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Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

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Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#161
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beat me to it!

Also probably worth dividing PPC into the 32-bit architectures (601, 603, G3, G4) and 64-bit architectures (G5), although the PowerPC architecture did that transition in such a civilized manner that it wasn't really traumatic. In some ways the jump from the 601 (Power-ish) to 603 (true PowerPC) was bigger than the jump from the G4 to the G5.

They also never fully went 64-bit on PPC, so there was never really a transition there, just some 64-bit machines that could do some slightly different things and I don't think there was ever a full 64-bit version of OS X for PPC. So there weren't any huge painful breaks.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current lineup has too little RAM for many dev-tasks. Like running multiple docker containers, or developing in a ram-hungry language (java+intellij), or running emulators (mobile dev). If the next MBP16 lineup with M1 (M2?) supports 32+ GBs of RAM other vendors will have to step up their game, though.

> running emulators (mobile dev) 16GiB is insufficient for mobile? iPhone SE has 3GiB and 12 has 6GiB. That is less than half your M1 RAM. How much more does the emulator consume?

I'm not a mobile developer, but between docker, my IDE, Chrome, and whatever other crap I've got running on my 16 GB MBP, I'm using 14.8 GB of RAM and 20 GB of swap.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#163
post #66
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually, at some point, begrudgingly. People held on to their 2015 15" MBPs for as long as they could because they didn't like the upgrade paths. The 16" was well received and helped fix that. The M1 laptops were incredibly well received and people are excitedly jumping on them instead of feeling forced.

*are holding onto My 2015 MBP is still going strong and Apple support were even pretty great at helping when I did have one issue, even though they classify it as Vintage. But you're totally right, I'm really impressed by the M1 and am just holding out for the M1X to upgrade.

Another 2015MBP stalwart here. I wasn't planning on upgrading to an ARM Mac.

I use BootCamp (daily lately, since we're in lockdown and it's snowing) for gaming on Windows with an eGPU. Neither of which are supported on the M1.

I'm considering selling my eGPU and just building a gaming PC (the M3 will likely be out by the time I pull trig though :/), but it was nice to have 1 machine do it all (work + play), especially since I didn't need the eGPU to play some couch co-op games (Cuphead, Castle Crashers, very cottage-friendly!)

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of those who got an M1 mac recently are aware of what exactly that means, besides that it's new and fast. I could imagine a large part of those sales to fall into the "I need a new computer, I'll get another Macbook Air" category. Those buyers wouldn't have much reason to care anyway; I guess you'd have to do pretty specialized work to really notice a big difference besides "cool" and "fast".

I'm using an M1 MacBook Air right now. It's more nuanced than speed. That thing's responses are insane. It's an insanely fast computer which wakes up like an iPhone and has an endurance like a vintage, entry level Nokia phone. It's ready to work before I finish opening up the screen and, they forgot to tell the battery that it needs to deplete after some time. It doesn't matter for ordinary people to know all the coo…

I've had top of the line Intel/Windows laptops since the dawn of time, and the latency and responsiveness of my Air destroys them all. Simply navigating through the OS is crisp as is dealing with apps.

My XPS always had tiny bits of lag here and there, enough so that I hated using it. I hated doing any intensive work with it because the fans were annoying. My Air completely stomps it in speed and is silent while doing it.

Surfing with Safari is noticeably faster than on any other computer I have, even my much more powerful Ryzen 3700. Even my Ipad Air 4 is much faster than any browser on my Ryzen machine.

Rosetta 2 just works.

Compare the M1 Air to the new ARM Surface (which is 50% more expensive), and you see how far behind MS is. Their ARM cpu is 5 years out of date, and their x86>ARM translation software is flat out broken. Keep in mind MS has been fiddling with ARM devices, so they have zero excuse for being so far behind.

I'm not a platform evangelist, but Apple is firing on all cylinders and nailing execution across the board. MS seems disinterested in software, and Intel is lost at sea.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some ways, it reminds me of the Intel transition in that regular consumers might not have been aware that this move was coming until they saw it in front of their eyes. I often see that transition dated to 2006 at MacWorld, but the reality is that it was previewed at WWDC the previous year and there was only a minor spec bump to - I think - one model before the iMacs appeared to kick things off. On a related note,…

Regular people also don't really understand much about how cars work, and they love that modern ones start with the push of a button and that they don't have to fiddle with the carburetor or the choke to get it going.

I understand how both work and I LOVE both push button starting modern cars and computing appliances. I'd rather have an iPad and all the extra time it saves me to learn new things than fuddle with a desktop PC. Just like owning a Tesla will save me time vs owning/repairing an older car.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#166
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It is sooner than you think. You won't be the M1 early adopters in 2020 that had their software break in front of them this time when getting an M1X or M2 device this year. Not only it will be a lot faster thanks to it being possibly going down to 4nm, the software ecosystem will be much improved and supported by it from day 0. You will thank me later.

