“Sources have indicated Apple’s ‘one more thing,’ code named ‘Brick’ rumored to be announced around October 14th along with a MacBook refresh, will actually be a re-design of the Mac Mini super-sized to reveal a Mac Mini Pro of sorts,” iPhone Savior reports.
“Apple’s ‘Brick’ mystery product is also rumored to be the fabled Tablet Mac by 9 to 5 Mac, a fantasy product that’s proven as real as Bigfoot for the past few years now. It’s been roughly 14 months since the last minor refresh to the Mac Mini,” iPhone Savior reports.
iPhone Savior says that this “Mac Mini Pro” rumor comes “from sources that we were unable to confirm as completely reliable.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: “We will be delivering state-of-the-art new products that I cannot discuss today that our competitors will not be able to match.” – Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, July 21, 2008
I can tell you one thing it will cost between $1500 and $2,500, 4GB RAM limit, and a swappable graphics card. No sots other than that.
“This need not have anything to do with the fabled “mini-tower” that everyone who is still locked in PC world, thinks people want.”
I take issue with that. I’ve been a mac user my entire life and I still think this is a good idea.
Sure, the iMac is fine for most users. Yes, this would serve a relatively limited market. But the market it would appeal to is still significantly larger than the one that exists for the Mac Pro.
Whatever you want to call it
Whatever it may do
Whatever it may have
It will still be a Mac
And if the Baby
Comes in at $400-500
Change the Game
Change the World™
BC
it’s obv
it’s the pc from i’m a pc
thank gawd ms are doing our ads for us
I don’t believe Apple is going to let the rush to Micro PC’s that use Atom processors in $300 dollar sub-notebooks go unchallenged.
Students on tight budgets are going to compare ibooks – excellent as they are – with much cheaper sub-notes that will do internet and basic tasks.
Apple has the scaleable OS and the portable screen technology to blend the two with internet/phone connectivity. Hence the comment about offering something which the market can’t match but which will initially hit revenue as it carves market share.
@HazMatt
Well, the market for the iMac has to come from somewhere, otherwise Apple would be fools to waste money on it, right? And whilst Steve may very well be ‘all knowing’ (heh) – his opinion DOES matter when it comes to Apple – since he calls the shots!
If Steve has a personal dislike of customizing your Mac, you can bet that’ll filter down into the product design, one way or another.
I just don’t see what a Mac mini tower would achieve, since Apple already have a solid desktop lineup. And, presumably, since you want to customize your Mac, you’ll know a thing or two about computers, right? There’s nothing aside from the warranty forbidding you to do that to any current Mac machine.
Apple’s ultimate philosophy is to make simple elegant consumer machines anyone can learn within a matter of hours if not minutes, and be unencumbered by thoughts of drive/graphics cards etc upgrades.
And honestly, if the demand for this customization is so great, then why aren’t you pestering Apple/Steve into creating this dream machine?
All that said, I understand where you’re coming from, but don’t think Apple is the company you’re looking for, in that regard. If hobbyists are say, 2 to 5% of the Mac market then it’s likely they’ll be passed over in favor of the iMac buyers.
Thank you for taking the time to dissect my original post, anyhow.
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Jacob: Yes, this would serve a relatively limited market. But the market it would appeal to is still significantly larger than the one that exists for the Mac Pro.
It would be a relatively uninspiring “me too” product, aimed at a shrinking segment of the market where the margins are so razor-thin even now that PC manufacturers are forced to shovel crapware onto their products to eke out any profit at all.
Plus it would require Apple to expensively introduce a third hardware platform in addition to the mobile and server chip sets just for that new and particularly unprofitable machine.
Well, even lead ducks will “fly” for a bit if you just toss them hard enough…
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A real “wow” product could be a “Mac pad”, successfully marrying the easy-to-use but limited iPhone OS X and the more complex but flexible Mac OS X. And if they should actually be able to pull that off, that would indeed be “a product which the competition will not be able to match” — both for its software (Mac+iPhone OS X) and hardware (custom chips from P.A. Semi). It would also be plausible that it might need some subsidies (lowered margins) at first as announced…
R, get off my turf, dude.
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The pictured “MacMini Pro” doesn’t meet what I’ve specified in the past (or what R specified here) thus does not meet my needs. I need a second internal HD. I need up to a minimum of 4GB of RAM and would prefer that to be in four slots – matched pairs are fine, thank you. And I insist on a graphics card, interchangable! Four cores – 1×4 or 2×2 – are not ruled out by the form factor shown, but seem unlikely – and that is highly desirable.
My opinion.
If two drives don’t fit, it’s a Mini II. If it has what DLMeyer wants, it can be called a Pro.
