Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#31

Post by Hamuko » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:44 AM UTC

tpmx wrote: post #9

zarzavat wrote: post #2

They are overpriced to the extent that I am discouraged to even buy a MBP now because I would have to baby it so much given the absurd price tag. It would just end up sitting on a desk for its entire life, and at that point I might as well buy a Mac mini.

Baseline models are relatively affordable but they charge about 5x more for memory and storage than the prices of corresponding PC parts. That's been their trick for decades but it seems like the multiplier has been getting higher lately? $800 + tax for a 2TB SSD is insane.

The base prices have also gone up. Base M1 MacBook Air was about 1100€ new and could even be found for pretty good discounts (I bought one new for 880€). But the base M2 MacBook Air is 1400€.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#32

Post by drooopy » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:45 AM UTC

In my case, I feel that Apple has priced itself out of the EU market with the latest Macs and iDevices. The new base M2 Air begins at €1500 after taxes which is genuinely an absurd amount of money to ask for a device that comes with 8 GB and 256 GB of non-replaceable ram and ssd respectively. The cheapest iPhone 14 starts at a bit over €1000. My plan is to keep my entry-level M1 Air for a few more years and then I'm replacing it with a Framework laptop.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#33

Post by capableweb » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:45 AM UTC

pigsty wrote: post #30

The dollar is insanely strong right now and global Mac prices raised in accordance with that. In places that don’t use USD, prices shot up by tens of percent overnight while the US prices are the same as ever. Japan, for example, got a price increase of about 40% on all items. Unsurprisingly, sales declined.

Also, inflation is increasing quickly almost everywhere, buying the latest and greatest MacBook has always been a luxury purchase for most of the people, so obviously less people do it when the economy doesn't do very well.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#34

Post by Drunken_Founder » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:45 AM UTC

sfpotter wrote: post #8

Too bad we can’t try to focus on building people computers that last decades.

My PC from 2013 still has all of the components working except for the AMD GPU that got fried mainly due to a problem with my power supply.

The i7 is still going strong, brings back memories considering that at the time it was the latest generation of i7's and I was one of the first to buy it from my town according to the people working there.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#35

Post by kevinherron » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:46 AM UTC

I doubt this is about price like some people in here are suggesting.

Maybe a little bit overall market trend, but primarily I would wager it’s because many, many people bought the M1 when it came out and it’s so good that the only people buying M2 are those who waited - it’s a fine spec bump, but not something you would be tempted to upgrade from M1 for.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#36

Post by izacus » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:46 AM UTC

I was just buying a laptop for my family and the prices of MacBooks here in Europe are utterly crazy.

The crappiest 8GB RAM (?!) 256SSD M2 Air model is 1650EUR. 1650EUR for a laptop that won't have enough ram to run the browser in two years.

The 16GB model is rounded 2000EUR, which was before reserved for a high-end gaming laptops. It's bonkers.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#37

Post by Hamuko » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:46 AM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #33

pigsty wrote: post #30

The dollar is insanely strong right now and global Mac prices raised in accordance with that. In places that don’t use USD, prices shot up by tens of percent overnight while the US prices are the same as ever. Japan, for example, got a price increase of about 40% on all items. Unsurprisingly, sales declined.

Also, inflation is increasing quickly almost everywhere, buying the latest and greatest MacBook has always been a luxury purchase for most of the people, so obviously less people do it when the economy doesn't do very well.

Especially if they bought one during the PC buying frenzy in 2020.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#38

Post by hoseja » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:47 AM UTC

GoToRO wrote: post #13

GeekyBear wrote: post #5

Given the state of the PC market it would be shocking if Mac sales were not also affected. >The PC market has experienced its largest decline ever, according to analyst Gartner. Preliminary results by Gartner shows that worldwide PC shipments totalled 65.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022, a 28.5% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2021. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252529126/PC-industry-se...

People forgot that everybody bought computers in order to attend online classes and wfh?

When line go up then line must go even more up in the next quarter.

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#39

Post by summarity » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:47 AM UTC

qprofyeh wrote: post #3

My M1 MBP is built and still performing so well, it’s going to last at least 3 more years. Unless Apple integrates a new accelerated ML chip next year that’s going to revolutionize the way we’re able to train and interact with small, specialized AI models in macOS.

ANE saw an improvement from M1 to M2, but I’m hoping for a more significant one for M3

Re: Apple halted M2 chip production in January amid 'plummeting' Mac sales

#40

Post by izacus » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 11:48 AM UTC

auggierose wrote: post #11

zarzavat wrote: post #2

They are overpriced to the extent that I am discouraged to even buy a MBP now because I would have to baby it so much given the absurd price tag. It would just end up sitting on a desk for its entire life, and at that point I might as well buy a Mac mini.

Buy yourself Apple Care+ for your MBP. No need to baby it.

Oh, so pay extra on top of already absurd price...