Some Custom Configured M2 MacBook Pro Models Delayed Until August

[Shirasaki]

Shortage will last indefinitely. Can’t wait to see those waiting times extend a couple few months later. I just don’t see the end of this. Why? Resources are running dry across the world, while recycling and reusing is still woefully low. Now Apple is attempting to bar meaningful new features behind higher end hardware, I just don’t see situation will improve. Imagine people Buying 8GB M2 today got barred from using a new Feature 2 years down the line because of 8GB RAM.

How to change that? Idk. Maybe let everyone understand in a hard way that unlimited growth is impossible?

 

[aevan]

Until they release Stage Manager II in 2024, then you’ll need at least 24GB.

Doubtful.

 

[Mal67]

It would be nice to see an Air, m1or m2, and the pro with 16 gig ram on the shelf as opposed to being built to order.

 

[Malus120]

Honestly this isn't new... Back when I was buying my 14" MBP I was debating whether to get the 32C GPU with 32GB of ram or the 24C GPU with of 64GB. A bit part of the reason I ended up going for 32C/32GB is that, aside from just wanting the more powerful GPU, was that any 64GB configuration was going to be an extra 1-2 months of lead time...

 

[biffuz]

Or maybe people is simply refusing to buy a cripppled "Pro" machine with only 8 GB in 2022. You're gonna spend lots of money anyway, what's 200 extra bucks?
I also often see 8 GB M1 Airs on offer, seems like every retailer is overstocking them. Last month I found them in a mall, combining all the offers the final price would have been 700€. Tempting, but I passed on them.

 

[rp2011]

Lol, “everyone switch”.

These computers are useless in STEM, and to gamers/power users.

Yes "everyone" is reach, but what I meant is the general consumer. There is definitely a market better suited for other platforms, and I don't think Apple wants the headache that comes with "everyone"

 

[dimickh]

If you are looking to buy higher-end configuration, or 16-24GB RAM and 512-2TB SSD, spend $300 more and get the real 14" MBP. You get a bigger screen with XDR and ProMotion, more I/O (MagSafe, 3rd Thunderbolt/USB, HDMI, SDXD), better webcam, and probably faster performance.

More like $600 difference
Air 24/512 costs $1800
Pro 14" 32/512 costs $2400

M1 pro with 8 cores gets 23% more points in multicore cinebench r23 than M1 Air, and M2 should be 18% better in multicore than M1, so not much a performance difference.

M1 pro which will be faster is extra $200 - so in total of $800 price difference.

Camera should be the same on both macs, display is better in pro, but with its own flaws(blooming, slow matrix response time as for 120hz display, so ghosting effect can be observed)

Very weird pricing tbh, Apple need to lower the prices on Macbook pro 14 to be competitive with new Macbook Air.

 

[Tironx]

More like $600 difference
Air 24/512 costs $1800
Pro 14" 32/512 costs $2400

M1 pro with 8 cores gets 23% more points in multicore cinebench r23 than M1 Air, and M2 should be 18% better in multicore than M1, so not much a performance difference.

M1 pro which will be faster is extra $200 - so in total of $800 price difference.

Camera should be the same on both macs, display is better in pro, but with its own flaws(blooming, slow matrix response time as for 120hz display, so ghosting effect can be observed)

Very weird pricing tbh, Apple need to lower the prices on Macbook pro 14 to be competitive with new Macbook Air.

Doubtfully..
MacBook Pro 14 better cpu/gpu, more ram and ssd in base, better/larger display, sound, better cooling system.

 

[StoneJack]

They’re somewhere in 4th-6th place depending on the year. Dell, Lenovo, and HP consistently round out the top 3 with ~20% each depending on the year/quarter. Apple, Acer, and Asus round out positions 4-6 with 7-10%. Their achievement really isn’t their market share, it’s their margin.

In a world where expendable income is decreasing for many people, I don’t personally see how Apple will expand their market share. They’ve always had the same smaller group of customers with deep pockets, so they’ll likely continue to hang around the 8-10% share they’ve always had.

There is no need to expand market share. Repeat and understand.

 

[antnythr]

There is no need to expand market share. Repeat and understand.

There’s nothing to repeat and understand. I know Apple’s business model, I just don’t like it.

 

[surfzen21]

I looked at time delays for the 14 and 16 MBP and they are pushed out till August too. If its not custom some local Apple stores have same day pickup but anything custom is delayed out till about mid August. By the time I make a decision it will be delayed until 2023

 

[SlaveToSwift]

Indirectly yes they should, for soldered RAM, SSD and glued battery. Planed obsolescence, and that way users could simply self upgrade.

