“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
The forbidden model between iMac and Mac Pro!!!
I don’t buy it. I think it will be a tablet of some kind. “Mac Pro mini” as a name makes no sense as it combines two descriptors for Mac. If there is such a product, why not just give it a classic name like “Macintosh” (not “Mac” anything).
Hmm, sounds interesting.
That would make me happy. A Mac Mini Pro would work for me. I have a perfectly good 30″ monitor on a dual 1.8 G5. I’ve been sitting on the fence for about a year now. I just don’t see an iMac in my future. Although, the Mac Pro’s in the refurbished section seem reasonable sometimes.
Mac Mini Pro makes more sense to me.
Looks great – I’d buy one definitely!!
Could someone explain something?
People don’t want a Mac Pro. It’s not a big seller, and the form has not changed in 8 years so they are appealing to a very limited market.
A mini is more of a “switcher box”, something to try out the mac environment but you end up having all of these external devices hooked up to it, such as external drives and external media burners…
Why hasn’t Apple released a Mac Pro without the extreme workstation features? What is up their butt? People DO upgrade hard drives, and some people DO upgrade video cards. People DO have their own large monitors. Businesses DO have their own monitors and keyboards.
I agree. There needs to be a “tower” of some sort that doesn’t require a mortgage or lottery-winnings. A smallish tower could have an upgradeable video card, ram, maybe one extra bay for your stuff-du-jour. It wouldn’t have to be the Mac Pro barn that lets you cram a small couch into it.
Apple, I really want one.
The reason for the Mac Pro is simple. Professional audio and video houses need that kind of power. It is not a consumer machine, which is why most don’t see demand for it. But it is a big seller to the people that need that kind of power. Could Apple do themselves a favor by offering a lower power tower directed at consumers? Probably, but the Mac Pro is absolutely a necessity to Apples lineup.
That’s odd. I heard it was a software update that turned your Mini into a brick.
That is the last time I go to that “Nine-ish to Noon” rumor site….
I have a iMac Core2Duo 2Ghz, and I’ve holding to get at least 1 Xeon processor Mac in my desktop. If this is true, I definitively will buy it. Of course I rather prefer a iMac with Xeon processor, but I believe it is not possible by now and the Mac pro is too expensive for me. The processor inside Mac Mini and iMac are mobile processors optimized to produce less heat and consume less power. But the Xeon processor is optimize for performance over heat dissipation (is less hot that G5, but still close as powerful). So a desktop with power will be very welcome.
Personally, I think that a ‘Mini Pro’ tower makes no sense at all. Does anyone remember the iMac? What market do you think the iMac is for? The iMac is the logical choice for those who want desktop computing power without the price premium on the Mac Pros. So the Mac Pro is aimed for more industrial use and the Mac mini as a barebones step into the Mac world.
Now explain why Apple would want to cripple the iMac with a machine that does all the things the iMac already provides?
And for those customization pleas – Steve has said before that Macs ‘aren’t meant for that’, considering his fear is probably being sued by people who no longer are able to enjoy the Mac experience because they botched a parts installation.
How about building your own PC, and creating your own personal Linux distro to run on it?
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I’m with you guys. I don’t care what they call it but I need a headless mini tower type unit with a couple of HD bays and a couple of expansion slots for video and audio cards. Such a unit could be used as a home data/media server or a consumer level A/V workstation. The pro’s are too big. iMac’s are beautiful, but I’ll never buy one because the integrated display will outlast the usefulness of the cpu electronics by many years. C’mon Apple how about a computer for the rest of us? (heh heh)
I was waiting for this for 3 years, basically ever since I got my G5 iMac and discovered how limited it was for what I wanted to do.
I finally broke down and got a Mac Pro a month and a bit ago, but if they release this now I’m gonna actually be kind of annoyed…
@Andy
Read my post above
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I don’t believe it.
What I could believe would be the existence of an easier-to-service MacMini for Enterprise customers.
The MacMini is about as much computing-power as 95% of the users in the Fortune 500 companies need – a 4 GB Mini with X3100 or successor would lift that number to 99%.
