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

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

#151

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…

> Most tech companies now provide MacBooks for their employees as a default choice. Depends on your location, bubble and what kind work you do. Where I live now in Europe, companies mostly provide PC laptops with with Windows (vast majority) or sometimes Ubuntu on the same machines, because the bean counters here are far too scroogy to justify to management switching the entire fleet to Macs. Also probably because it…

My company does periodic refreshes of laptops, and we get an option of a Windows PC or a Mac. I do most of my development on cloud-hosted dev boxes, and minimal "local" development (though I do most of my code-reading locally).

The primary reason I switched to selecting a Mac is that it is extremely quiet. The fans rarely turn on in the M1 MBP. There's no coil whine. Back while I was working in the open-plan office, I woudn't notice the noise from the machine next to me over the generally loud office environment with its air handling, people walking by, etc. But while working from home, the near constant fan noise from the Windows machine randomly spiking the CPU to 100% was maddening.

Next time I replace my personal laptop (XPS 13 9370), I'm strongly considering getting a Macbook Air. I really appreciate having a completely silent machine.

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

#152
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or a PC in general: > Global PC shipments tumbled to 56.9 million in the first quarter, down 29% from the same period a year earlier https://www.wsj.com/articles/pc-shipments-fall-29-led-by-dro...

Yeah, that's my bigger worry: that "desktop" (and then "laptop") are going to become niche platforms that only old-timers use. I dread our only-phone future.

Maybe we took our older generation's wisdom for granted.

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

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

$100 with commodity SSD storage. You answered your own question there. Apple doesn't used "commodity" SSD storage. Apple's SSDs are enterprise-grade, not bottom-of-the-barrel commodity parts.

Apple SSDs perform no better than commodity SSDs that cost 20% as much. And Apple is just buying flash chips from someone else. There’s no “apple silicon” equivalent for SSDs.

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

#154
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thinkpad would offer great build quality, although some of that is slipping due to Lenovo’s cost cutting strategies. Unfortunately, today’s Windows OS is spyware, especially Windows 11, so the entire OS needs to be removed, if you want a good machine which fires not constantly send usage data to the Azure mothership, or some 3rd party.

People have being lamenting the death of thinkpad for nearly 20 years. Lenovo purchase in 2005, keyboard changes in 2012, etc It's still here, and still solid

My current Thinkpad T14 is the best laptop I've ever used.

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

#156

It's not just the pandemic shopping spree hangover, Apple's hardware pricing is completely out of the market. $1700-$2500 for a median spec computer? It's ridiculous.

People have been saying this for literal decades. That's not what's causing the drop.

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

#157
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I’ve wanted a MacBook Air since the core 2 duo days but the processor was always too slow and RAM too small. The fanless M1 air was exactly what I’ve wanted for 15 years.

> and RAM too small The current default is 8GB and max is 16GB. It isn’t too high even now considering it’s 2023

I’m the tech guy in my circle and despite my wishes most of my friends and family get the standard 8GB models. Beside one friend that had a crazy memory link, most of them don’t bat an eye. If Safari, Word, and Excel open they don’t mind too much.

8GB is fine at the moment on MacOS. The standard is still 8gb for most non-performance laptops and there are legions and legions of corporate HPs and Dells with 8GBs.

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

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

I know I would, and I dare say most people are the same, prefer to have the option for 3% lower memory bandwidth in exchange for 4x more memory. There’s no justification for Apple’s memory prices.

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

#160
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or a PC in general: > Global PC shipments tumbled to 56.9 million in the first quarter, down 29% from the same period a year earlier https://www.wsj.com/articles/pc-shipments-fall-29-led-by-dro...

Yeah, that's my bigger worry: that "desktop" (and then "laptop") are going to become niche platforms that only old-timers use. I dread our only-phone future.

If you could dock a phone and use it with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and it had all the software you used, whorls you still be worried? Microsoft did this with Continuum in windows phone 10, and iPadOS is trying to grow up to support more multitasking and a keyboard+mouse. It’s not too far of a leap that the iPhone could do the same thing. This would also be a lot cheaper than also purchasing a laptop.
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