Engadget has an article today (quoting an AppleInsider post) stating that suppliers and distributors of Mac minis (and iMacs, MacBooks), Apple’s “direct sales channels”, have been told to not to expect new shipments and to fill orders based on current inventory. The rumor is that there are some new iMac models (with newer GPUs and CPUs) on the horizon. I believe this might be true for the iMac and MacBook lineups as they have lagged behind other Apple in internal specifications. The MacBooks also lacks the aluminum body casing of its older brother, the MacBook Pro. It would be nice to see the MacBook lineup shedding the plastic casing while receiving a bump in performance with higher-end internals. It is my opinion that the Mac mini will not see any updates. With the mini mainly a niche seller, I think all engineering developments at Cupertino are focused on their Netbook / Tablet Computer initiatives.
What are your opinions? What do you think of the rumors and if the mini is to be “refreshed” once again, what would be the greatest addition, USB 3.0 or a smaller hit on the wallet?
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#1 by brett on September 29th, 2009
I hope there’s not new Minis – I just bought mine a month ago, and I hate that buyer’s remorse.
#2 by WCLPeter on September 30th, 2009
Brett,
Buyers remorse isn’t anything to be sad about. The second you buy anything its obsolete, so eventually you just have to take the plunge and enjoy what you got.
Granted, if I bought a new Mac Mini today and they released a new one next week, I’d be mighty ticked off too.
As for the rumors, for now they’re rumors. As long as they keep selling Mac Minis, I eventually want to buy a 51 inch 1080p LCD Flat Screen to replace my 51 inch 16×9 RPTV (has the 12″ CRTs for true 1080i, spent a pretty penny a few years ago to get it) and the G4 Mac Mini I have just doesn’t cut it for HDTV content.
Still, would be nice if they treated it like an iMac without the display and put the same kinds of Graphics hardware inside so I could make it a nifty gaming machine.
Pete…