@ Bitjockey
I still don’t see the point, though. If you have the money to burn – why not shell out for a Mac Pro and get what you want? If the iMac is so ‘inadequate’, then pester Apple into releasing a more powerful model – which they have repeatedly done.
The iMac is the consumer level machine aimed at businesses and individuals who want desktop power but not the price of a Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is for those who want an industrial machine for crunching tasks or individuals who want to boast about their performance.
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http://flickr.com/photos/superfrunny/2862211309
The defining element of a Mac Pro, in addition to its processing power, is its almost infinite upgrade path using cards, etc etc.A “Mini” will obviously not be upgradable in the same way, so calling it a “Pro” is a contradiction in terms, at least as far as Apple is concerned.
But no matter how you look at it, some people don’t want all-in-ones. Whether they already have a nice monitor, don’t like the iMac’s glossy screen, or want to be able to get inside the computer, these people including myself just won’t buy them.
People really aren’t thinking here. It won’t necessarily be called a “Mac Pro Mini” even if it exists so getting your underwear in a bunch over that or disbelieving the rumour because of that name is just stupid. Many other recent rumours have pointed to a redesign of the Mac mini and aluminium is an obvious choice. If this “brick” is not a tablet (I still think it may be), then it’s just the redesigned mini in an aluminium shell. This need not have anything to do with the fabled “mini-tower” that everyone who is still locked in PC world, thinks people want.
The Mac mini is already highly serviceable as it is. If they made it open up a bit easier, and added a discrete video card, it would be exactly as described here, but it still wouldn’t be the mini-tower or “Mini Mac pro” that everyone always angst’s over.
In other words this is a story about a possible update to the Mac Mini that someone is just confusing everyone about by using the term “Mac Mini Pro” and conflating the idea with the so called “mini-tower.” Why would Apple produce a product in direct competition to one of it’s number one selling products, i.e. – the iMac? Makes no sense.
Dave: But no matter how you look at it, some people don’t want all-in-ones.
Some being the operative word. The traditional desktop market is shrinking around its main bastion: the gaming PC. Which the major game producers have begun to abandon.
Very few people actually use the expansion card feature any more today — USB and other developments have wiped out most of that former market. So for most purposes except the most extreme ones even laptops are actually sufficient expansion-wise for probably 95% of the user base.
I’m sorry Andy, I have to dissect your entire post…
“Personally, I think that a ‘Mini Pro’ tower makes no sense at all. Does anyone remember the iMac? What market do you think the iMac is for? The iMac is the logical choice for those who want desktop computing power without the price premium on the Mac Pros.”
The iMac is in a completely different class than the Mac mini or Mac Pro; it has an integrated display, and the others don’t. And I’m not alone in disqualifying the iMac from consideration based on the fact that the display is hopelessly married to the rest of the computer. I’d like to keep my monitor when it comes time to upgrade my computer, thank-you-very-much.
“So the Mac Pro is aimed for more industrial use and the Mac mini as a barebones step into the Mac world.”
So now that I’ve convincingly disqualified the iMac as an option, you would agree that we have a need for a mid-range computer, i.e. this ‘Mac Pro mini’?
“Now explain why Apple would want to cripple the iMac with a machine that does all the things the iMac already provides?”
I don’t understand why you think the iMac would be ‘crippled’ in any way by the introduction of this new ‘Mac Pro mini’. Perhaps you mean “cannibalize iMac sales”? If so, that is possible, but a more diverse product line would certainly fill what many perceive to be a gap in the lineup.
“And for those customization pleas – Steve has said before that Macs ‘aren’t meant for that’, considering his fear is probably being sued by people who no longer are able to enjoy the Mac experience because they botched a parts installation.”
If that’s really what all-knowing Steve said, I’d take issue with that. The people who want to customize (upgrade) their Macs should be able to do so if they wish. If Apple wants to make generally non-upgradeable Macs, that’s their prerogative; I understand how tightening down some hardware components can result in a better machine – I get it. But all I really want to do is upgrade my graphics card a few years from now.
“How about building your own PC, and creating your own personal Linux distro to run on it?”
No thanks.
p.s. Regarding your last post, iMac ≠ headless Mac; isn’t it obvious?
