Apple Product Lineup now is a joke?!

[phl92]

I don't get it. What is the whole point of the current Apple products on the MBP 13", MB Air and mac Mini, if they now sell the new, greatest, best, fastest, 100x better in everything M1 chip in these products but still selling the Intel line up with the same lineup, to an even higher price?
What is the point? How do they wanna sell older, worse products to a higher price?

If you want a new Porsche, do you buy the one who has the identic design but with a Volkswagen Polo engine inside and a higher price, or the new one, GT3 race engine to an even lower price.
For me this is on the border to a scam, if the M1 is actually delievering what they just announced and a single Apple member would recommend any unfamiliar customer to a product of the "older" line up

Can some Apple Guru enlight me here?

 

[Steve28]

I don't think anyone has said/shown they are outperforming the intel line. I think the point here is you are getting amazing battery life without a huge hit in performance.

And there will be a LOT of software packages that people depend on that will take year or years to get ported over to run natively, and if you depend on one of those, you can still get great intel Macs

 

[jav6454]

Apple most likely is honoring contractual obligation to chip purchases.

 

[leman]

I don't get it. What is the whole point of the current Apple products on the MBP 13", MB Air and mac Mini, if they now sell the new, greatest, best, fastest, 100x better in everything M1 chip in these products but still selling the Intel line up with the same lineup, to an even higher price?

Makes sense to me. They start with entry level (which is the simplest thing to do technologically), delivering a very convincing product. This will encourage software developers to upgrade their software for the new platform and give pro users time to adapt and plan their transition.

Releasing everything at the same time would not make any sense, as the platform still suffers from lack of readily available software. What they are doing is a good strategy.

What is the point? How do they wanna sell older, worse products to a higher price?

Yep, the more expensive Intel 13" definitely does look like a joke now. But I think it's intended. They want you to understand what they have achieved with their own chips.

 

[leman]

I don't think anyone has said/shown they are outperforming the intel line. I think the point here is you are getting amazing battery life without a huge hit in performance.

They are definitely outperforming the Intel Line. The $999 MacBook Air now has faster CPU and way GPU than the $1799 13" MBP.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I don't get it. What is the whole point of the current Apple products on the MBP 13", MB Air and mac Mini, if they now sell the new, greatest, best, fastest, 100x better in everything M1 chip in these products but still selling the Intel line up with the same lineup, to an even higher price?
What is the point? How do they wanna sell older, worse products to a higher price?

If you want a new Porsche, do you buy the one who has the identic design but with a Volkswagen Polo engine inside and a higher price, or the new one, GT3 race engine to an even lower price.
For me this is on the border to a scam, if the M1 is actually delievering what they just announced and a single Apple member would recommend any unfamiliar customer to a product of the "older" line up

Can some Apple Guru enlight me here?

So what if Apple sells Intel based Macs. Buy the Silicon and let other people who want the Intel buy Intel. You are going on a rant over something meaningless.

 

[LDF]

It's a transition in the middle of a global pandemic?

 

[Icelus]

If you need Boot Camp or more than 16 GB memory?

 

[ascender]

Some people won’t want to buy a first-gen Apple Silicon Mac.

Some software won’t run natively yet - maybe people aren’t willing to try Rosetta in case of a performance hit?

Some people will need four ports.

Some people may need Intel to run Windows in Boot Camp.

Some people will need more than 16GB RAM in their machine.

Etc.

 

[jav6454]

Some people won’t want to buy a first-gen Apple Silicon Mac.

Some software won’t run natively yet - maybe people aren’t willing to try Rosetta in case of a performance hit?

Some people will need four ports.

Some people may need Intel to run Windows in Boot Camp.

Some people will need more than 16GB RAM in their machine.

Etc.

1. True, 1st gen is always beta testers
2. Apple stated Rosetta helps apps run as if it were Intel performance. No hit
3. 13" Macs always had 2 ports
4. True
4. This is a wild card. Need to evaluate native MacOS M1 performance and RAM usage to determine.

 

[phl92]

I don't understand the technological aspect enough maybe, but as I understood, programms/Apps running right now already on iOs will run natively also already on the new M1? If yes, this is pretty much everything "a normal user" would need. Yes Lightroom and PS will follow very soon.
I am referring to the average user, who is maybe once in a while editing some photos in Lightroom, needing nowadays Skype and Zoom on a daily basis and maybe even editing easy videos on FCP or iMovie.
It makes no sense to me that customers should have the choice to choose between an Intel setup or a new M1 setup, as long as the "worse" setup is more expensive.
@Steve28 I hope you see that performing the same way with less energy needed is the whole point of technology the last years. If your new car can perform exactly the same as your old one, but needing only 30% of fuel, you would be happy, and buy this one instead of the other one, no?

 

[KPOM]

Apple most likely is honoring contractual obligation to chip purchases.

