this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Saying that the market has reached a saturation point for Apple Silicon Macbooks is kinda silly. Apple Silicon is good, but it isn't some miracle tech that defies market dynamics. The only area that Apple Silicon really excels at compared to the competition is battery life, but there's a lot of other laptops that already beat it in terms of CPU and GPU performance.
There's still room for Apple to grow, especially since they're focusing on gaming now. The fact that Mac demand is falling in light of this indicates that there's more at play than just everyone being content with their current Macs. Even if that was the case, why wouldn't something so good be attracting new customers? Apple's userbase is still a tiny fraction compared to Windows. If Apple Silicon is so good, why aren't people flocking over in droves, especially since Windows literally has no answer to Apple Silicon?
Price is a huge motivating factor, especially since the economy's going to shit.
I just plug my laptop in most of the time so I don't need to spend 2k+ for "apple silicon". If I need mobile computing I have an android phone for that.
The amount of things a mobile phone can do is amazing, unless you are a developer who is away from a power outlet the use cases are dwindling by the day.
I've had my 15" Air since a week or two after launch, and am still amazed by it.
A couple of months back I tentatively downloaded No Man's Sky to see how it would cope, it being fanless and all. Started playing, fully expecting it to either set fire to my legs or throttle so hard that it was unplayable.
Neither happened. It was absolutely fine.
Even more amazing; when the weather was nice, I'd take it outside and sit on my deck where I'd get at least three hours from the battery. While playing NMS on ultra.
Maybe that's common in the Windows gaming laptop world, but as someone who's had several MacBooks since 2007, I still can't wrap my head around how good it is.
Power efficiency is battery life. Battery tech hasn't changed that much. And literally any laptop with a decent GPU these days can transcode 4k video without breaking a sweat. This is not new.
Yes, something has changed. The economy. People may have been able to afford $3-4k laptops a few years ago, but not now that food, gas, cost of basic goods has gone way up. The pricing may not have changed, but they're now priced outside of what most people would be willing to pay when they have to spend so much on more important things.
I just don't believe that a majority of the Apple community will stop upgrading if they see a more powerful M3. There's still a lot of situations where the existing Apple Silicon line falls short, particularly in gaming and 3D graphics. Those who can afford it will upgrade. We've seen Apple users upgrade for less if you look at how many people used to clamor for the latest iPhone.
Apple Silicon isn't the end all, be all of laptop technologies that's going to make people satisfied forever. That's not how the tech market works, especially not for Apple users. The only thing that's different is the economy.