Want better video. If it’s not through upgradability, then let me by it from the start. Integrated graphics suck.
Just another thought:
A “Mac midi” would be exactly what most other manufacturers already offer. It would be the exact opposite of a “product which the other manufacturers cannot match”.
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?
Any word on pricing?
An iMac motherboard in a $799-$999 MiniPro case just might have a market.
I agree with others here: give it user-accessible RAM, drives, video card & vRAM, and maybe one open slot. And please have an easy-open case, unlike the current Mini’s pry-and-pray.
Sub-$500 laptops are beginning to make a serious dent in overall PC sales
They may sell on price, but are these machines actually usable?
Can they even boot out of their own way?
Vista is bad enough on a well-speced desktop, I can’t imagine even Home Basic on an entry-level laptop.
Don’t buy it.
Why increase the cost of the case when the it would be basically the same size as the mini?
I think someone has been taken, which is my magic word today.
I can envision a slightly larger Mac mini with more balls options. Not much bigger but big enough to allow easy upgrades. This makes sense to *me*. I’d buy one.
I, and many other home theater owners, want a full-featured Mac mini with built-in AppleTV that we can put in our home entertainment center next to the A/V Receiver, cable or satellite Box and DVD or Blu-ray player.
The Mac mini is a bit underpowered has a Web browser, but doesn’t allow you to order HD movies. The AppleTV allows you to order HD content, but has no Web browser. Both of very limited storage. The fusion needed is obvious.
YOU ARE ALL WRONG
jk. pretty interesting argument. i can’t see apple doing this. if a computer they sell doesn’t have what you need, apple wants you to upgrade to pro lines. granted i would by a mini pro (i think most people would) but it would cut into their existing markets.
the only argument i can see for making a mac mini pro is to kill off those pesky clones. but i think steve would rather just sue their asses.
now, if the brick was a mac mini that had more power because it ran like a home server. now that would be good. you wouldn’t need upgradable graphics card etc for that, just a mini with more speed and power, and HD space. running some cools apps like itunes server where you can sync your ipods from any mac on the network with the server media library etc.
nowadays everyone has more than one computer + laptops. in the near future i see people having home servers (maybe with a built in airport and time capsule).
i can see apple doing something like this, because it is more innovating than just spankin up a mac mini
you are dreaming if you think Apple is going to make a mini tower for $1000 or less. The simple facts are:
1) very few people ever perform upgrades on their computers (in response to the idea that swappability is a deciding buying factor)
2) people find use for their old all-in-one computers long after they are technologically outdated (in response to the idea that the screen is wasted when one wants to upgrade)
these two things suggest that the iMac is an adequate offering for most people interested in something more powerful than a mini. There is simply no reason for Apple to take sales away from the iMac by offering a low cost tower.
The home server market is being met by Apple TV + Time Machine or a mini + external HD. A proper Mac home server is obviously in the future … at some point.
If you need pro power then buy a pro. If you don’t need that much power then buy a refurb’ed pro or a G5 to go with your monitor. If you don’t need power then buy a mini. If you don’t have a monitor then buy an iMac.
Here is what Apple needs to release:
– Expandable Mac, like a Mac Pro
– Price < $2,000
– 2 Ethernet ports
The purpose of such a machine:
– Poor man’s server
– A Mac you can expand (some of use still like to work inside our computers, even if they are Macs)
– Attach a big-ass monitor to the machine and not be restricted to what Apple offers in the iMac.
Name of the machine:
Mac Semi-Pro (it ain’t nothing like a Mac Mini)
There you have it. A lot of use are waiting.
Apple has been very successful using their current model of product differentiation. The brand has grown, as has market share. Clearly defined products that make Apple’s stuff stand out.
But, if Apple would like the floodgates to open, offer what all the other PC makers offer with a bit of flare (and mark-up), and watch the other vendors hemorrhage. People want Macs. They are no longer objects of lust for just a few. Once Snow Leopard is out, things may be very good for Apple.
Unless, of course, there is a global meltdown. In which case, we may be boiling our Macs into tasty snacks.