There certainly is a niche for a low cost desktop that is upgradable. I paid $1600 for a discontinued G4 Sawtooth in 1999. It is still running with 10.5 and drive and CPU upgrades. I use it mainly as a file server now.
Whilst the upgradability is useful I would prefer cheaper pricing on the Mac Mini. To be able to replace my G4 for $400 would be sweet. Disc space is easily solved with external drives.
This is just possible…
Personally, I’ve been hoping for a Mac Mini Pro since the original mini first appeared. Now that iMacs come only with glossy screens, I have little doubt that many pros and prosumers would welcome an alternative to the monster Mac Pro. The Apple Cinema Display line is also in serious need of a makeover, however. I don’t know how Apple justifies excluding their pro users from the video conferencing features of OS X. Standalone iSight cameras are out of production, scarce and expensive.
I suppose, come to think of it, the alternative to adding a new Mac to the lineup would be to remove the Mac mini altogether in favor of a ‘mini pro’ that could hook up to a Cinema Display and so on?
“It would be a relatively uninspiring “me too” product, aimed at a shrinking segment of the market where the margins are so razor-thin even now that PC manufacturers are forced to shovel crapware onto their products to eke out any profit at all.”
I’m not sure you understand what I want. Not a $500-1000 piece of crap like what most PC manufacturers sell, but a $1800-2400 tower with a smaller form factor than the Mac Pro but still large enough to put in a decent quad core (2 x 2 or 1 x 4), a second hard drive, 4 ram slots, and one or two PCIe slots so you can upgrade graphics and maybe add a sound card or tv tuner or something. This would position it between the iMac and Mac Pro. There are so many high end features on the Mac Pro that most people don’t need, yet for someone who DOES NOT WANT AN ALL-IN-ONE (like myself and many others), it is the only option except for the mini. I can only assume that anyone who doesn’t see the need for this market isn’t a serious computer user, because the iMac, while great for most people, is still a very limited machine in some ways, and the Mac Pro, while an awesome machine, has many expensive features that only a select few need. A balance between the two would be a good computer.
Apple doesn’t have to innovate their mac hardware that much. Really, most of what they have done hasn’t BEEN particularly innovative. They’ve made progressively smaller and sleeker all-in-ones, progressively more powerful towers, and progressively smaller and sleeker laptops. The innovation is the software (OS, etc.), the hardware and design quality, and the integration of hardware and software. A tablet would not be innovative, there are tons of tablets (touch and otherwise) out there. For the most part they are niche products and will probably remain that way for the forseeable future no matter what Apple does. Touch is a gimmick on anything much larger than an iPhone, or for most computing tasks when compared with the utility of a keyboard and mouse.
“Plus it would require Apple to expensively introduce a third hardware platform in addition to the mobile and server chip sets just for that new and particularly unprofitable machine.”
How would this be expensive? The chipset and processors already exists. Intel has a desktop lineup. This doesn’t make sense.
Couldn’t the brick also be the next gen Apple TV? What’s missing now on Apple TV is videoconferencing and Remote Control access of your Mac… If you could power up the ATV so you get Apple TV, plus iChat video, plus complete access of your computer via the TV (like Timbuktu, iChat Screen share, etc.), that would seem to bring an actual solution to a current problem. And it’s the marriage of the mini and the current Apple TV (which also seems long overdue for an upgrade…)
How about a new Cube? I love the design of those machines.
I still want one for my collection, hehe!!
Apple needs a small tower for enterprise use.
@ DL Meyer
You just described a Mac Pro. If you’re intention was to argue for a mini-tower, that’s not it.
Please just let us use third-party GPUs in Mac Pros…
…or even better please support SLI/Crossfire on Mac Pro mobos and still let us use any nVidia or ATi GPU in them.
Apple’s new found love of GAMING for iPhone could maybe be reflected in their Mac Pro range?
Just pointing something out. Sure, the “Brick” could be one of these things discussed, but generally speaking, code words are just that — CODE words –, that do not give clues about the actual product’s qualities. A “brick” could be anything… literally anything. Not brick-like, or brick-shaped in any way. Heck, it could be software.
That said, I really do want a mid-tower headless Mac! Been waiting for one for a long time. Those of you who say it’s a bad idea obviously just don’t see the need for such a product themselves, but there’s a _lot_ of us who still want one. If they don’t release one this year, I’ll end up getting a Mac Pro. The Mini doesn’t cut it, and I don’t want an iMac for all the reasons outlined above, and other reasons as well. And, if you don’t want an iMac for these reasons, they are very good reasons, so don’t discount them please. Though, it’s a fantastic machine for lots of people, as is the Mini!
@ping: I’m not sure you understand what I want. Not a $500-1000 piece of crap like what most PC manufacturers sell, but a $1800-2400 tower with a smaller form factor than the Mac Pro but still large enough to put in a decent quad core (2 x 2 or 1 x 4), a second hard drive, 4 ram slots, and one or two PCIe slots so you can upgrade graphics and maybe add a sound card or tv tuner or something.
