It is as soon as once more a fan favourite with its new M4 model, however 20 years after Steve Jobs launched the Mac mini, it has had a unprecedented lifetime of rave opinions — and criticism.
Steve Jobs launched the Mac mini with the express intention of attracting Home windows switchers. But it by no means fairly appeared to do what Apple needed, and as an alternative grew to become a cult favourite Mac, even when the corporate has tried to overlook about it.
Jobs unveiled the Mac mini on January 10, 2005. Apple did not problem a press launch till the next day, although, and the Mac mini itself did not ship till January 22.
It is the Mac that created an trade of corporations that hosted a whole bunch and 1000’s of Mac minis for distant customers. And it is the entry-level machine that started as essentially the most reasonably priced Mac ever made, and nonetheless is — though it now begins at $200 greater than it did in 2005.
Being the most affordable Mac has in fact helped its reputation, though you continue to want to purchase a keyboard, show and mouse or trackpad to make use of it. But it surely’s small measurement has been an infinite consider its reputation too.
That is most obvious now with the M4 Mac mini being the smallest model by such a really great distance, however it has all the time been the case. A small Mac mini brings the entire macOS expertise in a tiny package deal — and lets corporations extra simply construct up dozens and a whole bunch of them in server racks.
The M4 Mac mini hasn’t fairly been universally well-received, however the one design criticism of it has been to do with the ability button being on the underside. And regardless of the bottom mannequin being an plain discount, Apple prices excessively for any upgrades.
In any other case, everybody appears to like the little M4 Mac mini and everybody beloved the unique model in 2005.
But in between, the reception of the Mac mini and its numerous iterations has been nothing wanting peculiar.
Launching the Mac mini in January 2005
Again in 2005, it was as if Steve Jobs knew we might all heard the rumors, as a result of his announcement appeared to skip by his typical construct up. There wasn’t a lot stage-setting in any respect, as he launched straight in to what this new Mac could be.
In reality, it got here throughout the identical announcement the place he unveiled the iPod shuffle. In that presentation, Jobs put up a slide with a query.
“Why doesn’t Apple offer a stripped-down Mac that is more affordable?” it requested.
“I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody asked that,” mentioned Jobs, earlier than mentioning that truly, Apple already did exactly that. He was speaking in regards to the firm’s now long-discontinued Xserve servers, which had been Macs in racks.
However, he then mentioned, individuals who requested this query, by no means meant servers.
“[This] is not what they have in mind. They want a Mac that’s stripped-down, no display, no keyboard and mouse, but they have something else in mind,” he continued. “And so today we know what they have in mind, and we’re introducing it.”
Oddly, Jobs appeared to stumble a bit of over his speech, repeating that phrase about what folks had in thoughts. After which he confirmed on display the phrases “Mac mini” for the primary time.
Watching the video now, it is obvious that folks weren’t too positive in regards to the title. There’s applause, however the video reveals folks seemingly questioning if this was actually the title.
That will have been as a result of whereas there was precedent for it with the iPod mini that was launched the earlier yr, no Mac had been named this manner. There had been the prefix Energy earlier than, to make the Energy Macintosh, there had been the Macintosh Transportable, and earlier than these the Mac Plus.
However in any other case the shape had all the time been the phrase “Mac” adopted by a designator like II, IIcx, or SE. There had not been “mini,” spelt with a lowercase preliminary letter.
So Jobs labored to underline the title, repeating it, leaving it on the display, and drawing a comparability to that 2004 iPod.
“It’s called the Mac mini,” he mentioned. “We think people understood the iPod mini, and we think they’re going to understand the Mac mini just as well.”
To some laughter, he then confirmed that unique Mac mini with an iPod mini in entrance of it. The Mac mini is wider, however the iPod mini seemed prefer it dwarfed the machine.
“So this is a very robust computer,” mentioned Jobs, “but it’s very, very tiny.”
Nothing comes from nothing
The Mac mini did appear “very, very tiny,” however it additionally appeared like one thing else. It appeared like roughly half of the outdated Energy Mac G4 Dice.
That failed machine had gave the impression to be the Steve Jobs’s superb, it was his aesthetic for what a pc ought to be. And 5 years on from that flop, right here was the Mac mini — intently replicating its type, however hopefully fixing the Dice’s constraints, and its $1,799 value.
If the Mac mini adopted the failed Energy Mac G4 Dice, although, it additionally adopted the well-known however seemingly unsuccessful Switcher advert marketing campaign.