MDN “Peace,” as in “You just can’t write this stuff.”
Well now Mr. Mugwump, I did want a Mac Pro and I bought one. Some of us work in industries where you need the best Mac you can get. I will welcome a mid range ‘headless mac’ but remember there are places that will buy dozens of Mac Pros at a time. That’s where the sales come from.
Jeremy, only two HDs, at least 4 GB of RAM, a graphics card, and 4 cores and you are thinking a Mac Pro? That would be a very minimal Mac Pro! Taking it backwards, the Mac Pro uses Xeon processors … I’m good with two Core2Duos. A graphics card – the iMac has a couple options there, unlike the mini. I mentioned at least 4GB of RAM in four slots, the Pro has up to 32 GB in 8 slots. And 2 HDs? The Pro allows four!
In essence, I’m talking about a smaller tower with much more expandability than you can get with an iMac without going to the extremes found with the Pro. About the only way it would match the Pro would be the available ports! The four cores might be clocked as fast as those in the Pro (or not) but would not be either as expensive or as productive. Not for the bigger jobs with bigger records. Xeon vs Core2Duo? No competition! For half the money (a bit more for a headless box than for the iMac) would get you anywhere from 40% to 60% of the productivity of the big box, and much more than the iMac. A proper in-between set-up to bridge a gap that’s much to wide.
It’s very likely to be a new Mac mini, or a new product that replaces the Mac mini.
Hmmmmmmmmm……. so many people poo-pooed the MacBook Air because it served such a small portion of the buying public. Yet, Apple saw fit to produce it, even asking Intel to reduce the size of the CPU to fit the Air.
Yet, so many people think that a headless Mac is out of the question since they think it is a small part of the market.
True, Apple may never come out with such a Mac, but it won’t be because it is a smaller part of the market, it will be for other reasons.
To say that Apple won’t come out with a headless Mac simply because the market wouldn’t be as large as the MacBooks or the iMac is to say that Apple would never come out with something like the Air.
What about:
Mac Mini-x
Mac Pro MiniMe
Mac Pro Express
Mac Extreme
Mac Pro-ish
Mac Uber-Pro
Mac Pro-foundly smaller
Macally makes a 3.5″ HDD case that looks like a diminutive Mac Pro.
G-S350SUA
Mac Pro Mini?
IMHO, it ain’t gonna happen. There really isn’t a space in between a top-spec iMac and a bottom-spec Mac Pro.
I have to say I don’t understand those who are saying they want a headless iMac. What benefits are there from having a separate screen?
The Mac Pro is a tower because it needs to be configurable Most users will use more than one screen. i.e. They’re professionals. Researchers, programmers, video/audio eds and producers will all use Mac Pro’s.
What worthwhile market is there for a headless iMac?
Semi professionals? They don’t exist.
The only people I can think of are (for the lack of a better word) IT geeks who won’t fork out for a Mac Pro but want to be able to customise their computers like in the old days.
It ain’t gonna be a Mac-Tablet either. What’s the point?
iPhone/iPod Touch is a computer you can put in your pocket. You want something you can do work on while on the go, then you get a MacBook/Air/Pro.
It’s a compromise with no benefits. To big for your pocket, not tactile for use on a desk.
Personally, I think the ‘Brick’ will be an all-in-one Apple TV/Time Capsule/Airport.
Maybe.
But probably not.
The mac mini is a bridging machine, but then it gets to become a server for most people. Like myself.
The mac mini is awesome with all due respect.
I so hope this Brick, will come with leopard server.
A tablet…. nah, forget it. no use for it.
And another thing. I assume apple wants to get rid of the adjective “Brick” used on the iPhone by coming up with this product.
@mugwump,
You’re full of it, I only want and use Mac Pros and previous iterations, not those crummy iMacs and useless laptops.
People, people, people.
We’re talking about a PROFESSIONAL Mac, not (necessarily) for the home market, that has a much smaller form factor than the MacPro. Shiny monitors and mobile or integrated graphics cards don’t cut it. it’s a different market. Just because YOU see no need or would never use it, does NOT mean there’s no need or desire for such a machine.
We’re also NOT talking about a replacement for the MacPro!
