Sometimes it’s good to remember what a stunning achievement the new M6 Mac mini is. Not only is it affordable, but it packs a huge amount of power into a small package, especially with Apple Silicon’s ability to run AI models locally. If there’s a problem, it’s that the Mac mini now starts at $899, which pushes its price much higher than we’re used to. This made me think that Apple would really need to create a new low-cost desktop Mac that could fill the space vacated by the mini’s ever-increasing price. This should make a Mac Neo.
The Mac mini is one of the smartest products in Apple’s lineup and one of the most durable. Born in 2005, it was the cheapest and easiest way to get started in the Mac world for a general public who were just starting to learn about Apple. The iPod was only three years old, Windows was king, and Apple was still recovering from the slump of the ’90s. The “Get a Mac” ads wouldn’t start for another year, and the $499 Mac mini was a well-designed (if underpowered) little machine that you could connect to your existing keyboard, mouse, and monitor. In the years since, the price has fluctuated, but always tied to the idea of a machine well under $1,000 that you could buy without guilt.
It served a purpose to amateurs, children and money changers; as a second machine, home server and media center. They were still underpowered, but their use cases often focused on reliability rather than raw power. Plus, they had ports for expandability and, even as recently as the M4 mini, you could upgrade the SSD to a bigger one if you were handy. I know a lot of non-technical people who still have Mac minis, connected to external USB hard drives, as media PCs. $499 was expensive for a set-top box, but considering you also had a full-fledged computer, it was an easy price to pay.
Unfortunately, the AI bubble and RAMpocalypse meant that the Mac mini became desirable to a whole different class of users. Apple Silicon’s ability to run models locally made it a good alternative to racks of GPU-equipped PC servers. Its relatively low cost has forced AI developers to buy them by the truckload, increasing demand and forcing Apple to eliminate the cheapest model of the machine. Suddenly, the Mac mini was no longer for the rest of usit was for themand they bought them all. I think this is a tragedy, because there is still a market for a lightweight machine in desktop form that can be slotted into the corners of people’s lives. As a media center, as a server, as a tool that you can hand to your kids and let them experiment with knowing that the cost won’t kill you.
That’s why I’d like to see a Mac Neo, built on the same general principles as the MacBook Neo. After all, Apple has already proven that it’s possible to run macOS on a mobile chip with just 8GB of RAM, which works well enough for light work. MacOS is good at memory management and it’s not like a desktop computer will fail where the MacBook Neo already succeeds. If Apple could release it for $500, I’m convinced it would sell wonderfully. Given that the Apple TV 4K uses an A15 Bionic chip, it’s not like Apple doesn’t already know how to make this form factor work. All it really needs is a few USB-C ports on the front and back for connectivity and expansion and you’d have the makings of a great toy PC.
If you’re wondering why I wouldn’t just go with the Apple TV 4K as my media center, it just never appealed to me. Even before the price increase, it was just too expensive for what it is and what it does. Sure, this is a premium streaming box, but that premium was way too high considering the tolerable streaming experiences I get with my smart TV or satellite box. Not to mention that $249 for a streaming puck is absurd when you could previously get a full computer for just double that figure.
Not forgetting, of course, that if there are still people hesitant to jump into macOS, this would be an ideal first step. In fact, almost every reason people bought a Mac mini until AI ruined it could easily apply to the Neo. Better yet, it would be underpowered enough that it wouldn’t run an AI model well enough for the cultists to want it. I’m not motivated by malice, but it would be nice if there was something that was isolated from the AI bubble.
