Apple May Release New Low-Cost Laptop and Mac Mini for Pros

[AndrewFreedman]

A Bloomberg report suggests Apple will release a low-cost MacBook Air with a retina display and a new Mac Mini for professionals.

Apple May Release New Low-Cost Laptop and Mac Mini for Pros : Read more

 

[Giroro]

What kind of 'professional' would need a low-end mac?

 

[excalibur1814]

This is a mistake. The illusion of being 'special' is what keeps 'some' of the sales alive. If they do this the Macs become just the same as the cheaper Windows machines.

 

[jpe1701]

EXCALIBUR1814 I think they mean inexpensive relative to the other Mac products not cheap windows machines. Business people that don't need a dedicated GPU would buy them for the build quality if they are priced right and have Apples usual quality (minus the keyboard issue) I would think.

 

[adamboy64]

I've been looking forward to a new Mac Mini lineup, rumours have been floating around for a while that they'll do a refresh. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

 

[studmoose]

I waited for two new MacBook Pros for both my daughter's STEM college semester and for my needs, only told that it would probably come out around the end of 2018 or in early 2019. Apple like to run close to the vest. Then, Apple springs the new MacBooks without any notice. So, we bought two Lenovo X1 laptops last month, including docks, mice, and a bunch of extended on-site next day warranties, etc. Apple lost out on $6 grand for that. We'll, at least Lenovo doesn't fleece customers out of $700 for defective keyboards.

Now, they play it coy with the Mini Mac, after waiting for almost two years for it to come out, I'm close to moving on the HP Z2 Mini, which has an i7-8700, 32GB, 1TB SSD and is 8"x8"x3". The Z2 is going on to it's 4th Generation, which will come out any week now. Digital Storm was hinting at their Spark SFF, but they are playing Apple's game too. No indication when that will come out, after waiting 8 months.

I'm tired of playing Apple's guessing game anymore. I tried twice to buy their products, and both times I am let down--because they give no heads up on product plans.

 

[salgado18]

These are for indie game developers trying to publish iOS games.

 

[termathor]

Low cost laptops ? Heck, any usable Macbook is 2kE, those days ! And with parts from 2015 !

I'd expect a low cost Macbook to have 2GB of RAM and an intel core-duo with a 500 GB hard drive ...

 

[jn77]

Guess what? We are releasing a new Ipad with a built in keyboard and you are paying $300 for the built in keyboard.

 

[gggplaya]

What kind of 'professional' would need a low-end mac?

You don't need a high powered mac for Lightroom, Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc..... I think they should reword the article as being designed for "commercial" use, like in the retail space as well, secretaries, office workers etc..... I think that's the market they're trying to capture with a lower cost mac.

I think probably the best way to achieve this is to plop in a Ryzen 2200GE processor. You would have good quad core and graphics performance for cheap. Add a custom case, ram and motherboard with an external power supply and you've got a great office PC.

 

[stdragon]

Basically, an Intel NUC with OSX.

 

[velocityg4]

My predictions are:
- $999 is what Apple thinks is a low cost Macbook Air. They will purposefully hobble specs so it doesn't hurt Macbook and Macbook Pro sales.
- Mac Mini will be hobbled to prevent hurting iMac sales. Probably use a "u" series or even "y" series Intel CPU to make it thinner and slower.
- Mac fans will defend the pricing because they include expensive features almost no one uses or don't need like Thunderbolt 3, T2 Chip and high performance NVMe SSD integrated into the motherboard.
- T2 chip and later will become part of all Mac Models. In a few years macOS will require a T2 chip relegating all older models to the dustbin. This will also finally kill off the hackintosh.

 

[Giroro]

@GGGPLAYA

I just don't think that "it can run Microsoft Office and Adobe" is a very compelling pitch for paying the markup for an Apple logo.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

I've never understood the affiliation between Macs and "pros". Surely any pro worth their salt is using software that's far more powerful than anything Apple throw in.

 

[gggplaya]

@GGGPLAYA

I just don't think that "it can run Microsoft Office and Adobe" is a very compelling pitch for paying the markup for an Apple logo.

Actually, my friends wife is a secretary at a local school. They use very expensive iMacs to do office work. Nothing they do requires alot of power, yet they have $1100 computers. You have to keep in mind that it's the MacOS they want, not just the apple logo.

I've never understood the affiliation between Macs and "pros". Surely any pro worth their salt is using software that's far more powerful than anything Apple throw in.

Any time you get paid for your work, you're considered a pro(fessional). Plenty of pro photographers that only use lightroom and photoshop don't need to use powerful software, but make their entire income from several low powered software programs. It's about MAC OS and their workflow that works for them and makes it suitable for "pros".

This coming from me, I don't own a mac and I only build windows computers. But it would be nice for them to update the mac mini, I'd consider buying one for the living room PC.

 

[DavidGurney]

"What kind of 'professional' would need a low-end mac?"

What kind of "professional" needs a gay-ass "touch bar" for picking emoji?

 

[stdragon]

"What kind of 'professional' would need a low-end mac?"

What kind of "professional" needs a gay-ass "touch bar" for picking emoji?

lol: BURN!!! And yet, it's sooo right!