You always had the option to buy thicker heavier easier to repair laptops with standardized batteries of lower capacity.

Somehow all that solder and glue has had my MacBooks a lot tougher, no matter how many times I’ve dropped them no connectors pop free and they keep working.

 

[SlaveToSwift]

I can only imagine how much better off we would be as a country if companies hadn’t outsourced their production to foreign sweatshops and hadn’t abandoned their manufacturing capabilities to make more profit.
Why the hell aren’t we making ram and all the other stuff we want in the US?

Great, let’s bring back all the lowest paying manual labor jobs and let Chinese devs make six figures building the apps. And increase iPhone prices do that Samsung gets more of the phone market.

The reason we don’t is that free trade benefits everyone. Apple lifted millions of Chinese out of brutal rural jobs into the middle class while creating over a million software jobs in the US.

 

[SlaveToSwift]

But Apple is not after marketshare, they're after profit margins. Take the smartphone market, where Apple is not the majority, but rakes the most profit.

O’really? Mac market share has tripled in the last twenty years.

Apple wants more market share, but only the good kind. They aren’t willing to make the crappy underpowered plastic $400 laptops with terrible screens that account for most laptop sales. But they are willing to sell more units of high quality laptops to those who value them.

The M1 changed the equation from Mac users pay 20-30% more to get better build, screen, trackpad, etc quality to at the same price you get as faster laptop with longer battery life. It meant they now sell a $900 MacBook Air that’s no longer running a slow discount bin Intel processor as a compromise.

This means they can sell more units at lower prices, without reducing margins.

 

[The Game 161]

No surprise given the 14 and 16 still suffering

 

[SlaveToSwift]

The Mac isn't much of a player in the laptop/desktop computer segment. They've never had more than about 10% of the market, and last I saw were currently under 8%. Even if the M1/M2 chips might be top tier processors, the market doesn't buy $2000-$4000 computers. The way consumer purchasing power is decreasing, the idea that Mac market share will increase seems unlikely in the near future.

Mac market share has already tripled in the last 20 years, at one point before then it was 2%. This year it’s significantly increased again even with the shortages. PC sales are falling, Macs continue to rise.

Apples average sales price is triple that of the windows pC market ($1,400 vs $450), giving it close to 25% of PC revenues.

Apple now has a lineup of top laptops from $900 up. As soon as they can catch up to demand their unit market share is growing into the 12-15% range.

 

[rillrill]

Shortage, huh? Is it all those lame YouTubers that are trying to posted benchmarks and then return the devices two weeks later?

 

[deconstruct60]

More like $600 difference
Air 24/512 costs $1800
Pro 14" 32/512 costs $2400

M1 pro with 8 cores gets 23% more points in multicore cinebench r23 than M1 Air, and M2 should be 18% better in multicore than M1, so not much a performance difference.

Apple isn't selling CPU cores. They are selling whole Macs.

M2 Air 8 (4-4)CPU 8 GPU 24GB 512GB $1800
Pro 14" 8 (6-2) CPU 14 GPU 32GB 512GB $2400

The Air is missing one P core complex (pragmatically around 1P due to different binning), 6 GPU cores (+ 75%) . Close to twice as many GPU cores, along with twice as much memory bandwidth, is not going to lead to "not much of a performance difference". Your a picking a myopic benchmark that is hiding the substantive differences not illuminating them.

Anything that kicks in Apple AMX subsystem will show a much larger gap (more units). Having two 4 core P-core complexes brings more AMX units and aggregate memory bandwidth. Cinebench also isn't going to demonstrate that.

Apple Charges $300 to go from M1 Pro 10 CPU 14 GPU to 10 CPU 16 GPU. So is $100/ 2 GPU cores ($50/core ). On the Max it is $200 for 8 core difference is $200 ( $25/core on a bulk buy ).

So we can toss $150-$300 increase in costs that Apple is going to consistently charge for because they don't sell GPU cores for free.


Add in the gaps outside the respective SoCs and there is just more.

M1 pro which will be faster is extra $200 - so in total of $800 price difference.

Camera should be the same on both macs, display is better in pro, but with its own flaws(blooming, slow matrix response time as for 120hz display, so ghosting effect can be observed)

You can dismiss the mini-LED screen, but it too is more expensive to make. The Air screen doesn't bloom? Really? You are joking, right?

