Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday during the company’s earnings call that it could take “several months” to meet skyrocketing demand for the Mac Mini, a compact but powerful desktop computer without a screen. Cook’s comments come after developers determined in recent months that the Mac Mini was the ideal machine for agentic AI tasks.
“Both the Mac Mini and Mac Studio are incredible platforms for artificial intelligence and agent tools,” Cook said on an earnings call in response to analyst questions. “And customer adoption of it is happening faster than we expected.”
The news comes during another record quarter for the company. iPhone sales have been shorter than expected, although demand for the iPhone 17 has been very robust and Apple’s subscription services business continues to grow.
Apple faced supply constraints Both iPhone and Mac product lines this quarter. iPhone shortages are mainly due to a constrained supply of advanced chips that power the phones. But as Cook explained, at least two different factors are causing shortages in Apple’s Mac industry: the rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence and unexpected demand for Apple’s modern, colorful and cheaper MacBook Neo laptop.
Mac sales are typically a fraction of iPhone sales – $8.4 billion this quarter compared to almost $57 billion in iPhone sales – and the Mac Mini in particular is a fraction of that amount. However, with the release of OpenClaw earlier this year, an open-source AI tool, Mac Minis started flying off the shelves because they offer both enough power and a dedicated computing environment to perform agentic AI tasks.
Some eager customers have been waiting for their Mac Mini for months. MacGossip reported in early March that Apple has stopped selling the computer configuration with 512 GB of memory. As of last week, the Mac Mini was the entry-level model completely sold out.
Cook and his future successor John Ternus also addressed Cook’s departure as CEO at the end of this year. During the earnings call, Cook said it was “the right time” to take on the role of executive chairman for “many reasons,” including that Apple is in a robust financial position and that its roadmap for upcoming products is “incredible.” He called Ternus “a person of extraordinary character and a born leader.”
Ternus then joined the conversation to vouch for Cook as a business leader and assure investors that he will lead the company in a similarly thoughtful and deliberate manner. He also mentioned the company’s roadmap.
Both men were tight-lipped about the details of this supposedly very invigorating product roadmap, but hopefully it includes more…road Macs.