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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

Really, 16GB max? I find it very strange how Apple went from targeting professionals, seeing the strategy work from the ground up for many years, but now somehow want to pivot to hobbyists/others instead of professionals.

Could someone try to help me figure out the reasoning behind Apple changing the target customer?

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My guess is the pros are going to be the tock to the consumer tick in the Apple silicon upgrade cycle. It takes months before pros are comfortable upgrading MacOS to begin with, and it will probably be a year or two before they're comfortable that pro software vendors have flushed out their bugs on the new architecture.

Basically I'm guessing that no one who wants more than 16GB on their professional machine was going to upgrade on this cycle anyway. We'll see

Since about 2-3 years back, the film professionals I hang around with are all starting to dump Apple hardware in favor of PC workstations now, as they are tired of paying large amounts of money for something that can be had cheaper and with less restrictions. Especially when it comes to price vs quality for displays and hard drives that Apple sells.

I think today's presentation is just confirming what we've known for a while, Apple is pivoting away from professionals.

Same thing in the audio engineering world. It’s crazy how quickly it’s pivoted from Mac to PC in such a short timeframe.

While I use it for gaming, I cannot fathom anyone using Windows 10 professionally.

I think it depends a lot on your job. I used to do a lot of Cadence Virtuoso work in Windows (now I've moved to Linux) but that fact that is was running on Windows only mattered once, when I setup the tool. From then on I was full screen in the CAD tool and my day to day was basically identical to my flow now. I imagine for a lot of professionals, like myself, it's the application suite that matters, not the OS.

Not sure what industry you're in (professionally) but at least in creative industry it's either Windows or OSX. And if you need really powerful hardware, it's either Windows or Linux (with custom software), at least that's what I'm seeing in my circles.

Although OSX used to be popular with the indie-professional scene, it's disappearing quicker than it appeared years back.

It is the leading OS for enterprise users by miles

Probably saturated market. "What got them here, wont get them there". They continuously need to show growth. As you said, the strategy of focusing on Pro users worked. It's now time to focus on not so Pro users... those who don't need matte displays, 32gigs, fancy keyboards and much rather use a colorful touch bar than another row of buttons.

This is their 13" model. Their 15" model is targeted for professionals.

There is no 15" model anymore and the 16" model has not been announced with an M1 yet.

> ... 16" model has not been announced with an M1 yet.

That's the point the above poster was making.

This is Apple's first CPU, there is a reason Apple said the transition will take 2 years. More powerful CPUs with more RAM for the 16" MacBook, the iMac, and the Mac Pro lines will be coming later. Some of those CPUs will likely be available for the 13" and the Mini.

I mean, "Pro" is in the name, I expect Pro-level specs, haha :P

It was a long time ago MacBook Pro meant "MacBook for Professionals", as other makers have now equalized and sometimes even passed Apple when it comes to producing quality hardware for reasonable cost.

Right, but the person I'm responding to says the 15" model is for professionals -- I argue the whole line of MacBook Pro is "for professionals" :)

Nothing they launched now is for "professionals". The RAM is a joke.

Apple believes that there are different kinds of professionals. An artist that uses a lower-powered computer is still a professional, of course, just not a software engineer.

Both have a 16 GB limitation.

That's not true. The 16-inch model remains Intel and supports up to 64GB of memory.

They haven't announced a 15/16inch Apple Silicon Mac yet.

Oh indeed. Disregard my comment then, I've mixed something up.

There isn't a 16" MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon yet.

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