- cross-posted to:
- apple@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- apple@lemdro.id
Mac sales are down.
I’m really not surprised. They are just a bit too expensive once you start upgrading the storage and ram.
I have been holding out on buying a Mac since the M2 was rumored to come out.
I keep hoping that the base model will have a larger amount of storage and ram, but it does not.
They keep selling faster processors, but I do not need that, I need more storage and I’d like more ram.
At this point, I’m just going to buy a used M1 air. If Apple had 512 and 26 standard on the base air, I’d pickup a new one today.
Do you disagree? What can Apple do to increase Mac sales?
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People always tell me how affordable the Mac mini is when I complain about Apples’ pricing. Huh?
719€ for a computer that has 8GB of memory? Shared between cpu and gpu? In 2023?Excuse me?
That’s also just a waste of good wafers for how capaple Apple silicon is.
Nice, I paid less than 300€ for a new PC with 16GB shared memory about a month or two ago. This was with a 512 GB SSD, Ryzen 5700U system so not exactly garbage
That’s a fantastic deal you got there
Not even a deal IME
Apple could win over a lot more people by simply making user expandable systems.
also cutting their price in at least half.
i can get better hardware than their “amaazing” chips for half the price where i live.
I have used Macs for the last 15 years, so this is from someone who is deep into the ecosystem.
Apple can fuck right off with their pricing, Mac sales aren’t down because the market is challenging, Mac sales are down because they cost too much.
Give me an affordable Mac and I would have bought two or three in the past few years. Instead I keep holding out.
Well, they could decide to not gimp their base models and make storage and RAM upgrades cheaper, like you say. The new base M3 MacBook Pro only exists to upsell you to a M3 Pro MacBook Pro.
If they feel like they have to have a normal M3 MacBook Pro model, they at least shouldn’t gimp it and give it 16 GB of RAM as default. Also, add another display controller to the base M3. We all know you don’t do it just so you can upsell to an M3 Pro.
Like I said in another thread, Apple (like all companies) always try to upsell and that’s fine as a concept, but these days some of the lower-end products sole reason of existence is to upsell the customer to a more expensive product. Make these lower-end products good products.
And yeah, storage and RAM upgrades should cost half as much at most. 16/512 should absolutely be the minimum default on $1,000+ computers as well.
Also, why would people upgrade from an M1 or M2 based Mac to an M3 based one? The vast majority of people won’t.
I forgot about the base models having slower ssds.
Apple is really annoying. Sadly I have to choose between an annoying company or an incompetent company.
I’m on my last nerve with windows being absolute garbage, so I’m just getting a base m1 air.
Similarly to you, I hate some of the bullshit moves that Apple pull. But I installed windows in a VM, just to get an idea of where it’s at these days, and Jesus fucking christ, it’s abysmal.
There’s just no way I could justify switching to that.
“I installed MacOS in a VM, just to evaluate it’s GUI, and Jesus fucking Christ it’s abysmal”
Hmm…
Correct. But the built-in advertising, tracking, spam and nerfed functionality is awful, too.
If you haven’t tried Linux, for many people it’s a great option. I’ll keep my regrettable Apple purchase until it doesn’t work anymore and then go back to Linux.
They are good enough for the vast majority of their customers. You have to remember that the vast majority of laptop users only use their laptops for email, social media, and occasionally word processing; they aren’t using Baldur’s Gate III or Final Cut Pro or some other app that needs the extra RAM. You don’t need more than 8GB of RAM for that.
Sure, but then you don’t need a 2500 computer for that either
And why exactly would these customers get a MacBook “Pro”?
I can see how a MacBook Air with low base specs (8/256) has its audience. I recommended a base spec M1 Air to my aunt 1-2 years ago and she absolutely loves it. She got it for about 950,-€ I think, and with her coming from Windows laptops costing half as much at most, there was no way she would’ve spent more than 1.000,-€. She does some surfing, mailing, word processing, video conferencing and photo library management (using iCloud Photos). It’s completely fine - might even say pretty great - for that.
Nowadays you can find some deals where the base M2 Air is < 1.000,-€, and that’s also a decent deal.
The base model M3 MacBook Pro is 1.999,-€. Now Apple magically added 200,-€ after accounting for taxes and exchange rate ($1,599 is about 1.500,-€, add taxes to that and you’re at 1.785,-€, so 1.799,-€ should’ve been the price, but they made it 1.999,-€ anyway), but even if third party sellers sell it for like 1.800,-€ in a few months, it’s still 800,-€ more than the base model Air. I know you get more ports, a way nicer screen etc., that’s not my point. My point is that people who are looking for a “good enough for simple tasks” laptop usually don’t shop in that price range, and people who do usually have higher requirements than 8 GB of RAM.
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I only bought a phone because my xr was broken in too many ways. I wasn’t even excited to buy it. When I was talking to my family about it, I compared it to buying tires.
It’s something you need to do every few years but are not at all excited about it.
