I’ll start by mentioning that while I prefer Apple products as my daily drivers, I do still have a Windows computer and a Windows server. So I’m not particularly biased one way or the other.
While I can most certainly see your point regarding things like gaming support and running almost any OS you may wish to with Intel based PC hardware. There’s also no denying that there are more applications available for Windows than there are macOS.
However, I can’t help but think you’re missing the point a bit, or at least glossing over the situation.
Most Mac buyers don’t purchase any Mac system for gaming, certainly not serious gaming, if that’s what they wanted, they’d buy a PC - though I have been using GeForce Now since it started in beta and that takes care of my PC gaming needs on my Mac, sometimes far better than my Windows rig does. I’ll grant you, that’s obviously in part due to my not spending thousands on my Wintel gaming rig to push it beyond what GeForce Now can provide.
I’d also be pretty surprised if most Mac buyers - joe public, not the likes of us - are interested in the least about running a different OS.
As for things such as no touchscreen, well that depends entirely on the individual. Though again, if you wanted that, you wouldn’t necessarily be buying a Mac - though if you have an iPad, you also have a touchscreen Mac thanks to Sidecar. Personally, having owned a Surface Pro (and a couple of pre-surface Windows tablets) and finding myself using the touchscreen almost never, I’m indifferent to its inclusion, or lack there of. I’m much happier with a traditional keyboard and trackpad/mouse setup. Indeed my, now thankfully dead obsession with touchscreen computing, goes way back the the very early days of transfomables and UMPC’s. The reality of those, was again avoiding touch whenever possible.
Then there’s software availability. Yes, there’s no argument that Windows has vastly more of it - but crucially, does that matter?
I’d argue that for the average Mac buyers, not a jot.
I’m far from the average buyer, which is why I still have a Windows system and use Remote Desktop software to access that on my Mac when I need to. But those instances are few and far between. Outside of gaming and using ancient Windows software on one of my 40 odd ancient Windows laptops, I don’t touch my Windows computers.
Every need I have, beyond those mentioned above, personally and professionally can be handled by the wealth of available macOS software. I haven’t encountered a software problem (or lack of) in well over a decade.
So all of that really comes down to the individual, other people have needs/wants which I don’t, fair enough it’s nice to be different. Though I would still argue that people wouldn’t be buying a Mac if those things are what they want from a computer. Seems like a bizarre decision to make.
As for expandability, how long has it been now since we were able to expand the storage or memory of any Apple laptop? I honestly don’t remember offhand. In fact, with the exception of memory in my 27” iMac, I can’t remember the last time I even bothered trying to attempt an upgrade in any Apple consumer system. It’s either been impossible, or so damn convoluted that I just couldn’t be bothered.
Which brings us finally to the M1 and it’s “fairy dust”. While the systems replaced by M1 so far were anything but powerhouses. It is frankly astonishing just how powerful these entry level Apple Silicon systems are. My M1 MacBook Air has replaced my 27” iMac, which I only got three years ago and was (well, is, it’s been banished to storage for now) a decent system, which I genuinely did not expect to be so embarrassingly outclassed by a fan-less, 8GB MacBook Air.
The M1 has blasted through everything I’ve thrown at it. From software development, to video, sound and image editing and everything else. I’ve even been stunned that an ARM computer, virtualising an ARM Windows, which is then emulating X64 code, has been efficient at running a great many of my Steam/Epic games, not to mention the vast majority of other software I’ve tried. I won’t be purchasing the release of Parallels, I don’t need it, but curiosity and having an ARM Windows license anyway, got me curious to play around with it.
All of which rambling brings me to this. Your argument, which obviously contains valid points and indeed my waffling, which may contain a valid point or two are completely moot, they have no real purpose beyond, for me anyway, filling a couple of minutes of time while I’m out having a smoke.
The points raised by us both only serve to highlight how ridiculous it would be for an individual with specific needs/wants, to purchase any computing device which does not meet them. If you wanted a gaming system, or one with a touchscreen, or one which runs Windows software. You’re first thought wouldn’t be - oh, I know, I’m going to get an M1 MacBook/Mini. Not if you had an iota of sense anyway.
On the flip side, if you wanted a silent, fan-less computer with excellent performance, which could run basically any macOS app, and a lot of iOS apps, you wouldn’t think, let’s have a look at the Razer/Dell/whatever website.
Beyond fuelling debate and giving the bored among we forum visitors something to do for a few minutes, this thread and of course, my post, is pretty pointless. What’s probably more interesting is to discuss the future Apple Silicon systems, because if the M1, which is a very low power, entry-level slice of silicon can perform as well as it does, then the future is going to be very exciting indeed. Think I’ll go look for one of those threads - maybe after my morphine has settled down a bit, because man, that was a lot of blathering
