New Mac Mini No Upgradable Ram

[pigoo3]

Well last quarter's results had nothing to do with the new products did they?

HELLO. This is the way quarterly reports work. Quarterly reports only reflect company activity from the previous 3 months. We will have to see how the new products released in the current quarter work out in the NEXT quarterly earnings report.

And by the way did you know that Apple had 29 quarterly earnings reports in a row…where they beat stock brokers & mutual fund managers expectations! 29 great quarters in a row (that's 7.25 years)…is a lot lot lot of happy customers!!!

It sadly seems that you care more about about making a profit from Apple than actually using their products....

HELLO #2.

- Great sales numbers = Happy customers.
- Great sales numbers + happy customers = happy quarterly earnings reports
- Happy quarterly earnings reports = Happy Annual earnings reports.
- Overall this means a happy stock price & stock price growth!

This is the way the financial works works!

Have you seen the prices of Apple OS upgrades the past FIVE releases??? OS 10.5 cost each user $129.99!!!

- OS 10.5 = $129.99
- OS 10.6 = $29.99
- OS 10.7 = $29.99
- OS 10.8 = $19.99
- OS 10.9 = Free
- OS 10.10 = Free

Apple could certainly charge us a heck of a lot more for OS upgrades…and most of us would pay it…and like it!!! And has Apple EVER charged us for an iOS upgrade (I don't remember at the moment)…but I don't think so.

How much does the typical Windows OS upgrade cost??…look it up! Yes I know…the Windows world works differently. But it still costs the end user.

- Nick

 

[GregR]

HELLO. This is the way quarterly reports work. Quarterly reports only reflect company activity from the previous 3 months.

Uhhh yeah, I'm well aware of that. Perhaps you could tell me the disclaimer that is mentioned on every mutual fund's and stock broker's website?

I'll save you the trouble of scrambling a search for it. It goes something like "Past performance is not an indicator of future performance".

The recent changes made to the product line will only be manifested in future earnings over the next few quarters. While ios sales may bolster the stock price, my bet is sales in computers will hold back potential gains.

Anyway, I'm not going to speculate.

 

[pigoo3]

Uhhh yeah, I'm well aware of that. Perhaps you could tell me the disclaimer that is mentioned on every mutual fund's and stock broker's website?

I'll save you the trouble of scrambling a search for it. It goes something like "Past performance is not an indicator of future performance".

The recent changes made to the product line will only be manifested in future earnings over the next few quarters. While ios sales may bolster the stock price, my bet is sales in computers will hold back potential gains.

Anyway, I'm not going to speculate.

Ok...let's look at things factually.

Fact #1: The subject of this thread is "New Mac-Mini No Upgradeable Ram."
Fact #2: We both know that previous company performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance.

Your Opinion: You basically stated that things at Apple are heading into the crapper because of non-upgradeable ram in the Mac-Mini...and other things.

Ok. So let's focus on your opinion that things at Apple are heading south. And you mainly said this becuase of this thread (new Mac-Mini no upgradable ram).

- Apple started the no upgradeable ram long ago with the original January, 2008 MacBook Air (this is almost 7 years ago)!
- Then in 2012 Apple continued with no upgradeable ram in the retina MacBook Pro's.
- Then in "Late 2012" Apple has made upgrading the ram in 21" iMac's very very difficult. The ram in the 21" iMac is basically very hard to upgrade.
- Then in 2014 Apple has made the ram non-upgradeable in the newest Mac-Mini model.

Ok...so are you following the trend?? Non-upgradeable ram in many Apple computer models is NOT a NEW thing! It's been going on since 2008.

So back to the quarterly earnings reports. Are you going to say that this shift to "non-upgradeable ram" in many Mac models has been hurting Apple's quarterly earnings reports since January, 2008??

That's a total of approx. 23 quarterly earnings reports since January, 2008. I'm pretty darn sure that the majority of those earnings reports were positive to highly positive. Not a lot of negative (we didn't make our numbers) earnings reports!

- January, 2008...Apple's stock price was approx. $176.
- October, 2014...Apple's stock price is approx. $735*.

Since 2008...Apple has continued to make great products...has had lots & lots of happy customers...and the stock price increase from $176 to $735 has reflected that success!!!

So where in the world is the problem?? All of this Apple info is previous factual info. Apple has been making its computers less & less upgradeable since 2008...and the company has continued to do great since then. Apple is not heading south...the products are not in the crapper...things are going pretty darn good!