We do NOT want an iMac. While the Mac mini is a fine machine, it is EXTREMELY limited and meant for a different class of user. We want a serious, modular machine that we can recommend to clients, friends and switchers. It’s ridiculous and embarrassing that the Mac mini is the only monitor-less alternative to the MacPro!
We’re talking about a small Mac with serious horsepower (quad or octo-core) and some upgradability…
Select the graphics card and monitor of YOUR choice. (not shiny)
2 hard drive bays… ever hear of RAID?
4 RAM slots
2 PCI slots… hell, I’d settle for one. For instance; second PCI slot could be used for high-speed networking cards in corporate or industrial or scientific settings. Think render farms or networked super-computers that need less space and consume less power… kind of important these days, no?.
Then stir in the usual compliment of ports and interfaces: Airport, Bluetooth, FireWire 400/800 (FW3200?), eSATA, gigabit Ethernet, USB2 slots.
I use MacBook Pro and I could certainly afford a MacPro. I do NOT want a box that’s 1/2 the size of my desk. I would never use all the internal or optical drive bays, of a MacPro. As a VectorWorks 2D/3D CAD user, I would CERTAINLY use the horsepower of a Quad or Octo-Core machine and a high-end graphics card. I would be blind at the end of ONE day staring at wireframe 3D models on a shiny display. SERIOUSLY!
A MacPro midi or MacPro mini or Half-MacPro would fill a lot of niches in Apple’s product lines. Hopefully Apple has been waiting to release such a product until the tipping point has been reached. You don’t suppose any big customers have requested a smaller, full powered, lower energy consuming Mac desktop?
Mr. Reeee: Just because YOU see no need or would never use it, does NOT mean there’s no need or desire for such a machine.
A single-CPU (and thus quad core) Mac Pro can be had at $2299 and with much lower power consumption than the fully equipped version. (Unless, of course, you’re plugging in a high-end graphics card which nowadays sucks more power than any CPU.)
That’s just a measly $100 above the top iMac model, so there simply isn’t a gap large enough to justify the massive expense of a third hardware platform which would be wedged uncomfortably between the iMac and the Mac Pro, cannibalizing both in the process without really offering anything the others couldn’t and which satisfies an already small and still dwindling sub-segment of the market.
Yeah, it’s got a massive aluminium case, but it will satisfy all your demands and then some.
By the way: If you actually need maximum performance, the Xeons in the Mac Pro are actually more efficient than the consumer models so the Mac Pro and the Xserve are still the right machines for exactly that purpose.
Why is it so hard to screw people over? —HMCIV
Because to screw people you have to be smart. Most crooks and bastards are dumb.
I totally agree.
You get free stickers of Will Farrel signed basketball along with the Mac Semi-Pro
Who in here has a mac mini, and does not use the mac mini as a headless server? A minority I bet!!!
Leopard has built in screen share, so you don’t need apple remote to see whats happening.
Democracy RULES!
Whatever it is, I pray it comes with a tip calculator. Otherwise I’m not buying it.
@lestynw and others….
For me the main benefit of having a separate screen is longevity. Modern LCD’s should last at least 10 years which allows me to move it across 2 or 3 CPU’s during its lifespan. With the old CRT based all-in-ones the CRT and the CPU became outdated pretty much at the same time. Separates provide more flexibility (headless or your choice of head size/surface). Plus there is an ecological and financial advantage because you are recycling only the parts you don’t need and encouraged to buy a higher end display that will last many years, all in all a good investment.
I suspect the headless market is larger than may appear. I’ve read many articles about Mini’s being placed into service as headless media servers in homes and in the trunks of cars. Police, transit, and cab companies use Mini’s to capture video from car mounted cameras which are wirelessly uploaded after their shifts, etc..
Semi-professionals do exist. I am a semi-professional audio engineer. I have a different day job because like many artistic professions, it don’t pay the bills. Yet my love of the work keeps me investing my time and effort. I book maybe a dozen contracts a year recording commercials, small live concerts, etc. I do all of this now on my Macbook Pro which is adequate but I would much prefer a small desktop machine with two HD’s (for RAID) and would take a PCI based audio card (for Protools). Obviously the pro would do the job, but it is way overkill for this task.