The marketing campaign aimed to get Home windows PC customers to change to the Mac. The rationale it is believed to have been a failure is that Apple dropped the entire marketing campaign in 2003.
So Apple had this failed Dice Mac, and this unsuccessful try and win over Home windows customers. Consequently, Jobs made it very plain what Apple was aiming to attain with this New Mac mini.
“We want to price this Mac so that people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses,” he mentioned, earlier than describing the machine as “BYODKM.”
“What does that mean?” requested Jobs. “BYODKM. It means Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse. We supply the computer. You supply the rest.”
“So you can take Mac mini, and you can hook it up to let’s say our 20-inch Cinema Display, right?” he continued. “And our keyboard and mouse.”
“But the great thing about Mac mini is you can hook it up to any industry-standard display, keyboard, and mouse,” he mentioned. “A lot of people already have a display and a USB keyboard and mouse, and so Mac mini will hook up to [those].”
That pricing began at $499, which Jobs repeatedly mentioned made it essentially the most reasonably priced Mac Apple had ever made. “As a matter of fact, it’s the cheapest computer Apple’s ever offered.”
Applause
For a short second, the Mac mini shone. The New York Instances known as it “exceptionally elegant,” for example, however then folks began to make use of it.
In follow, customers tended to seek out that, sure, it was tiny, however if you happen to needed something greater than the bottom model, Apple stung you for a lot cash that the Mac mini ceased to be something like a discount.
Some issues by no means change.
Or moderately, they do not essentially change a lot. The identical criticism about expensive upgrades does apply to at the moment’s Mac mini, however there’s a essential distinction.
Right now not less than a big variety of customers should buy the bottom Mac mini and be completely happy. In 2005, if you happen to purchased the bottom model, you had been in hassle.
The $499 Mac mini got here with a 40GB exhausting drive and solely 256GB of RAM. By July, maybe in response to the criticism, Apple upped that to 512GB RAM.
In contrast to at the moment, you could possibly improve the RAM your self. Nevertheless, you — actually — needed to get a putty knife and use it to interrupt open the case
First iterations
In addition to that improve of RAM, Apple would quickly revise the Mac mini with a extra important replace. In 2006, Apple moved the Mac mini from PowerPC to Intel processors.
Plus, since sufficient customers had been repurposing the Mac mini as servers, Apple launched a model particularly meant to be a server.
Compared, the 2007 replace was unremarkable, however nonetheless, two years after launch, the Mac mini was going robust.
Abandonware
There wasn’t any replace in 2008, although. The assumption on the time was that the Mac mini could have been nice, could have been common with its customers, however it wasn’t promoting effectively.
This was the primary time that the Mac mini seemed deserted. It was not the final time.
However in 2009, Apple really up to date the Mac mini twice. And in 2010, 5 years after its unique launch, the Mac mini bought a big redesign.
The redesigned 2010 Mac mini in comparison with its predecessor and the then-new Apple TV.
If the unique Mac mini was a Energy Mac G4 Dice chopped roughly in half, the 2010 Mac mini was the outdated model sliced in half once more. The brand new, even smaller, model, was an aluminum unibody design and got here in each a daily and a server model.
By now, although, Apple was promoting the Mac mini for $699, the identical value it does at the moment. There is no query however that the M4 model is a complete discount, however again in 2010, AppleInsider identified that Apple was calling it “affordable” far much less typically.
Apple was nonetheless promoting it as being for Home windows switchers, however the brand new value was sufficient to destroy the thought of it that means “people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses.”
If it weren’t efficiently profitable over Home windows customers, it seemed on the time that it was as an alternative being purchased mainly by present Mac homeowners.
Maybe undecided what extra it might do to get PC customers to change, Apple made minor updates over the following two years.
Downgraded in 2014
There was a big replace for the Mac mini in 2014, however it was “generally regarded as a downgrade from the 2012 [version],” in line with AppleInsider. That is as a result of whereas the worth was reduce to $499, the then-new Mac mini was really slower than its predecessor.
So regardless of Apple releasing a brand new mannequin, there was as soon as extra the suspicion that the corporate had sidelined the Mac mini. Provided that these individuals who used the Mac mini tended to develop into followers of the little machine, it was a worrying time.
However, because it turned out, 2014’s downgrade was nothing in comparison with what occurred subsequent.
Nothing.
Apple launched no new model in the entire of the following yr, 2015. Or 2016.
Or 2017.