Take the Mac Pro, cancel one of the two quad-core Xeons in product configuration and — boom! — you’re already there!
There is no step three (nor really a dire need for another product line).
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@ping: Apple doesn’t have to innovate their mac hardware that much.
Not at all, actually. See above.
@ping: Really, most of what they have done hasn’t BEEN particularly innovative. They’ve made progressively smaller and sleeker all-in-ones, progressively more powerful towers, and progressively smaller and sleeker laptops. The innovation is the software (OS, etc.), the hardware and design quality, and the integration of hardware and software.
Maybe, if we leave the iPhone / iPod Touch platform aside for a minute.
@ping: A tablet would not be innovative, there are tons of tablets (touch and otherwise) out there.
And how many of these have a usability comparable to an extrapolated iPhone platform?
There are hundreds of cellphones out there. Why did Apple have to add yet another?
A touch user interface is no panacea, but a really usable internet pad above the size of the iPhone has its legitmate uses. Whether there could be a market big enough to justify the development effort is of course another matter.
@ping: For the most part they are niche products and will probably remain that way for the forseeable future no matter what Apple does.
I would be careful extrapolating from the current state of affairs. The same could have been said above the iPhone (and has been said!).
ping: Plus it would require Apple to expensively introduce a third hardware platform in addition to the mobile and server chip sets just for that new and particularly unprofitable machine.
@ping: How would this be expensive? The chipset and processors already exists. Intel has a desktop lineup. This doesn’t make sense.
Oh yes, it does! It would be an entirely different motherboard, different chipsets, different chips with separate lifecycles to integrate in Apple’s product strategy and release schedules and above all it would create a long-lasting dependency exactly because of its expandability – there would have to be additional driver variants, extensions APIs; there would be additional transition headaches and support needs when people would expect (and demand!) that their internal cards should be compatible across models (Mac “midi” / Mac Pro) and across successive models even within the same lines…
This would be a complex, worrisome, weakly margined and at best (for Apple) marginally useful product.
Of course I could be wrong, but with a shrinking desktop market overall this is about the last thing I’d expect to actually materialize. It would be a conservative, conventional and just marginally attractive product.
Jobs will gadly leave this segment to his PC competitors.
There are a few market factors Apple simply must reply to regardless of what new features they may pioneer:
In my experience, switchers are often people who bought PCs because everyone else had one and most admit to knowing nothing about computers. Out of a deeply ingrained fear of viruses, they don’t use their PCs for much and as such can’t envision using one for anything other than email or internet surfing. They want the promise of freedom from malware but ultimately cannot imagine the Mac experience being any different so they want an inexpensive desktop to leave in “the other room”. Clean design, style, and all-in-one seem to mean a lot to them.
Out of the five people I have convinced to switch over the last 2 years, three bought iMacs, one bought a MacBook Pro, and only one bought a Mac Mini (but later upgraded to 17″ MBP). For them, Apple simply needed to have the right products available when these people decided to make the jump as they were so disillusioned with MicroSoft that the cost was not really a factor.
For many youth it is a very different story. When they leave home they don’t have money and it is at this time they will justify whatever low price they can afford. Right now the Windows assemblers have a wide advantage in this market. Sub-$500 laptops are beginning to make a serious dent in overall PC sales and Apple’s current line doesn’t have an answer. As I discovered with my niece, she would pay a little more for a Mac but not 2-3 times the price of a Windows based machine, hence she is eying an Acer laptop. Apple simply must deliver a small laptop around $600 or so if they want to sell to her ilk.
SO…. I will lay a bet on Apple releasing a small laptop and/or tablet and bet against them putting any significant R&D;into a Mac Mini. It will be modeled after the MacBook Air but smaller and cheaper. It will have a new killer feature, but like the MBA also will have all the pundits squawking over expanded networking/hardware restrictions put in place in order for Apple to protect their iTunes assets.
Gonna be fun to watch!
The Mac mini was introduced as low cost option directed at PC users wanting to try OS X side by side with the PC before they made the big switch.
The Mac Pro mini is designed to replace that PC. There are rumors that the price points on the new MacBooks and the “Brick” will be something the competitors will not be able to match for their performance levels and OS benefits.
The “Brick” and the new MacBooks will be the machines that PC users have been waiting for to make finally make the switch.
“We will be delivering state-of-the-art new products (…) that our competitors will not be able to match.” – Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, July 21, 2008
July 2008?? Apple’s been doing this since April 1976….
Well crap! There goes my scam to sell Mac Mini “Pros” which are actually bricks painted grey.
Why is it so hard to screw people over?