Indeed. I upgraded to a new phone recently, and honestly outside of the storage bump there’s very little noticeable difference. Even with the new display cutout, it barely changed my usage habits in a meaningful way. Sure the camera is nicer, but objectively I don’t use it much either.
I mean it might help their value proposition to not attempt to sell monitor stands for a thousand dollars. I will never forget the audience’s collective incredulous gasp at that reveal.
If you’re talking about the VESA mount, there was a lot of tech that went into that that explains the price, including sensors that auto-rotate the display when the display is rotated. It wasn’t just price gouging.
sensors that auto-rotate the display when the display is rotated
You mean the accelerometer tech that’s been included with every smart device for years, that costs significantly less than $1000?
They sell $700 wheels, $1000 for an accelerometer isn’t really a surprise.
Tech and price gouging
Hate to break it to you, but I could build that with $5 and a coffee.
This just in: computer performance has mostly eclipsed the requirements of most non-gamer users, and the next gen is not only exorbitantly expensive but only some very edge case power users truly benefit from the improvements which are at times suspect in if they even exist.
I love Linux, but my work conferencing app is only Mac or Windows. But outside of work, I’m Linux mint on my desktop and steam deck for gaming.
I’m just really frustrated with Windows and it’s bugginess
Are you talking about MS Teams?
No, it’s an internal app.
Hope everything goes down in price a bit. Honestly Apple could afford it just to earn a bit of good will.
I think for the base price you get a really really good product despite 8gb memory. Most people just need it to perform and it does. But yea once you start upgrading it’s insanely ridiculous and it’s insulting to those who want more out of the best product they’ve made in a long time.
My work files are close to 100gb alone. I’d like to have them in the laptop, but with 256gb, I’ll be about half full.
But I’m not paying $200 to upgrade the storage. So I’m just going to have to keep it on an external drive.
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The base models are too gimped and anything reasonable is way too expensive. The machines are great, but they should be priced at least 20% lower.
AMD 7840U beats M2 in every single bench unless you really want macos.
Anyone said framework 13"?
(Mines shipping in a couple of weeks)
Awesome idea, but overpriced. Not as much as Apple, but still a lot compared to Dell or Lenovo. I might still order it if Snapdragon Elite isn’t readily available by the time I need to upgrade my laptop just to support a great idea and a smaller company.
They need to have certain margins to survive. These first years are crucial, if they gain enough market share I’m sure they’ll stick around and will be able to apply better prices.
Right now I know that I’m overpaying, but part of that extra money I’m more than happy to give it to send a message to the entire industry: consumers WANT right to repair, upgrade and fully own the electronics they pay for. And our planet needs this as well.
Their pre-orders are always full and keep growing. Sure looks like they are doing very well.
I wonder if they are even considering offering an option with RISC architecture. I doubt RISC-V is coming any time soon, but SnapDragon Elite looks amazing even though it’s ARM. Would love to get RISC based laptop from a manufacturer like Framework that doesn’t lock it to specific OS unlike Apple or Microsoft.
I’m definitely expecting they do once RISC-V is mature enough (something I can’t wait to happen!)
It’s been long enough that most of the people who wanted an M processor as their next laptop now got one, so I don’t think it’s surprising that sales are down, after the initial blips.
Overall computers are on the down. More people do their computing on tablets or just phones most of the time. In richer countries, windows marketshare is decreasing, and Apple’s is increasing. Not really sure what else apple could do that they actually want to do.
It’d be nice if they had a MacBook SE type thing, but I don’t think they’d do that. Chromebooks captured the education market so it’s probably too late to do anything there. Mac minis are never in a position to break into the business small-PC realm because they aren’t cheap enough. Also it’d be nice if mac minis were cheaper/better-value and more expandable, but people have asked that for years and never got it.
Storage replaceabity is a serious problem for their desktop offerings, but that’s been an issue forever and they don’t care because they sell iCloud, and their monthly services businesses are doing well.
Sales of most things are down, we’re returning to pre pandemic-boom normals.
This is the goal of developed nations around the world ratcheting up interest rates; they wanted to shift the demand curve to the left. And, of course, discretionary spending will be the most affected, which includes most technology.
Quite a lot of people have bought an M1 Mac and they are still powerful and efficient devices. I guess most Mac users don’t feel the need for a change yet. Because Apple sold a gigantic amount of those.
They really need to up the base model and re-become the premium brand. But they probably have stats that 90% of people get 16GB of ram and it would eat those sweet sweet profits.
For the price of memory vs the price of the laptop combined with the fact that it’s non-upgradable and unified memory it is some complete bullshit that an $80 Raspberry Pi has as much memory as an $1800 laptop
Not particularly surprised.
By most accounts they’re very capable pieces of hardware, but the prices are way too high for current conditions.
Think there’s also a case of incremental performance improvements in the form factor becoming less perceptible, and also more people favouring phones and tablets over laptops for everyday use.
