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Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

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Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#131

Post by LastTrain »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #60
bigyabai wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they could use that same amount of memory to ship 64x Macbook Neos, and probably make higher margins off the hardware volume. Those Macbook Neo users would be very reliant on Apple intelligence, enough maybe to pay for a service with it. I think Apple's much happier going this path.

> Or they could use that same amount of memory to ship 64x Macbook Neos, and probably make higher margins off the hardware volume If it's an "or," absolutely. But if it's an or, they should be prioritising Macbooks over the Mac Mini Doug Brooks is discussing. When we breach the "and" of memory supply sufficient to allow for more Mac minis (and Mac Studios), I think it would make sense to consider relaunching Xserve (…

If we reach the and, then they can no longer demand the price

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#132

Post by curt15 »

throw1234567891 wrote: post #85
boredatoms wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but like running linux hopefully

so you have invent unified memory for linux first because that’s the limitation today

Or just buy a MI300A server like https://www.servethehome.com/gigabyte-g383-r80-aap1-amd-inst...

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#133

Post by throw1234567891 »

curt15 wrote: post #132
throw1234567891 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so you have invent unified memory for linux first because that’s the limitation today

Or just buy a MI300A server like https://www.servethehome.com/gigabyte-g383-r80-aap1-amd-inst...

"Just". And then GPUs, and RAM? And cooling? Will you really appreciate it when sitting right next to it?

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#134

Post by gizajob »

bigyabai wrote: post #32
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me clarify, I think Apple could sell a device at the scale Apple sells at around the $10 to 25 thousand price point. Like, take out the price sheets for the Apple Car. Then sell me an AI tower at those price points.

Or they could use that same amount of memory to ship 64x Macbook Neos, and probably make higher margins off the hardware volume. Those Macbook Neo users would be very reliant on Apple intelligence, enough maybe to pay for a service with it. I think Apple's much happier going this path.

They could do both though. The margin from one user buying a $25000 is sky high compared to sixty kids all with the cheapest computer possible.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#135

Post by gizajob »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #68
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cannot imagine a personal computing usage which can justify a 10k machine For me, the privacy pitch wins. I have a friend visiting, however, who spends like $2,400 with Anthropic every year. That's a solid ROI even if the thing becomes obsolete after a couple years. (I'm still on my 2020 MacBook Pro. I love it and will be sad when I have to replace it.)

> That's a solid ROI even if the thing becomes obsolete after a couple years. How can that be a solid return on investment? There's no model you can run locally to have frontier model level performance. Also who spends 2.4k yearly for personal AI usage, like what's the usecase? If your friend is spending that money for his business then it's not personal computing.

People with money and things to do. People spend $100+ a month on coffee without even blinking.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#136

Post by Mistletoe »

lanyard-textile wrote: post #122
sajithdilshan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's a solid ROI even if the thing becomes obsolete after a couple years. How can that be a solid return on investment? There's no model you can run locally to have frontier model level performance. Also who spends 2.4k yearly for personal AI usage, like what's the usecase? If your friend is spending that money for his business then it's not personal computing.

That's the $200/mo subscription -- not uncommon :) I do the $100/mo for myself, then about ~$200/mo for startup.

Do you use it for work? I can’t imagine paying this myself for personal use. I just don’t see the benefits vs. the free models available to me.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#137

Post by gizajob »

huragok wrote: post #45
dracotomes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what what George Hotz is doing over at tiny? https://tinycorp.myshopify.com/

Yes, but for inference. 45k is so far out of the budget of a professional unless you earn ridiculous money and have no dependents.

A professional AI engineer? Earning hundreds of thoundands of dollars a year?

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#138

Post by gizajob »

onion2k wrote: post #7

Running models on-device on a Mac is immensely annoying though. Figuring out what will work out of BF16, FP8, BF16+FP8, NVFP4, INT8, GGUF ... the list goes on ... is 'non-obvious' at best. Apple do little to support with tooling. There's MLX, but unless you're happy to transform a model to that format yourself you'll be lagging a long way behind. Apps like LMStudio, Ollama, Draw Things, etc do a great job of simplify…

How is it a pain exactly? It’s just learning and only takes a day or two to get up to speed. We seem to have forgotten that for the past fifty years doing all kinds of tasks on computers has been tedious and involved and time consuming to even get working. My first computer had 48kb of RAM and to play a game you had to load it off cassette for five minutes. That was annoying. Having LM Studio download a model and load so you can chat or attach an agent it is effortless and easy in comparison.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#139

Post by mrbnprck »

pjmlp wrote: post #66
chvid wrote: post #35

I don’t understand why they are not reintroducing the Apple Xserve?

Because they killed the market, no one would now buy a macOS server, when Linux distributions, and to a lesser extent FreeBSD, own the server room. They would even sell less than Windows Server licenses. By the way, they are down the same path with the workstation market, now that they only top level answer is the Mac Studio. Workstation market wants flexible towers that they can customise to their own liking and spe…

At the same time Apple made remotely hosting a Mac much easier.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#140

Post by api »

Apple could dominate this niche if they decided, for a while until prices fall, to eat some margin and bump up RAM in high end models. Couple that with a new M series chip with even faster AI performance.

It’s not a huge niche but it’s an influential one. They’d get the engineers and CXOs of AI ventures and a lot of academics and hobbyists.

For the platform it would keep them cemented as the high end vendor. In the long term it would position them to take advantage of any software or training breakthroughs that deliver frontier model performance at that scale.

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