Windows Laptop Makers 'Worried' About New MacBook Air Impacting Sales

[MacRumors]

The upcoming launch of Apple's redesigned MacBook Air with the M2 chip has some Windows laptop manufacturers "worried" that sales of Intel-based laptops will be negatively affected, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes.

"A Wintel brand vendor pointed out that at a price point of US$1,000-$1,500, the MacBook Air will crowd out other high-end notebooks," the report claims, with "Wintel" referring to Windows laptops powered by Intel processors. The report added that "upgrades to the M2 processor, camera lens, and casing put the slight price increase of the new MacBook Air within an acceptable range for consumers."

Windows laptop makers are also concerned about weakening consumer sentiment driven by inflation and economic downturn, the report claims.

Pricing for the new MacBook Air starts at $1,199 in the United States, with the M2 chip offering up to 18% faster CPU performance and up to 35% faster graphics performance compared to the already impressive M1 chip in the previous model. Apple says the new MacBook Air will be available in July, with an order date expected to be announced soon.

In 2020, Apple announced that the Mac lineup would be transitioning from Intel processors to its own custom-designed silicon chips, with Apple promising industry-leading performance per watt. The transition is now nearly complete, with the only remaining Intel-based Macs sold being a higher-end Mac mini configuration and the Mac Pro tower, both of which are expected to be updated with Apple silicon chips later this year.

Apple silicon has been game changing for the Mac lineup. In 2020, benchmarks revealed that the $999 MacBook Air with an M1 chip outperformed a $2,999 maxed-out Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro. Likewise, the M2 chip is faster than the 8‑core Intel Xeon W processor in the base model Mac Pro tower, which starts at $5,999.

Last year, Intel ran ads promoting Windows PCs over Macs, and it even recruited former "I'm a Mac" actor Justin Long for the campaign. Meanwhile, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said his company would "fight hard" to "win back" Apple's business.

Article Link: Windows Laptop Makers 'Worried' About New MacBook Air Impacting Sales

 

[adamw]

They should all be worried about Apple. Hopefully the MacBook Air with M2 chip will not have same SSD reduced speed "feature" which Max Tech discovered the base model 13" MacBook Pro M2 has. Apple needs good press for all M2 Mac models, and Apple should not provide a reason for the tech press to bad mouth them, by using a downgraded, slower SSD chip design in their base M2 models.

 

[Premium1]

As they should.

 

[Razor_Crest]

I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of consumers suddenly cried out in happiness, and then left Intel. I fear something amazing has happened.

 

[iBreatheApple]

What’s different now than the past 10 years that makes them worry more?

 

[Eagle_Eye]

And they all should blame Intel for lack of innovation and optimization. If Intel acted earlier, this worrying wouldn't be necessary.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

It'd be real neat if Intel got competitive and MS made a decent implementation of Tablet functionality in their Surface line again, since Intel floundered and Win11 borked it. Other than that, idk... the 10-20% top end speed boost to single core performance doesn't really matter all that much, and only in rare cases does 64 extra cores help with anything. It's 2020 and when our architects and designers sit down to work, we're still looking at a TV and using a typewriter and a pointy stick to manipulate all the information that builds homes, airplanes, music and movies. There's a lot more room for improvement aside from processor speed yet. I'll be impressed when I see some thinking as forward as what I saw at Epcot Center half a century ago.

 

[steve09090]

What’s different now than the past 10 years that makes them worry more?

10 years ago, they were competing for style of OS. Now they’re competing (in the laptop space) for power. Intel is snoozeville. However Windows fans won’t care. TBH, They're used to a backward operating system.

 

[Red Oak]

$1,000-$1,500 is "high end" in the Wintel world

LoL

 

[iBluetooth]

What’s different now than the past 10 years that makes them worry more?

The macs are much faster, longer battery life and comparable in price, if not even cheaper!

 

[ChromeCloud]

I guess it's time for the EU to regulate the market and force Apple to give their processors and license macOS to every other PC brand so that they can keep up. /sarcasm

 

[zorinlynx]

They should be worried. I haven't seen real innovation on the Windows laptop side in a while. A lot of new laptops are still shipping with low-DPI screens and CPUs that require loud fans to cool them when you do pretty much anything.

Apple Silicon Macbooks are absolutely ground-breaking. I really hope they end up kicking the rest of the industry into innovating again.

