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

macrumors.com

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

#13

Post by scrlk »

dewey wrote: post #10
comrade1234 wrote: post #9

I wish they sold something that could go in a colo - redundant power supplies, lights out management, etc. you know they have them internally...

> you know they have them internally... What makes you think that? There's a lot of data centers that sell you access to colocated Mac Mini's, they have added FileVault unlock via SSH in the boot process which also makes things easier. There's not that many reasons to run a Mac in the cloud unless you have some very specific Mac related workload.

Apple built internal M5 servers for private cloud compute:

https://wccftech.com/apples-private-cloud-compute-server-m5-...

https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/

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

#14

Post by setgree »

It's fun to see that even an extremely large company can find unexpected product market fit [0]. Per this article, "The company reportedly did not possess an engineering team dedicated to business customers or staff focused on developer relations, and lacked an enterprise AI strategy." That sounds insane in retrospect, but I think there's just inherent uncertainty in what people actually need and will use things for.

[0]https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html: "In a great market—a market with lots of real potential customers—the market pulls product out of the startup... The product doesn’t need to be great; it just has to basically work."

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

#15

Post by ndiddy »

dewey wrote: post #10
comrade1234 wrote: post #9

I wish they sold something that could go in a colo - redundant power supplies, lights out management, etc. you know they have them internally...

> you know they have them internally... What makes you think that? There's a lot of data centers that sell you access to colocated Mac Mini's, they have added FileVault unlock via SSH in the boot process which also makes things easier. There's not that many reasons to run a Mac in the cloud unless you have some very specific Mac related workload.

> What makes you think that?

There’s articles about them, Apple uses them internally for AI services. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/photos-of-apples-own-ne...

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

#16

Post by shepmaster »

dewey wrote: post #10
comrade1234 wrote: post #9

I wish they sold something that could go in a colo - redundant power supplies, lights out management, etc. you know they have them internally...

> you know they have them internally... What makes you think that? There's a lot of data centers that sell you access to colocated Mac Mini's, they have added FileVault unlock via SSH in the boot process which also makes things easier. There's not that many reasons to run a Mac in the cloud unless you have some very specific Mac related workload.

> What makes you think that?

Here's a leaked / rumor image of Apple servers themselves.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/26/leaked-images-of-apple-...

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

#17

Post by giancarlostoro »

dewey wrote: post #10
comrade1234 wrote: post #9

I wish they sold something that could go in a colo - redundant power supplies, lights out management, etc. you know they have them internally...

> you know they have them internally... What makes you think that? There's a lot of data centers that sell you access to colocated Mac Mini's, they have added FileVault unlock via SSH in the boot process which also makes things easier. There's not that many reasons to run a Mac in the cloud unless you have some very specific Mac related workload.

Because there's been photos of Apple building server racks with Apple Silicon, but also a recent leak.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/26/leaked-images-of-apple-...

https://www.reuters.com/business/apple-begins-shipping-ai-se...

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

#18

Post by abtinf »

dewey wrote: post #10
comrade1234 wrote: post #9

I wish they sold something that could go in a colo - redundant power supplies, lights out management, etc. you know they have them internally...

> you know they have them internally... What makes you think that? There's a lot of data centers that sell you access to colocated Mac Mini's, they have added FileVault unlock via SSH in the boot process which also makes things easier. There's not that many reasons to run a Mac in the cloud unless you have some very specific Mac related workload.

> [cites a convoluted work around]

> [still claims there is no reason]

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

#19

Post by Grombobulous »

I’m curious to know if these local AI setups are legitimately useful compared to cloud. I’ve struggled a lot to get something useful out of the hardware I have.

I realize I’m somewhat limited (16GB RX 9070), but still, it seems really far off from the kind of experience even a basic $20/month subscription gets me.

Any tips anyone might have are appreciated! I’d love to be local first and would be willing to buy hardware to get there.

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