Are macs still the status symbol they once were?
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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I don't like Apple. That'll probably show. But I like Microsoft and Google even less, so ultimately I do want them to continue to succeed for the time being.
They should sell cheaper x86 and arm laptops. If other manufacturers can sell decent midrange laptops for around $500 USD, so can Apple. They can even charge a bit extra for that Apple logo and still come in well under the $1000 minimum price tag now.
Though that in and of itself might be shooting themselves in the foot a bit. They have kind of a designer brand vibe, people might not trust reasonably priced hardware from them. So they'd probably want to adjust their marketing too.
I think they should do this, because declining sales tells us less people are willing to pay that premium. Though they should keep their current product line too. I like what they're doing with their Mx ARM chips.
Insane performance of the M series is due to bolting RAM straight to the chip, so it runs with a very low clock divisor. These things run at such speeds that even millimeters distance from CPU to RAM limit clock speed, which is why PCs have traditionally reduced bus speed while pumping CPU speed.
Apple made their point. Integrate RAM and CPU/GPU for performance and you can compete with much lower performing CPU cores in design. And let's be clear, ARM only wins here because of that improved I/O bandwidth.
Intel and AMD should bolt 8GB RAM on their chips and use it for cache. Then PCs will pound M series chips into the ground and PC will regain its value proposition over Apple again.
I got a Mac Studio recently, but my huge hesitation is that the CPU's TOTALLY suck lol. I only switched because I was genuinely sick of windows. And windows must have had a bug, because it kept hijacking my Chrome session with Edge EVERY Reboot.
But, now that the M3's have raytracing, maybe they'll suck less. Unfortunately, some areas, mac has definitely fallen behind on (like Aero Snap, we need magnet on Mac OS)
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Read about a modular, upgradable PC laptop yesterday, the Framework.
Buffed it from the base and came up with a price of $3920. https://frame.work/ca/en/products/laptop16-diy-amd-7040/configuration/new?variant_id=454
A 16” MBP, with similar specs (96Gb RAM, since 64Gb unavailable)?
A paltry $4699. For.a.laptop. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/16-inch-space-black-apple-m3-max-with-14-core-cpu-and-30-core-gpu-36gb-memory-1tb#
SMH