Apple Mac mini now starts at $799 after $599 model discontinued amidst shortages
Apple Mac mini now starts at $799 after $599 model discontinued amidst shortages
https://www.redsharknews.com/apple-mac-mini-price-rises-599-discontinued
Publish Date: 2026-05-04 07:56:00
Source Domain: www.redsharknews.com
Apple’s Mac mini $599 entry point is gone, and it’s not coming back any time soon.
Since it was released in late 2024, the Mac mini has easily been the best value Mac you can buy. However, last week Apple quietly pulled the $599 base Mac mini, the M4 model with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, from its online store entirely, and the machine’s starting price has risen to $799 as a result.
To be clear, this is not a price hike, rather it’s the disappearance of the bottom rung of the ladder. The $799 model offering 512 GB of storage was priced at $799 at launch and remains the same. But that $200 is a third of the price again, which makes a huge difference at this entry level.
Quiet quitting
The disappearance was as much a quiet quitting as anything. The 256 GB model was first marked “currently unavailable” last week before being removed from Apple’s configurator altogether. Even the remaining Mac mini configurations aren’t exactly easy to get: the new $799 base model is showing backorders stretching into the second or third week of June, with many higher-end configurations, particularly those with 32 GB or more of RAM, listed as “currently unavailable.”
Checking over the weekend, 16 GB models were showing a 5-6 week lead time and 24 GB models 10-12 weeks. There is some variability around the world (these are the US figures), but only by a week or two here or there.
Also in short supply. The powerful Mac Studio
It’s not just the Mac mini, either. The Mac Studio is in similarly rough shape, with 128 GB and 256 GB RAM configurations listed as “currently unavailable,” and long lead times for everything below that level.
Meanwhile, if you want an M4 iMac, even the 32 GB RAM models can be yours in under a week.
Blame AI…again
Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the situation directly on the company’s recent Q2 2026 earnings call. “Both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools and the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had…
