When Apple refreshed the Mac mini with M4 chips in 2024, it offered a version with 256GB of storage. Priced at RM2,499, this base model served as the cheapest option in the lineup. Now, the American tech giant has discontinued this variant, indirectly raising the price of the compact desktop.
At the tail end of last week, Apple removed the 256GB Mac mini from its online store. That said, a report by MacRumors claimed that this model had already been unavailable to order a week prior to this.
While the brand did not state a reason for removing this variant, it’s likely that supply constraints are to blame. During a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that the Mac mini and Mac Studio “may take several months to reach supply demand balance”. Apparently, the company had underestimated the demand for these products.
Cook noted that the devices make “amazing platforms” for AI and agentic tools. He went on to say that customers are recognising this faster than Apple had anticipated. As such, the company is struggling to keep up with the demand.
Aside from that, the AI boom is continuing to fuel the global memory chip shortage. So, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that Apple is feeling the crunch. Cook revealed that the company is expecting higher memory costs in this current quarter. Naturally, this will drive up manufacturing costs, so it’s likely that the brand is cutting out the cheaper Mac mini to focus on more profitable models.
With this change, the least expensive Mac mini comes with an M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. This model gets a RM3,349 price tag. Meanwhile, the starting price of the version equipped with the M4 Pro chip remains unchanged at RM5,999. This is because the minimum storage for this variant has always been 512GB.
