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I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. Like a curious child I read all of them because somewhere in me I want to bel

I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. Like a curious child I read all of them because somewhere in me I want to believe there exists a possibility of a giant leap for Desktop/Laptop. Having tried it myself, I should say this is going to be remembered just like the iPhone in 2007.

untog 6y ago
I doubt that very much. The iPhone was a true revelation: in user interface, in form factor, in the things it allowed you to do. The M1 is amazing but it doesn’t compare. Performance (both raw and thermal) is a big boost but it’s not going to reinvent computing.
- czzr 6y ago
  It’s not the same, but this is significantly accelerating the end of x86, and the end of Intel (at least the end of the current dominance of both). Such shifts don’t come along that often.
  - totalZero 6y ago
    To put your comment in perspective: Intel has 90+% market share in servers. Apple has 15% market share in personal computers.
    - czzr 6y ago
      Sure, but I didn’t mean that the whole world will switch to Apple. The world will mostly switch to commodity ARM chips and Intel's margins will crumble. Might take 5-10 years. This is Intel’s Nokia moment, when they lost a dominant position to Samsung/Android. Apple was the catalyst there as well, but Apple did not directly kill Nokia. The industry shift Apple sparked killed them.
- Aperocky 6y ago
  It won't reinvent UI, but it signaled the change to ARM and by extension, RISC. To a normal consumer, that's not a big deal (although 17 hour battery life is already pretty huge). To future PC hardware and server/backend infrastructure, that's a huge deal.
  - untog 6y ago
    Oh, for sure. It’s going to be a big deal to use techies and represents a huge shift in terms of who holds the power in processing. (that said, the vast majority of PCs won’t be able to use it!) But entire industries (e.g. ride hailing) were created in the aftermath of the iPhone’s launch. I just don’t think we’ll see that kind of change reflected in most people’s lives.
    - Aperocky 6y ago
      The big boosts here are commodity ARM instances on the cloud. These instances already are more power efficient than their intel counterpart and cheaper - but developer machine used to be all intel. Now that has changed.
- Spooky23 6y ago
  I disagree... laptops and desktops have been “dead” forever. The release cycles are boring and the computers even more so. This chip is a big change - Apple came out of the gate offering it in 3 form factors. That’s meaningful. For the task worker populations at my employer, we only committed serious cash to upgrades when Windows 10 started cutting off support. The funny thing is in some ways the newer devices are slower than the old Haswell stuff. Cheaper laptops are lighter but have awful thermals.
- 2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
  Loads of people didn’t think much of the iPhone when it came out either. No physical keyboard, other devices have large touch screens, no stylus, can’t copy and paste. Appreciating the iPhone is largely done in hindsight. Best not to make predictions too far into the future.
  - untog 6y ago
    > Appreciating the iPhone is largely done in hindsight. I’m sorry but that’s definitely not true. Yes, there were a vocal minority of folks who said the iPhone was nothing special but the mass market response was huge and it was heralded as a huge deal by the vast majority. And to go back to my original point: there’s a difference between “this new invention allows you to do new things, but those things aren’t important” and “this new invention does not allow you to do new things”. Reaction to the iPhone was the former. My reaction to the M1 is the latter. It allows you to do the things you already do faster and cooler and it’s a big technological shift. But it isn’t going to change the way people use computers in the way the iPhone did.
    - grecy 6y ago
      Did you forget when the CEO of Microsoft laughed it off and said it was crap? [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
      - hoytschermerhrn 6y ago
        I mean yeah, what else would the CEO of a competitor say?
      - icedchai 6y ago
        To be fair, if you remember 2007, the first generation was lacking in many areas. You couldn't send MMS messages. Receiving MMS was awkward and was done through an AT&T web site. You couldn't install apps. You couldn't take videos, only photos. It was slow, etc. My first iPhone was a 3G, but felt the iPhone really started taking off with the iPhone 4. It felt like a huge leap.
mhh__ 6y ago
> I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. HN has a huge hard-on for Apple. It's not unjustified in this instance, but HN is exactly the same as any other online forum in that it has its own forms of tribalism and bias.
gabereiser 6y ago
I have an M1 air 8-core 16gb ram model and yes, yes it will. I said something similar when it launched and people dismissed it. Article upon article online of PC die-hards dismissing it, Apple fanboys praising it. It’s a leap for sure. It’s a really really good chip. We’ll look back from 2027 and see.
- bee_rider 6y ago