Do we know if the silicon shortages will affect the M2 or what comes after? I wonder if they booked enough volume with TSMC to get to 4nm or whatever the next process shrink is or if they will be trying to shove M1s into everything.

AFAIK the silicon shortages (of high end nodes) are partly because Apple has all the capacity (which they have because they're swimming in cash and have high margins and thus have been able to outbid everyone else).

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using an M1 MacBook Air right now. It's more nuanced than speed. That thing's responses are insane. It's an insanely fast computer which wakes up like an iPhone and has an endurance like a vintage, entry level Nokia phone. It's ready to work before I finish opening up the screen and, they forgot to tell the battery that it needs to deplete after some time. It doesn't matter for ordinary people to know all the coo…

Could someone comment why the response times are faster? Is it entirely a question of which CPU is used or does it have to do with something else?

Apple is now able to codesign the software and hardware top to bottom. I have no inside knowledge but using one of these things it's basically obvious what's going on. They only have to write drivers for their own hardware, and for their own GUI library. So I think they've been really aggressive about making the interactions low friction.

It's not just that the hardware is fast. It's that the sort of hitches, pauses, etc that we're used to are just gone. They've made the way the software and hardware interact a nearly perfectly smooth racetrack. They've done this to such a degree that it must have been a very overt high level goal.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#168
post #49
post #13

M1 is amazing and I bought my partner one and she loves it. However, when it came to buying a new engineer on our team a laptop, we had to go with the last 2020 Intel model. We still have some uncertainty over whether or not our development tools/environment will work on M1. Many python packages will take longer to install I imagine (if there are no wheels for the M1 mac, not sure if that's an issue) and I suspect so…

As an engineer on an M1, I have to say you made the right choice. Half the stuff that I try to work on is just straight up broken, especially Python/AI related tools. I have to switch to my Linux laptop regularly to get anything done. I've wasted days just trying to get certain dev tools working.

Apple should really hire a couple smart devs to just focus 100% on getting working M1 wheels on PIP for all the most popular Python libraries (same for conda forge). Seems like a no-brainer given their dominance in laptops for software developers. I'm sure the community would just do it on its own, but if they can speed up the process by 6 months they will be able to sell enough extra units to pay for the devs.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#169
post #14

I see a myriad of comments that boil down to “duh”, but I think these comments are missing the point. Consider an alternate possibility: “sales of Apple’s new ARM macs outpaced by older models”. Had Apple not knocked M1 out of the park, this was a real possibility. Is it surprising that a well executed architecture change is now selling well? Not really. But the more interesting point is that the rest of the market a…

I wonder how many of those who got an M1 mac recently are aware of what exactly that means, besides that it's new and fast. I could imagine a large part of those sales to fall into the "I need a new computer, I'll get another Macbook Air" category. Those buyers wouldn't have much reason to care anyway; I guess you'd have to do pretty specialized work to really notice a big difference besides "cool" and "fast".

I bought a Macbook Air M1 a few months ago. It does not take specialized work to notice the difference between this laptop and every other intel based laptop.

The Tinkpad X1 Carbon which I bought multiple time over the years would run hot, make noise and the battery would deplete fast when watching youtube videos. Before M1 this was just normal laptop behavior and the X1 is a great laptop. With the M1 though, it's now been 2 hours of watching youtube and you're at 95% in a perfect silence and the laptop is cool to the touch.

Also I don't find a Macbook Air to be "cool". To me it feels mainstream just because it's an obvious choice.

Re: Apple Now Selling More M1 Macs Than Intel-Based Models, Says Tim Cook

#170
post #84
post #14

I see a myriad of comments that boil down to “duh”, but I think these comments are missing the point. Consider an alternate possibility: “sales of Apple’s new ARM macs outpaced by older models”. Had Apple not knocked M1 out of the park, this was a real possibility. Is it surprising that a well executed architecture change is now selling well? Not really. But the more interesting point is that the rest of the market a…

6502 -> 680x0 -> PPC601 -> x86_64 -> ARMv8.5 (Apple M1) Apple has a long, long history of pulling off well executed architecture changes. If you are a Apple computer shopper then you would know by now that by the time they release a new architecture, internally, that platform has long been retired for their internal users. It would have been an even bigger headline if Apple released the M1 and it didn't live up to ex…

And to add to the growing list of CPU transitions, don’t forget the NeXT heritage which included its own support of Motorola, Intel, PA-RISC and SPARC
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