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EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,878
12,854
But all in all, I really expect Apple to stretch the macOS support for Apple Silicon up to 8 years, plus the two usual years of security fixes and Safari updates. That would make a total of 10 years of support. Of course, dropping some features after 5 or 6 years like they do on iOS.
I highly doubt it. Remember they’ve been selling Apple Silicon in iDevices since long before 2020, and they don’t get that 10 year support treatment either.
 

Populus

macrumors 603
Aug 24, 2012
5,928
8,404
Spain, Europe
I highly doubt it. Remember they’ve been selling Apple Silicon in iDevices since long before 2020, and they don’t get that 10 year support treatment either.
No but some devices like the iPhone XS have been able to run up to 7 different versions of iOS, if we take into account the system they were released with. That’s up to 7 years of OS updates and probably an extra year of security patches.

Maybe I’m being too optimistic but if they do 7+1 years of support on iOS, I don’t see why they can’t do the 8+2 years of support on more powerful machines such as Apple Silicon Macs.
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,878
12,854
No but some devices like the iPhone XS have been able to run up to 7 different versions of iOS, if we take into account the system they were released with. That’s up to 7 years of OS updates and probably an extra year of security patches.

Maybe I’m being too optimistic but if they do 7+1 years of support on iOS, I don’t see why they can’t do the 8+2 years of support on more powerful machines such as Apple Silicon Macs.
Because they don’t want to. We’ve been asking this question for over 20 years on OS X / macOS.
 

MajorFubar

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2021
2,174
3,824
Lancashire UK
I understand the faster loss of support of Intel Macs, but I really, really hope macOS support on Apple Silicon to be longer and better. After all, all M1, M2, M3 and M4 share the same SoC design, with small differences such as the Neural Engine experiencing a notable boost on the M2 gen, including a new GPU architecture with Ray Tracing on the M3, and the M4 being based on the new ARM v9 I think.
I hope you're right but I'm not hopeful. Most people will never need a computer faster than an M1 Mac for the next 10+ years. Context: I'm not talking about videographers or music producers (etc). I'm talking about the people whose computer-based selves revolve around online apps and SM. They represent a large market. Debatably, the biggest. Apple needs them to buy new kit regularly not least because Apple gives you OS updates for free now, so the only way is to forcibly obsolete users' existing kit, using the same methods they did with my iMac: find some barely-plausible excuse why it can't install the next OS (reality: the OS was engineered to be purposefully incompatible), then just wait for the inevitable to happen.
 

redheeler

macrumors G3
Oct 17, 2014
8,623
9,243
Colorado, USA
Apple has lowered the base price of the new Macs, particularly the M1 Airs and the Mac mini. The base price of the M4 Mac mini now is the same as it was for the Intel Mac mini in 2012, which is actually a lower effective price due to inflation.

The more frequent refreshes and sales by major retailers like Best Buy also hurt resale values. Aggressive pricing and clearance sales of brand new M3 Macs are happening now, and offer great value for the price despite not being the latest generation of chip.

In essence, new Macs have become a better value than they were previously, which obviously hurts the resale price for used Macs.

One more factor worth mentioning is how many generations exist that are still supported and perfectly usable for light tasks. Everything from late model Intel to M4 suffices for everyday use, the only problem being a lot of them are stuck with 8 GB RAM. This will reduce the demand for your used M3 if used M1s are priced lower and suffice just fine for what many buyers want to do.
 
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EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,878
12,854
Apple has lowered the base price of the new Macs, particularly the M1 Airs and the Mac mini. The base price of the M4 Mac mini now is the same as it was for the Intel Mac mini in 2012, which is actually a lower effective price due to inflation.
The base price of the M4 Mac mini is exactly the same as the base price of the M2 Mac mini - $599.

The main difference is the M4 comes with 16 GB not 8 GB, but the actual price hasn't changed.
 

redheeler

macrumors G3
Oct 17, 2014
8,623
9,243
Colorado, USA
The main difference is the M4 comes with 16 GB not 8 GB, but the actual price hasn't changed.
This is a considerable change given how much It cost to get 16 GB before. I would argue that 16 GB should be considered the comfortable baseline amount, where someone could genuinely not benefit from having more and therefore consider the RAM upgrade optional / as-needed only. 8 GB isn't enough to reach that point IMO, not with Apple Intelligence and integrated graphics eating into your RAM.
 

bombardier10

macrumors member
Nov 20, 2020
62
45
Silicon Mac computers that is really SoC . That mean no service/repair option .
If a computer breaks down, we throw it in the bin. This is why the price of used Macs are low and the risk of such a purchase is high.
 

Wahlstrm

macrumors 6502a
Dec 4, 2013
865
884
Now that apple is releasing yearly apple silicon updates and making ram 16 gb standard do you think previous macs are loosing more value? I just saw at costco a brand new M2 air for 699. I also see them on my local marketplace and offer going for 450-600 for the base model. I see 16 gb and 24 gb not selling or people arent just paying for the extra ram.
I dont remember intel mac loosing value that fast until apple silicon came out. Just a thought I had.

A base model 13” MBP from 2011 can still be upgraded to 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD today for maybe $50? And it can run a dual external monitor setup.

A base model 14” M3 MBP from 2023 can’t run a dual external monitor setup with the lid open and will be stuck on 8GB /256GB forever.

Soldered components changed the game but Intel making minuscule performance gains YoY toward the end just kept the resale values up a bit longer than they should’ve for the non upgradable machines.

Once we saw real gains in performance with AS all those older non upgradable machines dropped like a rock in value.

Given M4 starts with 16GB and finally have proper support for external monitors it might the first batch of AS machines to hold some decent resale value.
 
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