TL;DR Apple has discontinued the $599 Mac Mini with 256GB storage, raising the starting price to $799 with 512GB, as a global DRAM shortage driven by AI data centre demand causes record memory price increases. DRAM prices surged 90 per cent in Q1 2026 as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron shifted production toward high-bandwidth memory for AI servers, with IDC projecting 10-20 per cent consumer electronics price increases and an 11.3 per cent PC market contraction by year end. Apple has discontinued the 256 gigabyte Mac Mini worldwide. The company’s cheapest desktop computer, the M4 Mac Mini with 16 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage, was available for $599 until last week. It is gone. The Mac Mini now starts at $799 with 512 gigabytes of storage. The 256 gigabyte configuration has not been moved to a different price point. It has been removed from Apple’s configurator entirely.…