There isn't enough differentiation between their models anymore (largely because they have so many). It makes it difficult to choose what to buy, even when you understand what the various specs mean and what you need. I guess it bleeds more money out of people but the limited product lines was something I liked about the post-2000's Apple. Let's not even mention the fact they charge as much as some PC's just for some more RAM.
> There isn't enough differentiation between their models anymore (largely because they have so many). It makes it difficult to choose what to buy, even when you understand what the various specs mean and what you need.
This was the correct take in like 2016-2019 when you had to explain the difference between the MacBook Air, the “Macbook Escape” (MacBook Air model with no touchbar) and the MacBook. I don’t think it holds up anymore. I’m currently helping a couple family members pick out new Macs and even though one of them bought an M2 MacBook Air a couple weeks ago, I still think they’ll be very happy with it even if Apple drops an M3 next week. I only recommend MacBook Pros for people who are programmers, audio/video editors, 3D animators and maybe graphic designers because of the screen.
On the desktop side it’s easy too: The iMac is for “MacBook Air people” who want a desktop, the Studio is for “MacBook Pro people” who want a desktop (or actually need the Ultra), and the Mac Pro is for nobody.
Edit: I will note that I agree with you on RAM and storage pricing, although to be fair they’re also not using cheap/slow RAM or SSDs.
I'd say Apple is roughly still sticking roughly to the quadrants in the Mac space, with the Mac Mini/Studio and MacBook Air/Pro.
The iMac is the odd one out in my view. It exists somewhere on or near that mini-studio axis but is distinct for being AiO, lagging in updates, and coming in colors, so seems to target a customer sensitive to price, complexity, and appearance, but not performance or the cutting edge.
I agree that the Mac Pro disqualifies itself and isn't positioned to be part of the calculus.
I disagree.
While they don't have too many form factors, they are too close to each other and have way too many CPU/RAM variants that makes everything too complicated. Especially when you factor the GPU variants on top and the insane pricing you will have to suffer for non-trivial amount of (soldered) storage.
And they still sell old generation of many products, with any updated chip depending on when they last announced stuff. It doesn't make sense that they still have old versions on MacBook Pro with an M2 when a MacBook Air has an M2 (I know the thermal implication, but it makes no sense). It doesn't make sense to have an M1 MacBook Air barely cheaper than the M2 version that has many improvements.
I feel like they are really trying to confuse and milk the customer in the most efficient way.
And everybody cries at the Mac Pro but the Mac Studio doesn't make more sense, it is just a bigger Mac Mini. If at least they killed the Mac Mini considering that if you configure it properly it will come in range of Mac Studio pricing.
Unlike earlier Mac lineups that were driven by technology/thermal limitation; all the options seem very arbitrary and staged in a way to maximize revenue instead of customer satisfaction.
Previously there was a few models with a few options. The most basic model was subsidized by the whole lineup because it was not that different from the best one.
For example, back in 2005, the difference between an iBook and a PowerBook of the same size was only on a few characteristics that would only matter to a truly professional user. Now the difference between a base MacBook and MacBook Pro is unreal and the pricing difference too (considering that everything is soldered). If you look at pricing, the difference between the least expensive iBook and most expensive PowerBook was only x2.5 (the actual difference in capability was not that big, especially for enthusiast use case).
Nowadays it is very hard to pinpoint what model to use as extremes in the first place (because the lineup is convoluted) but it will give you a ratio of x3 to x4.5. And the difference in capabilities between the cheapest MacBook Air and the best MacBook Pro is completely insane. But on top of that everything is soldered so you can't fix a "bad" (storage/ram capacity) configuration after the fact. So not only you have to make sure to select a processor that is not too anemic, but you better not fuck up on the options either. It is made purposefully to play the FUD game to get people to overspend "just in case" (or be mad and re-sell to rebuy, which makes one more Mac sold).
In my opinion it has never been more complicated to choose a Mac for people to buy. In fact, now, if people did not have a Mac before I just point them to much cheaper but still very good laptop PCs. For legacy Mac users I try to understand their workload to point them at something that will not have them overspend, but it is really guesswork at this point.
And do not get me started on the iPads, it is pure nonsense...
Apple still sells well because of their name, history, and good quality manufacturing but it is nothing like a premium experience, especially at the price point they are at. It feels more like an overpriced upscale supermarket where options are not bad per se, but you get confused as to why there are so many options for a single item and why the price varies so much between equivalent items...
> Let's not even mention the fact they charge as much as some PC's just for some more RAM.
It's really just market segmentation. A charitable way to think about it is that it lets the wealthy (who will buy Apple products with the best specs) somewhat subsidize less wealthy people buying Apple products on the lower end of the scale.
If they didn't do this, their profit margins would be flat across the product line, which would price some people out of Apple products while leaving some potential profit on the floor for richer users who would have still bought it at a higher price.
Whether this is a morally good practice overall or not is debatable, of course.
> I guess it bleeds more money out of people but the limited product lines was something I liked about the post-2000's Apple.
As the price goes up, the less I want to have to make decisions about which options I want.
The ease of making a decision about which device to get when it came time to do so was one of the main reasons I switched to Apple in the first place. This year I got a new iPad for the first time since 2016. It felt like comparison shopping Android phones in ~2013. I'm dreading the day when I have to upgrade my phone soon.
> There isn't enough differentiation between their models anymore (largely because they have so many)
Yeah! They should return to Jobs' simple matrix approach (when, admittedly, he didn't have much of an alternative):
{ watch, phone, ipad, laptop, desktop} x { "classic" (SE), Mini, Air, Pro, Studio/Ultra }. Not every column needs to be filled in (e.g. don't need a watch mini or pro)
Watch our SCARY FAST event! You mind will be blown!!!11
The event:
Our laptops are 0.65 mm thinner, and the CPU is 10% more powerful. In AI tasks it is twice as fast, but you can only use that for two new supercool Facetime gestures. Price is 20% higher. To compensate, we take your old model at 20% of the market vlaue.
> It is not clear if the refresh will focus on new M3-series chips, but depending on what's being overhauled, we could see the iMac and the MacBook Pro models adopting the 3-nanometer M3 chip lineup.
Oof.
The M2 Studio only started shipping in late June (and most non-base models had a 6 week lead time - my M2 Ultra didn't arrive until August 1).
Now, only 2 1/2 months after than practical availability of a new non-upgradable model, there's a new architecture being launched?
My M1 is the buggiest experience I've had in an OS since maybe Ubuntu 8.04 or 10.04. It's full on crashes, periodic lag, major audio issues, mic issues, etc... I hope they have a 'scary dependable' event next.
Exact opposite of my experience. I have a M1 MacBook Pro which has had no issues at all, and I am using an M2 MacBook Pro at work, also great with no problems.
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