still be faster.
You can pay the 20% eGPU tax or the ??% thermal throttling tax with the iMac Pro...
There are 2 TB3 controllers.
re: tsxbaker75 - there shouldn't be round-trip rendering tasks, as the mini doesn't have a display. You'd be plugging the display into the eGPU.
re: 2 TB3 controllers.... really? All the initial stuff said one. If two, that is really great to hear!!!
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
cgWerks said: re: 2 TB3 controllers.... really? All the initial stuff said one. If two, that is really great to hear!!!
Yup, can confirm. Pair of controllers.
Yay! So, would that be something like 2 of the ports are from each controller? So, you'd have to be careful which ports you use if you want maximum throughput?
Also, if anyone knows... what are the differences between the CPU options, especially the 6-core i5 and i7? Is it just some extra cache, or is the i7 hyper-threading, but the i5 not, etc? I know I want the 6-core, but I'm trying to decide which one.
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
Of all AI posts, those on the Mac mini always result in a huge discussion. I know the AI readership is a small sample group and maybe even not representative, but still a possibility that Apple under-estimates the demand for this item. Let's be honest here, the latest hardware refresh didn't constitute a massive design effort, so why did it take so many years?
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
Cook told you that?
It was said last year in April when they said the Mac Pro was coming, and was mentioned in the iMac Pro press materials.
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.
You already answered your question. 5K, wide gamut, all types of HDR and alike. Those looking for cheap monitor can go 4K over USB 3.1. The trend is towards highest integration and higher prices, not towards "downsizing" and cheaper, at least with Apple.
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.
You already answered your question. 5K, wide gamut, all types of HDR and alike. Those looking for cheap monitor can go 4K over USB 3.1. The trend is towards highest integration and higher prices, not towards "downsizing" and cheaper, at least with Apple.
When Apple came out with the LED Cinema and Thunderbolt displays for $999, the price was considered sky-high. Hey, back then a $500 iPhone was considered outrageously expensive. Now we are begging Cook to keep the lower-end iPhone pricing in the sub-thousand-dollar range. I guess in 2018, no one is holding their breath for a $1,000 5K Apple-branded monitor. Is it going to cost $1999?
Cook has lost his mind. To whom is he planning to sell Apple gadgets at these prices? Certainly there won’t be much volume at these prices.
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.
You already answered your question. 5K, wide gamut, all types of HDR and alike. Those looking for cheap monitor can go 4K over USB 3.1. The trend is towards highest integration and higher prices, not towards "downsizing" and cheaper, at least with Apple.
When Apple came out with the LED Cinema and Thunderbolt displays for $999, the price was considered sky-high. Hey, back then a $500 iPhone was considered outrageously expensive. Now we are begging Cook to keep the lower-end iPhone pricing in the sub-thousand-dollar range. I guess in 2018, no one is holding their breath for a $1,000 5K Apple-branded monitor. Is it going to cost $1999?
Cook has lost his mind. To whom is he planning to sell Apple gadgets at these prices? Certainly there won’t be much volume at these prices.
Most schools are adopting the BYOD model now. Bit hard to carry a Mini, screen, keyboard and mouse in your backpack. Apple needs a a $499 notebook.
I say they should bring back the the polycarbonate case to get prices for laptops down. Make it an iOS based laptop with A Series chip too (and trackpad/mouse support).
Why make it iOS based? Why not just make it macOS based with an A-Series chip inside it (which I still believe is coming soon)? In the end, I doubt a $499 Mac laptop would do it anyways. Thats STILL $200-250 more than a CrapBook. Schools can still get 2 CrapBooks for the price of 1 Apple laptop. Apple is fighting a losing battle there, which is why it never competes on price. Apple will never win the price game and I hope it never plays that game because once it does, it's a long slow death for Apple.
I believe the one thing that truly proves how overpriced these machines are is the fact they ship with the absolute bare minimum amount of memory and hard drive space. They should've come standard with at least 16 GB of Ram a 250 GB SSD drive. It shouldn't cost anything more than $300 to to upgrade 32 GB of RAM. Where do they get that 32 gigs of RAM is going to cost $600?! Seriously, I think Apple is really starting to lose it on the greedy train.
And if Apple did that, people would still bitch and complain that it's still not enough and Apple should have shipped it with 32GB of RAM and 512GBs of flash storage for that price. Apple is never gonna win that argument with some people.
The article starts by stating that "the 2018 Mac mini is remarkably powerful and remarkably good value for what it does."
What is remarkable and hard to believe, from a third party that is supposed to be knowledgeable and independent, is this kind of irrational enthusiasm.
The Mac mini has a very low end GPU, and an mid-range CPU. This means that all the following tasks are either impossible or take ages to complete: 1) gaming (except very light games), 2) non-basic video and photo editing, transcoding, effects, 3) mathematical computations and modelling, 4) 3D, 5) VR, 6) crypto-mining.
Given that weak standing, how can the Mac mini be labelled as remarkably powerful? And tied to this, remarkably good value?
Please post some stats and graphs backing up your claim, then we'll get back to you.
The way that Apple can make some serious cash is by making 5K monitors with speakers, microphone, camera, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Basically, reuse the iMac body or maybe make it slimmer in the back, price the 27” version at $999 and sell millions of them. I can’t believe Apple leaves so much cash on the table but yet raises the pricing on everything else. Apple has all the tech ready for such a monitor already. It’s just about leveraging what’s already out there and creating a new stream of revenue without any significant R&D costs or time.
