Are the mac minis running Apple’s A12Z chip?

The Mac minis sent to developers as part of the transition kit are the only ones currently running on Apple's ARM chips and are not available at retail at all. As mentioned in the article, this are sent to developers to aid in transition of their Apps to the ARM architecture.

Retail Macs running on ARM chips should be coming by the end of the year however.

I have not heard of any change in Apple’s plans to release new Macs with Apple CPUs this year. That being said, Apple doesn’t often announce any changes in plans. They do usually make their deadlines, but not always. And this is a big change.

And finally, Apple didn’t say what kind of Mac would initially have the new Apple Silicon CPUs. Apple has a Developer Transition Kit that is housed in the Mac mini case. But that doesn’t mean they are going to ship that device to end users.

GatorLawGirl2000 wrote:

This is from an article I found, which prompted my question.

June 23 update: Strictly speaking Apple has already released its first ARM powered machine.

That’s not true. The Developer Transition Kit is not a “released” product. It is a developer prototype. They all have to be returned to Apple eventually. This is the reason why the project is secret. People should not be making purchase decisions based on prototype hardware.

Sorry - I'm new to all this. I'm thinking about upgrading the entire office to Mac Minis, and don't want to spend money only to have new ones released shortly after spending all that!

Strictly speaking, that will always be true. Technology moves at the speed of light. By the time it gets to you, it is already obsolete. It is reasonable to assume that the new hardware will come with some new glitches too. Do you want to deal with those? The current minis are very nice computers. There is no guarantee that the first Apple Silicon Macs will be minis or even that they will be available in good quantities. I predict that the most common complaint about they that you will see here on the forums will be about delivery delays.

Hi there,

Here's the link to the Mac mini's specs: https://www.apple.com/uk/mac-mini/specs/

Please note that currently, no Macs have ARM chips and are all still currently using Intel CPUs

No, has more to do with Apple long term business strategy i.e. less dependency on Intel. Go ahead and buy.

GatorLawGirl2000 wrote:

...

Sorry - I'm new to all this. I'm thinking about upgrading the entire office to Mac Minis, and don't want to spend money only to have new ones released shortly after spending all that!

Thanks!

You will run that risk with any sort of tech you purchase.

However, most businesses will tend to revamp office tech with

something that has been tried and true and "run through the

wringer" so to speak, Buying MacMinis now, the current model

of which has been sold ind in service for 2 years, should have

had most of the issues resolved, though every installation is

different and could have some quirk not addressed. So,

the risk should be low.

Buying a totally new redesigned Mini with entirely new

and different technology in my opinion for a business

would be too risky as it will take time to iron out all the

issues that can occur "in the wild" and your deployment

could be one of those and seriously impact your business.