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Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

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101–110 of 228 posts

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#101
post #84
post #14

I see a myriad of comments that boil down to “duh”, but I think these comments are missing the point. Consider an alternate possibility: “sales of Apple’s new ARM macs outpaced by older models”. Had Apple not knocked M1 out of the park, this was a real possibility. Is it surprising that a well executed architecture change is now selling well? Not really. But the more interesting point is that the rest of the market a…

6502 -> 680x0 -> PPC601 -> x86_64 -> ARMv8.5 (Apple M1) Apple has a long, long history of pulling off well executed architecture changes. If you are a Apple computer shopper then you would know by now that by the time they release a new architecture, internally, that platform has long been retired for their internal users. It would have been an even bigger headline if Apple released the M1 and it didn't live up to ex…

6502 -> 680x0 -> PPC601 -> x86 -> x86_64 -> ARMv8.5 (Apple M1)

The original Intel Mac's ran the 32-bit Core Duo, although a mid-season refresh took them to the (64-bit) Core 2 Duo. That generation of purely-32-bit hardware being out in the wild had some real impact on moving the OS forward, later down the road.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of those who got an M1 mac recently are aware of what exactly that means, besides that it's new and fast. I could imagine a large part of those sales to fall into the "I need a new computer, I'll get another Macbook Air" category. Those buyers wouldn't have much reason to care anyway; I guess you'd have to do pretty specialized work to really notice a big difference besides "cool" and "fast".

ARM Windows laptops have been around for a while, and have not taken off. Some of that could be that these computers don't represent a shift in the wind - x86 remains the primary architecture for Windows. But I think that another big part of it is that every review of a Windows ARM laptop is full of caveats. Some programs will run slower, some programs won't run at all. Knowing which is which requires technical knowl…

Unfortunately, Windows ARM laptops were and are poorly executed.

Apple is carrot and stick, where the carrot is performance and the stick is obsolescence.

With Windows, there's neither carrot or stick. ARM isn't that much more performant, the battery life isn't that much better, and they're certainly not abandoning Intel.

OTOH, Microsoft could invest a huge amount of their money on making ARM attractive, but the Wintel ties clearly run deep.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#103

Cheaper, faster, more locked-down and proprietary. Unfortunately most people don't seem to care about the last point.

Because it isn’t a point. What’s locked down about an M1 that isn’t locked down about an intel?

For starters you can buy Intel processor, but you cannot buy M1. You can only get M1 with a laptop or a tablet.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of those who got an M1 mac recently are aware of what exactly that means, besides that it's new and fast. I could imagine a large part of those sales to fall into the "I need a new computer, I'll get another Macbook Air" category. Those buyers wouldn't have much reason to care anyway; I guess you'd have to do pretty specialized work to really notice a big difference besides "cool" and "fast".

Friend of mine just got a new M1 13-inch MBP. He "likes" it, as opposed to "loves" it; because he doesn't actually care that much (he's not a tech nerd). He likes his iPad a lot more. He would probably feel the same way about a new Dell or Lenovo. It's just not that important to him. Computers are a "necessary evil." He's a musician, and he asked my advice, so he got a Mac. For myself, I am waiting on the M1X/M2, lat…

That's interesting, how big are those monitors exactly? Regular 4k or something more?

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#105
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of those who got an M1 mac recently are aware of what exactly that means, besides that it's new and fast. I could imagine a large part of those sales to fall into the "I need a new computer, I'll get another Macbook Air" category. Those buyers wouldn't have much reason to care anyway; I guess you'd have to do pretty specialized work to really notice a big difference besides "cool" and "fast".

I wouldn't overlook the impact of battery life. I've never squeezed more than 4 or 5 hours out of my two year old Macbook Pro. A 20 hour battery life in addition to the speed gains make upgrading a tempting prospect.

I spent the whole day on zoom on battery yesterday and still had 35% left to play with.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using an M1 MacBook Air right now. It's more nuanced than speed. That thing's responses are insane. It's an insanely fast computer which wakes up like an iPhone and has an endurance like a vintage, entry level Nokia phone. It's ready to work before I finish opening up the screen and, they forgot to tell the battery that it needs to deplete after some time. It doesn't matter for ordinary people to know all the coo…

I’ve a tax return waiting for whatever M2 or M1X pro laptop they come out with. I simply can not wait.

Just assume that M1 doesn't exist. It'll be much easier.

It'll worth the wait. :)

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of those who got an M1 mac recently are aware of what exactly that means, besides that it's new and fast. I could imagine a large part of those sales to fall into the "I need a new computer, I'll get another Macbook Air" category. Those buyers wouldn't have much reason to care anyway; I guess you'd have to do pretty specialized work to really notice a big difference besides "cool" and "fast".

It's a testament to how well it was done that these people can buy the computers and not have to know anything except that it's new and fast.

Definitely. That's absolutely huge.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#108
post #42

I wish Apple sold M1 on the open market. It would've been a fine SoC for PC grade products.

Exactly this - if they had released the documentation and made it available through usual vendors, we could see excellent linux machines coming, probably best in history.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#109
post #4

You mean people aren't going to buy hardware that its manufacturer explicitly said they're not going to be building and supporting much further? The same manufacturer that's known for dropping macOS support on perfectly capable older hardware without backwards compatibility? Color us surprised!

> The same manufacturer that's known for dropping macOS support Eh? Latest macOS runs on hardware from as far back as 2013 .

2013 was only 8 years ago. Maybe you upgrade hardware frequently, but for many people it's unnecessary unless artificially required. I have a family member who uses an iMac from 2011. With 16 GB upgraded ram, etc it still works great for her needs... but it cannot run anything more recent than High Sierra, from 2017. Which means that certain third-party software (coughMSOfficecough) also refuses to run the most current version. In the midst of environmental crisis, why should we normalize a desktop OS only supporting < 8 y/o hardware, especially when the same company is moving toward proprietary hardware that is (so far) unsupported by alternative operating systems?

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#110
post #84
post #14

I see a myriad of comments that boil down to “duh”, but I think these comments are missing the point. Consider an alternate possibility: “sales of Apple’s new ARM macs outpaced by older models”. Had Apple not knocked M1 out of the park, this was a real possibility. Is it surprising that a well executed architecture change is now selling well? Not really. But the more interesting point is that the rest of the market a…

6502 -> 680x0 -> PPC601 -> x86_64 -> ARMv8.5 (Apple M1) Apple has a long, long history of pulling off well executed architecture changes. If you are a Apple computer shopper then you would know by now that by the time they release a new architecture, internally, that platform has long been retired for their internal users. It would have been an even bigger headline if Apple released the M1 and it didn't live up to ex…

6502 was only used in the Apple II and MacOS never ran Apple II software on its 68k processor, so it doesn't really belong in that list.
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