Those selling the fruit from the tree of Apple tell us of inventory shortages of all models of the Mac Mini. According to those that retail the Apple tree fruit, the Mini is in line for a refresh; so the shortages and the constraint on some models seem consistent with the Apple universal playbook, which is to fill large orders with remaining stock prior to the refresh.

The suggestion from our sources is that a new Mac Mini will feature an updated NVIDIA chipset along with the addition of an HDMI port on the back of the new updated unit. It is unlikely, however, that the new unit will offer Core i5 or i7 chips, but are more likely to stick with the proven Core 2 Duo. It Is not expected that the unit will get much else beyond a speed bump and perhaps a little better processor performance.

There is no word yet on when this new Mac Mini might arrive, but with WWDC upcoming, the mother ship might opt to announce it then.