2024-08-06
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When you start to feel the heat of August, it means that Apple's new product launch is not far away. Xiao Lei's friends began to ask about the news and purchase recommendations of this year's new iPhone, Mac, iPad, etc., but unfortunately, according to Apple's usual release rules, the new product launch in September will only release iPhones and iPads, and Macs will have to wait until around October.
(Image source: Apple official website)
If you want to know about the latest news about iPhone and iPad, Lei Technology's series of articles can help you; for those who are concerned about productivity, the Mac product line news summary mentioned today is more valuable. In short, the main changes of this year's new Mac are still concentrated on performance improvement, and the product form is unlikely to change too much.
As for the focus of outside attention, such as AI, it will become the "X factor" of the new Mac. Under the fierce attack from other PC players around the world, it is questionable whether the new generation of Mac can continue its previous appeal.
According to the latest report from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple plans to launch new MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac in October this year.The good news is that all three products will be equipped with Apple’s latest M4 processor. The bad news is that except for the M4 processor, other parameters are almost exactly the same as the 2023 model.
Everyone should be familiar with the M4 chip. It was first launched on the iPad Pro in May this year, breaking the tradition of the new M series chips being first launched on the MacBook. It is built using TSMC's second-generation 3nm process and integrates 28 billion transistors, further improving chip energy efficiency. The new generation of 10 coresGPUThe architecture also enables it to support hardware acceleration features such as mesh shading and ray tracing. In addition, it also has a 16-core NPU that runs at 38 trillion times per second.
(Image source: Apple official website)
At that time, Apple's evaluation of the iPad Pro (M4 version) was that "its performance surpasses similar AI PCs."
Lei did not deny this. After all, Lei Technology commented that the iPad Pro equipped with the M4 chip "performed far beyond expectations". In multiple benchmark tests, the iPad Pro equipped with the M4 chip even surpassed the 16-inch MacBook Pro equipped with the M1 Pro. It should be noted that the MacBook is much better at heat dissipation than the iPad. The new iPad Pro can achieve this result, which fully demonstrates the strong performance of the M4 chip.
However, this performance is useless on iPad. Even iPad Pro does not need such powerful performance in the usage scenarios and application running environment of tablet computers.
Therefore, the M4 is destined to shine when it is put on the Mac platform. As mentioned earlier, the three new Macs released in October simply replaced the processors, and the other configurations remained unchanged. Although this is in line with everyone's expectations of Apple, considering that the MacBook Pro has not changed its mold for four years, and Apple basically changed it every four generations before, Xiao Lei boldly speculates that the design language of the MacBook Pro will be slightly changed, such as replacing the current bangs with a smart island, making the right-angle frame more rounded, and using a lighter and more durable shell, etc.
(Image source: Apple official website)
As for when the MacBook Air M4 version will be launched, Xiao Lei speculates that it will most likely be launched in the first half of 2025 together with a number of new processors such as M4 Pro, M4 Max, M4 Ultra, and Mac Studio and Mac Pro will also be updated at that time.
In addition to the M4 chip, two more powerful chips, the M4 Pro and M4 Max, also appeared in the leaked content. Although there is not much information about its specifications on the Internet, it does not affect Xiao Lei's predictions based on Apple's previous trends.
Let’s first look at the performance of the “predecessors”: in order to achieve a more balanced energy consumption performance, the M3 Pro only allocated 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores; the M2 Pro and M1 Pro pay more attention to extreme performance, using a combination of 8 performance cores + 4/2 efficiency cores.
So what about M4 Pro?
Considering that the M4 Pro will definitely use the second-generation 3nm process technology, the overall power consumption of the chip is expected to be further reduced. Therefore, Xiao Lei predicts that it is not impossible for the M4 Pro to return to the 8+4 era. If Apple is conscientious enough, it may be able to come up with an "8+8" configuration to maximize the performance.
(Image source: Apple official website)
As for the GPU, it is a little difficult to guess. After all, the previous M3 Pro has one less core than the M2 Pro, and the M3 Max has two more GPU cores than the M2 Pro.Therefore, Xiao Lei speculates that the number of GPU cores in the new M4 Pro will be increased to about 20 cores, while the Max will remain at around 40 cores. In addition, considering that the M4 has also made a lot of improvements in NPU (that is, AI computing power), it is believed that Max and Pro will also have corresponding improvements.
As for the M4 Ultra? Needless to say, it is most likely a combination of two M4 Max chips. Although it cannot double the overall performance, its performance is likely to surpass the top mobile chips and become the new generation of performance king.
(Image source: Apple official website)
But then again, we have to admit that the M series chips have not brought us any surprises other than "pile parameters" for a long time. They basically just increase the number of cores and transistors and adopt more advanced process technology, which is a huge gap from the sudden emergence of M1 that year.
