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

#701

Post by adverbly » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:44 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?…

Am I missing something? You're saying that you bought a device 9 years ago with the exact same specs(8gb ram, 256 disk) that are currently being sold for about the exact same price. And you are saying that macs last a long time? How is that possible if the specs are 9 years old?

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

#702

Post by Tade0 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:45 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?…

My cheapo Samsung laptop from 2013 lasted until 2020 and it went through some heavy abuse. Still turns on and all, it's just that the battery gave up and the power socket is loose, so it might randomly lose power.

My mother still uses my even more cheapo laptop from 2010 - my brother in law replaced the HDD with an SSD, but that's the extent of maintenance done. The battery sort of works, but barely.

Meanwhile my work MBP in 2019 started developing keyboard issues after a few months of use - just like the units my two coworkers from the same room had. To be fair that was a particularly bad model year.

A laptop generally should last seven years, but most people here don't see their devices reach that age because they pass them on after less than three.

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

#703

Post by throwaway2056 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:45 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?…

It is not anti-Apple. Everyone has anecdotal story about these.

> and she abuses the shit out of it.

It is all own stories. Go to any university or school. Give the student a mac. Wait for a few months and see.

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

#704

Post by mrbonner » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:47 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…

I am in the same boat as you. I have an M1 Air with 8GB of RAM. I am eyeing the M2 Mac Air or the Pro. But, as I assess my situation, I use the M1 Air for light coding tasks: to learn stuff outside of my working hours, and not to run something like LLMs with it. So, even with 8GB of RAM, I rarely feel I need to upgrade to 16GB. Though, I would probably upgrade to M2 with 16GB if the price is not that steep. For now, I am happy with the M1 Air and I still think it is easily the best laptop I have ever had in my life.

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

#705

Post by jandrese » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:48 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?…

This is anecdotal, but my daily driver Dell E6540 is closing in on 10 years old now. One nice thing about this Dell is that it is very easy to replace the battery, unlike all modern Apple laptops. My wife had a Macbook of around the same vintage, but when the battery went it was too difficult to replace and we had to buy a new laptop instead.

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

#706

Post by alchemist1e9 » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:49 PM UTC

astrange wrote: post #633

alchemist1e9 wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The American middle class healthcare system, employer plans, is specifically designed to reduce dynamism by making it harder to quit your job. I’m confused, my understanding was that changing jobs is much much more frequent within the US middle class than elsewhere. How does that make sense if as you say quitting is so risky. What specifically is risky about the US setup? Of course it encourages not being unemploye…

By "dynamism" I meant it makes it harder to be unemployed, as you might be if you want to start a new business/become a contractor etc. Switching jobs is OK if you already have one lined up. Also, being married makes it safer (but you might be relying on two incomes) and Obamacare is good in some states.

There is COBRA for 24 months and co-ops for contractors/sole-proprietors. It takes much more capital to start a business than people realize and a good part of that is cost of healthcare. the paystubs and W2s from employers hide how significant a part of employee compensation the benefits are.

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

#707

Post by turnsout » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:49 PM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #639

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'…

> Anyways, I'm on an M1 MacBook Pro and it's hard to see myself buying a new Macbook Pro in the next 5 years minimum. How much memory do you have? Seemed like my biggest concern when it came to this generation of MacBooks and longevity.

Can't answer for the quoted poster, but I'm on a 16GB M1 MacBook Air, and haven't felt a strong need for more RAM yet… I'm doing a heavy amount of SwiftUI, and even messing around with some local LLMs.

I could imagine upgrading to the M3 or even M4 MBA, but at that point it will have been 4–5 years on the M1.

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

#708

Post by hcnews » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:50 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?…

On a different note, shouldn't Apple support viable hardware till its live? Lack of security/OS updates is basically bricking a perfectly functional device and creating more waste on Earth. They could even charge users for an upgrade after a while if it means overall less waste on the planet. Ofcourse, it means that there's less sales at Apple but hopefully they're big enough to not bother with this.

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

#709

Post by exabrial » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:50 PM UTC

Probably could:

1. don't use soldered ram

2. don't use soldered ssd

3. nobody needs or wants a T2 chip

4. use a standard UEFI booter

5. stop making accessories (including the iphone) that use lightning connectors. Use use usb-c

6. stop embedding chips in cords

7. stop using custom screws for everything

I know I'm missing a few, but these alone would make it far cheaper to manufacture without specialty components

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

#710

Post by null_object » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 5:51 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?…

> I am surprised I am getting downvoted.

You got my upvote because I have a similar experience - still using my 2014 MacBook Pro.

However, I also agree with the other take I’m seeing in these comments: the current prices do seem disproportionately high (at least in the EU).

I feel I have to go back about 25 years to see the same level of expense for high-end electronics. I genuinely thought we were past that era of rarefied ‘professional’ hardware.

And as others have also pointed out, adding RAM or disk capacity is ridiculously expensive.