3 ms·
The price increases are a kick in the shins though. 20% more for 18% more performance. The M1 generation looks to be a bit of an "introductory offer" to get p
by paulmd 4y ago
The price increases are a kick in the shins though. 20% more for 18% more performance.
The M1 generation looks to be a bit of an "introductory offer" to get people looking at apple who otherwise wouldn't have... once they have established their mindshare as being a performance leader worth considering over x86, they can raise prices back up.
- mmmmmbop 4y agoI feel like most of the markup comes from the new industrial design. The previous M1 MBA was essentially a 2018 Retina MBA with an upgraded chip. When the 2018 Retina MBA was introduced, it was also $1,199.
- pier25 4y agoI agree. The Air used to be the laptop for everyone. Now it has entered into MBP territory in terms of pricing and performance. What will happen with the M3? Will the base Air start at $1500? Will the M2 Air drop its price to $999 when the M3 is released? I'm not saying the M2 Air is not worth its price compared to x86 laptops, but it's ridiculous that the cheapest Apple laptop is way overkill for its intended audience. Even the M1 is already overkill for users that typically spend the majority of their time in a browser or using Office.
- turtlebits 4y agoThe original Macbook Air when introduced had an MSRP of $1800. They are still selling the M1 Air at $1000.
- Macha 4y agoThe original Macbook Air was introduced to be extra light - it only later shifted to the entry level device as there used to be the base macbook for that
- pier25 4y agoYeah that was at launch, but a couple of years later it went down to less than $1000. I bought one new around 2017 for about $800. For many years it was one of the most popular laptops ever. Popular as in admired and famous, but also for the people.
- dividedbyzero 4y agoThe original Air was placed in a completely different segment, against the tiny executive Vaios and the like. People on a budget (like university student me) got the white plastic Macbook back then.
- sliken 4y agoHeh, sure, if that was it. What about the larger and better display? Magsafe? GPU perf (35%)? Better battery life? 50% more memory bandwidth? More ports (2 tb +power) ? M2 starting at $1200 looks pretty nice to me. Avoids many of the corners cut on the competition like: plastic chassis, tiny trackpad, poor fans that get noisier in the first year, poor Intel iGPU, poor battery life, etc.
- fomine3 4y agoBase price is still fine for the product, but RAM/SSD upgrade fee is the pain.