  The iPhone was a basically new form factor that over the course of the next 13 years (after trickling out to the lower priced Android phones), became the primary way that billions of people interact with technology. The M1 is a really good new processor. We've been doing really good new processors for the last couple decades. It's great to have more competition in the CPU space, which was seeming to stagnate, but not matter how big an iteration, it's still just an iteration, it won't be remembered like coming up with a new type of device.
  - gabereiser 6y ago
    True, it’s not a new form factor. It doesn’t have that shiny “new thing” feeling. My Air looks like every other 2018+ air. What’s different is what you don’t see. Being able to code all day on battery and only using 18%. The CPU-core power to watt ratio is just unbelievable. I get it though, without the new form factor it lacks that defining moment. The moment came for me when I realized I wasn’t plugged in all day and was doing some pretty heavy compilation and code (aarm64 so gotta build from source). It’s a smashing breakthrough in pretty much all areas other than form factor. The changes are subtle but you then shake your head and remember your on a MacBook air...
    - bee_rider 6y ago
      It isn't just the "new thing" feeling, the smartphone form factor opened up new computing tasks that weren't really possible previously. The M1 is a quantitative, not qualitative improvement. That's why it won't be as memorable. The battery life is impressive, but it should be noted that you could have essentially the same experience with an older device by keeping the heavy computations on another machine -- remote desktop has always been a pain of course, but everybody loves SSH, right?
colinmhayes 6y ago
The iPhone literally changed everyone's life. History books will differentiae between the pre and post smartphone eras. This is nowhere close to a lifechanging product, although it's definitely a big leap.
- dingaling 6y ago
  > The iPhone literally changed everyone's life. I thought about this for a moment and realised it is probably correct, but not in a good way Previously we used durable, work-orientated smartphones with productive keyboard input. Then the iPhone arrived and popularised a flashy but fragile and less efficient form factor that became dominant. Every time I type in a touchscreen phone I regret that change. It was a triumph of a consumption mindset over usability.
  - spurgu 6y ago
    > It was a triumph of a consumption mindset over usability. Touché. At the time the iPhone launched I had a Nokia N91. I later got an N95 and finally a N900, after which I've only used non-productive touchscreen devices. Speaking of which, I've been following and drooling a bit after the Gemini PDA and its successors (Cosmo Communicator) but now with their latest Astro Slide I'm actually considering biting the bullet and getting one, thanks to the new keyboard mechanism which doesn't require you to open the device to see the screen: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...
spideymans 6y ago
I think the M1 is more analogous to the release of the 64-bit A7 CPU. Which doesn’t diminish it’s importance at all. The A7 was the inflection point that had the competition scrambling [unsuccessfully] to catch up to Apple ever since.
- neogodless 6y ago
  It's also worth remembering that while it may have shifted the smartphone market (and certainly Apple tablets), competitors still exist, improving over time, remaining relevant. Would someone argue that Android is simply not an option as a smartphone for a very large portion of the smartphone market? No. And likewise, competitors to Apple's laptops and workstations are very much going to continue to be relevant, and to improve and compete. The M1 has shown that power, battery life, and minimal heat production are more possible than ever. That doesn't mean end users will all suddenly drop everything and stop buying products from the competition. They'll just raise their expectations for future revisions.
  - alwillis 6y ago
    It's also worth remembering that while it may have shifted the smartphone market (and certainly Apple tablets), competitors still exist, improving over time, remaining relevant. Apple has captured 66% [1] of the profit in the cell phone industry. Other than Samsung in the US and other manufacturers in Asia, Apple has made the other companies a lot less relevant. When the iPhone shipped in 2007, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, Motorola and others were the giants in the industry; I'd argue none of what's left of these companies is relevant today. The same thing will happen with laptops; we already caught a glimpse of this in Japan, where Apple became the #1 selling desktop when the M1 Mac mini started shipping [2]. As the price/performance and performance/watt becomes more obvious, Apple will make inroads with new customers and markets. [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/12/22/global-phone-profits-apple-66-samsung-17-everyone-else-unlucky-13 https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/12/22/global-... [2]: https://www.imore.com/apple-now-top-desktop-pc-maker-japan-thanks-m1-mac-mini https://www.imore.com/apple-now-top-desktop-pc-maker-japan-t...
amelius 6y ago
> I should say this is going to be remembered just like the iPhone in 2007. I hope people will not forget about TSMC who made this all possible.
