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A problem will of course be when macOS security issues are no longer fixed for Intel Macs. Then it gets even tougher to recommend staying behind.

Compatibility is not a big issue in Apple Silicon, though, if you're using halfway up-to-date software.

I haven't run into any significant issues yet, and some of my programs are still Intel (running under Rosetta). Unless I take an active look I don't even notice that.


That depends on macOS versions if anything, not on CPU types.

Generally not a good idea, though, to keep iOS devices on older OS versions with known security issues just to stay compatible to an outdated Mac which is also running an outdated and unsupported macOS version.

I do support further extended support for older devices, of course, even if that takes legislative mandates!
I have a bad feeling that Rosetta is going away soon.
 
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I have a bad feeling that Rosetta is going away soon.
In a few years it almost certainly will. And since there is extra hardware support for the Intel memory coherence model in Apple Silicon so far (it's an option flag in M1 and M2 processors) this is a significant hardware cost which they will cut at some point, too, so Rosetta likely can't even run on some future AS generations down the road when they will ditch that extra overhead.

It remains to be seen, however, when that will happen exactly. I would expect several more years of Rosetta support from here. Certainly not "soon"!
 
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This has more to do with the market and recession, rather than the Mac vs PC battle.

The PC market is still having major issues that start with GPUs, which also affect their chip sales.
Please add the latest Windows 11 fiasco into this equation. Don’t know about you but Windows 7 was extremely solid. The same cannot be said about any versions afterwards.
 
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I can't understand why Apple can't provide a native way to run Windows and Linux on Apple silicon. That would be the final nail in the coffin. Seems like a no brainer.
Apple would rather you use a hypervisor to run generic ARM builds of Linux or Windows within macOS, which you can already do today via Parallels. Parallels even lets you download Windows 11 ARM directly from Microsoft and activate it with an existing Windows license. With Bootcamp Apple had to supply all of their own drivers to make Windows run on Intel Macs, and that was with Intel Macs using largely off-the-shelf components that had reference drivers already available. Windows on ARM is designed around Qualcomm SoCs so Apple would have to do an incredible amount of heavy lifting to write M-series drivers from scratch for Windows. They’ve already said that their own usage data shows only a small fraction of Mac users even use Bootcamp as opposed to a hypervisor solution, so in their eyes it’s just not worth it; Parallels should be good enough for the majority of users.
 
This article is a complete fan boy mess.

It lists the number of MacBooks that will be sold, 29 million but compares that to lower percentages of computer sales from AMD and Intel? So PC sales will be 300 million vs 350 million?

The point of the article is that one segment of the industry is growing in profitability, while the other is shrinking in profitability. That's the major point of interest to anyone making an investment decision of any kind.
 
This has more to do with the market and recession, rather than the Mac vs PC battle.

The PC market is still having major issues that start with GPUs, which also affect their chip sales.
Agreed. Most PCs are bought by businesses that are cutting back purchases right now.

I know Apple's making some bank in the PC market, but I kinda wish they'd offer a cheaper MacBook too. Maybe an 11" MacBook Air M1 for $700 US. They could capture more PC market share at that price point, and down the road many of those purchasers would want to move to a larger screen Mac.
 
I mean, it makes complete sense that PC shipments are slowing. It also makes sense the AS hype is allowing Apple to grow. The former is not a result of the latter, not even close.
PCs and Macs are substitute goods. Almost every outcome has multiple causes. It's pretty obvious that PC shipments would be higher than they are if Mac sales had been lower.
 
Agreed. Most PCs are bought by businesses that are cutting back purchases right now.