Apple's decision to make the ram in the 2014 Mac-Mini non-upgradeable is just part of a continuing trend. This trend (since 2008) has not hurt the bottom line at Apple. This in my opinion (based on 5 years of historical financial data)...non-upgradeable ram in the 2014 Mac-Mini will also be a non-issue. It's just part of a continuing trend. Does everyone like this trend...no! But it hasn't stopped customers from purchasing the computer models involved...and non-upgradeable ram in the 2014 Mac-Mini will go the same way. Folks that like & prefer the Mac-Mini...will purchase the new Mac-Mini (non-upgradeable ram or not)!

- Nick

p.s. Please don't get me wrong. I would love & prefer to be able to upgrade the ram in ALL Apple computers. But things change...and I'm going to have to go with the flow...since I prefer the Mac OS over the Windows OS. We mainly use Apple computers for the Mac OS...not because of being able to upgrade the ram!

Apple has made upgrading the storage in many models more difficult...do I like this...no. Apple has removed the optical drive from MacBook Pro's, iMac's, and Mac-Mini's. Do I like this no. But I am flexible. I prefer the Mac OS!

* stock price reverse adjusted for the recent 7:1 Apple stock split

 

[Randy B. Singer]

i am giving up on apple from now on.....they are big brother and a different company this year...

I'm tending towards believing that Apple isn't doing this because they are evil, or greedy, or because they want to be the rulers of a dystopian society.

One of the biggest reasons that Apple sees Macs in for repair is because third party RAM failed; due either to it being zapped by static during installation (most users don't bother to purchase and use an anti-static strap for use during installation) or because the third party RAM wasn't seated properly during installation. These failures aren't Apple's fault, but they cost Apple a ton of money to repair under warranty, and much more importantly, they make it look like Macs aren't entirely reliable.

When Apple supplies all of your RAM OEM and solders it in, they know that the installation has been done right, and that it will stay right. This is just part of Apple's continuing effort towards making their Macs more reliable.

One other thing. You will notice that Macs are getting thinner and thinner. Even iMacs. Soldering in the RAM allows Apple to forego using a socket. That, combined with using low profile RAM, allows Apple to make their computers significantly thinner. This is also the reason that Apple doesn't offer an installation door for battery replacement on laptops anymore. It makes battery replacement harder, but it allows their laptops to be thinner. Not everyone is happy with these changes, but there is no debating that consumers really like (and like to purchase) thinner, more stylish, computers.

 

[harryb2448]

Plus one more Randy.

Users bought the cheapest modules they could find and wonder why their Macs are disappointingly slow or won't boot. Over the years we see here OWC and Crucial recommended, but folks often use el cheapo eBay memory. And the only folk who have consistently upgraeed their Macs are the Mac Pro users who l-o-o-ov-e changing memory, hard drives, graphic cards etc etc etc.

 

[chscag]

Let's face it Harry, most folks who populate forums like ours like to tinker with their computers. When you take away the ability to tinker, that's like a "dumbing down". But Randy makes a good point, besides a little fore thought prior to making the purchase, you can always load the machine up with the max amount of memory.

 

[cptkrf]

Ok, the reason for soldered ram has been hashed over, and with some fairly well thought out augments. You want max memory, order it with the machine. You will pay more, but it is a one time charge and soon forgotten.

Now the real problem here...

I need to replace a mini, and need a 4-core machine since it does some fairly heavy work. But, I can't seem to find the checkbox for the update from 2-core.

And won't. The mini was deliberately dumbed down, as a marketing decision, and the reasons can't be for any of the following.

-There is a shortage of 4-core processors.
-Intel is charging too much for the 4-Cs
-Nobody wants any more than a 2-C. (Believe I have heard this argument before, like, "Our polls show that nobody want broadband faster than 4m.")
And so on.

This was a marketing decision, pure and simple. Certainly no engineer insisted that they dumb down the line. In fact, could someone have managed to insert a bug in the conference rooms, I suspect that some loud shouting might have been heard as the Engineering department was asking Sales if they had lost their minds. Or, maybe, just asking when the button counters and bottom liners planned to finish their GEDs.

Now, for what reason? Who knows...?

-We need to dump this line of cheapies, but slowly so the guys/gals over on Mac Forum don't go ballistic and viral.
-People are buying this perfectly good Mac for a few hundred bucks, and we need them to pay thousands each to keep the stock going up.
-It fits in with our new slogan, to be announced next year. "Where do you want to be dragged to, today." Oops, that one was already taken by an outfit in the northwest.

The real one? Steve is gone and we can't get him back because his type could never break into an established company, only a startup or one that is in trouble.