That does not mean it wasn't true. Fourth-gen Macbook Pros were rather meh, coming after the much acclaimed 3rd-gen (not to mention the keyboard fiasco). 2012 MBPs are still sought after today; will anybody really look for a 2018 MBP in 2026?
> Apple have successfully executed a bigger R&D project than any PC manufacturer in history.
That's a testament to the greatness of the open architecture, actually. No single PC manufacturer ever needed to innovate on the core HW, as they could reap the benefits of Intel/Nvidia/AMD's R&D. This allowed for cheaper PCs which penetrated our world much faster than the previous fragmented microcomputer offer. Granted, this also led to a "race to the bottom" wrt. stuff like trackpads and displays, but let's also look at the bright side for a moment :)
> As a result, the base model Macbook Air now offers objectively better value for money than any competing laptop, when considering just the basic metrics of performance, form factor and battery life.
Still, I agree with you on that. All benchmarks (not only from the magazines, but also those from tech Twitter) point to a paradigm shift in what people will expect from a PC a few years from now.
It's still a proprietary chip, available in a single type of device built for certain type of people with no ability so source those chips for other use-cases.
Apple users will browse faster on the go. And they're ecstatic. For most non-Apple users this won't be a life-changing event. Most people currently have COVID and other things on their mind vs. faster browser benchmarks.
Neither are occasional reliability issues with butterfly keyboards, but people seem to get more excited about that issue here than they do about the M1. As a tech nerd that doesn't make sense to me. But of course people are free to get excited or not about whatever they like.
Apple have successfully executed a bigger R&D project than any PC manufacturer in history. (In fact, the R&D costs probably wouldn't even have been a good investment if Apple only sold laptops and desktops.) As a result, the base model Macbook Air now offers objectively better value for money than any competing laptop, when considering just the basic metrics of performance, form factor and battery life. To me that's outrageously impressive.
I suspect Apple are going to move to a Mac product line structured more like their iPhone product line. When you buy an iPhone you always get way more performance than you really need, even if you buy the cheapest model. PC manufacturers have to differentiate on performance because Intel and AMD won't sell their fastest chips for cheap, but Apple has a lot more flexibility now.