Mac Sales are Down

Mac sales are down.

I’m really not surprised. They are just a bit too expensive once you start upgrading the storage and ram.

I have been holding out on buying a Mac since the M2 was rumored to come out.

I keep hoping that the base model will have a larger amount of storage and ram, but it does not.

They keep selling faster processors, but I do not need that, I need more storage and I’d like more ram.

At this point, I’m just going to buy a used M1 air. If Apple had 512 and 26 standard on the base air, I’d pickup a new one today.

Do you disagree? What can Apple do to increase Mac sales?

FriendlyBeagleDog,

Not particularly surprised.

By most accounts they’re very capable pieces of hardware, but the prices are way too high for current conditions.

Think there’s also a case of incremental performance improvements in the form factor becoming less perceptible, and also more people favouring phones and tablets over laptops for everyday use.

Destraight,

deleted_by_author

    •
    lud, (edited )

    The hardware seems pretty good recently.

    Excellent battery life and performance. Maybe not the best laptop for gaming but it’s great for other shit. They are fairly expensive (and very expensive if you want more storage) though.

    I would never buy one because I don’t think I would like Mac OS, so I would probably just buy a ThinkPad and install Linux instead.

    I won’t buy a laptop any time soon because laptop prices are insane and my X280 is good enough, I just wish it had more RAM.

    MiddledAgedGuy,

    I don’t like Apple. That’ll probably show. But I like Microsoft and Google even less, so ultimately I do want them to continue to succeed for the time being.

    They should sell cheaper x86 and arm laptops. If other manufacturers can sell decent midrange laptops for around $500 USD, so can Apple. They can even charge a bit extra for that Apple logo and still come in well under the $1000 minimum price tag now.

    Though that in and of itself might be shooting themselves in the foot a bit. They have kind of a designer brand vibe, people might not trust reasonably priced hardware from them. So they’d probably want to adjust their marketing too.

    I think they should do this, because declining sales tells us less people are willing to pay that premium. Though they should keep their current product line too. I like what they’re doing with their Mx ARM chips.

    BartsBigBugBag,

    Sales of most things are down, we’re returning to pre pandemic-boom normals.

    blindsight,

    This is the goal of developed nations around the world ratcheting up interest rates; they wanted to shift the demand curve to the left. And, of course, discretionary spending will be the most affected, which includes most technology.

    Grass,

    This just in: computer performance has mostly eclipsed the requirements of most non-gamer users, and the next gen is not only exorbitantly expensive but only some very edge case power users truly benefit from the improvements which are at times suspect in if they even exist.

    Frogmanfromlake,
    @Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net avatar

    Are macs still the status symbol they once were?

    PrMinisterGR,

    The base models are too gimped and anything reasonable is way too expensive. The machines are great, but they should be priced at least 20% lower.

    OscarRobin,

    I have an M1 Pro 16 and love it, but its already huge $3750 AUD price tag has ballooned to $4250 for the M3 Pro 16 whose only difference is the chip. I love my MacBook but unless Apple returns to earth with their pricing and/or makes the machines worth that much by providing more than the barest essential specs at those prices, I will be buying something else when this MacBook is done.

    vivadanang,

    if you can upgrade storage and ram. they’re soldering shit onto boards now.

    daq,

    AMD 7840U beats M2 in every single bench unless you really want macos.

    happyhippo,

    Anyone said framework 13"?

    (Mines shipping in a couple of weeks)

    daq,

    Awesome idea, but overpriced. Not as much as Apple, but still a lot compared to Dell or Lenovo. I might still order it if Snapdragon Elite isn’t readily available by the time I need to upgrade my laptop just to support a great idea and a smaller company.

    happyhippo,

    They need to have certain margins to survive. These first years are crucial, if they gain enough market share I’m sure they’ll stick around and will be able to apply better prices.

    Right now I know that I’m overpaying, but part of that extra money I’m more than happy to give it to send a message to the entire industry: consumers WANT right to repair, upgrade and fully own the electronics they pay for. And our planet needs this as well.

    daq,

    Their pre-orders are always full and keep growing. Sure looks like they are doing very well.