Apple simply stored on promoting the identical machine on the identical value, for years. In 2017, Tim Prepare dinner weighed in on the criticism that Apple had deserted the machine.
Tim Prepare dinner responds to Mac mini criticism in 2017
Then Phil Schiller could have needed to speak in regards to the Mac Professional, however he was pressed into defending the Mac mini. “The Mac mini is an important product in our lineup,” he mentioned.
Rivals depart the Mac mini behind
Apple’s executives might speak about loving the Mac mini, however they did not do something about it — publicly. There was no replace in 2017.
By 2018, Apple’s typical strategy of simply persevering with to promote the identical machine on the identical value for very a few years noticed it falling behind. As an alternative of being a discount laptop that will tempt Home windows customers over to the Mac, PC alternate options had been now out-performing it.
Out-performed is probably too type an outline, as AppleInsider concluded in 2018 that the Mac mini was being trounced.
Small however vast userbase
If Apple actually did abandon a specific sort of Mac, people who owned one might simply stick with it utilizing theirs for years. However the Mac mini did not simply have particular person customers, it additionally had corporations whose entire enterprise was centered on using a whole bunch of the machine.
“This new Mac mini is an absolute beast on the inside,” mentioned Tom Boger, head of Mac product advertising. “The number one thing our customers wanted us to do is give it more powerful processors… [so this is] by far the most powerful Mac mini we’ve ever made.”
Boger mentioned that the brand new model was as much as 5 instances sooner than its predecessor, and Apple had elevated the storage, RAM, and processor cores.
Apple had additionally elevated the worth, making the bottom mannequin $799. However for what you bought, this was “the biggest update ever,” mentioned Boger.
“Apple’s mightiest mini yet,” saidAppleInsider in its November 2018 evaluation.
The Mac mini was again. All ideas of Apple abandoning it had been gone, and the brand new 2018 model was a success.
Besides there was no replace in 2019.
Enter Apple Silicon
For the primary time, although, there was a very particular model of the Mac mini in 2020 — or if not particular, not less than area of interest. For $500, builders might purchase a novel model of the Mac mini known as an Apple Silicon developer transition package.
They could not preserve it, however they may start the work of transferring their apps to the brand new Apple Silicon platform.
That was introduced in the course of the WWDC unveiling of Apple Silicon in June 2020. After which later that yr, the Mac mini was one of many first Macs to be launched with the then brand-new M1 processor.
It was a sea change in efficiency and functionality for the Mac mini, and ultimately for the entire Mac line. That lineup would additionally come to incorporate the primary brand-new Mac because the Mac mini, the Mac Studio in 2022.
On to at the moment
On the face of it, the Mac mini of at the moment remains to be Apple’s try and have the lowest-cost Mac doable. The corporate not talks about getting Home windows customers to change, and maybe as a result of it is so profitable that it not wants them.
However the Mac mini with Apple Silicon — first the M1, then M2 and M2 Professional in 2023 — has blurred the strains of the whole Mac lineup. That very first M1 Mac mini was generally able to outperforming the Mac Professional, Apple’s prime of the road Mac.
Then the Mac Studio got here in above the Mac mini, each when it comes to value and efficiency. The Mac Studio accomplished the Mac mini’s hatchet job on the Mac Professional, making the most costly Mac solely value proper for essentially the most area of interest of makes use of.
But then in 2024, the Mac mini gained the M4 and M4 Professional processors — whereas the Mac Studio is at present caught on the M2 Max and M2 Extremely chips.
So even when the present Mac Studio and Mac Professional can beat the Mac mini for efficiency, the “very, very tiny” machine is not a reduce down machine for switchers.
In addition to the gaining the brand new M4 and M4 Professional processors, although, the rationale the most recent Mac mini has been extensively praised is its measurement.
You understand that it’s a lot smaller, at 5 inches by 5 inches, however it’s exhausting to understand simply how tiny that’s till you see it in individual. Images do not convey how small this machine is.
So even when you have not succumbed to purchase one but, make a journey to an Apple Retailer to see one in individual. And while you’re there, take a look at the Mac Studio too.
For the Mac mini is smaller than you realise — and the Mac Studio now appears big subsequent to it.
Apple will now all the time promote extra of the MacBook Professional and MacBook Air than any desktop Macs. However of these desktop Macs, the Mac mini has had essentially the most outstanding life — and is at present the star of the lineup.
We’ll simply should see what Apple does with it in 2025.
