INTRO: Mac vs PC is one of the oldest rivalries within
the tech industry. Windows has dominated this race in terms of market share and will likely continue
to do so moving forward, but I think Apple’s share of this market is about to grow substantially over
the next decade. Now, many Apple fanboys will claim that it’s about time given that Macs were
always better than PCs, but I don’t think that’s exactly true. We don’t have to look that far back
to see how limiting Macs were in the past. For example, remember how Macbooks only had USB-C
ports or how Apple shipped unreliable butterfly keyboards just to make the keyboard mm thinner
or the time that Apple recalled 432,000 MacBook Pros because they would catch on fire? Clearly,
Macs haven’t always been perfect, but ever since Apple ditched Intel and released their M1 series
of products, I think Apple’s offerings have become more appealing than ever before. And I’m not the
only one who thinks this either as their annual growth has far outpaced the PC market. Last year,
annual sales for PCs grew by 14.6% while the annual sales for the Mac grew by 28.3%
or nearly 2 times as much. Also, this growth wasn’t just amongst rich Americans,
the laptop market, or liberal college students, this growth was within the global PC market.
Considering this, I don’t think you’d be surprised to hear that Apple hit record Mac revenue numbers
pulling in over $10 billion within a single quarter. So, here’s why Mac adoption is going
through the roof and why Mac’s market share may grow as high as the iPhone’s market share.
VALUE: Likely one of the biggest factors driving
up Mac adoption recently is that Apple has become more competitive than ever before when it comes to
value. Now, this may be a bit confusing as we see Apple continuously churn out extremely expensive
products. After all, they do sell a $50,000 PC and a $5000 monitor, but how many people do you really
think buy these products. The top-end Mac Pro is literally equivalent to the average American’s
annual salary. And while you may think that ripping off customers is Apple’s entire business
plan, if you look deeper into these products, you’ll know that isn’t 100% true given that Apple
doesn’t even take these products seriously. One of my favorite tests to do when it comes to expensive
Apple products is to see how long it takes them to ship to me. Today is March 27, 2022, and if I
order the Apple Pro Stand right now, it’ll take until April 8th for it to arrive or 12 days.
Meanwhile, if I order the Mac mini, it’ll arrive in just 2 days or I could pick it up in-store
today. Now, if Apple was really trying to sell the Pro Stand seriously, it wouldn’t take them 12 days
to deliver it. I’m literally spending $1000 on a monitor stand, you would think they would at least
spend some effort in fast delivery. But they don’t because they don’t take the Pro Stand seriously.
All these products that people love to make fun of like the Pro Stand, and Apple Wheels, and the Mac
Pro are all headline products. While a very small number of people will actually buy these products
and may even find them valuable, the primary purpose of these products is not to generate
sales but to generate headlines like this. Such headlines serve 2 purposes which are building
exclusivity and price anchoring. The first purpose needs no explanation. When consumers constantly
see such outrageous products, they start to associate Apple with exclusivity and desirability.
And, in terms of price anchoring, when people see a $50,000 computer, they’ll start to think
that a $2 or $3000 computer is relatively not that expensive. If we put such products aside though,
we’ll see that Apple is extremely competitive in terms of price and value. For example, in terms
of desktops, the M1 Mac Mini retails for $700 and you can actually get it for $669 at Amazon.
Gary from the Everyday Dad, for example, thinks that the Mac Mini is the best value computer you
can buy on the market, and I think that’s a pretty accurate description of this machine.
If you disagree, I challenge you to comment down below a desktop computer that’s more portable,
easy to use and offers more performance for the same price as the M1 Mac Mini.
If we look at Apple’s Macbook lineup, it’s exactly the same case there as well. While the MacBook
pros aren’t the easiest to justify for the average person, just take a look at the MacBook Air. It
starts at $1000 which makes it the same price as an iPhone 13 pro. And if you’re a student,
you can actually get it for $900. Now again, you can find plenty of laptops for $300 to $500.
But, when you compare the MacBook Air to other laptops that are priced at $1000,
it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to find a laptop that offers more value per dollar.
So, while Apple still doesn’t sell the super cheap entry-level products,
the entry-level products that Apple does sell are basically impossible to beat thanks to the M1.
SYNERGY:
Moving on, the second reason that Macs have been doing better than ever before is their synergy.
There’s of course the Apple ecosystem which is getting harder and harder to escape by the day,
but I’m not even talking about that. Rather, I’m talking about hardware synergy. One of the top
reasons for the success of the iPhone is that Apple is able to leverage so much more power
out of the same hardware. iPhones consistently tend to have less ram, less computing power,
and less graphics power than Android counterparts. Despite this, in terms of real-world performance,
iPhones often match these Android counterparts if not beat them thanks to their hardware
and software optimization. The lack of such optimization was one of the biggest shortfalls
of the Mac, but that’s no longer the case. Of course, there’s the M1, but that’s not the only
factor. Take Apple’s unified memory, for example. Several reports and reviews have suggested that
Macs with unified memory not only match but outperform systems with twice as much RAM.
