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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

#651

Post by kyleplum »

goosedragons wrote: post #537
bmelton wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It seems dishonest to leave out Windows 11 when talking about how MS is for announcing in advance what support will be. They did not give anywhere near proper notice about the TPM/UEFI/Secureboot requirement ahead of time.

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

#652

Post by raydev »

dmix wrote: post #313
slowmotiony wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electronics prices in the EU are simply crazy. Recently i wanted to get a small mini-PC that would be energy efficient and I could run some AI experiments on. Reading online forums, everyone's like "just get a mac mini, couple hundred bucks and you're golden". I check the apple website and turns out they actually cost almost a thousand euro for the 16GB/256GB model. But its the same with a lot of other electronics to…

Is it tariffs or something? Everything in Canada is usually 10-25% more expensive than the US, besides stuff covered under NAFTA. Consumer things like clothes/electronics are usually the biggest victims. But I just compared the Apple stores and the base Macbook = $999USD vs $1299CAD, doing pure currency conversion $1299CAD = $965.96USD, so it's technically ~$32USD cheaper in Canada? Probably just out-of-step with cur…

> so it's technically ~$32USD cheaper in Canada?

I've noticed this as well, but having lived through 2011-2013 when the CAD = USD, Apple has 3-6 month lead times on pricing changes, almost always tied to product releases/store updates.

Maybe it'll get more expensive the next time they release a product, maybe it won't because the difference is currently negligible.

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

#653

Post by chongli »

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.

That’s opting him in to Google’s data collection engine. I would not do that to my dad!

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

#655

Post by Symbiote »

dbg31415 wrote: post #345
slowmotiony wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electronics prices in the EU are simply crazy. Recently i wanted to get a small mini-PC that would be energy efficient and I could run some AI experiments on. Reading online forums, everyone's like "just get a mac mini, couple hundred bucks and you're golden". I check the apple website and turns out they actually cost almost a thousand euro for the 16GB/256GB model. But its the same with a lot of other electronics to…

> Electronics prices in the EU are simply crazy. I remember being upset that the same laptop cost more in Australia than it did in the US, then I realized that it had a lot more to do with Australia's corporate tax rates. Turns out... companies do pass on taxes to the end purchasers. It feels, and I don't mean offense here, that if the EU wants to tell companies which power plugs they can use, and stay heavy-handed w…

> He wanted to buy it in the US since it was so much cheaper.

He needs to declare it when he returns to the EU, and pay the same taxes. (Assuming it costs more than €430, which is the limit for bringing personal goods into the EU by plane.)

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

#656

Post by lowbloodsugar »

jwandborg wrote: post #618
sleepybrett wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also had a 2016 with a bad keyboard, they replaced it for free because it was a well known terrible keyboard and it probably didn't hurt that it was still under applecare. I continued to use that laptop into 2019, it did need a battery replacement (it got puffy, it happens) that I paid for out of pocket. Then I gave that laptop to a friend and she used it until she finally thought it was too slow/big (it was a 15")…

> Apple has great support. Apple does not have support good enough for professionals, my colleagues are suffering with defective MacBooks until they can justify a full replacement, because Apple repairs cost a lot of time, while Lenovo sends a repairperson with tools and replacement parts to my office.

I was on business in UK, keyboard broke, and Dell showed up next day and the tech had a US keyboard in his van.

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

#657

Post by goosedragons »

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…

Which comes with drawbacks. Video is sent out compressed over USB protocol which requires CPU cycles, more resolution + moving images = more CPU grunt required. Plus there is the risk some update will break the driver making your dock useless.

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

#658

Post by danaris »

ralfn wrote: post #224
bananapub wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is it weird? Apple states its quarterly results in USD, which is all their investors/media care about, so of course Apple cares enormously about profit/revenue in USD. in addition, much of their design/engineering/management/etc costs are in or coupled to USD.

It makes sense from a tactical point of view. But with the M-line of architecture they had the strategic opportunity to burn the competition.

Like so many before you, you are making the mistake of thinking Apple cares about marketshare.

They quite demonstrably don't. They care about profit-share, and about making what they see as the best computers they can.

As others note, Apple already takes either a plurality or a majority of the profit in computer sales. What incentive is there for them to reduce their average margins, take on a lot more support responsibility, and have to ramp up production significantly, just to capture a notoriously fickle and unrewarding segment of the market?

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

#659

Post by FullyFunctional »

4ec0755f5522 wrote: post #269
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…

I consider the Mac base models quite affordable for the quality and performance. But for my use I need more RAM and would prefer more storage, and these prices are absolutely beyond ridiculous.

A first world problem sure, but it's really frustrating that all the deals are for 8 GB versions. With non-upgradable memory, I'd never buy 8 GB laptop I intend to keep 5+ years. Not even with macOS's famous memory frugality.

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

#660

Post by PartiallyTyped »

Popcorn3865 wrote: post #554
game_the0ry wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. My own experience (4 MacBooks Pros) and that of providing MacBook Air and Pros to a dozen or so staff (with 50 or so on non-Mac kit) leads me to conclude this statement is not true. They are great as long as they work but no better in terms of longevity to equivalent kit from other manufacturers, at least in my limited, non-scientific, IMHO experience.

Maybe I am just very unlucky, but I'd add 2 more datapoints.

     - M1 mba, 1 usb port dead.
     - 15' mbp 2019, all ports dead. I have been told that the logicboard is dead, and they wanted 850 euro to replace it.
I am fairly certain that the is actually the ports as they gave out one by one in the same manner the M1 mba's did.
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