 

[telo123]

Great for Apple lol

 

[LoveTo]

So now they are starting to get worried!? One can see why Apple moved on from Intel.

 

[michaeljk]

I don't get it. Apple's had laptops at this price point for more than a decade. This is nothing new. Where Apple could (but won't) make a dent in Wintel laptops is at the $500-$800 price point. I am guessing 80% of Windows laptops sell in this price range (at least at the consumer level). Also, I have to wonder how many tech industry laptop users are going to switching from Apple back to Wintel when they upgrade their current Apple/Intel laptops because they need the Intel processors to do some of their work.

 

[fenderbass146]

They should all be worried about Apple. Hopefully the MacBook Air with M2 chip will not have same SSD reduced speed "feature" which Max Tech discovered the base model MacBook M2 has. Apple needs good press for all M2 Mac models, and Apple should not provide a reason for the tech press to bad mouth them, by using a downgraded, slower SSD chip design in their base M2 models.

99% of people buying the air arn't going to care or notice.

 

[iBluetooth]

It's amazing that M2 beats the latest Intel chip. And if you do the tests unplugged for the laptops then the M2 leaves them in the dust. Amazing how stagnated Intel did get.

 

[reyesmac]

Anyone spending over a thousand on a windows machine for household use is not the kind of customer who is going to be loyal to windows anyway. Anyone who buys a mac around that price without adding an extra $500 to upgrade it isn't going to get a great work computer either since the extra ram and space is almost required for a workhorse computer. They would get more for the money from a PC.
I think the problem these manufacturers are having is that they don't really offer much in terms of speed at that price point. If they could build in a video card that would allow you to play games you can't on the mac, that may be good, but then they charge much more for those. They should back down from that price point altogether and make people justify paying $300 or more for a Mac vs their offerings. They can't really go head to head to justify that price if the overall experience is inferior to begin with. They can still compete on price.

 

[Paddle1]

I assume most people looking to buy a Mac or Windows PC in that price range will get what they want for their use case regardless.

 

[JPack]

They should all be worried about Apple. Hopefully the MacBook Air with M2 chip will not have same SSD reduced speed "feature" which Max Tech discovered the base model MacBook M2 has. Apple needs good press for all M2 Mac models, and Apple should not provide a reason for the tech press to bad mouth them, by using a downgraded, slower SSD chip design in their base M2 models.

The SSD change will happen, no doubt about it. Apple wouldn’t leave money on the table for the Air but skimp on the Pro.

It will come down to how reviewers treat the change and if benchmarks show much difference. Reviewers that know Apple feeds their content pipeline and want to remain day one reviewers will keep that in mind.

 

[Veeper]

What’s different now than the past 10 years that makes them worry more?

Yup. Total non-story IMO. Just another verse in the same song.

 

[FasterQuieter]

Wintel has become synonymous with trash in my mind since the M1 came out. I know that isn't fair, but the combination of slow, hot chips and Windows erased the tiny amount of curiosity I used to have about the platform.

 

[exoticSpice]

What’s different now than the past 10 years that makes them worry more?

Apple SoCs being good in a fanless design and still having great speed and battery life

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

It was a great move by Apple to move away from Intel. It's only going to get better and these companies really need to step their game up.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

"A Wintel brand vendor pointed out that at a price point of US$1,000-$1,500, the MacBook Air will crowd out other high-end notebooks."

Not even $1000-1500 anymore. You can get a M1 Macbook Air right now for $850 or less at certain retailers and the Apple Refurbished Store and it'll crush the majority of other notebooks. Unless you're a PC gamer who plays on laptops there's little reason to get a PC notebook anymore, and even then a lot of PC gamers have been getting M1 Macbook Airs as a secondary machines. The Apple Silicon Macs got me to switch a year ago after all, and my 14 inch Pro has been the best laptop I've ever had (so far)

Switching to ARM was the best decision Apple ever made with the Mac and has caused it to explode in market share harder than it ever had during the Mac vs PC days. Fast performance, absurdly long battery life, great build quality, affordable Macs, and better performance then the majority of PC notebooks has made the Apple Silicon Macs the obvious choice for most. I can't even recommend any laptop nowadays over an M1 Macbook Air with how good they are. The only reason people have left not to get one is they don't wanna use macOS (even though they've never used it) or they want games.