- whynotminot 6y ago
  Apple made it possible for TSMC to be able to do this. It's a tight partnership, and you don't understand the relationship between the two if you think TSMC's accomplishments come in isolation. Your sentiment is better expressed as "I hope TSMC gets some credit for the role they've played." Would recommend reading "Mobile Unleashed" by Daniel Nenni if you want to know more about ARM history in general.
- wyldfire 6y ago
  Is that really the case? Apple's design of the CPU itself seems like it's a bigger unique factor than the fab. Doesn't TSMC make competitors chips that are benchmarking much poorer than M1? Qualcomm got rid of their mobile ARM CPU designs a while back. Can the snapdragon cx / SQ2 series hope to compete using ARM reference designs, with Apple out so far ahead?
  - whynotminot 6y ago
    If you compare Snapdragon scores of the same TSMC node to their Apple equivalent, they come up wanting. TSMC is a fantastic and innovative company, and they've done amazing things (in no small part to Apple's massive investment in them). But Apple chip design is superior to their competitors. Combine Apple's superior designs with first access to TSMC's premier nodes and you get some pretty special results, as we've been seeing for years with the A series chips, and which is finally getting the notoriety it deserves with this M series debut.
    - amelius 6y ago
      How about ASML then?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
ehejsbbejsk 6y ago
And we haven’t even seen what Apple can do for their “pro” line. I can’t wait till they roll out Mac Pro.
gamblor956 6y ago
Benchmarks show that the M1 has better performance in only a few areas, and underperforms in others, and that's with Apple controlling literally every aspect of the hardware and software stack. It's great for an ARM system for a vertically oriented company, but it isn't sufficiently performative to be a significant threat to the competition. And that's before you consider all the non-technical crap Apple has thrown at its customers recently. And of course, the big issue is that in order to use the M1 you must switch your entire stack to Apple. Considering the broad swaths of essential business software that is simply incompatible with Apple OS, that's not going to happen.
- seppin 6y ago
  In the 1 week + i've had my Macbook Air M1, it's across the board better. This thing is amazing
  - gamblor956 6y ago
    Yes, compared to your prior Macbook I'm sure it was a revelation. A programmer friend loves his new M1, but he's also been an Apple user for decades. As a Windows user, testing out my friend's Macbook Air M1 was an underwhelming experience. I've had bigger performance boosts from adding more RAM or switching out HDs to SSDs, and a large part of the M1's performance "gains" can be attributed to the increased RAM on the systems currently featuring the M1.
    - jryle70 6y ago
      How did you compare a Windows system with a Mac to conclude it was "an underwhelming experience"? were they similarly configured and running similar software? > a large part of the M1's performance "gains" can be attributed to the increased RAM on the systems currently featuring the M1. Not sure I understand your point. M1 systems have 8 or 16 GB RAM. There are no increased RAM compared to non-M1 Mac.
      - gamblor956 6y ago
thekyle 6y ago
I don't think it will be remembered like the iPhone. Probably more like the original Macbook Air. The original Air created the class of ultrabooks which made the bulky Windows laptops at the time obsolete for average users. The new M1 Air has created a class of laptops with ultrabook bodies, but remains cool to the touch under load without sacrificing much in performance and having 16+ hours of battery life. Like the original Air the new one has basically made every ~$1,000 Windows laptop obsolete. Even really nice ones like the Dell XPS 13 have worse battery life and performance while reaching CPU temperatures as high as 100 °C.
- gumby 6y ago
  > Like the original Air the new one has basically made every ~$1,000 Windows laptop obsolete. This price qualification is important and insightful, and has been ignored by all the breathless prose about how it will replace all (or no) PCs. The real historic lesson that applies here: Apple by and large aims to serve the highest margin segments and are happy to ignore other segments, even higher revenue ones.* M1 will help them dominate a couple of other segments; everyone else will fight over the scraps. By contrast, a Dell or LG tries to serve all but a tiny sliver of the market, which is more expensive and difficult. * sometimes they have halo product like the Mac Pro that might better be thought of as part of the marketing budget, though I’m sure they’re pretty high margin too.
- fractallyte 6y ago
  Apple marketing again! I had a Sharp Muramasa MM10 years before that!
seppin 6y ago
I upgraded from a 2016 MBP to a Macbook Air M1, shocked by the difference.
miguelmota 6y ago
The iPhone was revolutionary because of the responsive capacitive touchscreen with onscreen keyboard and shortly after the App Store which popularized more the iPhone. The M1 chip makes the Apple software run smoother and the battery efficiency is impressive, but not sure if it's something consumers will remember as an inflection point.