I know Apple's making some bank in the PC market, but I kinda wish they'd offer a cheaper MacBook too. Maybe an 11" MacBook Air M1 for $700 US. They could capture more PC market share at that price point, and down the road many of those purchasers would want to move to a larger screen Mac.
I think they tried going down that path with the single port MacBook. The problem with companies that play at the high end of that market is they have a lot of trouble creating low end products that are sufficiently differentiated from their mainline products. The cost of manufacture tends to be about the same, so the likelihood of severely reducing margins is very high. So, a common strategy is just to remove some important feature in the low-end product, even if the contribution to costs of that feature is minimal. In this case, they tried offering a single port system, and it was just a misfit with customer expectations. Since that port was tied up a great deal of the time with charging, the customer had to either live 100% by Bluetooth (in 2015) or become perpetually dongled. But who knows? It's 7 years later, Bluetooth is more widespread, and there are a lot more options for USB-C docking; so a single port MacBook might be ok.
 
I can't understand why Apple can't provide a native way to run Windows and Linux on Apple silicon. That would be the final nail in the coffin. Seems like a no brainer.
How would that be the final coffin?

MY company buys thousands of Dell Optiplexes the small form factor kind for $500 ish. They are by over 5000 employees. If the M1 based Mac’s could run Windows do you think companies would just buy way more expensive Mac’s????
 
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This article is a complete fan boy mess.

It lists the number of MacBooks that will be sold, 29 million but compares that to lower percentages of computer sales from AMD and Intel? So PC sales will be 300 million vs 350 million?

Yeah dude, going from 350 to 300 is not big deal. 🤦‍♂️

Now split that 300 between 50 Windows manufacturers.

People love to lump 50-300 companies against ONE (Apple).
 
This article is a complete fan boy mess.

It lists the number of MacBooks that will be sold, 29 million but compares that to lower percentages of computer sales from AMD and Intel? So PC sales will be 300 million vs 350 million?
Why is your picture a tankie flag???
 
Automatically every Mac sold is not a PC sold, so there is very much a causal relationship, even if it is not always exactly 1:1!
I hear you but consider that some people buy both Macs and PCs... so one mac sold is not necessarily at the expense of a PC. The relationship between Mac and PC (for some customers) is not either/or... it's both. I have both a PC and a Mac (I prefer the Mac, but I still need a PC).

Also, many Apple Silicon mac purchases are from people who already owned older Intel macs, and are finally upgrading. So you can't necessarily say that new Mac sales are from people are ditching PC to go to Mac.

Consider that many PC vendors had significant sales increases in 2020-1Q 2022. How could it be the case that people were ditching PCs for Mac, if PC sales were up significantly? Given that both PC and Mac sales were considerably up, it's fair to attribute that to dynamics of the pandemic of people working from home etc. And as the pandemic is now winding down and people are now exiting lockdowns and going back outside and into the office and so on... and inflation is up and a global recession is possible, PC demand fundamentals have changed. People that wanted or needed a PC have already made their purchases.

And finally, Apple isn't the number one laptop vendor, some like Dell, Lenovo, etc. are still ahead in terms of sales. I believe Apple is #3 or #4 depending on who you ask. So while it is true that PC sales are down and Apple's is up, many PC vendors still individually sell more than Apple. And some still have sales increases compared to last year. Of course, we know that Apple extracts more profits from the market place than most (if not all) of its competitors.

So again, I conclude: correlation is not causation.
 
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This article is a complete fan boy mess.

It lists the number of MacBooks that will be sold, 29 million but compares that to lower percentages of computer sales from AMD and Intel? So PC sales will be 300 million vs 350 million?
It is not totally a fan boy mess. Those 30 million chips mean a lot to Intel's bottom line! Chips are not cheap! The real problem is that Intel put the accountants in charge and stopped innovating! That is the kiss of death!
 
Go Apple!

Apple is succeeded because they have such a great product. Meanwhile AMD and NVIDIA are parts suppliers that must deal with the semi boom and bust cycle. As for Intel, well Biden just signed them a massive $50 billion bailout so hopefully hey get back on track.
 