Keep in mind that while Apple products have widespread consumer appeal for being reliable and easy to use, these attributes are just as appealing to the professional and scientific communities (you know, the UNIX guys that only boot their Mac’s into single user mode). Apple has only one really expensive computer (the pro) targeting this market. I believe a mini-pro type box would have widespread appeal in both the scientific and pro-sumer segments. My 4 cents…
Bitjockey: For me the main benefit of having a separate screen is longevity.
Which makes a single-CPU quad-core Mac Pro at $2299 decently affordable over the substantial lifespan it will be able to serve you, especially since it is highly expandable to meet growing demands (RAM, harddisks etc.).
I’m writing this on a PowerMac G5 Dual 2 GHz, a massive machine when it was introduced five years ago, even today still quite adequate for almost all of my needs and overall quite cost-effective for me. I’m beginning to consider replacing it, but I’m not in a hurry. Speaking of longevity.
Why is there such an argument from those of you saying there “is no market for this, just buy a Mac Pro, blah blah blah…”
We are _telling_ you what we want… that we want a mid-tower. We are not _asking_ you, we are _telling_ you. We _know_ what we want, we know what we would like to buy in a Mac, we are _telling_ you we don’t want a Mini or an iMac, we are not _asking_ you. We have given reasons that are good ones. They may not actually make one, but please stop telling us that it’s not what many of us want. It _is_ what we want. You’re basically calling us stupid and saying we just don’t know what we want. We do. A mid-tower headless Mac, period… okay? Cripes. Ridiculous!
Chris: They may not actually make one, but please stop telling us that it’s not what many of us want.
And I have simply explained that Apple most probably won’t make such a machine due to the actual numbers not adding up.
No doubt about what you want — a single-CPU Mac Pro will just most probably be (and remain) the closest thing to it as far as Apple is concerned, for the reasons explained above.
Either be ready to pay enough for it so Apple would be interested (but the single-CPU Mac Pro is already there for that case) or demonstrate how in a shrinking desktop market the demand is so vast that even a miniscule margin would make it worth Apple’s while.
I want lots of things as well, I just know most of them are unrealistic.
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I want one… NOW!!
Everyone “knew” there weren’t significant markets for Apple-branded music players or cell phones either.
Two blockbusters later, it’d be hard to imagine Apple without them.
Not saying that a Mini Pro wouldn’t be another G4 Cube (market-wise), just that we should be open to the possibility it could work.
I want a Mac Pro without the Xeon processors. I’d love to see a tower with a Core 2 Duo in it with room for 2 drives.
Saying “Pro” and “Mini” in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
I have no idea what Brick is, but I’ll buy at least one Mac mini the moment they get around to updating them
Minis are a cheap and easy web server. Going to switch over some heavy-traffic web sites from a dual G4 to a mini and serve it from home on FIOS. Never have to leave the home office again. Sweet.
Heck, if I get another one as my own Halo server then I’ll never have to do any work, either….
Most likely explanation for Brick would be the convergence of Apple TV and the mini.
“The reason for the Mac Pro is simple. Professional audio and video houses need that kind of power. It is not a consumer machine,”
No, I really don’t need the power. What I need is dual displays. I could also use 2 HD bays. There is a hole in the line up, and I think they could sell a lot of “headless” all in one imacs with 2 HD bays and dual display capability. My G4 PM is providing that service nicely; as far as vid card expansion? Don’t really need it. I’m doing fine with a radeon 9000 now. But give me something that can store all my media without having to tether to an external drive. I’m running 5 HD for 1.2 TB storage in my PMG4- and I’m using most of it. I don’t need an atom smasher- Although I’ve gotten 8 years out of my PM, it drinks over 400 watts. I’d like to see a consumer machine the sips electricity, stores 2 TB, supports dual displays, and has a single core2dou.
I would definitely buy a Mac Mini Pro.
I want a headless desktop Mac that gives me MORE POWER than my fully-loaded MacBook Pro, but without having to buy an expensive Mac Pro that takes up more space. I will get a Mac Pro one of these days for high end video editing but for now I just need another Mac that is as powerful or more powerful than my MBP 17″.
