news

Author: Du Yu

Source: Hard AI

On Thursday, August 8, Mark Gurman, a technology reporter for a well-known financial media, quotedInsiderIt was revealed that the Mac Mini consumer desktop will undergo a complete redesign. Not only will it be equipped with the latest Apple-developed M4 and M4 Pro chips when it is released this fall, it will also become the smallest computer in Apple's history.

This will also be the firstSince the Steve Jobs era, the Mac MiniThe first major design change for desktop computers.The device will reportedly be much smaller than its predecessor, closer to the size of an Apple TV set-top box, and is described by staff involved in its development as "essentially an iPad Pro in a small box." The current appearance has been around for at least fifteen years.

Some analysts say that the new Mac Mini will not only be the smallest model of Apple's Mac computer, but also the smallest desktop computer in the world, which means it will be the most portable desktop device.

The latest Mac Mini, which Apple is testing, is reportedly equipped with at least three USB-C ports on the back, a power cord connector, and a connector for connecting the device to a TV or monitor.HDMIThe new Mac Mini models equipped with the M4 and the yet-to-be-released, higher-end M4 Pro self-developed chips are referred to as "J773" within the company.

Prior market rumors said that the new Mac Mini will adopt a short and fat all-aluminum design, and the power supply may be moved to the outside of the device, allowing the power plug of the iMac all-in-one computer to be reused.

For Mac MiniRumors of a more compact design, MacRumors, a website that tracks Apple news and product information, affirmed it. On the one hand, Mac computers equipped with Apple's self-developed chips have no scalableRAMAt the same time, the Intel chips previously installed are prone to overheating, and the Mac Mini design also requires sufficient heat dissipation space. Since the Mac Mini was first converted to Apple's own chips in 2020, there is no such heat dissipation requirement.

Mac Mini is one of the four product models of Apple desktop computers. As an alternative to the consumer-grade all-in-one iMac, its performance is lower than that of the high-end host Mac Studio and the professional-level Mac Pro. In November 2020, the fifth-generation Mac Mini became the first Mac desktop model equipped with Apple's self-developed chip M1. In January 2023, Apple launched the next-generation Mac Mini based on the M2 and M2 Pro chips on its official website without holding a press conference.

Since then, neither the Mac Mini nor the Mac Studio desktops have been upgraded to the M3 chip, but have always used the M2 chip. In addition, the MacBook Air thin and light notebook product line launched its latest version equipped with the M3 chip in March this year.

Apple reportedly plans to upgrade all MacsThe computer models have been upgraded to the latest M4chipThis fall, the M4 Mac Mini will be accompanied by the iMac desktop and MacBook Pro high-end notebook product lines equipped with M4 chips. The MacBook Air laptop equipped with M4 chips is planned to be released in the spring of next year, and the M4 Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktops will be launched in the middle of next year.

Some analysts say that upgrading the Mac computer product line to the M4 chip that supports AI processing capabilities marks the latest milestone in Apple's development, as this will be the first time in the company's history that the same generation of chips will be used in all Mac models. Earlier this year, Apple released the first product equipped with the M4 chip, the iPad Pro, which can provide strong support for the latest AI features that will be launched this fall.

Current market news says that Apple suppliers will start shipping Mac Minis equipped with the M4 chip in August, which may be sold together with the new iPhone in September. Mac Minis equipped with the higher-end M4 Pro chip may not be available until October this year. The current starting price of Mac Mini is $599. Although the production cost of the latest model may be lower, it is unknown whether Apple will officially reduce the price.

Some analysts pointed out that Apple held a rare October new product launch event on the eve of Halloween last year, launching the MacBook Pro high-end notebook and iMac desktop all-in-one computer equipped with M3 chips. It is not surprising that it will hold another launch event in October this year.

The market expects Apple to promoteThe company's most powerful neural engine to date provides the necessary processing power for new AI features, hoping to revive market demand for Mac computers that began to slow in the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latest financial report, Mac sales increased 2.5% year-on-year to approximately $7 billion.

After the news of Mac Mini was released, Apple's stock price expanded its intraday gains to 1.6% on Thursday, rising for two consecutive days and recovering nearly half of the losses since last Friday.