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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

#641

Post by rmah »

simonh wrote: post #177
ralfn wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is weird, because barely any part of it is produced in the US. So it's not that their costs are going up. They are just not realizing they are self sabotaging in terms of opportunity costs. If they adjust prices to purchasing power, with at least 30% profit marge, windows laptops and chromebooks would be having crisis talks right about now. People would prefer the Apple stuff, but not at that price. Even if you…

This isn't the first time Apple sales have taken a hit in a downturn. The issue is if they significantly cut margins now, when the economy swings back up again the risk is they'll face an uphill battle growing margins again. People delaying purchases, or buying lower spec models or alternatives now may well want to upgrade sooner when their financial situation improves. If Apple sacrifices margins they risk losing ou…

Apple is the only major consumer electronics manufacturer with high enough margins to cut them "significantly". IIRC, their gross margins are still multiple times higher than the industry average. They would have to cut prices by a lot more to fall in line with industry averages, which honestly, doesn't seem likely to me.

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

#642

Post by heavyset_go »

SoftTalker wrote: post #543
dimmke wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad bought an 11" MacBook Air in 2011 - I think it was the cheapest possible Mac you could get at the time (maybe $900-$1000?) But I really wanted him to be on MacOS. He basically never used it as a laptop, and it's been plugged in to an external monitor and keyboard for many years. He used to stack paper on top of it until I told him to stop it so it could vent better. I would update the software, but I think it'…

> for what he does (email, web browsing) A $200 Chromebook will work fine.

It sounds like he's not even using it as a laptop, he can get some relatively powerful mini-PCs for around that price, as well.

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

#643

Post by raydev »

donkeyd wrote: post #266
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…

Almost exactly 2 years ago, I bought an M1 Air for €1050. That same M1 Air is still being sold by that same store, but now costs €1126. That's a 7% rise in price for a laptop that's now 2,5 years old. This is just ridiculous.

All non-US countries experience this. Apple strictly ties pricing to some USD value, which at the baseline is not always 1:1 (meaning it may be more expensive taking into account conversion).

If your country's dollar falls in value, Apple punishes your country. It's not fair to you as an individual, but it's how Apple have operated for at least the last 15 years.

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

#644

Post by kipchak »

astrange wrote: post #520
yazzku wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is hard for some people to understand, right? Mom makes X Prices go up Mom still makes X

Not true for retirees because Social Security gets inflation adjustments. Probably not true in general either except in stagflation.

Social Security is about 30% of the income of the elderly according to the SSA.

https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/basicfact-alt.pdf

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

#645

Post by mrweasel »

fastaguy88 wrote: post #348
mrweasel wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some where someone wrote: It's not that Apples hardware isn't cost competitive, they just don't have en entry level option (or even a low mid-level option). The cheapest MacBook Air, which is fine for most of my needs is €1260/$1370 and while it's a wonderful laptop, it's just a bit much for running Safari, VSCode and a terminal. It really is a €950 laptop, but if they could hit that price then what else would you re…

Yesterday, the cheapest MacBook Air (M1, 8Gb/256GB) was under $800 at Costco in the US.

I suspect that's excluding VAT, which would add 25% where I am, making it a $1000 laptop. I understand Apple isn't responsible for VAT, but I still need to pay it. Still it's hitting the price point I think it should be at, it's just not really an offer that's available to me.

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

#646

Post by alchemist1e9 »

jcfrei wrote: post #456
alchemist1e9 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 B…

> 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)

Due to higher US productivity even with the strong currency the cost of production for goods is significantly lower for same quality. US companies are generally gaining market shares in all high value goods.

> On the other hand the strong dollar has been great for the US consumer (cheaper to import stuff)

This allows higher quality of life at lower price. I’d like to point out that EU member gdp per capita are worse than the poorest US states. This is surprising to me as well, but true.

> From an economic perspective BRICS (which on a net basis are exporting nations) should really be worried about more dollar weakness.

How is that true? I’m not following. They need dollars to buy imports and with strong dollar it’s harder to buy imports for same exports. Take Turkey as prime example currently.

> If they do something the US or EU doesn't like then their funds will just be frozen.

I agree that is a big concern for them. However I don’t think a currency pact using Yuan will help much. They really want to give that same power to the Chinese? who have even less due process. This is actually a big reason I’m bullish on Bitcoin it’s probably a better reserve in long run.

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

#647

Post by KptMarchewa »

pjmlp wrote: post #578
Dalewyn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who has and uses an M2 Macbook Air with 8GB RAM, I agree it's not a lot but it's more than sufficient for any use case a Macbook Air would generally see. This literally isn't Windows where 32GB of RAM is the new minimum. I will say the Macbook Pro really should start from 16GB RAM and at least 1TB SSD; it's for professionals, isn't it?

Windows also does perfectly fine with 8GB. Hint, being a developer doesn't require using Docker all the time.

Mid-sized Java project would balk at running tests with that amount of RAM. Hell, I had problems with 16GB.

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

#648

Post by chris_wot »

sovnade wrote: post #605
hajile wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It kills me that I can only get ONE external monitor. It would otherwise be perfect.

There are adapters that let you use multiple and bypass that limit. Kensington has a few. This one is pricier but also doubles as a docking station/100w PD: https://www.kensington.com/p/products/device-docking-connect... They have some cheaper, more basic models too. edit: for the record I think this limit is stupid and the biggest flaw of the Air. You're right that other than that, it's a damn near perfect daily dri…

What are the cheaper options? We use a lot of MacBook Air M2s at work, would really like a cheaper solution!

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

#649

Post by Symbiote »

tremon wrote: post #446
airstrike wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ain't no way shipping and taxes equal 100% of the product's price

Two years ago, I paid around €300 for a pair of original Haori from Japan. The shipping costs where around €60, which was expected, but the taxes and import fees added another €170 to the total expenditure. That's not 100% of the product's price, but it's damn close.

Customs duty on men's/boy's clothes is 12%, VAT is e.g. 24% in Finland.

  €360 * 1.12 * 1.24 = €500
Add on some sort of handling fee for the parcel company, e.g. €10, so it could easily be €150.

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

#650

Post by paulmd »

musictubes wrote: post #452
altcognito wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bu…

> Apple is the only company whose success people take personally.

Nah, NVIDIA has the same thing.

> 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.

Yeah these things almost always come down to values differences. You value different things than the other person, leading you to a different conclusion. There is a side helping of sometimes different observations too... like all the people insisting that macs are super slow or whatever, even into the era of apple silicon (there are many many people who continued to dive onto that grenade on the basis of cinebench tests or whatever too).

But nobody is generally making irrational decisions here. The question is "what alternative machines can I get at a similar price and how does the overall big-picture compare". And they're ending up with the other machines at that price not comparing well.

It's a tough lump to swallow for a lot of people but the M1s were very compellingly priced, with the usual apple caveats. The MBPs are within the range of reason overall, the MBAs are actually probably better than you will find at an equivalent price in the wintel market. Even for engineers - it's *nix on the desktop, that's part of why a decent number of companies are switching.

> 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.

Yeah. All you have to do to redeem yourself in the eyes of this random internet commentator is announce you're a big dumb idiot baby! Why isn't anybody willing to do that!? Really says a lot about society imo. /s

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