“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”.