    I wonder if they are even considering offering an option with RISC architecture. I doubt RISC-V is coming any time soon, but SnapDragon Elite looks amazing even though it’s ARM. Would love to get RISC based laptop from a manufacturer like Framework that doesn’t lock it to specific OS unlike Apple or Microsoft.

    happyhippo,

    I’m definitely expecting they do once RISC-V is mature enough (something I can’t wait to happen!)

    ParanoidFactoid,
    @ParanoidFactoid@beehaw.org avatar

    Insane performance of the M series is due to bolting RAM straight to the chip, so it runs with a very low clock divisor. These things run at such speeds that even millimeters distance from CPU to RAM limit clock speed, which is why PCs have traditionally reduced bus speed while pumping CPU speed.

    Apple made their point. Integrate RAM and CPU/GPU for performance and you can compete with much lower performing CPU cores in design. And let’s be clear, ARM only wins here because of that improved I/O bandwidth.

    Intel and AMD should bolt 8GB RAM on their chips and use it for cache. Then PCs will pound M series chips into the ground and PC will regain its value proposition over Apple again.

    darkfiremp3,

    They really need to up the base model and re-become the premium brand. But they probably have stats that 90% of people get 16GB of ram and it would eat those sweet sweet profits.

    Tak,
    @Tak@lemmy.ml avatar

    For the price of memory vs the price of the laptop combined with the fact that it’s non-upgradable and unified memory it is some complete bullshit that an $80 Raspberry Pi has as much memory as an $1800 laptop

    Auzy, (edited )

    I got a Mac Studio recently, but my huge hesitation is that the CPU’s TOTALLY suck lol. I only switched because I was genuinely sick of windows. And windows must have had a bug, because it kept hijacking my Chrome session with Edge EVERY Reboot.

    But, now that the M3’s have raytracing, maybe they’ll suck less. Unfortunately, some areas, mac has definitely fallen behind on (like Aero Snap, we need magnet on Mac OS)

    happyhippo,

    Linux is a thing, you know?

    Embrace the freedom it gives

    bingbong,

    Best of both worlds with Linux on my M1 air

    GnomeComedy,

    You get free software AND you get to empty your wallet?

    bingbong,

    A $900 laptop that

    • has days of battery life and an ARM processor
    • Ran x86 apps with near-native speeds *Still beat all of its competitors in benchmarks back in 2021 when I got it
    • Did all of this without a fan
    • is extremely compact and lightweight, fitting in every bag I have
    • well made with a good keyboard, trackpad, and screen
    • Will last me for years

    Do me a favor, look at what 13" laptops were for sale in late 2021. Find any of them that competed on price and performance. The M1 MacBook air was one of the best received apple laptops, specifically because it was unbeatable at that price.

    The only negative was it only running macOS, but Apple allowed 3rd party firmware to be installed. Now mine uses coreboot to boot into fedora 39. The only thing that doesn’t work is deep sleep and the speakers, with good progress being made by the development team.

    There’s plenty of criticism for Apple and their obscene pricing, but the one laptop purchase I never regretted was this one.

    OfficialThunderbolt,

    I’m not sure why people are surprised by this. In a lot of ways, Apple was a pandemic darling that didn’t take as big a fall as the other pandemic darlings did when the pandemic ended. When the pandemic started, there was a big splurge in tech spending that benefitted Apple + the other pandemic darlings (Zoom, Fiverr) as the whole world was going remote.

    But then the pandemic ended, and so tech sales went way down as everyone started to step outdoors again.

    They released the first ARM Macs with the M1 chip during the pandemic, which were a big step up in performance and power efficiency over the Intel Macs they replaced. That further raised their sales as people upgraded their old laptops.

    But the M2 and M3 had the majority of their work go into improving the GPU for apps used by hardcore gamers and creative pros; the non-graphics processing increases are not as substantial. The majority of their customers are not gamers or creative pros; they just use their computers for email, social media, and word processing or sometimes spreadsheet use.

    So this is not surprising at all. Not when the pandemic ended, and the M1 was good enough for most of their users. I suspect their Mac sales will go up again in a few years when the M1 is obsoleted.

    aluminium,

    If been thinking about buying a Macbook but I don’t wanna commit a 1000$+ for a Laptop with an OS I have never used and I’m not sure how much I will like using it.

    I don’t get why they can’t make a M1 based Macbook SE for 600$. The 300$ iPad for example is what got me into checking out iOS.

    zerfuffle,

    Because profits

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