In the process of updating its Mac Mini lineup, Apple has discontinued the last remaining Intel-based Mac Mini computers. Its online store now lists three main variants of the miniature desktop computer powered by M2 and M2 Pro chips, with no sign of the Intel Core i5-powered model that was listed on the site as of earlier this week.
Discontinuing this old Intel-powered Mac Mini means that Apple has just one computer left to transition to its own Arm-based Apple silicon chips: the Mac Pro. The company initially said it expected the transition from Intel to Apple silicon to take around two years when it first announced the initiative in June 2020, meaning it’s missed its self-imposed deadline to transition its entire Mac lineup onto its own silicon.
Screenshot: Apple.com
Screenshot: Apple.com / Wayback Machine
The absence of an Apple silicon Mac Pro has been noted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who last year blamed “multiple changes to its features, a significant shift in the company’s plans for high-end processors and a potential relocation of its manufacturing” for its apparent delay. Gurman reported that Apple had initially planned to offer the machine with a powerful processor with “48 CPU cores and 152 graphics cores” but that it subsequently scrapped these plans due to its cost and complexity.
With the Intel-based Mac Mini discontinued, Apple’s highest-end Mac Mini is now its M2 Pro-powered version, which starts with 16GB of unified memory and 512GB of storage at a price of $1,299. That’s a small bump over the starting price of the Intel model it’s effectively replacing, which started at $1,099 for an eighth-generation Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of memory, and 512GB of storage.
As well as discontinuing the Intel-based Mac Mini, Apple has also discontinued the original M1-powered models of the miniature computer.
