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This is a good data point for a short term sales trends regarding a new device that is a big upgrade for apple's existing market share. It does not in any fash

This is a good data point for a short term sales trends regarding a new device that is a big upgrade for apple's existing market share. It does not in any fashion show that short term sales suggest that people who who used to buy 200-600 average PCs are now spending 1000 on macbooks. Macs biggest opportunity rests in flipping people who buy machines in the same price range from PC to Mac. It puts substantial pressure on OEMs to improve their premium lines and yet they don't have a great margin so it looks like there is nowhere to go but up in price.

kube-system 5y ago
The Air is a year old model. But yes, it only competes with premium PCs. But, premium PCs aren’t useless if they only have 8GB RAM and 256GB SSDs, though. There are people who enjoy premium computers who have basic resource needs. Not all of them are developers or video editors.
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  New airs are being told today and probably will be well into 2022 so its odd to talk about it first being sold a year ago. The average lifespan of a PC is 6 years. It's doesn't seem to me that 8GB is enough even now with browsers and apps built on web tech being as hungry as they are. It certainly wont be enough in 2027 or 2028.
  - kube-system 5y ago
    The reviews of base model Airs are generally very positive. I wouldn’t recommend one if it’s a tool you use for work, but it certainly loads Facebook, YouTube, TurboTax, Gmail, and all of the stuff normal people do just fine.
    - michaelmrose 5y ago
      I just opened 12 tabs including nytimes youtube slack youtube reddit and started a game. I'm now at 10GB. I'm not even using desktop apps for many things like slack spotify discord which would easily add GB. If I only had 8GB changing from game to browser and back would require swapping NOW let alone further along the expected 6 year average lifespan. I think its safe to say that the trend has been that cheaper plentiful ram leads to applications that are more wasteful of it and that this trend is likely to continue. The difference in costs between a 8GB and 16GB model is probably less than $20 bucks its not replaceable or up gradable so you can tell yourself that the M1 Macs start at less than 1000 even though the 999 model is a dog and kick them an extra $200 for the $20 upgrade. This is called price bracketing. You are being manipulated and nickel and dimed by a multi multi billion dollar outfit.
      - kube-system 5y ago
        I understand price bracketing; I use that technique in my own products. I know it's not always apparent when immersed in highly technical communities, but there are a significant number of people who use their computers very casually. Not people who sit at a computer for hours, but people who open their computer to go to a website. Plenty of entirely computer literate people simply don't use tabs unless they click on a link that is `target="_blank"`
        michaelmrose 5y ago
        So it's good for rich people who could be satisfied by a 12 year old dell but whom would like to display their status by spending 1000 to have the appropriate brand on the device they barely use?
        kube-system 5y ago
        Some people make purchase decisions using criteria other than technical utilitarianism alone. But there’s more than a few qualitative differences between any 12 year old Dell and a 2020 M1 Air other than being a status symbol.

kube-system 5y ago

The Air is a year old model. But yes, it only competes with premium PCs. But, premium PCs aren’t useless if they only have 8GB RAM and 256GB SSDs, though. There are people who enjoy premium computers who have basic resource needs. Not all of them are developers or video editors.

michaelmrose 5y ago
New airs are being told today and probably will be well into 2022 so its odd to talk about it first being sold a year ago. The average lifespan of a PC is 6 years. It's doesn't seem to me that 8GB is enough even now with browsers and apps built on web tech being as hungry as they are. It certainly wont be enough in 2027 or 2028.
- kube-system 5y ago
  The reviews of base model Airs are generally very positive. I wouldn’t recommend one if it’s a tool you use for work, but it certainly loads Facebook, YouTube, TurboTax, Gmail, and all of the stuff normal people do just fine.
  - michaelmrose 5y ago
    I just opened 12 tabs including nytimes youtube slack youtube reddit and started a game. I'm now at 10GB. I'm not even using desktop apps for many things like slack spotify discord which would easily add GB. If I only had 8GB changing from game to browser and back would require swapping NOW let alone further along the expected 6 year average lifespan. I think its safe to say that the trend has been that cheaper plentiful ram leads to applications that are more wasteful of it and that this trend is likely to continue. The difference in costs between a 8GB and 16GB model is probably less than $20 bucks its not replaceable or up gradable so you can tell yourself that the M1 Macs start at less than 1000 even though the 999 model is a dog and kick them an extra $200 for the $20 upgrade. This is called price bracketing. You are being manipulated and nickel and dimed by a multi multi billion dollar outfit.
    - kube-system 5y ago
      I understand price bracketing; I use that technique in my own products. I know it's not always apparent when immersed in highly technical communities, but there are a significant number of people who use their computers very casually. Not people who sit at a computer for hours, but people who open their computer to go to a website. Plenty of entirely computer literate people simply don't use tabs unless they click on a link that is `target="_blank"`
      - michaelmrose 5y ago
        So it's good for rich people who could be satisfied by a 12 year old dell but whom would like to display their status by spending 1000 to have the appropriate brand on the device they barely use?
        kube-system 5y ago
        Some people make purchase decisions using criteria other than technical utilitarianism alone. But there’s more than a few qualitative differences between any 12 year old Dell and a 2020 M1 Air other than being a status symbol.