Could Tim Cook use the base M2 MacBook Air?

[BanditoB]

I, too, think that Tim Cook could do the majority of his work on the entry-level M2 MacBook Air. It has more than enough oomph for your typical everyday tasks like communications and document preparation. You know that he has people available for any heavy lifting that may need to be done, such as video production. Anything else, like their ERP system is most likely cloud-based so you'd only need Safari to access it.

I introduced the president of one of the companies I used to work for to Apple and we got him the original MacBook Air. He used the machine for a couple of years and then we upgraded him to an Air with a bit more memory and storage. He ran the second one for many years and was able to do everything he needed to do on it just fine. We even ran Parallels desktop on it with a Windows VM for a couple of Windows-only applications that he needed. He traveled a great deal, so the portability was a key factor for him.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I think with the resources at his disposal, he could run the company with nothing but an iPod Shuffle.

 

[fisherking]

i read that he's running the company without any computer, but that he has his assistant follow him around with an imac pro, with a long extension cord... 🤔

 

[Alpha Centauri]

i read that he's running the company without any computer, but that he has his assistant follow him around with an imac pro, with a long extension cord... 🤔

You know, I heard a similar story. But the cable's gone! Inside the UFO they've actually managed to run the iMac purely on smiles and inductive profit margins. 🤷‍♂️

Edit: was either that ^^^ or a 9V battery + superconductors.

 

[Chateaunole-du-Pape]

So you think the CEO of one of the world's most valuable companies, could use a computer with only 8Gb RAM, 256Gb slow SSD and only one external monitor?

You don't think he needs 512Gb of SSD with twice the sequential speed to do his job?

What on earth do you think he - or any CEO of a large multinational - does on a computer? They're not doing sophisticated modeling. They're not programming or doing 3D rendering. They're viewing presentations in PowerPoint or PDF format (or, in the case of Apple, maybe Keynote). They're responding to e-mails. Maybe they occasionally look at a Tableau dashboard. In some cases they might get into some fairly high-level Excel (or Numbers) spreadsheets, but nothing too complicated and certainly nothing that's going to tax a system. The people several layers below them have already done the heavy modeling and number crunching.

I work at a Fortune 100 company. We used to have a company president who insisted that by the time analysis reached him, it be distilled down to "cartoon-like simplicity." Pretty much every high-level executive who has followed him has had a similar edict.

 

[planteater]

What on earth do you think he - or any CEO of a large multinational - does on a computer? They're not doing sophisticated modeling. They're not programming or doing 3D rendering. They're viewing presentations in PowerPoint or PDF format (or, in the case of Apple, maybe Keynote). They're responding to e-mails. Maybe they occasionally look at a Tableau dashboard. In some cases they might get into some fairly high-level Excel (or Numbers) spreadsheets, but nothing too complicated and certainly nothing that's going to tax a system. The people several layers below them have already done the heavy modeling and number crunching.

I work at a Fortune 100 company. We used to have a company president who insisted that by the time analysis reached him, it be distilled down to "cartoon-like simplicity." Pretty much every high-level executive who has followed him has had a similar edict.

Exactly. They don’t want the raw data, they want the information the data provides. They pay well to those that can do that accurately, quickly, in a format that sums it at a glance. Do that and your place in the organization is assured.

 

[planteater]

So you agree that for a lot of professional the base model of the MacBook Air is powerful enough for their needs, if they did choose to use it?

If you take a look at the definition of professional, you might understand the range of activities that label encompasses. It's quite broad. To use such generalization to make your unfounded point about minimum resource requirements for the whole of that group is incredible, to say the least.

Wouldn't you be better served to assess your own requirements based on your needs rather than that of others?

 

[fisherking]

this is the most ridiculous topic on a forum filled with ridiculous topics... an impressive achievement 🤔

 

[pedregosa]

This is one of those threads where some people wrongly assume that those who do complex work on computers need powerful devices with lots of storage. I'm a lawyer. I do brainy work on my 2020 27-inch iMac and 2020 11-inch iPad Pro. I think most lawyers would consider my practice to be at the more ”sophisticated” end of the profession. But I don't need a lot of storage or computer horsepower. I work with documents — Word, Pages, PDFs. Probably the most processor-intensive tasks involve manipulating documents of hundreds of pages in Acrobat Pro. But even that doesn't take that much computer power. On my iMac, I'm only using about half of the 256GB storage (I have the base 2020 model). The 128GB on my iPad Pro is plenty. All the more so since I make good use of the cloud.

I might get a MBA M2. I could easily afford any version (or a MB Pro). But I'd almost certainly get the base model, because it is all I need. Obviously, other people may have other needs.

 

[throAU]

So you do agree that there is a market for computers with 8Gb of RAM and 256GB SSDs?

Re-read my post.

I'm saying there's a market for iPhones, Etch-a-sketches and whiteboards for CEO workflows.

8 GB laptop in 2022? Buy an iPad.

 

[curnalpanic]

I’m sure Tim has one of every Mac they make, and just switches between them by what makes sense at the time.

