Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
1–10 of 409 posts
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#2I had 16GB on my windows PC and was having trouble building our Unity project.
Turns out we now require at least 32GB to build the project, but I just upgraded all the way to 64 because it was so cheap.
btw, if you are wondering, Unity will just hang forever during the build process of you don't have enough ram.
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#3Having an 8GB version makes it more accessible. Apple could just stop selling it and the complaint about there being a $200 upgrade would no longer be valid.
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#4Another version of what Bill Gates said: '640K software is all the memory anybody would ever need on a computer.'.
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#5Having an 8GB version makes it more accessible. Apple could just stop selling it and the complaint about there being a $200 upgrade would no longer be valid.
That's not the only other alternative.
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#6I had 16GB on my windows PC and was having trouble building our Unity project. Turns out we now require at least 32GB to build the project, but I just upgraded all the way to 64 because it was so cheap. btw, if you are wondering, Unity will just hang forever during the build process of you don't have enough ram.
You can always add more swap. /s
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#7Having an 8GB version makes it more accessible. Apple could just stop selling it and the complaint about there being a $200 upgrade would no longer be valid.
I think thay the complain here is more that it comes with 8GB of RAM and less that the upgrade costs 200$. Apple fans are people for whom the money are usually not a problem.
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#88GB is still good enough for office workers and students. Heck, I used an M1 8GB Air for 1 year as a dev. Although I wish I had more RAM, it still served me well.
For $899 (on sale sometimes), the 8GB M2 Air is absolutely a steal. The screen quality, thinness, battery life, build quality, SoC, quietness, coolness, metal enclosure, touchpad, and speakers are simply unmatched by anything in the PC world at that price - sometimes any price. Those things cost Apple money. Other PC makers cheap out on them. In order for Apple to earn higher margins, they make the RAM and storage upgrades very expensive. So the base versions actually offer great values. It's the upgraded RAM/storage that decreases the value but still good value overall considering what you're getting.
I understand why 8GB is still the base. Everything except the RAM is outstanding and unmatched. Apple makes the money on RAM and storage upgrades.
Perhaps Apple will start at 12GB for M4 generation. Perhaps the arrival of local LLMs will skyrocket RAM upgrade demand such that Apple can start the base at 16GB and still have plenty of people who want to upgrade to 32GB. The problem for Apple will always be if they can increase the base without hurting upgrade profit.
On a slightly related note: $/GB for RAM hit a wall starting in 2011. https://assets.ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/historical...
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#9This will excerbate the problem with electronic waste by shortening the useful life
Apple should be more serious about their environmental commitments
Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it
#10Having an 8GB version makes it more accessible. Apple could just stop selling it and the complaint about there being a $200 upgrade would no longer be valid.
They should stop selling 8GB configs, but they shouldn't hike the price by $200 to do it. They'd make the same margin dollars (though not percentage) if they hiked the base prices by $40 and bumped them all to 16GB. But obviously this is Apple we're talking about, and they've been playing these cynical margin games with their customers for 30+ years.