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

#531

Post by ornornor » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:18 PM UTC

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.

Except when they’re not and Apple tries very hard to bury the problem while the machine is still relevant, so your choices are either to pay for (expensive) repairs out of pocket or dump it and buy a different model. Then years later once the machine is obsolete for most, will they finally give in and offer a free repair to the lucky ones who have been left holding these hot potatoes of a defective model. Not every time though, sometimes they just won’t accept responsibility at all, ever.

See the GPU issues, the battery issues, the butterfly keyboards, the yellow tinted panels…

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

#532

Post by newaccount74 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:18 PM UTC

ErneX wrote: post #75

And I’m stuck waiting for an M2 Max (or better!) desktop computer that Apple for some reason refuses to sell for now. Mac Studio should have been updated to M2 already imo.

Apple rarely updates their entire Mac line at once. Their higher end machines often go years between updates.

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

#533

Post by mulmen » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

droopyEyelids wrote: post #530

mulmen wrote: post #509

After the last five years of MacOS releases I have no idea why I would buy a Mac. The software is Windows levels of garbage. At this point I honestly think GNU/Linux is the best desktop operating system. I don't care about the hardware when the OS is straight up trash. They even broke decades old keyboard shortcuts. This is Digg levels of self-ownage. At this point Apple is anti-user and especially anti-developer. Th…

I know a comment like this is more about you expressing your emotions than making a coherent point, and I agree there are things to dislike about MacOS. But have you actually used windows lately? The windows that forces tabloid headlines into your start menu? Apple is a long way from putting tabloid headlines into Spotlight results

Yes, I have used Windows recently. MacOS barely manages to be the less bad option, but is still essentially useless.

"We don't put ads in your desktop search" is an incredibly low bar. Apple can't do that because Spotlight is too busy reindexing itself again, for some reason. It's embarrassing.

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

#534

Post by bombcar » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

shrx wrote: post #513

geodel wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly right. This assumption that physical goods can cost about same all across the world is hilarious. Tax policies, interest rates, inflation, exchange rates, local laws etc..etc cause so many things make items priced differently across geographies.

Funny how it happens to be the cheapest in the US, huh

As the other posted mentioned, but also the US works damn hard to make sure we get our fill of cheap shit to keep us content and happy. There are tons of things that we literally tarrif at 0% that other countries hit much higher.

Add into that things like shipping costs in various areas, and it can all add up.

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

#535

Post by sudosysgen » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

snapcaster wrote: post #160

ricardobayes wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile a lenovo is 800 EUR for a 11th gen i5, 16GB RAM and a 3050ti. As someone with a value investing mindset, I personally can't find the extra value for double the money in macs.

I think "commodity" laptop manufacturers have successfully tricked people into thinking a laptop is a collection of integers (16gb RAM, N core processor, etc) but I have NEVER used a laptop even close to as performant as the m1 and m1 ultra based macbook pros. You really have to experience it to believe it, it literally never lags no matter what or is ever unresponsive regardless of what i'm doing. Not to mention the…

The only difference is that the MacBook Pro has a higher refresh rate and a good SSD. Having used both I assure you a modern "N core" processor with 16gb of RAM, a fast NVMe SSD and a high refresh rate screen feels just as responsive as the latest MacBook Pro.

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

#536

Post by JALTU » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #454

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.

Yup - I was happily doing everything I always do (as above) on my 15" 2012 MBP w/ 16GB memory up until some power chip on the mobo died. It was only lagging a bit w/ certain websites in Chrome. I still have three other Macs from around 2012 working just fine, one being my music server.

So I was asking myself if I "need" the fancy laptop screen and excellent audio of a 14" MBP for $2K (no video production, no graphic design, no VR/AR, but hey, Electron apps all day long!).

Answer is no, clearly. But any Apple Silicon at this point is (hopefully) another ten year machine.

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

#537

Post by goosedragons » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

bmelton wrote: post #480

anthonypasq wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did you ever stop to think that maybe if they bought a $1200 windows machine it would have lasted 4 years. also macs were very early to hop on the ssd train and that was an insane advantage over most windows machines. I think that gap has closed substantially at this point.

> maybe if they bought a $1200 windows machine it would have lasted 4 years Maybe it's different now (I haven't used Windows in decades, so I don't know) but I will say that it never felt that way to me. Perhaps because Apple controls the OS and the hardware, and has the ability to either spend extra time optimizing for older known hardware that falls within a support window or to delay a feature that would be proble…

From a software support perspective macOS is the worst. They don't tell you how long an OS/machine will be supported for they just cut off support whenever they feel like it. So some machines will get 5 years, some 8, it's a roll of the dice. They sort of update N-2 versions but they also don't bring back every bug fix so...

I don't think they spend any real time optimizing for old hardware, for example APFS is just a turd on HDD systems and yet they forced everyone on it and worse yet kept selling HDD iMacs on the low end (which really wasn't that low).

Meanwhile MS announces in advance what the support window will be. With Windows 10 there was barely any difference in requirements from Windows 8 so pretty much everything that wasn't a bottom tier netbook or tablet from 2010 still works fine and is supported until 2025. Meanwhile the 2013 Mac Pro which was an expensive beast and sold until late 2019 won't even get some security updates in 2025.

Linux and the BSDs also announce ahead of time the support period and there's a plethora of options for aging hardware.

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

#538

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

droopyEyelids wrote: post #530

mulmen wrote: post #509

After the last five years of MacOS releases I have no idea why I would buy a Mac. The software is Windows levels of garbage. At this point I honestly think GNU/Linux is the best desktop operating system. I don't care about the hardware when the OS is straight up trash. They even broke decades old keyboard shortcuts. This is Digg levels of self-ownage. At this point Apple is anti-user and especially anti-developer. Th…

I know a comment like this is more about you expressing your emotions than making a coherent point, and I agree there are things to dislike about MacOS. But have you actually used windows lately? The windows that forces tabloid headlines into your start menu? Apple is a long way from putting tabloid headlines into Spotlight results

[deleted]

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

#539

Post by nemo44x » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:20 PM UTC

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…

> there is a possibility that US economic dominance is about to go into hyperdrive.

The USA is an impressive beast in this regard. It just never fails to lead and now with AI it's simply light years ahead of the nearest competitor. There's literally thousands of AI startups here - it's just amazing.

Lots of people like to opine on the downfall of American hegemony and global financial and cultural dominance but I'm a believer in the lesser traveled idea that the American Empire hasn't even begun yet.

All of Western and Central Europe, Israel, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, parts of South America, and a few other places are already vassal states of America as it is. I expect more to become over the coming decades.

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

#540

Post by seydor » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 4:20 PM UTC

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…

Apple is competing with LVMH since years ago. Nothing is absurd