Apple targets AI use with new desktop Mac models that cop a solid price hike

Apple has revealed new processors and two updated desktop computers carrying them, both landing with a significantly higher price tag than when last launched.

The refreshed Mac mini and Mac Studio arrive just weeks out from the launch of the next iPhone, where attention is squarely on the price rises expected across that range after demand for memory from AI data centres upended the global computer market.

AI is the whole point of these machines. Apple mentioned it no fewer than 30 times in the announcement of the top-end Mac Studio alone, pitching computers powerful enough to run AI work on the device itself rather than in the cloud.

But the AI boom is also what makes them expensive. Surging demand for memory has driven component prices up across the tech industry, and it shows.

The Mac mini now starts at $1449 — $200 more than the model it replaces, which had already copped a price rise of its own. When it was last refreshed just under two years ago, it launched at $999.

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The Mac Studio starts at $4299. That’s $800 more than the previous generation cost at launch a little over a year ago, though today’s upgrades don’t add anything further, with the Studio already sitting at that price following price adjustments in recent months.

Those hikes are largely unavoidable in the current market, and were flagged by outgoing CEO Tim Cook earlier this year. How they affect sales won’t be known for some time.

The new Mac mini

The Mac mini gets Apple’s brand-new M6 chip, the company’s first silicon built on a 2nm process. The design and engineering are unchanged — everything new is on the inside.

Buyers of the M6 or M5 Pro versions also get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, thanks to Apple’s own N1 wireless chip.

There’s still not much else like it at this size. But that price rise will be hard to swallow.

For the pro user

The Mac Studio is a beast in a relatively small package.

Now available with the M5 Max and the newly announced M5 Ultra, Apple claims CPU performance improvements of 30 per cent and graphics improvements of 50 per cent. Both machines also get faster memory, and faster access to it.

Both are available to pre-order today, with availability from September 22.

Given that timing, it’s worth wondering whether today’s announcement was designed to clear the decks — keeping the Mac news well clear of the iPhone event in early September.