If you were planning to pick up the cheapest Mac Mini over one of the best laptops, you might be out of luck.
Spotted by 9to5Mac, the base $599 / £599 M4 model with 256GB of storage can no longer be ordered from Apple’s online store. You can go through all the motions of selecting it, but when it comes to delivery or in-store collection, it’s simply listed as unavailable.
The news, while disappointing for those looking to snap one up, doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Recently, Mac Minis in the 32GB and 64GB memory configurations were already subject to stock shortages, with some models showing eye-watering delivery estimates stretching into late summer. And now the shortages have worked their way down the stack.
On that note, while the 512GB M4 Mac Mini is still technically available, you’re looking at wait times of around six weeks at best, with some configurations stretching closer to two months or more. Third-party retailers aren’t much help either. Stock is patchy, and in some cases, only pricier M4 Pro versions are readily available.
As for why? Well, it’s all down to the pressure on memory and storage supply chains, largely driven by the unrelenting boom in AI hardware. Those same components are in huge demand, which means less to go around for consumer machines like the Mac Mini.
Naturally, whenever stock starts drying up like this, the refresh rumours kick in. A next-gen M5 Mac Mini has already been tipped for later this year, and dwindling availability often lines up with Apple clearing the decks. But it’s not a guarantee – the Mac Studio has faced similar shortages, and more recent reports suggest its update isn’t landing until October. And that’s all without mentioning the MacBook Neo’s chip shortage.
For now, if you want a Mac Mini, you’ll either need to move up the range, or get comfortable waiting.
Read the full article here
