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Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

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561–570 of 638 posts

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#561
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, Apple has a long history with guerrilla marketing, especially gray-area tactics like bots and paid commenters. Even though there is no evidence of this, it "feels" true, so it must be true, right? Why wouldn't they do it, after all? They don't really care that much about protecting the brand, and these types of tactics have zero chance of blowing up in their face. Even though they can and do pay for the…

Why do you care so much that this is a totally realistic argument? You don't personally have to like it, it's not about how it makes you feel as a fan of Apple.

Because it is ludicrous and the tin foilers should be called out.

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#562

I'm convinced that this is just guerilla marketing from Apple. When this started spreading a day or two ago, it was all from no-name spam media sites that are paid to publish articles. They all claimed "a source" is where they got the intel, without specifying the source. It was spreading like wildfire on socials. The same thing happened with Mac Mini's and OpenClaw. Nobody cared about or was using Mac Mini's for Ope…

People really have a twisted idea about how corporate America works. Apple does not have a psyops division cooking up ever more elaborate ways to seed demand for low-end, low-margin Macs via bot armies. They honestly don’t need to, because they’re making an avalanche of cash from the iPhone. People really were talking about and buying Minis due to OpenClaw, because they wanted something that was on all the time and h…

> Apple does not have a psyops division cooking up ever more elaborate ways to seed demand for low-end, low-margin Macs via bot armies.

Of course not, they outsource that.

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#563

I'm convinced that this is just guerilla marketing from Apple. When this started spreading a day or two ago, it was all from no-name spam media sites that are paid to publish articles. They all claimed "a source" is where they got the intel, without specifying the source. It was spreading like wildfire on socials. The same thing happened with Mac Mini's and OpenClaw. Nobody cared about or was using Mac Mini's for Ope…

I'm convinced that this is just guerilla marketing from Apple. I'm not. I have an M4 Mac Mini running 24/7 so I can use it as my Claude Code machine when I'm on the go. Why would they do a guerilla marketing campaign now if their Macs are generally sold out despite nearly doubling the Mac Mini price in the last few months?

I don’t get it. You don’t need a Mac mini to use Claude Code on the go, any home server with stable internet is enough. Was it the marketing?

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#564
post #490

Apple was also allegedly "caught off guard" by the Macbook Neo demand. I don't really see how they couldn't see the Local AI demand or demand for a cheaper Macbooks. This just reads like marketing imo.

Suppose you have a 6 months lead time to order volumes of parts for a new product launch. 4 months before the launch you see a new use case developing that's going to dramatically boost demand at launch. Even though you saw this coming 4 months before the launch, at the launch time itself you're still caught off guard. Demand is still dramatically higher than your capacity to meet it, and that's still going to be tru…

For a company like Sony, you would say they failed to meet demand.

Under Apple's reality distortion you instead must say that they were surprised by the demand.

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#565
Apple, a 4T USD company, is not caught off guard. They know exactly how many of a certain thing they make will sell. This is just PR nonsense. They do it with iPhone also. They'll introduce a new model and make enough to sell out and then spin that as a high demand. That makes their stock bump up as well as more people place orders for the next batch.

It's all marketing and you're being manipulated by it.

Edit: Some of y'all are naive.

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#566
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People really have a twisted idea about how corporate America works. Apple does not have a psyops division cooking up ever more elaborate ways to seed demand for low-end, low-margin Macs via bot armies. They honestly don’t need to, because they’re making an avalanche of cash from the iPhone. People really were talking about and buying Minis due to OpenClaw, because they wanted something that was on all the time and h…

These companies absolutely do have people who's job it is to sit on social media and promote these products, its marketing 101

Sounds amazing, where can I apply for one of these jobs?

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#567

Apple was also allegedly "caught off guard" by the Macbook Neo demand. I don't really see how they couldn't see the Local AI demand or demand for a cheaper Macbooks. This just reads like marketing imo.

There's no indication there's a limited supply by Apple or you cannot get one. I don't see a marketing angle here, just speculation from "The Information", and people love to speculate for clicks so there's the motive.

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#568
post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that this is just guerilla marketing from Apple. I'm not. I have an M4 Mac Mini running 24/7 so I can use it as my Claude Code machine when I'm on the go. Why would they do a guerilla marketing campaign now if their Macs are generally sold out despite nearly doubling the Mac Mini price in the last few months?

I don’t get it. You don’t need a Mac mini to use Claude Code on the go, any home server with stable internet is enough. Was it the marketing?

Of course it was. I’ve been using Mac minis since they were released and the mania the past year or so is unreal.

Re: Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

#569
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is useful marketing in saying "we could have made more money but accidentally didn't"?

They literally announced the products early and profiting on this coverage.

So is the news outlet that is speculating for clicks.
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