Very weird pricing tbh, Apple need to lower the prices on Macbook pro 14 to be competitive with new Macbook Air.

If you don't count the things that Apple actually charges for ( like GPU cores) then the inconsistency isn't on Apple's side.

 

[deconstruct60]

Mac market share has already tripled in the last 20 years, at one point before then it was 2%. This year it’s significantly increased again even with the shortages. PC sales are falling, Macs continue to rise.
....

Apple now has a lineup of top laptops from $900 up. As soon as they can catch up to demand their unit market share is growing into the 12-15% range.

As soon as Apple part shortages clear up it will clear up for >$1,000 PC vendors also. Apple's share isn't necessarily going to grow if most of the decline for the PC market is in the sub $1,000 system price sector. The PC market is also in a transition cycle. The higher end mobile/lapotp Intel Gen 12 and AMD Ryzen 6000 have been rollout constrained ( similar issues that Apple is dealing with).

Apple will continue to get Windows switchers to get growth but also offering something that has problems for folks that need Windows specific apps. The switcher rate isn't necessarily going to increase substantially.

 

[surfzen21]

Shortage, huh? Is it all those lame YouTubers that are trying to posted benchmarks and then return the devices two weeks later?

Good for the refurb market though

 

[boss.king]

I feel like I'm going to struggle to get my M2 Air before I leave the country in mid-late August

 

[Dark_Omen]

I feel like I'm going to struggle to get my M2 Air before I leave the country in mid-late August

I'm sure the M1 Air more than satisfies your needs. If it didn't, you would have bought the M1 Pro MacBook a while ago.

 

[dimickh]

Apple isn't selling CPU cores. They are selling whole Macs.

And next line you are comparing number of cores for different architectures

The Air is missing one P core complex (pragmatically around 1P due to different binning), 6 GPU cores (+ 75%) . Close to twice as many GPU cores, along with twice as much memory bandwidth, is not going to lead to "not much of a performance difference". Your a picking a myopic benchmark that is hiding the substantive differences not illuminating them.

Anything that kicks in Apple AMX subsystem will show a much larger gap (more units). Having two 4 core P-core complexes brings more AMX units and aggregate memory bandwidth. Cinebench also isn't going to demonstrate that.

You realise that M1/M1 pro/M1 max share the same design for cores hence the name M1, you can't compare count of M1 Performance/Efficiency cores to M2 cores cause they have different design and performance? Don't like Cinebench, then look at Xcode benchmark which shows real world performance that utilises memory - 30% difference between M1 and M1 pro(8c), assuming 20% uplift M2 will be only 10 percent slower.

Apple Charges $300 to go from M1 Pro 10 CPU 14 GPU to 10 CPU 16 GPU. So is $100/ 2 GPU cores ($50/core ). On the Max it is $200 for 8 core difference is $200 ( $25/core on a bulk buy ).

So we can toss $150-$300 increase in costs that Apple is going to consistently charge for because they don't sell GPU cores for free.

Yeah much faster GPU, but personally I don't carea about GPU performance at all. I even can't imagine for what purposes you would need a powerfull apart from photo/video editing and 3d modelling.

You can dismiss the mini-LED screen, but it too is more expensive to make. The Air screen doesn't bloom? Really? You are joking, right?

It doesn't, cause it is using IPS panel without backlight zones.

From the notebookcheck review of Macbook Pro:
Blooming (halo effects around bright elements on dark images) is also visible on the Mini-LED panel of the MacBook Pro 14. The following video enhances the issue slightly but is otherwise a good representation of what the human eye sees at the maximum panel brightness.

 

[mikethemartian]

Lol, “everyone switch”.

These computers are useless in STEM, and to gamers/power users.

You really need a Windows or Linux PC to run enterprise grade engineering simulation applications. Companies like Mentor Graphics, Keysight and Ansys aren’t going to waste effort supporting Apple Silicon. For command line applications that are written in Python or the source code is available you would still be able run code as long as you have enough unified memory. But for the enterprise grade software that greatly expedites design and simulation that will require a high grade Windows or Linux PC.

 

[boss.king]

I'm sure the M1 Air more than satisfies your needs. If it didn't, you would have bought the M1 Pro MacBook a while ago.

Power-wise, yes, but there are other aspects of the new Air that make it a much more compelling option for me. If I'm buying a machine to last me another 5+ years, I'd prefer one that's not using an already 5-or-more-year-old design.