Perhaps the last hope still lies in AI. The emergence of Apple's AI model, Apple Intelligence, has given us a lot of imagination. When it will be applied to Mac will be one of the most concerned topics. If nothing unexpected happens, the M4 series chips will provide stronger hardware support in AI, thus achieving linkage that other manufacturers cannot match. However, the actual performance will have to wait and see at the launch event in October this year.
Unlike previous years, Xiao Lei's dependence on the Apple ecosystem is getting lower and lower. Now the Apple Watch is almost covered in dust, and the headphones and tablets have been replaced with other brands. The iPhone has also become a backup phone due to problems such as poor signal and severe overheating. Only the MacBook has not been replaced by other manufacturers.
The reason is very simple. There are almost no products that can surpass MacBook in multiple aspects such as ecology, battery life, and performance in a short period of time. It can be said that today's MacBook still has huge advantages in product strength.
(Image source: Apple official website)
However, the overall advantages of Mac are being diluted. Although its application expertise and system fluency are still leading the industry, Mac has also suffered from Apple's "arrogance" and has been criticized for its lack of innovation and neglect of user experience.
For example, the MacBook Air, which is the product that most MacBook users are addicted to, has not only not brought much improvement in the M2 and M3 versions of the MacBook Air, but has even sucked toothpaste in some places compared to the previous ones. As for innovation? Maybe changing the chip can be called innovation.
More importantly, in terms of price, the pricing of the Mac series is getting more and more floating. The starting price of 8,999 yuan does not seem that expensive, but don’t forget that this is the 8+256G version. In this era where the average storage capacity of the Windows camp is 16G+1T per person, Apple still insists on "high price and low configuration".
(Image source: Apple official website)
To give the simplest example, if you want to buy a 16+512G M3 MacBook Air on Apple's official website, it will cost 11,999 yuan, which is far beyond the purchasing budget of most consumers.
On the other hand, the Windows notebook camp has been narrowing the gap between itself and Mac in the past two years. Although there is still a certain gap between the performance and battery life of Windows notebooks of the same category and Mac, the gap is indeed narrowing. With the iteration of Snapdragon X Elite and Windows system, the product strength of Windows notebooks will become stronger and stronger. If the Mac series products continue to stagnate, "Waterloo" may really happen.
At present, Mac has two main competitors. One is Huawei, which has achieved very good results in the mid-to-high-end notebook computer market by virtue of its achievements in ecological linkage and layout in OLED screens. Overall, Huawei's market share in 2024 increased by 3%, making it a competitor that other laptop companies, including Apple, cannot ignore.
Take the newly launched Huawei MateBook GT as an example. It combines high performance with lightness and portability and has a very good price-performance ratio. It not only meets the needs of working people, but also saves money than a dual-laptop combination of a gaming laptop and a business laptop.
(Image source: Huawei official website)
The second is Lenovo. As the "big brother" in the notebook computer market, Lenovo's notebook computer shipments in the second quarter of this year reached 11.6 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6%. It has also brought a number of new products with strong product power in the thin and light all-round notebook market, such as the YOGA Air 14s Snapdragon equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, which not only has powerful AI performance, but also has a very amazing battery life, not to mention a bunch of high-cost-effective products such as Xiaoxin and ThinkBook, which are priced below 5,000 yuan, aiming to strengthen its competitiveness in the thin and light notebook market. From the current point of view, this strategy has achieved certain results.
(Image source: Lenovo JD.com flagship store)
In addition to the traditional disadvantage of price, Mac's most important advantages such as ecology and battery life are also being continuously reduced. If Mac still does not pay attention to the improvement and optimization of its product line to meet the diverse needs of consumers, then its market share will continue to decline.
In today's notebook computer market, competition between brands is becoming increasingly fierce. This competition not only promotes innovation and differentiation between brands, but also brings consumers more diverse and higher-quality product choices. Although Apple still has a huge advantage, who knows whether it will fall into a slump like the current iPhone? No one knows.
In addition to performance, AI may become the "lifeline" of Mac and the key means for them to rebuild their moat. In this wave, where the Mac series of products will go, whether they will continue to expand their advantages or be overtaken, depends on their own luck.
In the first half of 2024, the technology circle is surging.
Big models are being put into practice at an accelerated pace, with AI applications emerging in an endless stream, including AI mobile phones, AI PCs, AI home appliances, AI search, and AI e-commerce.
Vision Pro is now available in China, setting off a new wave of XR spatial computing;
HarmonyOS NEXT is officially released, and the mobile OS ecosystem has changed;
Automobiles have fully entered the "second half", and intelligence has become a top priority;
Competition in e-commerce is increasingly fierce, with low prices and even lower services;
The wave of going overseas is surging, and Chinese brands are embarking on the journey of globalization;
……
In the hottest month of July, Lei Technology's mid-year review is launched, summarizing the brands, technologies and products worth recording in the first half of 2024 in the technology industry, recording the past and looking forward to the future. Please pay attention.
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