APPLE
Apple is on its way to becoming the leading PC vendor
In Apple’s Not So Secret Plan for Mac Dominance, I wrote that recent and upcoming advances to the Mac platform will lead to a surge in Mac sales that will catapult Apple into becoming the leading PC vendor for the first time in its 45 year history. IDC’s estimate of worldwide PC shipments for the first quarter of 2021, as reported by AppleInsider, makes it clear that Apple’s plan, while still in its early stages, is already working:
Apple’s Mac is continuing to see a surge in growth, with the company shipping more than double the number of units in…
APPLE EVENTS
Sometimes a screen is just a screen. Sometimes it’s not.
At the start of last week’s ‘Toaster Fridgey’ episode of The Talk Show, John Gruber, and Renee Ritchie went full Apple Kremlinology on the meaning of the WWDC 2021 invitation’s glasses-wearing Memoji:
John: People are going bananas, thinking that the fact that they’re all wearing glasses and that you see bits of software reflected in the glasses, is that it’s a hint that the AR glasses announcement might be coming at WWDC. To which I say, maybe? ... So what do you think, you think glasses are coming?
Renee: …it still feels really early to me, so I wonder if…
APPLE SILICON
The possibilities of Apple silicon-fueled hardware designs are limitless
With the second phase of the Mac transition to Apple silicon expected this spring, there’s even more anticipation than usual for the next Apple event (Leaker Jon Prosser pledged to shave his eyebrows if Apple didn’t hold an event on March 23rd. They didn’t. He did). Accordingly, there have been numerous leaks about what to expect. Bloomberg reported in January that the new iMac will have a design similar to Apple’s Pro Display XDR monitor and that a new version of the Mac Pro will be half the size of the current model. …
APPLE
Apple silicon is just the next step in Apple’s multi-year initiative.
In PCs Have Always Been More Capable Than Macs. Until Now. I wrote that Apple silicon finally gives the Mac a significant hardware advantage over Windows-Intel (Wintel) PCs and predicted that it will lead to increased market share for the Mac. After decades of Wintel PCs owning the traditional PC market, it might seem impossible for the Mac to stage a comeback. But not only is it possible, it’s already begun:
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple sold 6.9 million Macs. That’s over a million more Macs than Apple has sold in any previous quarter. …
APPLE SILICON
Intel can waste time creating straw men, but it needs to deliver on its processor roadmap.
Intel’s ‘Get Real Go PC’ campaign focuses on some of the ways that PCs provide more capabilities than the initial Apple silicon Macs:
APPLE
Or at least, what we think we know.
If you’ve ever thought that Apple analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman are making it up as they go along, last week’s news that Apple has filed a lawsuit against a former employee for leaking trade secrets shows that at least some members of the Apple rumor industry have direct pipelines into the company. With that said, let’s review the latest rumors.
Event Date
Back in October, Jon Prosser reported that there would be an Apple event held on March 16th, however, that was contradicted in a tweet by Mark Gurman. With Gurman not altogether ruling out a March event…
APPLE SILICON
When in doubt, trust the process.
When Apple announced the Mac’s transition to its custom silicon during the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference it promised “industry-leading performance” with plans to “ship the first Mac with Apple silicon by the end of the year and complete the transition in about two years.” But instead of one new Mac, Apple shipped three: a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, all with the same Apple silicon M1 SoC. The reviews for these new Macs readily affirmed Apple’s performance claims:
- Tom’s Guide: “A computing revolution”
- ArsTechnica: “Not so crazy after all”
- PetalPixel: “This Changes Everything”
- MacRumors: “M1 Chip…
APPLE SILICON
Less But Better
In what should come as a surprise to no one, Apple is discontinuing the iMac Pro, a computer predicated upon Intel’s fall from grace when it comes to CPU efficiency. A quick trip to Apple’s website confirms that the all-in-one, workstation-class, desktop Mac is only available in a single configuration, with a 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor, 32GB of memory, 1TB SSD, and the caveat “While supplies last”. Apple Insider’s reporting provides further information:
Previously, there were configuration options for 14-core and 18-core processors, Vega 64 graphics, up to 4TB of storage, and up to 256GB of memory.
The…
Apple Silicon
The new Mac will provide a natural upgrade path from the current Mac mini.
Back in early November, before the first M1 Macs were released, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman issued a report that included information about a half-sized Mac Pro:
Apple engineers are currently developing a new Mac Pro that looks like the current design at about half the size. It’s unclear if that Mac will replace the current Mac Pro or if it’s an additional model. Apple’s chip designs could help the company reduce the size of its computers due to increased power efficiency, but the current Mac Pro is large, in part, to fit components like additional storage drives and graphics chips.
This…
APPLE
Why Apple’s next ultra-portable MacBook will be more popular than its predecessor.
In Are MacBooks About to Get Thinner and Lighter? I predicted (based on rumors from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman) that the 2021 14-inch MacBook Pro will weigh 2.75 pounds-ish, and the thinner and lighter version of the redesigned MacBook Air will be Apple’s first sub-2-pound laptop. So far, the responses to the story have expressed a preference for preserving the status quo height and weight of both the Pro and the Air.
It probably shouldn’t be too surprising. Every time Apple makes one of its devices thinner and lighter, whether it be an iPhone, iPad, or…