untog 6y ago

I doubt that very much. The iPhone was a true revelation: in user interface, in form factor, in the things it allowed you to do. The M1 is amazing but it doesn’t compare. Performance (both raw and thermal) is a big boost but it’s not going to reinvent computing.

czzr 6y ago
It’s not the same, but this is significantly accelerating the end of x86, and the end of Intel (at least the end of the current dominance of both). Such shifts don’t come along that often.
- totalZero 6y ago
  To put your comment in perspective: Intel has 90+% market share in servers. Apple has 15% market share in personal computers.
  - czzr 6y ago
    Sure, but I didn’t mean that the whole world will switch to Apple. The world will mostly switch to commodity ARM chips and Intel's margins will crumble. Might take 5-10 years. This is Intel’s Nokia moment, when they lost a dominant position to Samsung/Android. Apple was the catalyst there as well, but Apple did not directly kill Nokia. The industry shift Apple sparked killed them.
Aperocky 6y ago
It won't reinvent UI, but it signaled the change to ARM and by extension, RISC. To a normal consumer, that's not a big deal (although 17 hour battery life is already pretty huge). To future PC hardware and server/backend infrastructure, that's a huge deal.
- untog 6y ago
  Oh, for sure. It’s going to be a big deal to use techies and represents a huge shift in terms of who holds the power in processing. (that said, the vast majority of PCs won’t be able to use it!) But entire industries (e.g. ride hailing) were created in the aftermath of the iPhone’s launch. I just don’t think we’ll see that kind of change reflected in most people’s lives.
  - Aperocky 6y ago
    The big boosts here are commodity ARM instances on the cloud. These instances already are more power efficient than their intel counterpart and cheaper - but developer machine used to be all intel. Now that has changed.
Spooky23 6y ago
I disagree... laptops and desktops have been “dead” forever. The release cycles are boring and the computers even more so. This chip is a big change - Apple came out of the gate offering it in 3 form factors. That’s meaningful. For the task worker populations at my employer, we only committed serious cash to upgrades when Windows 10 started cutting off support. The funny thing is in some ways the newer devices are slower than the old Haswell stuff. Cheaper laptops are lighter but have awful thermals.
2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
Loads of people didn’t think much of the iPhone when it came out either. No physical keyboard, other devices have large touch screens, no stylus, can’t copy and paste. Appreciating the iPhone is largely done in hindsight. Best not to make predictions too far into the future.
- untog 6y ago
  > Appreciating the iPhone is largely done in hindsight. I’m sorry but that’s definitely not true. Yes, there were a vocal minority of folks who said the iPhone was nothing special but the mass market response was huge and it was heralded as a huge deal by the vast majority. And to go back to my original point: there’s a difference between “this new invention allows you to do new things, but those things aren’t important” and “this new invention does not allow you to do new things”. Reaction to the iPhone was the former. My reaction to the M1 is the latter. It allows you to do the things you already do faster and cooler and it’s a big technological shift. But it isn’t going to change the way people use computers in the way the iPhone did.
  - grecy 6y ago
    Did you forget when the CEO of Microsoft laughed it off and said it was crap? [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
    - hoytschermerhrn 6y ago
      I mean yeah, what else would the CEO of a competitor say?
    - icedchai 6y ago
      To be fair, if you remember 2007, the first generation was lacking in many areas. You couldn't send MMS messages. Receiving MMS was awkward and was done through an AT&T web site. You couldn't install apps. You couldn't take videos, only photos. It was slow, etc. My first iPhone was a 3G, but felt the iPhone really started taking off with the iPhone 4. It felt like a huge leap.

mhh__ 6y ago

> I have seen so many articles on HN in front page about M1 over the past few weeks. HN has a huge hard-on for Apple. It's not unjustified in this instance, but HN is exactly the same as any other online forum in that it has its own forms of tribalism and bias.

gabereiser 6y ago

I have an M1 air 8-core 16gb ram model and yes, yes it will. I said something similar when it launched and people dismissed it. Article upon article online of PC die-hards dismissing it, Apple fanboys praising it. It’s a leap for sure. It’s a really really good chip. We’ll look back from 2027 and see.