Why let LG grab this 5K monitor market? Doesn’t make any sense. This is just pure and simple lack of understanding of what the Apple ecosystem should be like and the laziness to make extra money. Just absolutely horrible “leadership” by Tim Cook.
Yes. Abandoning making branded displays since 2013 is one of those gigantic mistakes that someone hopefully writes a book about. The time period between 2012 to 2016 had some rather serious management issues regarding Apple’s PC hardware. There was bound to be some chaos after Jobs passed away and Cook reorganized the management structure, but it bled on for 4 years in certain parts of the company (Macs, iPads, Siri, other distractions). There definitely needs to be a book.
But you should tone it down regarding Cook. He’s the best CEO in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Really, I can’t think of anyone else who has his mixture of ethics and success. He should be lauded for that, continuously. There are issues - the car project likely being more of a distraction than it should have - but those are normal for all large organizations.
I shouldn’t tone it down because I mean it. I see a train wreck at the end of the tunnel if Cook continues to be the CEO.
Dude. They’re coming out with a display next year. Cool yer jets.
I have been wondering about the coming Apple monitor. Will it be a mainstream (but good) monitor, e.g. the iMac 5K screen but in a separate enclosure, or will it be an all-out Pro monitor, wide gamut US$2000 type thing? Because Apple have been making the Mac more of a pro tool and also putting up prices in general.
You already answered your question. 5K, wide gamut, all types of HDR and alike. Those looking for cheap monitor can go 4K over USB 3.1. The trend is towards highest integration and higher prices, not towards "downsizing" and cheaper, at least with Apple.
When Apple came out with the LED Cinema and Thunderbolt displays for $999, the price was considered sky-high. Hey, back then a $500 iPhone was considered outrageously expensive. Now we are begging Cook to keep the lower-end iPhone pricing in the sub-thousand-dollar range. I guess in 2018, no one is holding their breath for a $1,000 5K Apple-branded monitor. Is it going to cost $1999?
Cook has lost his mind. To whom is he planning to sell Apple gadgets at these prices? Certainly there won’t be much volume at these prices.
The years to flood all the world with crappy products on cheap dollar have ended. Only those who can deliver highly integrated high value items will survive. Others will get buried into the crappy smartphone/tablet/convertible junkyards.
Comments
i3-8100B -> Celeron G4920 (2 Coffee Lake cores at 3.2 GHz)
8 GB RAM -> 4 GB RAM
128 GB SSD -> 64 GB Flash
2 TB3 controllers -> 0 TB3 (USBC only)
T2 controller -> no T2 controller
(You know, this may actually be faster than the old 2014 mini base model at $500.)
This isn’t bare minimum either, as Apple could sell it like Intel sells NUCs without RAM, storage, and operating system.
Really, the people who write for the site and most of the posters here are perfectly capable of outfitting a mid tower box with an i3-8100, 16 GB RAM, 250 GB SSD, and a NVIDIA 1050 for $800, assuming they have an existing Windows license (which is a nontrivial $150 for Win Pro). But then, you are left with a mid tower box that you have to build and service yourself, have an inventory for parts, and it won’t have the TB3 I/O capabilities in the box. Heck, I’m doing this for my boy (gaming PC).
But I would get a Mac mini for various purposes as it is a nice small, quiet box with a good performance and capable of driving high resolution displays.
IME as a former Apple tech and Apple salesperson, when a PC person decides to switch, it's because they have gotten to a point where they HATE Windows, or at a dead minimum they've noticed that their Apple/Mac using friends never seem to have the endless issues they do. They generally tend to want to switch over to a machine similar to or better than the one they're coming from -- having finally figured out after a lifetime of wasted effort, money and time that a good value is better than the cheapest thing possible that will just barely get the job minimally done.
It was usually just a matter of listening to what it was they did with their old computer, alongside what they'd like to do but don't feel they can reach to on their present machine, and then suggesting the model of Mac that best meets their needs. The price wasn't much of a barrier at that point, because they finally figured out that their time was more valuable and their frustration level was unhealthy and not worth the few dollars they might save over the long haul.
There are 2 TB3 controllers.
Go back and read what Jobs said. He also had ulterior motives to hook the kids, who'd one day be Mac-buying adults, but he also seemed to actually care about helping education and computer exposure, etc. He also didn't seem to let Wall Street dictate how he made his decisions.
re: 2 TB3 controllers.... really?
So, would that be something like 2 of the ports are from each controller? So, you'd have to be careful which ports you use if you want maximum throughput?
Also, if anyone knows... what are the differences between the CPU options, especially the 6-core i5 and i7? Is it just some extra cache, or is the i7 hyper-threading, but the i5 not, etc? I know I want the 6-core, but I'm trying to decide which one.
Cook has lost his mind. To whom is he planning to sell Apple gadgets at these prices? Certainly there won’t be much volume at these prices.
Why make it iOS based? Why not just make it macOS based with an A-Series chip inside it (which I still believe is coming soon)? In the end, I doubt a $499 Mac laptop would do it anyways. Thats STILL $200-250 more than a CrapBook. Schools can still get 2 CrapBooks for the price of 1 Apple laptop. Apple is fighting a losing battle there, which is why it never competes on price. Apple will never win the price game and I hope it never plays that game because once it does, it's a long slow death for Apple.
And if Apple did that, people would still bitch and complain that it's still not enough and Apple should have shipped it with 32GB of RAM and 512GBs of flash storage for that price. Apple is never gonna win that argument with some people.
Please post some stats and graphs backing up your claim, then we'll get back to you.