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

macrumors.com

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

#451

Post by Kon5ole »

game_the0ry wrote: post #370
drooopy wrote: post #32

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…

FWIW, macs are high quality and last a long time. My wife needed a laptop for class a year ago, so I gave her my old macbook pro 13 i bought in 2014. I also had a macbook air m1 for personal use, which I replaced recently with a macbook pro 14 m1, and planned to give my wife the air. She refuses the air bc she likes the old 13 so much, and she abuses the shit out of it. How often does a laptop go strong for 9 years?…

>FWIW, macs are high quality and last a long time.

That was also true for older macs, which were cheaper.

I believe that the Apple Silicon macs are the highest-margin macs Apple has ever made, since they no longer have to pay Intel for the CPUs or AMD for the GPUs.

I can see no technical or logistical reason why Apple had to increase prices, and believe it is entirely driven by the idea that the market can bear it.

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

#452

Post by musictubes »

altcognito wrote: post #267
chii wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a mac air is a luxury item, and its pricing reflects that. I don't think it's absurd at all. A similarly capable laptop could be had for a much lower price, so people that complain they cannot get this luxury item for an "affordable" price just sounds entitled to me.

I would love to hear more macOS users admit that their equipment was a status indicator, overpriced for what it is. I’m sure apple is excited about cultivating this brand identity. If there is one way I can think that they could get away from the “Sony” or Nike model, it’s being seen as a luxury item, a tool of the select few, instead of just a high quality brand, that yes, might be a little more expensive. -- Just a…

“I would love to hear more macOS users admit that their equipment was a status indicator, overprices for what it is.”

In other words you would love to hear people confirm your opinion of Apple and and why they use them. Must suck to find out that many, if not most people use macOS machines because they like the performance, the design, and support.

I will never understand people that a) care about why other people buy computers and b) assume that the only reason people choose differently than they do is due to vanity/ignorance/status. Apple is the only company whose success people take personally. Wishing that people would finally admit to being as shallow and status chasing as you know they are is an excellent view into your mindset.

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

#453

Post by marknutter »

t3945234 wrote: post #284
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outside of Peter Zeihan, I'm also utterly surprised that no one even brings up the demographics debate. Everyone has been so indoctrinated on the "we have too many people" propaganda that they haven't even realized how fast birth rates have dropped across the globe (and they're dropping even faster now). The demographics of Europe, China, Japan and S. Korea are all terminal at this point. Outside of UK, France, and t…

The United States total fertility rate (1.8 as of 2022) isn't that much different than a large chunk of Europe. Per this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_d... * France, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland: 1.8 * Iceland, Czech Republic, UK, Latvia, Netherlands, Belgium, Lithuania, Norway: 1.7 * Romania, Slovenia, Estonia, Albania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, Austria: 1.6 Yes, there's som…

All of those birthrates are terminal, technically.

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

#454

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

drooopy wrote: post #32

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…

The amount of people that do almost nothing beside use spreadsheets, the browser, and email is pretty significant.

The fact that these people keep updating devices constantly is a testament to Apple's marketing.

I would be astounded if ~80% of users get any material benefit from a laptop newer than a high-end device from 4 years ago.

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

#455

Post by piyh »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #444

I’m using a Macbook Air from like 2011 and it has basically the same specs as their current lineup in terms of memory etc. So why would I pay £2000 for the current one?

It has the same memory capacity, and maybe number of keys on the keyboard, but I feel like your "etc" is doing too much heavy lifting to try to make those comparable.

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

#456

Post by jcfrei »

alchemist1e9 wrote: post #74
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.

> The dollar is insanely strong right now This is a bigger story that isn’t being told properly often. The recent BRICS currency move is about them panicking over increasing dollar global dominance. Checking recently I can’t find any major currency that is up against the dollar over last 10 years. US productivity is running away from the rest of the planet is another variable and with rapid on shoring of numerous ind…

You seem to be conflating some issues here: On one hand the strong dollar has held back the US economy because it made it less competitive with lets say German exports (which are sold in euro). On the other hand the strong dollar has been great for the US consumer (cheaper to import stuff) and for the government: Easier to refinance their debt and buy stuff (raw materials, etc.) abroad.

From an economic perspective BRICS (which on a net basis are exporting nations) should really be worried about more dollar weakness. However I think the recent moves away from the dollar are not due to macro economic reasons but due to political ones instead. The confrontation between Russia and the West made these states realize that having dollars (or euros) can quickly turn into a liability: If they do something the US or EU doesn't like then their funds will just be frozen.

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

#457

Post by layer8 »

wkat4242 wrote: post #427
layer8 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s mostly the Euro having weakened vis-à-vis the USD, plus some very minor components like private-copying levy. European prices are usually listed including sales tax, which can make them appear higher compared to the US list prices which don’t include tax.

The euro is above the dollar again so that point doesn't really fly anymore.

Apple only adjusts the prices once per year per product, at most.

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

#458

Post by brundolf »

> Facing "plummeting" Mac sales amid a severe PC market downturn

> The suspension is said to have continued through February, after which production of M2 series chips resumed, but they were "only half the level of the previous year," said the Korean-language report, quoting a person familiar with the matter.

[emphasis mine]

So they temporarily paused it for two months in response to a shift in the entire PC market. Headline is pretty clickbaity, this seems like a non-story

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

#459

Post by bushbaba »

TrevorJ wrote: post #304
drooopy wrote: post #32

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…

The prices are bad enough, but what really seals the deal is the forced obsolescence. I have an older macbook that I was trying to upgrade to the newer OS and they make it basically impossible. I struggled for a few days on it, then I just installed ubuntu and it works perfectly. Apple's value proposition seems to be "pay an arm and a leg for something we will break anytime we think you should give us more money."

I have a 2013 MacBook Air that got the latest updates up until recently. Over 7 years of updates. That’s really incredible in my view.

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

#460

Post by layer8 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #434
layer8 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s mostly the Euro having weakened vis-à-vis the USD, plus some very minor components like private-copying levy. European prices are usually listed including sales tax, which can make them appear higher compared to the US list prices which don’t include tax.

> private-copying levy What's that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy
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