bee_rider 6y ago
The iPhone was a basically new form factor that over the course of the next 13 years (after trickling out to the lower priced Android phones), became the primary way that billions of people interact with technology. The M1 is a really good new processor. We've been doing really good new processors for the last couple decades. It's great to have more competition in the CPU space, which was seeming to stagnate, but not matter how big an iteration, it's still just an iteration, it won't be remembered like coming up with a new type of device.
- gabereiser 6y ago
  True, it’s not a new form factor. It doesn’t have that shiny “new thing” feeling. My Air looks like every other 2018+ air. What’s different is what you don’t see. Being able to code all day on battery and only using 18%. The CPU-core power to watt ratio is just unbelievable. I get it though, without the new form factor it lacks that defining moment. The moment came for me when I realized I wasn’t plugged in all day and was doing some pretty heavy compilation and code (aarm64 so gotta build from source). It’s a smashing breakthrough in pretty much all areas other than form factor. The changes are subtle but you then shake your head and remember your on a MacBook air...
  - bee_rider 6y ago
    It isn't just the "new thing" feeling, the smartphone form factor opened up new computing tasks that weren't really possible previously. The M1 is a quantitative, not qualitative improvement. That's why it won't be as memorable. The battery life is impressive, but it should be noted that you could have essentially the same experience with an older device by keeping the heavy computations on another machine -- remote desktop has always been a pain of course, but everybody loves SSH, right?

colinmhayes 6y ago

The iPhone literally changed everyone's life. History books will differentiae between the pre and post smartphone eras. This is nowhere close to a lifechanging product, although it's definitely a big leap.

dingaling 6y ago
> The iPhone literally changed everyone's life. I thought about this for a moment and realised it is probably correct, but not in a good way Previously we used durable, work-orientated smartphones with productive keyboard input. Then the iPhone arrived and popularised a flashy but fragile and less efficient form factor that became dominant. Every time I type in a touchscreen phone I regret that change. It was a triumph of a consumption mindset over usability.
- spurgu 6y ago
  > It was a triumph of a consumption mindset over usability. Touché. At the time the iPhone launched I had a Nokia N91. I later got an N95 and finally a N900, after which I've only used non-productive touchscreen devices. Speaking of which, I've been following and drooling a bit after the Gemini PDA and its successors (Cosmo Communicator) but now with their latest Astro Slide I'm actually considering biting the bullet and getting one, thanks to the new keyboard mechanism which doesn't require you to open the device to see the screen: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...

spideymans 6y ago

I think the M1 is more analogous to the release of the 64-bit A7 CPU. Which doesn’t diminish it’s importance at all. The A7 was the inflection point that had the competition scrambling [unsuccessfully] to catch up to Apple ever since.

neogodless 6y ago
It's also worth remembering that while it may have shifted the smartphone market (and certainly Apple tablets), competitors still exist, improving over time, remaining relevant. Would someone argue that Android is simply not an option as a smartphone for a very large portion of the smartphone market? No. And likewise, competitors to Apple's laptops and workstations are very much going to continue to be relevant, and to improve and compete. The M1 has shown that power, battery life, and minimal heat production are more possible than ever. That doesn't mean end users will all suddenly drop everything and stop buying products from the competition. They'll just raise their expectations for future revisions.
- alwillis 6y ago
  It's also worth remembering that while it may have shifted the smartphone market (and certainly Apple tablets), competitors still exist, improving over time, remaining relevant. Apple has captured 66% [1] of the profit in the cell phone industry. Other than Samsung in the US and other manufacturers in Asia, Apple has made the other companies a lot less relevant. When the iPhone shipped in 2007, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, Motorola and others were the giants in the industry; I'd argue none of what's left of these companies is relevant today. The same thing will happen with laptops; we already caught a glimpse of this in Japan, where Apple became the #1 selling desktop when the M1 Mac mini started shipping [2]. As the price/performance and performance/watt becomes more obvious, Apple will make inroads with new customers and markets. [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/12/22/global-phone-profits-apple-66-samsung-17-everyone-else-unlucky-13 https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/12/22/global-... [2]: https://www.imore.com/apple-now-top-desktop-pc-maker-japan-thanks-m1-mac-mini https://www.imore.com/apple-now-top-desktop-pc-maker-japan-t...

amelius 6y ago

> I should say this is going to be remembered just like the iPhone in 2007. I hope people will not forget about TSMC who made this all possible.

