Overseas media have reported that the new Mac mini and Mac Studio announced by Apple in late August are due to demand from companies for AI applications. It was also reported that Apple does not have a dedicated technical team for corporate customers and is unable to respond to unexpected inquiries.
Pre-orders for both models have already started, and the release date is September 22nd.
Apple announced two new models in late August, an unusual move.
Apple usually announces new Macs from October to November, and late August, just before the announcement of the new iPhone, is unusual. This time, the new Mac mini equipped with M6 and M5 Pro and the new Mac Studio equipped with M5 Max and M5 Ultra both appeared on August 25th.
According to the economic media The Information, the reason for the move forward is that sales of Mac Studio and Mac mini are rapidly increasing due to their use in AI applications. At the time of the announcement, the company emphasized that multiple Mac Studios could be clustered together to run large-scale AI, which was perceived as being aimed at companies and developers.
Background to corporate demand for AI
Apple held an event in June for business customers to introduce the Mac mini and Mac Studio. The company gathered representatives from companies such as Ford, Disney, and Anthropic, and it was reported that the Mac mini attracted particular attention.
However, the movement of companies toward high-performance desktop Macs for AI processing seems to have been unexpected even for Apple. It is reported that corporate customers did not have a dedicated technical team, did not have staff dedicated to working with developers, and lacked an AI strategy for enterprises.
Is the system for corporations inadequate?
It was reported that companies that requested to use the equipment of Apple’s AI platform, Private Cloud Compute, for a fee, were turned down. Instead, the company appears to be relying on outside companies to provide the environment and tools to run AI on its own hardware.
The surge in demand for AI coincided with a global memory shortage. Many configurations of Mac mini and Mac Studio have been out of stock for several months, and higher configurations are difficult to obtain, so some companies are reportedly switching to the small AI development machine that NVIDIA started shipping in October 2025.
Prices and release dates for both models
Pre-orders for both models have already begun in Japan, and the release date for both has been announced as September 22nd. The prices listed on Apple’s official website are as follows.
| model | chip | Price (tax included) |
|---|---|---|
| Mac mini | M6 | From 149,800 yen |
| Mac mini | M5 Pro | From 299,800 yen |
| Mac Studio | M5 Max | From 419,800 yen |
| Mac Studio | M5 Ultra | From 949,800 yen |
The 512GB memory configuration that can be selected for Mac Studio’s M5 Ultra is announced to be released in late October, and the higher configurations are available later. It was reported that the reason why M6 was introduced first as Apple’s first 2nm chip was due to production volume issues.
If the supply continues without fully grasping the demand from corporations, even those who are thinking of purchasing the product individually will be concerned about the movement of inventory after the product is released. Apple has announced that pre-orders will be delivered on September 22nd, but it is unclear whether they will be able to continue fulfilling orders after that.
Source: MacRumors
Photo: Apple
Source: iPhone Mania