I already have a MacBook Air but it is only for word/excel/web/email.
macbones: I’d like to see a consumer machine the sips electricity, stores 2 TB, supports dual displays, and has a single core2dou.
That’s an iMac with an external drive. All iMacs are dual display capable. And they’ve all got FireWire 800.
Why introduce yet another and a relatively costly additional model at that just to cannibalize the existing ones?
I have another take on this. I think the new “brick” is a combined Mac Mini and upgraded Apple TV, with a choice of 500Gb or 1Tb hard drives, wireless keyboard, WiFi and hardware H.264 encoding/decoding – a kind of mac “media centre”. Think how Apple is making a play for domination of movie and music in the living room, and how this would perform with a fully fledged Mac system on your home theater. Think also how Apple TV is due for an upgrade to better handle HD and the persistent rumors of H.264 hardware encoding/decoding coming to all Macs. I’m hoping for this anyway.
I’d love to have a new desktop Mac that is more than a Mini, less than a Pro, and not anchored to a monitor I don’t need or want. I’ve got a monitor and everything else. I’d love to be able to buy a low-cost Mac CPU with at least one slot to upgrade the graphics card.
I used to have at least one desktop Mac around all the time. Haven’t bought a new one since the Big Silver Monsters came out. 🙁
I have a new theory. Maybe Steve Jobs is the “brick” and they are going to reveal, who’s the next CEO.
It will definitely be Mac related- remember- bricks are used to smash Windows.
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@mugwump
most people that DO upgrade their video card are gamers or people doing video editing or animation. HENCE you buy a mac pro for the extreme capabilities they have. For now gaming isn’t that big at all with a Mac but it is getting there. The same goes for upgrading a sound card, no one really does need to upgrade it unless they need different inputs/outputs for doing music production. And even at that… I’ve seen many people do fine with laptops.
This Mac Pro mini would be kinda cool, though I’d like to see them offer a desktop computer for around the same price as the iMac which I believe would be very achievable if they didn’t use xeon chips and maybe gave it 4 ram slots instead of 8. If you really need that much ram then you are getting a Mac Pro and nothing else.
1U rackmounted — more of an Xserve-lite for small business IT and mobile creatives (music, video, photography, broadcast).
Apple- Please make this, my money is waiting to buy it…
Come on – anyone trust a site that calls itself ‘iPhone Savior’?
But a big blow to all PC makers and Redmond would be a sub-$1K Brick with VMWare pre-installed. Sales Pitch: Install XP/Vista/*nix if you want to, but after trying it side-by-side with OS X, we’re willing to bet more than half of the users will stick with OS X and never look back, the other half will love the hardware enough to stick with it for years. And Apple will also prove another thing – they make better computers than anybody else.
To BitJockey and others…
While I appreciate your want for a mini mac pro, I still don’t think Apple will ever create this middle-of-the-range, headless mac.
IMO it just doesn’t fit in with their design/marketing principles.
All of their products are in clearly defined markets. You want an expandable machine for any kind of, even slightly professional work, you get a mac pro. That’s what I’d do anyway…
This ‘mac mini pro’ will blur the lines, which is not what Apple wants or does.
Also, this machine you describe sounds suspiciously like every other grey-box desktop on the market that runs Windows.
And we all know that Apple doesn’t want that market. Think Different remember!
Just my 2 pence…
I’m still running my old G4/533. I’ve upp’d it to 1.25GB (it will take 1.5GB but I have two 512 and a 256 and don’t want to spend any more money on the computer to buy a PC133 512MB memory chip), replaced the old Geforce 2MX with a Radeon 9800 Pro, and added USB 2.0. I could not still be using the computer if it didn’t have this kind of expandability. Well, I guess I could but it would be even more painful than it is now. I’ve considered a CPU upgrade but they cost too much for what you get. The G4 replacement market needs to quickly rethink its pricing model or they’re going to die sooner rather than later.
Regarding the aTV, it really needs a Blu-Ray drive. People who say that physical media is dead and to just download their “HD” content from iTunes should then also agree that 128-bit MP3 is good enough for music.