whynotminot 6y ago
Apple made it possible for TSMC to be able to do this. It's a tight partnership, and you don't understand the relationship between the two if you think TSMC's accomplishments come in isolation. Your sentiment is better expressed as "I hope TSMC gets some credit for the role they've played." Would recommend reading "Mobile Unleashed" by Daniel Nenni if you want to know more about ARM history in general.
wyldfire 6y ago
Is that really the case? Apple's design of the CPU itself seems like it's a bigger unique factor than the fab. Doesn't TSMC make competitors chips that are benchmarking much poorer than M1? Qualcomm got rid of their mobile ARM CPU designs a while back. Can the snapdragon cx / SQ2 series hope to compete using ARM reference designs, with Apple out so far ahead?
- whynotminot 6y ago
  If you compare Snapdragon scores of the same TSMC node to their Apple equivalent, they come up wanting. TSMC is a fantastic and innovative company, and they've done amazing things (in no small part to Apple's massive investment in them). But Apple chip design is superior to their competitors. Combine Apple's superior designs with first access to TSMC's premier nodes and you get some pretty special results, as we've been seeing for years with the A series chips, and which is finally getting the notoriety it deserves with this M series debut.
  - amelius 6y ago
    How about ASML then?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

ehejsbbejsk 6y ago

And we haven’t even seen what Apple can do for their “pro” line. I can’t wait till they roll out Mac Pro.

gamblor956 6y ago

Benchmarks show that the M1 has better performance in only a few areas, and underperforms in others, and that's with Apple controlling literally every aspect of the hardware and software stack. It's great for an ARM system for a vertically oriented company, but it isn't sufficiently performative to be a significant threat to the competition. And that's before you consider all the non-technical crap Apple has thrown at its customers recently. And of course, the big issue is that in order to use the M1 you must switch your entire stack to Apple. Considering the broad swaths of essential business software that is simply incompatible with Apple OS, that's not going to happen.

seppin 6y ago
In the 1 week + i've had my Macbook Air M1, it's across the board better. This thing is amazing
- gamblor956 6y ago
  Yes, compared to your prior Macbook I'm sure it was a revelation. A programmer friend loves his new M1, but he's also been an Apple user for decades. As a Windows user, testing out my friend's Macbook Air M1 was an underwhelming experience. I've had bigger performance boosts from adding more RAM or switching out HDs to SSDs, and a large part of the M1's performance "gains" can be attributed to the increased RAM on the systems currently featuring the M1.
  - jryle70 6y ago
    How did you compare a Windows system with a Mac to conclude it was "an underwhelming experience"? were they similarly configured and running similar software? > a large part of the M1's performance "gains" can be attributed to the increased RAM on the systems currently featuring the M1. Not sure I understand your point. M1 systems have 8 or 16 GB RAM. There are no increased RAM compared to non-M1 Mac.
    - gamblor956 6y ago

thekyle 6y ago

I don't think it will be remembered like the iPhone. Probably more like the original Macbook Air. The original Air created the class of ultrabooks which made the bulky Windows laptops at the time obsolete for average users. The new M1 Air has created a class of laptops with ultrabook bodies, but remains cool to the touch under load without sacrificing much in performance and having 16+ hours of battery life. Like the original Air the new one has basically made every ~$1,000 Windows laptop obsolete. Even really nice ones like the Dell XPS 13 have worse battery life and performance while reaching CPU temperatures as high as 100 °C.

gumby 6y ago
> Like the original Air the new one has basically made every ~$1,000 Windows laptop obsolete. This price qualification is important and insightful, and has been ignored by all the breathless prose about how it will replace all (or no) PCs. The real historic lesson that applies here: Apple by and large aims to serve the highest margin segments and are happy to ignore other segments, even higher revenue ones.* M1 will help them dominate a couple of other segments; everyone else will fight over the scraps. By contrast, a Dell or LG tries to serve all but a tiny sliver of the market, which is more expensive and difficult. * sometimes they have halo product like the Mac Pro that might better be thought of as part of the marketing budget, though I’m sure they’re pretty high margin too.
fractallyte 6y ago
Apple marketing again! I had a Sharp Muramasa MM10 years before that!

seppin 6y ago

I upgraded from a 2016 MBP to a Macbook Air M1, shocked by the difference.

miguelmota 6y ago

The iPhone was revolutionary because of the responsive capacitive touchscreen with onscreen keyboard and shortly after the App Store which popularized more the iPhone. The M1 chip makes the Apple software run smoother and the battery efficiency is impressive, but not sure if it's something consumers will remember as an inflection point.