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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

> Basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW is up to 20x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 36 percent faster than the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.

What does the average consumer know about basecalling?

I mean, they are still selling just consumer electronics. Scientists and industry use Linux and Windows, and speed isn't the main reason.

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Ironically a parallel comment laments they showed off checking the weather. Can’t win if you’re apple!

There's an entire industry of consumer products that take massive amounts of compute called "gaming". Apple could have showed off the chips performance at that.

Or at least something like photo or video editing?

> I mean, they are still selling just consumer electronics. Scientists and industry use Linux and Windows

Anyone who's worked at a research university knows Macs are popular among professors, researchers and students. These folks also start companies and work in industry and they generally don't switch platforms unless it's absolutely necessary.

A lot of marketing is aspirational though. People want what the pros use. If it's their top hobby or they aspire to becoming one of those pros... then they want the best, no limits if they can afford it. Even if many of those buyers realistically never will hit those limits.

I suspect that impulse sells a lot of MBPs, DSLRs back in the day, Photoshop licenses, sports cars, high end ski gear, etc. etc.

The advert at the start seemed more targetted to creatives, not 'average' consumers - whatever they are.

Also, are 'average' consumers watching this kind of marketing? I suspect not, only enthusiast nerds like us are?

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