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I know Apple's making some bank in the PC market, but I kinda wish they'd offer a cheaper MacBook too. Maybe an 11" MacBook Air M1 for $700 US. They could capture more PC market share at that price point, and down the road many of those purchasers would want to move to a larger screen Mac.
They are certainly first and foremost consolidating their changeover to Apple Silicon now. If they see paths towards increased market share that way without compromising their profitability with their new processors they have new options to actually go where PC manufacturers can't, but I wouldn't expect them to be in a rush yet.

I think they tried going down that path with the single port MacBook.
I'm not so sure: It was a "lighter than Air" machine and actually with a Retina screen, so arguably better quality – basically a "luxury Air", only let down by the completely crappy Intel CPUs.

So the 12" should actually have been a premium product from several of its features but the Intel CPUs made it impossible to sell it at such prices. I don't think it was ever conceived as an extra-cheap product!

With Apple Silicon I wouldn't be surprised if they continued offering previous-generation Airs at bargain prices to round out their price range on the bottom, though, the way they're doing now with the M1 Air.

I hear you but consider that some people buy both Macs and PCs... so one mac sold is not necessarily at the expense of a PC.
People buy either of those because they need / want them, and usually one or the other, not both at the same time, at least.

The relationship between Mac and PC (for some customers) is not either/or... it's both. I have both a PC and a Mac (I prefer the Mac, but I still need a PC).
In by far most cases when people are looking for a new computer it's an either / or affair.

Also, many Apple Silicon mac purchases are from people who already owned older Intel macs, and are finally upgrading.
Again instead of replacing their Intel Mac with a PC, which is the obvious alternative.

While others are replacing their aging PC with a new Mac.

It is not an exact zero-sum game, but the two sales figures do very much relate to each other: Both are computers which can be used for mostly the same purposes. Denying that is really a bit out there.

And finally, Apple isn't the number one laptop vendor, some like Dell, Lenovo, etc. are still ahead in terms of sales.
No, but they are one of the biggest by numbers, and by very far the most profitable computer manufacturer (when looking just at the Mac business, excluding iPhone etc.), and all that profit gets sucked out of the premium segments of the PC competitors, which is a critical threat to them, because they make little to no profit from the bulk of their sales, but only through accessories, services and "crapware" (Microsoft's(!) term for the junk that's being packed on shipping PCs by manufacturers).
 
Another not very plausible report from Digitimes.
It's funny how many users here are opening already the samphagne bottle without paying attention to what's written in the article itself.
What's very obvious is that a recession is coming, food and energy will continue to get more expensive and gadgets, computers definety won't be a high priority for many, especially since a lot of people bought a newer better computer during the pandemic and they definety don't need a new one. So AMD's, Nvidia's and Intel's expectations are quite realistic given this situation. Apple can expect groth as much as it wants, it doesn's mean it will happen, especially since the praised M2 Air from the article is quite an expensive computer, more expensive in comparison to the previous model and a lot of comparable Windows laptops. This reminds me, just today I visited an electronics store and right off the bat I saw 3 Windows laptops comparable in size and weight to an MacBook Air from 3 different companies. All 3 were cheaper, between 100-200$ VS the M1 Air. I don't see how the M2 Air MacBook will push sales to new hights.
 
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Agreed. Most PCs are bought by businesses that are cutting back purchases right now.

I know Apple's making some bank in the PC market, but I kinda wish they'd offer a cheaper MacBook too. Maybe an 11" MacBook Air M1 for $700 US. They could capture more PC market share at that price point, and down the road many of those purchasers would want to move to a larger screen Mac.
An 11" laptop definety won't steal any market share for Windows laptops.
For that amount of money for example I can buy a really nice Lenovo 14'' Yoga Slim Ultrabook which also has 16Gb Ram and 1Tb storage.
 
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An 11" laptop definety won't steal any market share for Windows laptops.
For that amount of money for example I can buy a really nice Lenovo 14'' Yoga Slim Ultrabook which also has 16Gb Ram and 1Tb storage.
Yes if anything I'd want an Air with a bigger screen at a lower price.
 
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