MARK
MY
WORDS
It is most probably time for the mini upgrade. And that is all it’s gonna be. If the mini doesn’t get an upgrade then Apple doesn’t care about it anymore.
The mini will not be “upgradable”, they won’t do that. If you want that by the Pro. But what they should do is just make a mini with specs of Macbook Pro!
At the moment the mini is a rip-off.
Ps. I love my iMac.
Perhaps the “BRICK” is the event that turns most of Apple’s hardware into competitive price-point gear with a few fun twists.
The aluminum mini notebook.
A game console/Mac for your TV that plays everything, as is!
Long shot; LCD TV’s with Macs in them. New MacPros and screens, who knows… but we need small tower Macs…more than one!!!
The tablet series, I think, will be in Jan and it will be a family onto itself and will be as big as the iPhone.
@ Andy.
Why are retards allowed to post here? I hate it when STUPID people complain saying that the Imac is the mid range tower..IT IS NOT! IT IS AN ALL IN ONE, THEREFORE IT IS NOT THE MIDRANGE DESKTOP WE ALL WANT. I feel better now…. and Andy is still a retard, no wait he is a cross between a retard and an artard… therefore we will now wall him artardtard
I would rather see something slightly taller maybe (same form factor) as the Mac Mini, provide it with a single low-power quad core version of the Xeon (ie: Xeon L5410), 8 gigs max, 1 internal 2.5″ SATA or SAS drive (BTO option), 1 or 2 x eSATA ports in addition to standard USB/Firewire (eSATA removes the need for internal drives and provides the same performance as it being internal on a SATA/SAS connector and designed for storage), and an actual decent video card, at least on the same scale as the 256 and 512meg vcards in the Macbook Pro line, that would include the dual dvi output to handle a 30″ monitor. It does not need to be a mini tower, does need to open as easy as one though, but needs to have some true power. Should be available in at least the $1299 – $1799 price range to be worthwhile.
AFIB, relax will ya. The top end iMac is pretty impressive for sure.
If it was in a mini tower what would you think about it?
It is clear to me that in my strong desire for a mini tower I am not alone. I have been using the MacBook Black, maxed out , Rev.A
since day one. The best computer I have ever owned. It drives a 20″ WS and about 20 USB products perfectly.
My problem…I leave it on all the time. I am going to burn it up.
I want a metal box, with 7200 RPM drives with a MTF of 8 years,
Blue-Ray, expansion slots and the ability to use what ever high end video card I want, as well as 4 slots for memory…and make it black please with glowing lit up apples on both sides…..I want to leave it on forever……
And AFIB…we are ALL AppleTards, deal with it!
To do it right they need 2 full size hard drives, and one pxi x 16 2.0.. more would be nice… they so need this product… they are missing out on the following sales:
People that want good graphics but do not want to spend $2700
People that dont want a god damned all in one, yes its awesome, yes its cool, yes its a pain in the ass.
I would be okay with one full size hard drive.. or even 2 opticle drives.. they need to start making stuff that really competes with the hardware options you can buy from newegg…. I realize its all about the software, and I effing hate windows, but so many people just dont get it, and/or are not willing to sacrifice what they “want” just to run OSX… we must have better 3D, the comps must be cheaper..
“Why are retards allowed to post here?”
What? And be denied your pompous, single digit I.Q drivel?
and the highest end iMac is a joke… I love it, and would take and use one in a heartbeat… but its all crap movile components, mobile CPU, mobile GPU… not a work horse.. we need BETTER 3D!!!!
Apple needs to make something that Gamers wont want to turn down.. give us SLi support, give us a Quad Core, give us the capability to work on our machines again like the Mac Pros, and powermacs from years past..
Missing Mac is Missing
@ Modbus
Nice response…lol
Also I am not sure why everyone has their hearts set on 2 internal drives. I am just hoping that apple puts one drive in the mini and has 2 firewire 800 ports. External drives aren’t that much and if the new mini is given a 320gb drive, that is just massive. Well to me it is anyway since my G4 only has a 20gb hard drive