How the M powered Macs lineup will be?

[ian87w]

Previously on Intel, whenever Apple refreshed a Mac line, usually the whole tiers got refreshed, meaning from baseline to top tier, usually they will all get the same gen Intel chips (with exceptions lately). The difference is that the base might start with an i3 or i5, while higher tier go for i7 or i9.

But with the iPhone/iPad, Apple tend to keep the previous models as their lower tier, keeping the latest A chip just for the flagship.

Will we see the same thing with AS Macs? Meaning will the current M1 Macs remain in the lineup once Apple releases M2 or M3 onward? Or will we see these macs got replaced yearly with the same M2 or M3 chips with other forms of differentiation (eg. Lower TDP, less GPU core, etc)?

 

[chabig]

That's a good question to ask Tim Cook. I think the M1 machines will probably stick around *IF* they price the MX machines high enough to justify another tier in price/performance. If the MX machines replace the M1 machines at the same price, then no.

 

[thenewperson]

Meaning will the current M1 Macs remain in the lineup once Apple releases M2 or M3 onward?

Hopefully. A $799 (say) M1 MBA hanging around while the M2 version gets redesigned would be a good thing IMO. Same with the M1 Mac mini.

 

[bobmans]

Apple was talking about a family of chips kind of similar to Intels i3,5,7,9.

What I’m thinking is a structure like this
M1 - entry level
M10 - mid range
M100 - high end

And then when they update they could call them M2, M20 and M200 respectively.

That way you have a clear seperation between the different chipsets, because there's no way a M1 will end up in a high-end Mac/Macbook, the M1 has an iGPU and at some point down the line (the M10 or M100) will need a different solution for the GPU, kind of like a dGPU (or dGPU alternative).

 

[Tankmaze]

I have also been thinking about this.

Could Apple use the chip naming similar to intel with M1 low end M3 & M5 middle and M7 & M9 for the high end. But I think Apple would do it the Apple way which is like the iPhone and iPads

M1, M1X, M1Z = 5nm

M2, M2X, M2Z = 5nm+

M3, M3X, M2z = 3nm

I'm guessing Apple would like to make their chip R&D as efficient as possible so the new chip would be inline with every new iPhones, so every September we would get the new A series chip and for the mac the M series chip could get regular update every October.

With new variant / improvement every March just like the iPad Pro launch.

 

[ian87w]

I have also been thinking about this.

Could Apple use the chip naming similar to intel with M1 low end M3 & M5 middle and M7 & M9 for the high end. But I think Apple would do it the Apple way which is like the iPhone and iPads

M1, M1X, M1Z = 5nm

M2, M2X, M2Z = 5nm+

M3, M3X, M2z = 3nm

I'm guessing Apple would like to make their chip R&D as efficient as possible so the new chip would be inline with every new iPhones, so every September we would get the new A series chip and for the mac the M series chip could get regular update every October.

With new variant / improvement every March just like the iPad Pro launch.

I hope that means we can see cheaper Macs on M1 when M3 or M4 is out.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Previously on Intel, whenever Apple refreshed a Mac line, usually the whole tiers got refreshed, meaning from baseline to top tier, usually they will all get the same gen Intel chips (with exceptions lately). The difference is that the base might start with an i3 or i5, while higher tier go for i7 or i9.

But with the iPhone/iPad, Apple tend to keep the previous models as their lower tier, keeping the latest A chip just for the flagship.

Will we see the same thing with AS Macs? Meaning will the current M1 Macs remain in the lineup once Apple releases M2 or M3 onward? Or will we see these macs got replaced yearly with the same M2 or M3 chips with other forms of differentiation (eg. Lower TDP, less GPU core, etc)?

Apple cares about price points more than it cares about what occupies them. Given that, I'd say that, unless you have a model that is kept around to ease a transition (much in the way that the Mid 2012 non-retina 13" Unibody MacBook Pro was sold for a good four years and much in the way that the low-end Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro was sold until 2018), you probably won't see older gen models stick around. It would be nice to see M1 MacBook Airs stick around at a reduced sub-$999 price point. But I'm not holding my breath.

I do believe that the Intel 16" MacBook Pro and likely the 2019 Mac Pro tower will linger after their Apple Silicon successors have come out and the hardware portion of the transition has completed. But that's due to the simple fact that not every high-end mission critical app will make the jump before that point and there will be people that still need Intel for stability.