Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by webmobdev on Friday April 23, 2021 @08:35AM (#26914053)

Let's look beyond the hype:

- With M1, Apple has finally closed the loop and created a fully closed system that it has control over vs an x86-64 platform that is more open and gives us users more choice and control.

- All new devices with M1 SoC score very poorly on repairability and upgradebility vs the x86-64 platform that still allows you to repair / upgrade RAM, memory, CPU's and other parts in an affordable manner.

- And because of the above two, all M1 devices with low ram and storage, have planned obsolescence of 3-5 years built-in, along with a kill switch to totally disable the device.

Apple has a found a great fit for their business model with the ARM SoCs. Even when (not if, when) AMD and Intel bring out better processors, Apple will stick with their ARM SoCs because todays computing power has far outpaced the demand made by the common softwares used by all. And Apple can cater to the common denominators with their own OS + CPU + 8GB + 256 GB NvME quite well for maybe another decade.

I am happy there is some good tech development and competition in computer systems. But my Intel Mac Mini will be the last mac I will buy from Apple. macOS Mojave still runs fine on it. Otherwise there's always Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. That's the real advantage of the x86-64 platform that people like me will never sacrifice for closed systems like the M1 devices.

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by kube-system on Friday April 23, 2021 @09:49AM (#26914734)

> the x86-64 platform that still allows you to repair / upgrade RAM, memory, CPU's

Have you opened many x86 devices of a similar form factor to the current M1 devices? I haven’t seen a socketed CPU in a laptop in over a decade, and the vast majority of ultrabooks and thin-and-lights have soldered RAM now too. The latest trend has been to start soldering SSDs as well.

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by webmobdev on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:21PM (#26916958)

True, other manufacturers have been trying to ape Apple and solder RAM and other parts on the x86-64 platform too. Thankfully it hasn't yet fully spread to the desktop platforms - I can still build my own PC. I pin my hope on government regulations and right to repair to stem this - EU has already emphasised that they are serious about their "right to repair" legislation. I also like the attempt being made by indie engineers to create more repairable phones and laptops.

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by kube-system on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:38PM (#26922061)

The right to repair has nothing to do with socketed components. You already have the right to own soldering equipment.

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by webmobdev on Sunday April 25, 2021 @07:35PM (#26937772)

Technically, yes, the "right to repair" isn't specific to socketed components. But socketed components do make it easy to repair a device and is the obvious way forward to make devices easy to repair and reduce waste (in fact the EU actually funded a project to create a mobile phone with more reusable components - http://www.puzzlephone.com/ - and some startups are also trying to do the same with laptops - https://frame.work/blog/introducing-the-framework-laptop ). As for soldering things on your own, today's modern electronic manufacturing techniques make it a very difficult task.

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by katbyte on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:46AM (#26915935)

> kill switch

can you elaborate?

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by webmobdev on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:35PM (#26917118)

In all its iDevices, and mac with T2 security chip (so all the M1 devices now), Apple offers an anti-theft feature called the "Activation Lock" - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365 - once activated, you can use it to erase all data on your iDevice remotely and ensure that nobody can use it without knowing your Apple ID and password. It's a useful feature.

But if a government (or Apple) wants, this can be abused - for example, tomorrow if your country goes to war to the US, the US government could ask Apple to disable all Apple devices in that country, and Apple could do it, whether you like it or not.

(The conspiracy theory part that others are hinting at is that many believe that this can be easily extended to totally cripple the device and make it unusable.)

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by stjohnswarts on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:00PM (#26916101)

I mean technically there's the T chip which could switch off everything. Parent poster seems to be posting conspiracy theories that apple will maliciously kill machines in 3-5 years at their whim. I would guess that would not go over with the government or customers and be the end of Apple PC type products though, so it's not going to happen

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by webmobdev on Friday April 23, 2021 @01:18PM (#26916932)

> Parent poster seems to be posting conspiracy theories that apple will maliciously kill machines in 3-5 years at their whim.

I didn't insinuate anything like that. I was just pointing out that it exists.

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Re:Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model by woah on Friday April 23, 2021 @09:08AM (#26914369)

Do you want to buy my 2020 Intel MacBook Pro?

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