Yes. And it now seems clear they won’t be updating to Tiger Lake. My guess is that the 13” Ice Lake may be the one that stays around for several years as the last Intel option, like the 2012 13” MacBook Pro with SuperDrive was still sold until 2016.

 

[Serge88]

 

[jav6454]

Yes. And it now seems clear they won’t be updating to Tiger Lake. My guess is that the 13” Ice Lake may be the one that stays around for several years as the last Intel option, like the 2012 13” MacBook Pro with SuperDrive was still sold until 2016.

Perhaps, I personally don't think it'll stay for that long. The whole PowerPC deal was done in 2 years and Apple only announced 1 Mac back then. Now we have 3 Macs announced with Apple Si. This means Apple will likely try to push all remaining chip obligations/inventory out the door as fast as possible.

 

[AustinIllini]

Perhaps, I personally don't think it'll stay for that long. The whole PowerPC deal was done in 2 years and Apple only announced 1 Mac back then. Now we have 3 Macs announced with Apple Si. This means Apple will likely try to push all remaining chip obligations/inventory out the door as fast as possible.

Agreed. It would appear they are going to deal with the high performance chip and then that's the end of Intel Macs.

Most likely, I'm thinking the iMac chip will be more performance and no "high efficiency" cores. Just 8 high performance cores.

The 16" is definitely a wild card. Not sure what to expect there. 16 cores?

 

[MyopicPaideia]

1. True, 1st gen is always beta testers
2. Apple stated Rosetta helps apps run as if it were Intel performance. No hit
3. 13" Macs always had 2 ports
4. True
4. This is a wild card. Need to evaluate native MacOS M1 performance and RAM usage to determine.

3. The only Intel 13” MBP left is the 4 port version. This will get replaced by the “M1X” 8+4 CPU and 12 core GPU SoC that will support 4 USB4/TB3 ports with 2 channels of display instead of one - this in the new 14” redesign and it will be shared with the 16” MBP redesign as well. May have a binned 6+4 and 10 core GPU variant as the entry level for this tier.

 

[KPOM]

Perhaps, I personally don't think it'll stay for that long. The whole PowerPC deal was done in 2 years and Apple only announced 1 Mac back then. Now we have 3 Macs announced with Apple Si. This means Apple will likely try to push all remaining chip obligations/inventory out the door as fast as possible.

I think it might be sold alongside an update 4-port 13”/14” MacBook Pro, not given high profile, but still available for those who absolutely need Intel support for now.

 

[jav6454]

3. The only Intel 13” MBP left is the 4 port version. This will get replaced by the “M1X” 8+4 CPU and 12 core GPU SoC that will support 4 USB4/TB3 ports with 2 channels of display instead of one.

Huh... interesting, I missed that then.

 

[aednichols]

I don't get it. What is the whole point of the current Apple products on the MBP 13", MB Air and mac Mini, if they now sell the new, greatest, best, fastest, 100x better in everything M1 chip in these products but still selling the Intel line up with the same lineup, to an even higher price?
What is the point? How do they wanna sell older, worse products to a higher price?

If you want a new Porsche, do you buy the one who has the identic design but with a Volkswagen Polo engine inside and a higher price, or the new one, GT3 race engine to an even lower price.
For me this is on the border to a scam, if the M1 is actually delievering what they just announced and a single Apple member would recommend any unfamiliar customer to a product of the "older" line up

Can some Apple Guru enlight me here?

They only have one SoC ready and it has limitations:

1. Two Thunderbolt ports
2. 16 GB of RAM

Someone who uses three monitors or needs 32 GB of RAM simply cannot be served with the current ARM Macs, so the Intel remnants are still on sale.

 

[Deinocheirus]

3. The only Intel 13” MBP left is the 4 port version. This will get replaced by the “M1X” 8+4 CPU and 12 core GPU SoC that will support 4 USB4/TB3 ports with 2 channels of display instead of one - this in the new 14” redesign and it will be shared with the 16” MBP redesign as well. May have a binned 6+4 and 10 core GPU variant as the entry level for this tier.

Based on what?

 

[cupcakes2000]

Double post

 

[cupcakes2000]

They only have one SoC ready and it has limitations:

1. Two Thunderbolt ports
2. 16 GB of RAM

Someone who uses three monitors or needs 32 GB of RAM simply cannot be served with the current ARM Macs, so the Intel remnants are still on sale.

Thunderbolt/usb 4 is a limitation?

 

[MevetS]

Thunderbolt/usb 4 is a limitation?

Yes, if you need more than two such ports.

 

[Andropov]

I don't think anyone has said/shown they are outperforming the intel line.

Of course they have.

OP: These machines are mainly there for people who absolutely need >16GB of RAM and Windows virtualization. When the M1X arrives, they'll be phased out.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Yes, if you need more than two such ports.

Considering these are the only macs with these ports then I’m not sure that makes sense at this point.