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Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

extremetech.com

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Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#181

Post by rvense »

cptskippy wrote: post #40
monkmartinez wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creative class is a lot more than programmers. Look at boutique system integrators like Puget Systems... do you see Apple/ARM Hardware? Heck no you don't! These guys sell hardware to a LOT of the companies that comprise the credits in movie production, game production, laboratories, university science departments, ML researchers, big energy, and soooooo much more. These guys are not rewriting their software stack for…

> Creative class is a lot more than programmers. I'm not sure anyone thinks programmers when they think creative class. That's like saying the professional athlete class is a lot more than just Pokemon Go players...

Isn't creative class just people who make things without consuming raw materials? I think it includes consultants, "knowledge workers", etc. in its original formulation, not just artists.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#182

Post by runeks »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #172
sto_hristo wrote: post #153

Make it as fabulous as much as you want, $1700 for an 8 core, 8 gigs of ram machine is just one plain fabulous joke. This in the time when 16 gigs ram is the baseline if you plan to do anything more than facebook and instagram.

I don't disagree that 8GiB for $1700 machine is absurd, however, I feel compelled to point out that MacOS is significantly more aggressive with memory compression than other operating systems and they come with blazingly fast SSDs, allowing devices to get away with less available memory.

A blazingly fast SSD is excruciatingly slow RAM.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#183

Post by thefz »

iSnow wrote: post #179
sto_hristo wrote: post #153

Make it as fabulous as much as you want, $1700 for an 8 core, 8 gigs of ram machine is just one plain fabulous joke. This in the time when 16 gigs ram is the baseline if you plan to do anything more than facebook and instagram.

I am not sure what the end-game for releasing those under-powered machines is, tbh. I am a bit more extreme in that I am not buying any machine below 32GB given RAM is no longer upgradable, but even if my mom came and asked me about those iMacs, I'd tell her to not buy. It's a shame that Apple is so great at greenwashing and at the same time spits on every way they could help create truly sustainable products by just…

> I am not sure what the end-game for releasing those under-powered machines is, tbh

The lowest and highest tier exist only to shift consumers towards the middle tier, where Apple profits the most and where lies less value for the consumer. It is a marketing strategy invented by Apple IIRC (it's been a long time since my marketing exam).

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#184

Post by sgt101 »

The really smart move is launching the low power consumer version first. This positions the eco-system for the native code where Apple wants it - on apps that run on the mass market devices. The higher power apps can come later and exploit 8 firestorm cores and up.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#185

Post by iSnow »

Heliosmaster wrote: post #168
baq wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thermals would be quite bad for performance here, but the vision is quite appealing.

Isn't basically the same vision Canonical had for Ubuntu Touch/Phone? You carry your (main) computer with you in your pocket. If you're on the go, you use its screen. If at home, you plug it in better screens/inputs peripherals.

I wish they had had the firepower to develop this. I'm not exactly unhappy with Android, but I'd bought that in an instant.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#186

Post by PartiallyTyped »

runeks wrote: post #182
PartiallyTyped wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree that 8GiB for $1700 machine is absurd, however, I feel compelled to point out that MacOS is significantly more aggressive with memory compression than other operating systems and they come with blazingly fast SSDs, allowing devices to get away with less available memory.

A blazingly fast SSD is excruciatingly slow RAM.

I am trying to figure out where I said anything on the contrary.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#187

Post by jeofken »

imtringued wrote: post #163
outside1234 wrote: post #13

x86 is dead - first in consumer, then in cloud. It is hard to see to me how this ends any other way. The creative class (us) will quickly have largely all ARM computers within 4 years. Its not hard to see from there how software will be even more optimized for ARM variants than x86 and that the scale of both mobile and consumer computing will push x86 out of the datacenter slowly as old software that relies on x86 is…

>Tell me how I am wrong. It's already difficult enough to get Windows games to run on Linux, getting them to run on ARM with good performance isn't going to happen, especially when every ARM vendor insists on using an integrated GPU.

If your CI system builds for x86 and ARM from the first build, it will be simple to ship to both. For old games it’d be harder, but one could maybe compile from one ASM to another.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#188

Post by znpy »

runeks wrote: post #182
PartiallyTyped wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree that 8GiB for $1700 machine is absurd, however, I feel compelled to point out that MacOS is significantly more aggressive with memory compression than other operating systems and they come with blazingly fast SSDs, allowing devices to get away with less available memory.

A blazingly fast SSD is excruciatingly slow RAM.

I don't even bother reasoning with apple fans anymore. It's a losing game.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#189

Post by the_duke »

klelatti wrote: post #150

One thing which I don't think has been commented on is the marketing effort behind the M1. It's getting a lot of prominence and its use across lots of computers means that there can be a consistent message that "M1 is great - get a new Mac and get an M1". It also provides an opportunity to distinguish between M1 and the next generation M2 (presumably). I've always thought Intel's marketing was a bit confused - i7 sta…

Yeah the marketing effort is immense, and it's really surprising to me how many eagerly lap up the angle Apple is pushing without much reflection, even on HN. Like the good old Apple hype days.

Now to be fair, the M1 is an impressive iteration on the A* chip line.

But the Ryzen 5000 mobile chips really don't look bad at all in comparison, and a 5nm version of those would level the field.

Re: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

#190

Post by emteycz »

klelatti wrote: post #150

One thing which I don't think has been commented on is the marketing effort behind the M1. It's getting a lot of prominence and its use across lots of computers means that there can be a consistent message that "M1 is great - get a new Mac and get an M1". It also provides an opportunity to distinguish between M1 and the next generation M2 (presumably). I've always thought Intel's marketing was a bit confused - i7 sta…

There's a value in that too - people know immediately that i7 is powerful, and everyone [that cares] already knows that processors are renewed frequently. Though yeah, perhaps something like 7i1, 7i2 would've been better. Apple solved this nicely (given the naming is confirmed) with M1X.
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