This really flips the argument that Mac hardware is overpriced and underpowered on its head. Now Apple computers are a premium product from a performance perspective, as well.
But now they are locking down their software hard. So there is really no free lunch.
Someone here posted when the M1 powered Macs launched that they're essentially ASICs now and that made me do a double take. Since you cannot change the operating systems anymore, aren't these essentially ASICs?
Not even close. An ASIC is a program on a chip. These are still general purpose, programmable computing machines.
An FPGA is a program on a chip. An ASIC is literally just a chip. Calling the M1 an ASIC is insulting to the Apple hardware team.
ASIC stands for application specific, and since thei IC is application specific - used only in certain hardware along certain software, it's kind of correct to call it ASIC.