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> It will, indirectly. When MacBooks offer 1.5x the performance at 2x the battery life, people using Windows or Linux will start to demand similar devices from

by temac 6y ago

> It will, indirectly. When MacBooks offer 1.5x the performance at 2x the battery life, people using Windows or Linux will start to demand similar devices from Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, etc; Well, people can demand that, but if only Apple knows how to design the chips, and given they will not sell them to competitors...

baconandeggs 6y ago
Users don't want chips they want systems and the way people will "demand" them will be by buying Apple. Dell and Lenovo will have to come up with something or cede market share.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  That's the direct pressure, not the indirect pressure. And yeah it'll exist but if they decide not to make the OS replaceable then there's going to be a severe dampening effect on people switching to Apple hardware. So we'll see on that front.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Where I come from, people won't certainly be rushing to buy Apple with 300 euros as minimum wage and 1000 euros on average for regular IT job.
  - baconandeggs 6y ago
    Sure, but neither are they now so it makes no difference to Apple.
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      Which makes the whole point of the article meaningless.
- greggman3 6y ago
  I know Apple probably sells the most computers of any single company but in terms of the total market share they are under 10%? (laptop market). Part of that is cost. Apple's cheapest laptop is $999. I can get 3 chrome books or even 3 windows laptops for that. Sure the $999 Macbook Air is a much better machine but the person buying the $300 laptop, or even the $600 laptop doesn't care. It's like saying BMW or Mercedes is a better car than a Kia. I'm sure it is but neither my sister nor my 2 adult nephews can afford the Mercedes and neither can they afford the MBA. Just like Kia will still get them to work and to the grocery store the cheaper laptops will still let them facebook/twitter/ms-office/slack/google/maps just fine. Going on Amazon an typing "laptop" 6 of the first 7 hits are under $500 so less than 1/2 the cost of the cheapest Mac. The 1 that is over is $579 so nearly 1/2 I'm typing this on a $3600 MBP and I have a $2700 MBA as well so it's not like I'm not an Apple fan but I see what my family buys they'll opt for the perfectly adequate $550 computer over the probably superior $999 one.
sjwright 6y ago
Interesting times ahead, that's for sure. In my mind the small wildcard is going to be how effectively Apple can scale up CPU performance as their thermal budgets are increased. But the big wildcard is going to be how their in-house GPU tech scales up. It's going to be strange times ahead if Apple can bring the fight to AMD and Nvidia's mid-tier discrete products.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  Where is the pressure for Apple to beat the GPU performance of AMD or Nvidia going to come from though? Game consoles are stalwartly back on x86 for at least another generation (Xbox Series X, PS5), so AAA developers will have even less pressure for ARM ports and especially macOS-specific ARM ports. Apple may be hoping for more "bottom up" ports from iOS/Apple Arcade, and ARM macOS will make that easier, but games ported up from mobile don't seem particularly like a source for parity with AMD/Nvidia, much less a source for innovative competition "fight".
  - sjwright 6y ago
    To be clear, I was referring to AMD/Nvidia mid-tier. And I don’t expect Apple to come close to that any time soon. But who knows—Apple have already exceeded all expectations on their in-house GPU tech. While Apple doesn’t need to be chasing tier 1 AAA game performance, they do need graphics horsepower to handle two or three 6K displays. They also need to be a compelling platform for occasional gamers. And they need performance to power their push into AR.

by temac 6y ago

baconandeggs 6y ago

Users don't want chips they want systems and the way people will "demand" them will be by buying Apple. Dell and Lenovo will have to come up with something or cede market share.

Dylan16807 6y ago
That's the direct pressure, not the indirect pressure. And yeah it'll exist but if they decide not to make the OS replaceable then there's going to be a severe dampening effect on people switching to Apple hardware. So we'll see on that front.
pjmlp 6y ago
Where I come from, people won't certainly be rushing to buy Apple with 300 euros as minimum wage and 1000 euros on average for regular IT job.
- baconandeggs 6y ago
  Sure, but neither are they now so it makes no difference to Apple.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    Which makes the whole point of the article meaningless.
greggman3 6y ago
I know Apple probably sells the most computers of any single company but in terms of the total market share they are under 10%? (laptop market). Part of that is cost. Apple's cheapest laptop is $999. I can get 3 chrome books or even 3 windows laptops for that. Sure the $999 Macbook Air is a much better machine but the person buying the $300 laptop, or even the $600 laptop doesn't care. It's like saying BMW or Mercedes is a better car than a Kia. I'm sure it is but neither my sister nor my 2 adult nephews can afford the Mercedes and neither can they afford the MBA. Just like Kia will still get them to work and to the grocery store the cheaper laptops will still let them facebook/twitter/ms-office/slack/google/maps just fine. Going on Amazon an typing "laptop" 6 of the first 7 hits are under $500 so less than 1/2 the cost of the cheapest Mac. The 1 that is over is $579 so nearly 1/2 I'm typing this on a $3600 MBP and I have a $2700 MBA as well so it's not like I'm not an Apple fan but I see what my family buys they'll opt for the perfectly adequate $550 computer over the probably superior $999 one.

sjwright 6y ago

Interesting times ahead, that's for sure. In my mind the small wildcard is going to be how effectively Apple can scale up CPU performance as their thermal budgets are increased. But the big wildcard is going to be how their in-house GPU tech scales up. It's going to be strange times ahead if Apple can bring the fight to AMD and Nvidia's mid-tier discrete products.

WorldMaker 6y ago
Where is the pressure for Apple to beat the GPU performance of AMD or Nvidia going to come from though? Game consoles are stalwartly back on x86 for at least another generation (Xbox Series X, PS5), so AAA developers will have even less pressure for ARM ports and especially macOS-specific ARM ports. Apple may be hoping for more "bottom up" ports from iOS/Apple Arcade, and ARM macOS will make that easier, but games ported up from mobile don't seem particularly like a source for parity with AMD/Nvidia, much less a source for innovative competition "fight".
- sjwright 6y ago
  To be clear, I was referring to AMD/Nvidia mid-tier. And I don’t expect Apple to come close to that any time soon. But who knows—Apple have already exceeded all expectations on their in-house GPU tech. While Apple doesn’t need to be chasing tier 1 AAA game performance, they do need graphics horsepower to handle two or three 6K displays. They also need to be a compelling platform for occasional gamers. And they need performance to power their push into AR.