Fwiw, Apple's incentive seems to be hardware from the outside more than Software, imo. They tend to sell the hardware by the software for a lot of people, but given that they're so concerned with keeping their software on their hardware i suspect they don't have much reason to push their software over your software.

What would concern me is if we see a big revenue stream from their software. Then i'd question them not wanting Linux on their machines.

But imo you already gave them what they want when you buy an M1. I don't see a reason why they care beyond that.

The iPhone and the Mac are different platforms, developed at different times, for different purposes and different markets with different design philosophies. I don’t see a logical connection between the iPhone being bootlocked and the Mac necessarily following suite.

M1 is nearly a year old now, and the replacement (M1X, M2?) is rumored to be released in a couple of months. So far no other SoC has been able to come close to even the current-gen M1 in terms of performance + efficiency, with a remarkable x86 emulation on top.

On the software side, Apple has the unique position to force every developer who cares about their user base to rebuild their stuff for a completely different CPU architecture.

M1-based products are anything but overpriced. The Air’s price is comparable to modern flagship smartphones.

My comment was for laptops primarily. On the desktop side, I'd not buy an Apple branded system unless I need macOS specifically, but on the portable space, their systems are superior to most of the offerings.

They're not EliteBook/Thinkpad tough, but they're more than enough unless you're going to handle it rough.

I can calibrate a screen regardless of the OS I use with the help of a good calibration device, and having a good panel is a good start for that. On desktop, there are possibly better panels for pure color accuracy, I won't argue that.

OTOH, on the portable space, their hardware formula is pretty robust.

Don't higher density displays take more power? Can we actually start making laptop displays that cap out at 1080 or 1440p?

If we are talking about ARM64 devices specifically, the prices of the new M1 products are actually very competitive.

I’m not sure this is true? The $1000 version has absolutely ridiculous performance for it’s price class. To the point it’s nearly as good as my desktop system.

> But you can find decent hardware elsewhere, even at lower cost and with better configurability.

The problem is, you pay the same price for a Thinkpad/Elitebook and you get ridiculous gotchas like missing wireless antennas (at most you can find 2x2, if you're lucky). Or the configuration you like doesn't come to your country, or the vendor doesn't allow custom configuration for your country unless you buy 10+, etc.

OTOH, I pay the premium, I get what I configured, with top notch small specs (antennas, wireless chips, etc.). You can't find a spare 40mm SSD for your Elitebook after three years, but Apple will service your device happily.

If you get the said SSD from the vendor, its quadruple the price, so it's Apple's price territory again.

At that price range, there's no advantage in hardware prices between Apple, HP, Lenovo and Dell. They're equally cheap/expensive. So, IMHO, you pay less on the long run for an Apple laptop, which you can use for 7-8 years without problems.

Of course this would anger the PC crowd.

> Is the M1 keyboard significantly better than MBP (with the touchbar)?

Yes. It's slightly deeper, much more resistant to dust and one can write with very low effort, but with crisp feedback. It allows me to write at least 10% faster with no effort. I similarly use an old Microsoft Sculpt Comfort at office and Logitech G710+ at home.

Good keyboard is something hard to find.