Mark Gorman just talked about Apple introducing two new Macs at WWDC or shortly thereafter, and there are other strong indications. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon to find hardware identifiers deep in the system, which referred to devices that had never been seen before. This is exactly what is happening now. If you look into the studio monitor firmware, there is talk of Macmini10.1. This is clearly the next generation of desktop built-in calculator, with the current version named the M1 Macmini – and the latest Intel-based version named Macmini 8.1.
Mac mini 2022 in the summer?
These findings also give limited indications of when the official presentation can be expected. When Apple includes new hardware in description files, it usually isn’t long before sales start – often showing up while the corresponding system version is running. So Gurman’s “mid-2022” rating should refer not only to the revised generation of the MacBook Air, but also to the upcoming Mac mini. However, there is still conflicting data about the inner workings of the second Mac mini with Apple processors.
Discussion: M1 or M2?
There has been frequent talk of Apple wanting to offer a performance variant that optionally installs the Pro version with more cores instead of the regular M1 chip. However, other sources have reported that the Mac mini was one of the first Macs with the M2 chip. Exactly the same discussion exists regarding the MacBook Air. The theory is often about whether Apple actually had the M2 installed especially when the entire model range wasn’t converted to M1 processors. The Mac Pro successor is slated to come in late 2022 or early 2023 – and according to recent reports, the device will receive a chip consisting of two integrated M1 Ultras. The M1 Pro certainly offers a lot more performance than the M2 – so it seems unlikely, at least with the Mac mini, that you’ll see the M1 Pro and M2 chip variants side by side. It will probably not be easy for many customers to decide on the right model.