Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

- Mac has ~10% of the global market for end user machines. It doesn't now, never has, and never will own the market nor does it desire to sell cheap enough machines to do so.

- Given that you can't add ram after the fact and 256GB is anemic the cheapest laptop that is a reasonable choice is $1400.

- The cheapest desktop option is $6000 with an 8 core cpu or 8000 with a 16 core.

- The average end user spends $700 on a computer

- We literally have marketing numbers and a worthless synthetic benchmark.

I think it entirely fair to say that the new macs are liable to be fantastic machines but there is no reason to believe that the advent of apple cpu macs marks the end of open hardware. Were you expecting them to sell their cpus to the makers of the cheap computers most people actually buy?

> Mac has ~10% of the global market for end user machines. It doesn't now, never has, and never will own the market nor does it desire to sell cheap enough machines to do so.

This includes a massive number of corporate desktops which often Apple doesn't really compete with.

> The cheapest desktop option is $6000 with an 8 core cpu or 8000 with a 16 core.

?? The Mac mini is $600 with an M1 which is likely a far faster computer than most $600 Windows desktop computers. Likely significantly faster.

I don't think Apple is going to eat Windows alive, too many businesses have massive piles of Windows apps. I do see the potential Apple to increase market share significantly though.

Thanks for putting it into perspective. 3D graphic performance is another variable I didn’t think of.

I wouldn’t expect them to sell their cpus to others.

It’s weird though that they’re so vertically integrated and able to push performance as high as they have. I really enjoy my Linux system so I’m going to keep on doing that.

The average user was spending peanuts on phone before iPhone. They also had 0% market for phones.

> The cheapest desktop option is $6000 with an 8 core cpu or 8000 with a 16 core.

And also with RAM and SSD idiotically soldered in so 2 years later you need to spend another $6000, while a couple weeks ago I spent a grand total of $400 to upgrade my 2TB SSD to 4TB.

The RAM and SSD are not soldered in on the Mac Pro, which is the machine I assume they're talking about given the price.

> The average user was spending peanuts on phone before iPhone.

The iPhone was mid-range at launch, $499 versus $730 for a contemporary smartphone like the N95

fyi, RAM is not soldered (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210103) and there are unoccupied PCI slots to install SSDs in (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210408)

This was not what it felt like when it debuted.

Blackberry was the competing “smart” phone [1] and the newest releases were we under half the price of iPhone w the same 2-year discount.

I had the blackberry curve myself at that time and iPhone seemed way high-priced.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2007/07/25/iphone-v-blackberry-side-b...

> The cheapest desktop option is $6000 with an 8 core cpu or 8000 with a 16 core.

No, it is $600 with an 8 core M1 chip, the new mac mini. Also the iMac is arguably a desktop option, even if not really upgradeable.

The way I remember it the iphone-with-2-year-contract price was very similar to the buy-outright price for other phones. Are you definitely comparing the same contracts?

Completely nailed it. I need something with more grunt than the base prices here and apple don’t have a hold on that market because of expense. And they don’t hold the lower end market.

This is still a niche.

The average user was spending a very modest amount to be able to call and send text messages. Little portable multi function computers already cost hundreds of dollars.

Iphone helped clarify what a good interface looked like while prices came down and performance went up positioning themselves well as a product category that was already a thing became mainstream.

Laptops aren't a new category and the majority will continue to buy something other than apple in large part because of the price.

You mean a non portable laptop?

What is your point even? The Mac mini isn’t really a desktop because it shares its chip with some of their mobile devices? When and where has that ever been the criterion for desktop PCs?

Guess it depends on the region. Here in Sweden I saw a few N95s and of Sony Ericsson and Nokia feature phones. Not a single Blackberry in sight, before or after.

But most users were on feature phones at the time. The iPhone 1 was expensive.

Okay, point taken, but I believe the RAM and SSD are not user-replaceable on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac, whereas both are user-serviceable on almost every other brand of laptop and all-in-one PC on the market.