 

[NotApplicable]

Tim Apple could use an iPad or even an iPhone to accomplish all of the computing needs he has as CEO.

 

[KPOM]

Tim Apple could use an iPad or even an iPhone to accomplish all of the computing needs he has as CEO.

I think he gave an interview a few years ago where he said he uses his iPad Pro most of the time.

 

[Wokis]

I'm sure Tim Cook's tasks could be done on the 2015 base Macbook.

But for people that *are* paying $1199 today to get an experience capable for office/CEO tasks, I expect them to want to hear that it will be fine to use up until the at least the year 2029.

Let's see how well an 8GB machine fares then.

 

[fisherking]

I'm sure Tim Cook's tasks could be done on the 2015 base Macbook.

But for people that *are* paying $1199 today to get an experience capable for office/CEO tasks, I expect them to want to hear that it will be fine to use up until the at least the year 2029.

Let's see how well an 8GB machine fares then.

i got 6 years out of an entry level 12" macbook with 8g ram. considering the better ram management on a silicon mac, i see no reason why i wouldn't be fine for 7 years on the new air (altho, by 2029, computers will be embedded in our foreheads, and ram will be meaningless).

 

[KPOM]

I'm sure Tim Cook's tasks could be done on the 2015 base Macbook.

But for people that *are* paying $1199 today to get an experience capable for office/CEO tasks, I expect them to want to hear that it will be fine to use up until the at least the year 2029.

Let's see how well an 8GB machine fares then.

It will still work.

 

[Cape Dave]

I think it is a FANTASTIC question! Kudos to the poster. It speaks to what a CEO of a large company might need from their computer. More than us? Less than us? Great question!

 

[Zest28]

Do you believe Tim Cook could use the base model of the M2 MacBook Air as the only Mac for his needs as a CEO of Apple?

If not, what tasks to you think he does which would require a more powerful Mac?

Tim Cook said he only travels with the iPad Pro, iPhone and an Apple Watch.

 

[ian87w]

Do you believe Tim Cook could use the base model of the M2 MacBook Air as the only Mac for his needs as a CEO of Apple?

If not, what tasks to you think he does which would require a more powerful Mac?

I don't think Tim Cook use a computer. He has people to do those menial tasks on a computer for him. He has other more important jobs to do. Even for his phone, I'm sure he has a PA taking care of it.

 

[Zest28]

I'll tell you this. Most CEOs don't actually produce anything on a computer. I work for one of the largest financial institutions in the world senior management rarely sits in front of a computer, they are either on mobile or iPad. COVID changed this somewhat for a few years, but they are back in the field now.

Indeed. Tim Cook does 80% of his work on the iPad Pro.

 

[ian87w]

I’m sure Tim has one of every Mac they make, and just switches between them by what makes sense at the time.

LOL. A CEO of a trillion dollar company won't have time for that.

 

[ozapple]

Do you believe Tim Cook could use the base model of the M2 MacBook Air as the only Mac for his needs as a CEO of Apple?

If not, what tasks to you think he does which would require a more powerful Mac?

No, he has an MS Surface.

 

[dumastudetto]

Tim actually uses a big, thick, overheating lump of melting Dell plastic as his main computer.

 

[Wokis]

i got 6 years out of an entry level 12" macbook with 8g ram. considering the better ram management on a silicon mac, i see no reason why i wouldn't be fine for 7 years on the new air (altho, by 2029, computers will be embedded in our foreheads, and ram will be meaningless).

8 GB of RAM was on the entry level Macbook in 2015. Of course it works today.

OP's point was basically that if today's base Air is good enough for the CEO of the largest company in the world then it's a good machine. And it is good. But I think the 8GB of memory on a 1200 dollar purchase is kind of eh (to be fair, all configurations are kind of eh in relation to price), and I'm hedging it won't stand the test of time very well due to that. Get back to me in 2029.

There is no better RAM management on AS compared to Intel. I don't know why people are saying that. Seems to be an urban myth floating around in forums with no real source. An 8GB Intel Macbook isn't crumbling in office tasks due to RAM today either. The 4GB air models, though...

 

[ian87w]

8 GB of RAM was on the entry level Macbook in 2015. Of course it works today.

OP's point was basically that if today's base Air is good enough for the CEO of the largest company in the world then it's a good machine. And it is good. But I think the 8GB of memory on a 1200 dollar purchase is kind of eh (to be fair, all configurations are kind of eh in relation to price), and I'm hedging it won't stand the test of time very well due to that. Get back to me in 2029.

There is no better RAM management on AS compared to Intel. I don't know why people are saying that. Seems to be an urban myth floating around in forums with no real source. An 8GB Intel Macbook isn't crumbling in office tasks due to RAM today either. The 4GB air models, though...

If I was a trillion dollar company CEO, I would simply pay someone else to do the job that require using a laptop. I would be at the level where I can simply hire people to get things done instead of using tools and do things myself.