Live data from Hacker News

Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

bloomberg.com

61–70 of 367 posts

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#61

I think Apple being as big, and making the big technological leap with M1 convinced a lot of customers to buy the new Macs. Even those that technically weren’t needing one/upgrade. Now, that curiosity bubble has saturated with the M2 being an iterative improvement and the customer base certainly not as desperate (intel to M1). Given enough time, I think the Macs will continue to gain market share. Most tech companies…

Companies usually buy base models. Apple is also struggling with supply chain, as M1 is still prominent. Another feature of this issue is that because of their parsimonious storage configuration and linkage of M2 chip and storage, upgrades are nuts - it costs as much as an iPhone to get a storage upgrade that is like $100 with commodity SSD storage.

>upgrades are nuts - it costs as much as an iPhone to get a storage upgrade that is like $100 with commodity SSD storage.

I generally agree that Apple's SSD and RAM upgrades are too expensive. I'd like them to be cheaper.

However, I'd like to point out that Apple's SSDs have built-in protection against data-loss from power loss which is usually an enterprise SSD feature. Also, Apple uses LPDDR5 on their Macs which are quite a bit more expensive than DDR4/DDR5. In addition, there's some evidence that Apple's LPDDR5 is actually not off the shelf and is specialized specifically for Apple.[0]

That said, yea I think Apple is a bit stingy with SSD and RAM upgrades.

[0]https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/24gb-macbook-air-m2-ram...

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> M2's performance increases did not knock it out of the park. I can't understand where people got their idea that M2 had to absolutely be an OMG moment. That's literally what Apple has been doing since forever: release a major upgrade, iterate on it for a few years, repeat. > Ideally, we should be on M3 right now. M1 was released in November 2020, less than three years ago . How the hell are we supposed to be on M3…

> I can't understand where people got their idea that M2 had to absolutely be an OMG moment. That's literally what Apple has been doing since forever: release a major upgrade, iterate on it for a few years, repeat. Maybe not so much that people were expected to get their socks knocked off once again but mostly that M1 Max/Pro are more than enough for years to come for the majority of the people that got them. Heck, I…

That everyone already got their M1s is the main reason for sales slump in my opinion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35510795

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#63

I think Apple being as big, and making the big technological leap with M1 convinced a lot of customers to buy the new Macs. Even those that technically weren’t needing one/upgrade. Now, that curiosity bubble has saturated with the M2 being an iterative improvement and the customer base certainly not as desperate (intel to M1). Given enough time, I think the Macs will continue to gain market share. Most tech companies…

I use iPhones for the “cuz it just works” factor, and with those M chips, I am tempted to make the switch from Windows PCs

These days laptop PCs are unreliable across most brands I have tried and supplied with crapware and the operating system is hostile and forces stuff like OneDrive on you and begs you not to install Chrome.

Last 2 years over 2 devices:

Broken screen (not due to external)

Touchscreen not working

Lid came apart

Audio stops working while windows uodates pending

Laptop stopped turning on

With the latest device I got all the extended warrantees and accidental damage coverage as the pot odds made it worth paying 33% of the device price over 3 years.

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#65

How many people actually need the perf of an M1 or M2-based laptop? I see a lot of excited stuff about running ML models on Apple silicon, but not much about how it benefits ordinary tech users running compile workloads or whatever, and nothing at all about people running standard applications. The hardware is great, I'm just not convinced that the price/performance delivers a big enough market.

> How many people actually need the perf of an M1 or M2-based laptop?

Think of it as an investment. If it's tour personal laptop, you can buy a maxed-out M1/M2 and use it for the next decade (while throwing random shit at it like the occasional video editing, or streaming, or a side project...)

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't understand where people got their idea that M2 had to absolutely be an OMG moment. That's literally what Apple has been doing since forever: release a major upgrade, iterate on it for a few years, repeat. That's right. That's part of the reason why sales fell so drastically. > M1 was released in November 2020, less than three years ago. How the hell are we supposed to be on M3 now? There is a lot of evidenc…

[flagged]

* An Apple executive said recently that they want to release a huge upgrade every year. They don't want to hold back.[0]

* M1 used A14. M2 used A15 (even though A16 was already out). This seems to suggest that Apple wants to make use of every A series iteration. The A series gets a new gen every year.

* It seems to make sense business-wise that the base M will at least get upgraded once a year. It isn't too much more effort since the iPhone funds most of the development. The base M chip goes into the following: Macbook Air 13", Macbook Air 15"(expected to come out in a few months), iPad Pro 13", iPad Pro 11", iMac, Mac Mini, iPad Air. It's valuable to update these devices once a year.

* We weren't in "normal" years. Covid, supply chain issues, work from home, gigantic demand followed by demand collapse likely contributed to delays.

[0]https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/06/apple-execs-on-m2-chips-wi...

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#67

I think Apple being as big, and making the big technological leap with M1 convinced a lot of customers to buy the new Macs. Even those that technically weren’t needing one/upgrade. Now, that curiosity bubble has saturated with the M2 being an iterative improvement and the customer base certainly not as desperate (intel to M1). Given enough time, I think the Macs will continue to gain market share. Most tech companies…

This makes sense. Amongst my friends, a number of them maxed out an M1 machine not just because of the processor but also because of the improved I/O and new form factor. The M1 machine ticked so many boxes that the purchase decision was not solely pushed by the CPU. The machines are so good it’s hard to justify a new one!

Same here. I maxed out the M1 14” MacBook Pro as soon as it came out. It was a huge upgrade in every way. The M2s look great, but the only real difference is a slight bump in horsepower.

I’ll wait a release or two before upgrading. Apple haven’t lost an M2 sale because they’ve done anything wrong, they’ve guaranteed an M3 or M4 sale because they nailed it. It’ll take a while for that success to show up in their books though.

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#68
post #14

I'd be interested in a Mac once Linux is viable on it. OSX feels outright hostile to power users at this point.

I've used Macbooks as my primary system since 2008. No idea what you're about.

Though there is one decidedly hostile decision: effing XCode Commandline Tools.

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#69

I think Apple being as big, and making the big technological leap with M1 convinced a lot of customers to buy the new Macs. Even those that technically weren’t needing one/upgrade. Now, that curiosity bubble has saturated with the M2 being an iterative improvement and the customer base certainly not as desperate (intel to M1). Given enough time, I think the Macs will continue to gain market share. Most tech companies…

I use iPhones for the “cuz it just works” factor, and with those M chips, I am tempted to make the switch from Windows PCs These days laptop PCs are unreliable across most brands I have tried and supplied with crapware and the operating system is hostile and forces stuff like OneDrive on you and begs you not to install Chrome. Last 2 years over 2 devices: Broken screen (not due to external) Touchscreen not working Li…

Which devices gave you such trouble?

Re: Apple’s plunge in PC shipments is steepest among major computer makers

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why a bad idea?

I've been using a Mac M1 for over a year at work because my company likes Mac. I particularly would love to have Windows as an option. I feel that everything is just a little harder and slower in MacOS vs Windows - one very obvious and memorable problem is the massive installation times for OS updates. Overall, as a result of a number of annoyances here and there, I'm less productive with a Mac despite its great hard…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN