I believe it, just saying I find it weird, when the Pro/Max variants have warranted a major promo after each M(x) release. Including the M3 which was, especially with the gimped Pro, fairly pedestrian. I expected M4 Pro/Max to be a tock.
OK that it's not, but it probably means it's not that exciting an update.
Could be wrong ofc, am regularly.
I agree it is somewhat strange given the performance updates seem strong. But for many buyers/watches they only get excited by physical changes to the machine. In the absence of even a new colour like last year, perhaps this explains why its not a full event.
My other theory is they think this is a week of the year they can own, and drip feed annoucments everyday to build excitement. I wonder if we will get the components of a video event, but drip fed every day. I find it strange they wouldnt do an explanation of the mac mini's redesign at an event and just releasing an AD for that with the press release would not be enough IMO.
Do note that the MBP is better than the MBA in every regard except weight. If all one cares about is power and finds the MBA RAM adequate then MBA is a good cheaper choice. Personally I find MBP speakers, display and available RAM essential.
MBA is also thinner. But more importantly its screen is a full inch bigger. The 14 pro is closer to the air, its only .6 inches bigger than the 13 air. Personally, at a comfortable sitting distance i find reading two documents side by side only really comfortable on a 15 air or 16 pro.
Many people dont particularly notice the better screen or speakers and dont do any performance work that meaningful requires a fan. So if we are talking base m4 macbook pro 14 vs macbook air 15, there are definitely reasons to prefer the air. Particularly once air moves to M4 if it also comes with 16gb of ram and proper dual monitor support. I'm sure for most of my friends nad family, they would prefer to save the money than to have a heavy machine, with a fan and better screen and speakers which they'd probably never notice.
I do not understand the comment "the 15" Air screen was excellent for productivity and aging eyesight." I find the MBP's brighter, better XDR display far superior for aging eyesight.
Because indoors teh brightness and HDR for most people dont improve the readability, the resolution and screen size do. The 15 is a full inch bigger than the 14 pro (which as i noted above is only .6 inches bigger than the 13 air). 14 pro also has a higher screen resolution so font ends up smaller again at suggested scaling. Thats great if it works for your eyesight, but its pretty clear why many would prefer the 15 for their eyesight.
also,
is that a certainty?
is it not also possible that the m4 could just cost more?
I haven't bought a new Mac since 2012 and have been going the hackintosh route so haven't been following Mac pricing ups and downs very closely for years
Nothing is a certainty. But apple likes to hit certain price points, they are very strategic. Typically they retire the outgoing model and replace it with the new one (likely to happen with m3) at the same price point or if they do increase price of new model its a fairly minor increase in price to reflect inflation but typically this is unnecessary as they find efficiencies in the chain to maintain their margins.
Given teh base m4 appears to be moving to 16gb of ram as standard (from 8), there is an argument that price might increase, but it is also the most price sensitive part of the market, so any price increase here is likely to be minimal the raw cost to apple for this change is likely in the 10s of dollars.
Not for me unfortunately. The iMac form factor is so much better.
Agree. There is a very strong appeal to the all in one design.
This is pure speculation.
Yes tehy are speculating. But you are acting as if a rule that they must upgrade the design every 4 iterations. They are updating at a faster cadence than usual due to the more consistent chip cycles.
I agree with their speculation, it makes sense to delay the redesign to when the oled screens are ready. What is the redesign without it? A thinner laptop with possibly worse battery life? They may need OLED to offset battery impact either in battery life or as a trade off worth having. In any event, they wouldnt want to change all tooling between 2025 and 2026 to account for different displays with different dimensions and requirements.
Perhaps they solve this issue by not releasing a pro in 2025 but early 2026 when the oleds are ready.
But as someone else asked you, what are you actually looking for in a chassis redesign? Because its probably going to be thinner and maybe change ports which may not be beneficial.
Since when does Apple tease upcoming product announcements? It just tells me that they know they have to create excitement for something they know to be unexciting.
I feel this is a very weird take. They always tease upcoming events, and this is a mild tease on their social media accounts, not ads.
By not doing a big event for these announcements, seems a concession to the announcements relative importance the reverse of trying to make them seem more exciting than they are. If anything, it shows they are thinking about how important it is to keep the events for meaningful announcements to core products rather than redesigns of marginal products (mac mini) and iterative updates to popular products (macbook pro).