Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#361

Post by layer8 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:05 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #313

slowmotiony wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electronics prices in the EU are simply crazy. Recently i wanted to get a small mini-PC that would be energy efficient and I could run some AI experiments on. Reading online forums, everyone's like "just get a mac mini, couple hundred bucks and you're golden". I check the apple website and turns out they actually cost almost a thousand euro for the 16GB/256GB model. But its the same with a lot of other electronics to…

Is it tariffs or something? Everything in Canada is usually 10-25% more expensive than the US, besides stuff covered under NAFTA. Consumer things like clothes/electronics are usually the biggest victims. But I just compared the Apple stores and the base Macbook = $999USD vs $1299CAD, doing pure currency conversion $1299CAD = $965.96USD, so it's technically ~$32USD cheaper in Canada? Probably just out-of-step with cur…

It’s mostly the Euro having weakened vis-à-vis the USD, plus some very minor components like private-copying levy. European prices are usually listed including sales tax, which can make them appear higher compared to the US list prices which don’t include tax.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#362

Post by lloydatkinson » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:05 PM UTC

Got about a quarter of the way down and then a full screen pop up appeared telling me something about the wind being fake. Closed and didn’t bother reading the rest.

The modern internet is a joke.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#363

Post by dalyons » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:05 PM UTC

drooopy wrote: post #271

filereaper wrote: post #263

Its absurd that Apple decided adding a direct port for a second monitor needs a "Pro" MacBook. My sister was given a M2 and had to use external dongles which then needed DisplayLink to be installed. None of this is necessary.

100%. An SD card slot and a video out port are not pro features. A typical college freshman will need both of those, regardless of their discipline. In fact, my entry level, 13" MacBook Air had those a decade ago.

Very few people use SD cards these days, with the massive decline in camera usage.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

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Post by YurgenJurgensen » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:05 PM UTC

mgraupner wrote: post #123

baq wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is equally dumb for a Pro as 8GB for a non-pro at this price .

It would be ok if the upgrades would not be so freakishly expensive. RAM is on an all-time low, still Apple wants 460€ !!! for 16 GB RAM more here in Europe.

The worst thing about that upgrade pricing is that you know it’s basically pure profit for Apple. Sure, there’s an Apple tax that gets you build quality, aesthetics, better iOS integration, no OS licensing etc, but that’s already been priced into base model. RAM and SSD upgrades are just priced like Diet Coke in a fancy restaurant.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

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Post by donkeyd » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:06 PM UTC

senttoschool wrote: post #332

donkeyd wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost exactly 2 years ago, I bought an M1 Air for €1050. That same M1 Air is still being sold by that same store, but now costs €1126. That's a 7% rise in price for a laptop that's now 2,5 years old. This is just ridiculous.

Adjust for inflation and exchange rate.

What's the point of that? My mom who walks into a store doesn't adjust for inflation. Her income hasn't been adjusted for inflation, let alone exchange rate.

Many people on HN can probably explain why the price is what it is now. That doesn't mean that people are willing (or capable) to pay that much.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

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Post by p0nce » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:06 PM UTC

KptMarchewa wrote: post #14

M1 generation was so good that it prompted way more users to jump to it; that demand would spread over multiple generations if it was not so good. On the other hand purposefully gimping M1 would gimp ARM adoption. By delivering great performance, they've build up a lot of goodwill - people willingly port their stuff to macs.

M1 was good but macOS is more and more insufferable and buggy.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#367

Post by nonninz » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:06 PM UTC

mattrighetti wrote: post #255

Clubber wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought an M1 MacBook Pro when they came out and I like it a lot. What concerns me about future revisions of the CPU is it will get hotter and the fan will get noisier. One of the best features of the M1 is the fan hardly comes on, and when it does, it's very quiet / low RPM.

I bought an M2 a couple of months ago, coming from an i9 16". Oh boy, I know what it is like to have a hot machine :sigh:. The Intel version was stuck at 70C in idle, which is nuts. I think that that was probably the main reason of the switch.

So the new M2 runs much cooler?

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

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Post by scarface74 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:07 PM UTC

ralfn wrote: post #224

bananapub wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is it weird? Apple states its quarterly results in USD, which is all their investors/media care about, so of course Apple cares enormously about profit/revenue in USD. in addition, much of their design/engineering/management/etc costs are in or coupled to USD.

It makes sense from a tactical point of view. But with the M-line of architecture they had the strategic opportunity to burn the competition.

What competition? Just like with phones, Apple is already getting most of the profit from computers. The commodity PC market is not exactly one worth going after.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#369

Post by bhouston » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:07 PM UTC

I suspect this marks the end of the Semiconductor shortage? Now that TSMC isn't backlogged with Apple products they will search out other people's chips to manufacture. Probably a good thing for other people wanting to manufacture 5mn products.

Please Broadcom, send some potential Raspberry Pi 5 chips their way!!!

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

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Post by game_the0ry » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 3:07 PM UTC

drooopy wrote: post #32

In my case, I feel that Apple has priced itself out of the EU market with the latest Macs and iDevices. The new base M2 Air begins at €1500 after taxes which is genuinely an absurd amount of money to ask for a device that comes with 8 GB and 256 GB of non-replaceable ram and ssd respectively. The cheapest iPhone 14 starts at a bit over €1000. My plan is to keep my entry-level M1 Air for a few more years and then I'm…

FWIW, macs are high quality and last a long time.

My wife needed a laptop for class a year ago, so I gave her my old macbook pro 13 i bought in 2014. I also had a macbook air m1 for personal use, which I replaced recently with a macbook pro 14 m1, and planned to give my wife the air. She refuses the air bc she likes the old 13 so much, and she abuses the shit out of it.

How often does a laptop go strong for 9 years? Even the battery life is still ok. I am going to have to force her to consider the air bc the old 13 is a security risk without OS updates.

The only reason why I replaced the old 13 with the air was bc the 13 could not render 4k 60fps on an external display. Otherwise, I would have kept using it.

The old 13 cost me about $1600 USD new (256GB HD, 8 GB ram). Amortize that cost over 9 years and that doesn't seem so bad. Even my iphone 8 is still going strong.

Another anecdote - my current employer gave me a new macbook pro 15 when I started here back in 2017. It took my abuse well and the only reason I am not still using it is bc my employer forced me to upgrade when the m1 pros came out.

You probably won't need to replace your air for like 7 years, or when apple stops updates for your machine.

EDIT - I am surprised I am getting downvoted. You would think more folks on HN would be happy about long lasting products but the anti-apple bias is strong enough to override the concern of having a more sustainable product.