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

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

#111
post #13

M1 is amazing and I bought my partner one and she loves it. However, when it came to buying a new engineer on our team a laptop, we had to go with the last 2020 Intel model. We still have some uncertainty over whether or not our development tools/environment will work on M1. Many python packages will take longer to install I imagine (if there are no wheels for the M1 mac, not sure if that's an issue) and I suspect so…

> However, when it came to buying a new engineer on our team a laptop, we had to go with the last 2020 Intel model.

There is no rush into purchasing an M1 for developers since, the software ecosystem at the time (and still to this day) is somewhat immature and not ready. There is plenty of time to switch to Apple Silicon until the ecosystem is mature.

By then, you would not even consider an M1. It might be an M1X, M2, etc. On top of the already existing issues that plague the first generation, the best thing to do for now is to stay on Intel for now. I am long term Apple Silicon, not long term 'M1'.

This is what I have been saying for weeks [0][1] and weeks [2][3] and now just yesterday. [4] I even said it a day after 'launch day'. [5]

Just wait for WWDC or September.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26748321

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26159495

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26361883

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26327064

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26879674

[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25066189

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

#112
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…

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".

You can't really buy an equivalent since Apple focused on price, performance, absolute silence and battery life with virtually no deck flex due to the aluminum unibody.

You can get laptops that can almost match it on price and performance but the responsiveness and battery life is going to be extremely hard (including the MacBook Pro and reviews have stated that you can get it to above 18 hours with light use. Also, the MacBook Air is totally silent with great performance and I can't find many silent laptops at all. The biggest downside to the new M1 Macs are probably that they rely on swapping from RAM to disk but we have to see when those parts will wear out.

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

#113
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…

Almost!

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

First Intel Macs (MacBook Pro) had a Core Duo which was 32 bit. I think Core 2 Duo was delayed and Apple weren't particularly happy about it.

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

#114
post #101
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Beat me to it!

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

#116
The new M1 machines seem cool, and I almost considered grabbing a MacBook or Mac Mini last year, but I'm worried about the complete lack of upgradability.

From my understanding, the older Intel models of some Apple devices at least had some level of upgradability (memory, etc.), but the the memory being on the SoC, I can't buy a cheaper model and hat upgrade it later as I see fit. So if I need something new later, I have to purchase a brand new, expensive machine.

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

#117

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…

I have a Pro Display XDR hooked up to a MacBook Air and the only glitches I have had would be unplugging and plugging in the display while in sleep mode which just requires me to unplug the XDR and plug it back in.

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

#118
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Beat me to it!

Also probably worth dividing PPC into the 32-bit architectures (601, 603, G3, G4) and 64-bit architectures (G5), although the PowerPC architecture did that transition in such a civilized manner that it wasn't really traumatic. In some ways the jump from the 601 (Power-ish) to 603 (true PowerPC) was bigger than the jump from the G4 to the G5.

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

#119
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…

> I'm actually more surprised about the iPad Pro going from the A-series to the M-series

M1 is more or less a "A14X" so that doesn't really surprise me that the iPad Pro would get an -X tier chip.

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

#120
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beat me to it!

Also probably worth dividing PPC into the 32-bit architectures (601, 603, G3, G4) and 64-bit architectures (G5), although the PowerPC architecture did that transition in such a civilized manner that it wasn't really traumatic. In some ways the jump from the 601 (Power-ish) to 603 (true PowerPC) was bigger than the jump from the G4 to the G5.

Good points. Worth noting that PPC -> x86 was a 64 bit to 32 bit transition.

I assume we will soon see ARMv8 -> ARMv9, but that will hardly be noticeable.

I owned the first MacBook Pro but it died before the architecture became an issue :(

Overall Apple should be good at architecture transitions by now as they've done enough of them!

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