Also, it’s not just Apple that’s leveraging this optimized hardware. Some of the biggest software
developers are finally taking the time to optimize their software for Mac. Adobe, for example, claims
that their apps are now 80% faster on M1 Macs. And looking forward, this synergy should only improve
as Apple bridges the gap between their iOS devices and their Mac devices. Historically,
developers have not wanted to develop software for Mac because it’s always been such a niche market.
Something that’s not a niche market though is the iOS app store. And with the introduction of Apple
silicon on Macs, software development for iOS and macOS has basically become identical. According
to Apple themselves, “Most iOS apps require no modifications to run on Apple silicon.”
Now, this doesn’t mean that Supercell is going to develop Clash Royale for the Mac. But
what this does mean though is that software companies who primarily deal with Windows
can leverage the large base of iOS developers to efficiently port over software to Mac.
So, in the coming years, Apple will not only have some of the most value-packed hardware but some
of the most optimized software. And given that this combination is what allowed them to perform
so well within the mobile market, I’d bet it’ll play out pretty well within the PC market as well.
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT: While Apple’s synergy and
value are great if you choose the right products, we can’t ignore that Macs still have a few major
pitfalls starting with a lack of repairability and upgradability. At the end of last year,
Apple announced their self-service repair program which promised to allow consumers to repair their
own iPhones and Macs with genuine Apple parts. But, with the recent release of the Mac Studio,
it’s not clear how true Apple will stay to this promise. If you guys haven’t heard yet,
if you crack open the Mac Studio, you’ll actually find that the storage device is removable and
replaceable. However, what Luke Miani found was that if you switch the slot in which the storage
device is placed or swap the storage device with another storage device with a different capacity,
the Mac Studio refuses to boot. Clearly, there’s some sort of software lock and/or
encryption that prevents users from changing the storage which is quite stupid. I have no idea why
Apple doesn’t just let people swap the storage because here’s the thing. I bet 95% of Apple’s
customers won’t want to take apart a brand new computer and try to upgrade the storage. So,
even if Apple offered this option, these guys would just pay Apple for the extra storage
anyway, so it’s not like Apple would lose out on much revenue. In the meantime, they can avoid
all the criticism they receive regarding lack of repairability. The second biggest shortfall
of Macs is sort of related to the first point which is their base storage options.
While the Mac Mini and MacBook air offer great value in terms of performance, they don’t offer
great value in terms of storage. These machines should offer a minimum of 512 GB of storage,
and their higher-end Mac Studios and MacBook Pros should offer a minimum of 1 TB of storage. Their
current storage sizes are unacceptable in 2022. Aside from lack of repairability and underwhelming
starting storage, the last biggest complaint regarding Macs is their limited software.
If you want to play games, for example, there’s still no reason to get a mac and I don’t think
this will change anytime soon. Similarly, some high-end software like the Autodesk suite have yet
to really be refined for Apple silicon. However, unlike gaming, I think this can improve in the
imminent future as software companies leverage iOS developers, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
FUTURE OF MAC:
While Macs do still have some shortfalls, I don’t think these shortfalls will actually
sway the average consumer that much. Like I said, the average consumer won’t want to
open up their computer anyway, so a lack of repairability/upgradeability
isn’t that big of a deal, though it would be nice if Apple allowed for this.
And in terms of software limitations, most people will mainly just spend their time doing work and
browsing through social media. And unless you’re an architect or 3D designer or something,
the software limitations wouldn’t even apply to you. Something else to note is that all of these
issues are relatively easy to fix. It’s not that hard for Apple to bump up the starting storage
or lighten up on the software restrictions that prevent upgrades. Recently, Apple has been a lot
more open to feedback given that they brought back SD card slots, HDMI ports, and regular
USB ports on some of their newer machines. So hopefully, they’ll make these changes as well.
If they do make these changes, I think Mac adoption will only accelerate moving forward,
especially with the launch of the M2 chip. Now, I don’t think Mac will ever become the dominant
PC operating system just like iOS will never become the dominant mobile operating system.
However, I do think Apple can grow their PC market share to closer their mobile market share.
Right now, Macs only account for about 10% of the global PC market while iOS accounts for 28% of the
global mobile market. Due to all the reasons outlined so far in this video, I think it’s
quite possible that over the next decade, Apple’s market share in the PC market grows closer to 20%.
This is quite odd for me to say actually cause I’ve always been a massive fan of Windows due to
its versatility and customizability. The first videos on this YouTube channel are actually
videos of me building my PC and discussing the GPU market. It wasn’t till recently that
I got my first Mac, and while I now have the option of using either Windows or Mac,
I honestly don’t think I’ll be using my Windows computer that much moving forward because the Mac
can do everything I need but better, faster, and smoother. And as more people give the M1 a shot,
I think they’ll come to the same conclusion, but that’s just what I think. Are you guys team
Windows or team Mac? Comment that down below. Also, drop a like if you think Apple killed it
with the M1. And of course, consider checking out our international channels to watch our videos in
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