tenthousandthings

tht said:

[…] Then, how is it going to differ from the Mac mini that is rumored to have an M1 Pro and perhaps an M1 Max?

It occurs to me that they could simply be rebranding Mac mini to Mac Studio. No more Mini. So five desktop Macs and two displays:

Mac Studio : Mac Pro
Apple Studio Display : Apple Pro Display
iMac : iMac Studio : iMac Pro

tht said:

Reportedly, the device will be mostly based on the Mac mini's design but will feature "much more powerful hardware."

This is what threw me in reading the article. If this Mac Studio is the rumored Mac Half Pro, something the size of 3 or 4 stacked Mac mini's or a PowerMac G4 Cube, or a 2013 Mac Pro, or a Mac IIci on its side, at some point it's really not based on the Mac mini's design anymore.

If it is that much larger, there isn't going to be much similarity between a Mac mini and this box.

Then, how is it going to differ from the Mac mini that is rumored to have an M1 Pro and perhaps an M1 Max?

Well, it could be exactly that: a Mac mini Studio (with “Mac mini Pro” deemed too confusing), and our newfound dreams of a Mac Studio that is something different are dashed. Probably is the simplest explanation, I have to say. So maybe a slightly larger form factor, but still a “mini” and not the elusive Half Pro/Cube/Cylinder of lore.

This must be the rumored Mac Mini Pro, but the news here is it won’t be the same form factor as the Mac mini (the redesign of which we won’t see before the M2). Instead, it will be a step beyond the Mini, this “Mac Studio.”

So, let’s see:

iMac : iMac Studio : iMac Pro
Mac Mini : Mac Studio : Mac Pro
Apple Studio Display : Apple Pro Display

The rumor in the other article about the 7K high-end display assigns the “Studio Display” name to that, but that makes no sense in relation to the rumored Mac model names, so I think the high-end display has to retain its current name (Pro Display), while the mid-range XDR display gets the Studio name.

Here’s hoping they also give us a 24-inch 4.5K non-XDR “Apple Display” as well. 

crowley said:

tenthousandthings said:

AppleZulu said:

dewme said:

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…

AppleZulu said:

dewme said:

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…