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Comment by alberth | Hacker News Reader

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alberth

It's amazing that Apple are able to use the exact same CPU/GPU/Storage/RAM in:

- Mac mini ($699)

- iPad Pro ($799)

- MacBook Air ($999)

- MacBook Pro ($1299)

- iMac ($1299)

The only difference is the form factor and does it come with a keyboard.

Said another way, these 5 products are all the exact same "computer".

It's the most amazing market segmentation I've ever seen.

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I think it's even more amazing that Apple can get away with charging $1,300 in 2021 for a desktop with only 8GB RAM.

The desktop I built in 2013 had 32GB RAM and that entire thing cost me $500 or $600.

You'll needs a fat profit margin to maintain a two trillion dollar company. They're mostly a hardware company after all.

Memory on the m1 doesn't behave like it does on x86. My 16 GB intel macbook feels like a boat and sounds like a airplane taking off at load. My 8GB mini feels fast and is silent.

What do you mean for "behave", there are a lot of usecases that require more than 8GB memory (expecially for developers) and there is no CPU magic that will help you with that.

Apple's differentiators are the display, keyboard, track pad, chassis and OS, not the CPU/GPU/storage/RAM.

Right, that’s what the OP said :)

This is a new approach though, for Apple. Firstly, there was a difference between the desktop and mobile class chips used for iMac and MacBook. Secondly, there was a difference between the intel and arm chips.

Are able to and, I guess, must. If they could build a better product (say one with 32GB of RAM), I guess we would have seen it here, even if only at some outlandish price point.

You mean they have the exact same processor/chipset/logic board.

They have a large performance advantage over the competition, it makes sense to have unified internals.

How is it amazing?

It's amazing in an extremely depressing way, but it's still impressive that they get away with it (assumedly, given the sales of the other devices). The benefits of a walled garden, I suppose.

It's a Mac Mini ($699) with a 24" screen and peripherals for $800 extra :P

Well to be fair, the $800 also moves the entire desktop into the screen's bottom bezel.

More interesting to me is comparing the MBP with the iMac, same price but trading portability for a larger screen.

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