Why does Apple still sell MacBooks and Macs with Intel chips?

The official launch of the M1, the first CPU for an ARM-based Mac, marked a notable turning point for Apple. After years of using Intel CPUs for its Mac computers, Apple is showing signs of ending that partnership by launching a CPU of its own design with greater efficiency and power efficiency.

But for now, Apple is still selling MacBook Pro and Mac Mini with Intel chips on its website. Given the performance and functionality advantages of the M1 over the Intel Macs, it is strange that Apple continues to sell these computers. It turns out that Apple has many good reasons to do so.

Hardware limitation for M1 chip

In the recent event, Apple introduced 3 new devices including, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13 inch and Mac Mini using M1 chip. Despite being touted as having superior performance over the Intel-powered versions, they all share a common drawback: RAM capacity limited to 16GB. What’s more, whether it’s a MacBook Pro or a Mac Mini with the new M1 chip, they can’t use external eGPUs.

These downsides make them difficult to appeal to professional users. Meanwhile, Apple’s 16-inch Intel-based MacBook Pro supports up to 64GB of RAM, with more discrete VGA options – so Apple is still forced to sell Intel-powered MacBook Pro if it doesn’t want to hurt the audience. use your professional.

The 16-inch Intel-powered MacBook Pro even supports 64GB of RAM and many powerful VGA options

Meanwhile, Apple quickly stopped selling the MacBook Air line with Intel chips on its website. The customer base for these MacBook Airs does not require 32GB of RAM or discrete VGA, or an external eGPU. Currently the new MacBook Air using M1 chip is more than enough for the needs of the user set mentioned above.

Software limitations

Just as hardware limitations can annoy professional users, the same holds true for software limitations. Professional users of Macs – especially developers – still need time for the software they use to be fully compatible with the new hardware.

Even though Apple has now launched Rosetta 2 and Universal Binaries 2 software compilers for Macs using the new M1 chip, the company can only confidently claim that the transition to Apple Silicon will completed in about 2 years. Eliminating the familiar working environment of developers is too risky for them.

Windows restrictions

Although many people are still laughing at those who buy a Mac to install Windows, this is one of the reasons why many Windows users buy a Mac due to its compatibility with many operating systems platforms. this device.

As of now, Apple has no plans to bring Basecamp to its M1-powered Macs, and third-party solutions like Parallel don’t fully support that. And while that is only a small market, it is still important enough that Apple has not completely eliminated Intel Macs.

There are many people who still buy Macs to install Windows, which Apple’s new M1 chip does not support

Business benefits

Certainly these limits will gradually be removed by Apple in the future, but it will not come soon, at least until the first Macs using M1 chips to reach users. The gradual removal of the above restrictions will also be a reason for Apple to encourage users to continue looking to buy Macs using new Apple Silicon chips in the future.

The same is being done by Apple with the new iPhones coming out each year. Not only processor upgrades, each new iPhone generation also comes with new hardware and software improvements. If you bought a MacBook with an M1 chip with the current 16GB RAM limit, are you looking to buy future M2-based MacBooks with more RAM with more powerful VGA? – almost certainly.

Given Apple’s current chip design capabilities, this is entirely possible in the future. Until then, given the current M1 chip limitations, computers with Intel chips will still be sold by Apple on its website, but that probably won’t last much longer.