There’s rumors that the Mac Minis are going to be discontinued. Well, I have a thought surrounding this. Nobody will argue that the Mac Minis are long in the tooth, I do have two theories.
First, being that the current iteration of the Mac Mini will be discontinued, and replaced with a new model, with 256MB of Video Memory, up to 4GB of RAM, up to 320GB Hard drive, Display Port and Super-drive.
Along with this “cheaper” model, a new model will also emerge. The Mac Mini Pro. This one has up to 512MB of Dedicated video, 1 Drive Bay, 2 2.5″ Hard Drive slots. Basically a Mac Pro, only shrunken down. This would allow Apple to leverage the “Pro-sumer” market, yet keep their margins at their healthy 34%.
The second theory, and more radical? is the thought that the Arbitration currently going on between Apple and Psystar will allow Psystar to sell the Lowest-end Macs, as clones. Apple may set a limit as to what the specs can be, but this may allow Apple to stave off a hefty fine or lawsuit, while allowing Psystar to retain face.
The other possibility, within this realm is that Psystar may become the only Authorized Apple Reseller to be allowed to sell the new Mac Mini base model, outside of Apple of course.
I don’t know if either of these is even possible, or likely, but time will tell. It sounds like it may be an announcement at MacWorld in January. Post your thoughts in the comments.