Remember when Apple came under fire for allegedly throttling the performance of older iPhones in order to preserve battery life? Well, judging by recent reports about the MacBook, planned obsolescence is very much a thing of the past – and sales are suffering as a result.
According to Forbes, new analysis has shown that Mac lifecycles are growing, with fewer users choosing to upgrade with each successive generation. Indeed, many are still rocking 2020's original M1 generation MacBook Air, suggesting that six years later, even the first M1 chip is far from obsolete.
Much has been made of the incredible performance and efficiency of Apple silicon, and it seems Apple has indeed made one of the most future-proof sets of chips on the market. But the company has continued to pump out new versions – we're currently on the M5. As we said in our review, the M5 MacBook Pro is a "wonderful thing to use", but how much more wonderful is it than the M4?
Apple has given us 6 M-series chips in as many years. The company has been releasing new MacBooks with almost with the same frequency as its iPhone. But while many do choose to upgrade their phone yearly (whether that's remotely necessary is a question for another time), but the idea of upgrading a MacBook every Autumn would surely have seemed unreasonable before the advent of Apple Silicone.
But now that M-series chips are here, the idea is farcical. These chips are so powerful and efficient that they ought to be lasting all but the most demanding users a few years at least. And it seems customers are realising this – Apple is facing the unique problem of having produced a chip so good that retail sales are slowing. Will that stop Apple from releasing a new M6 MacBook Pro this year? We wouldn't bet on it.
However, a reason to upgrade might just be on the horizon. When Apple announced Siri AI this month, it revealed that in order to use the most powerful on-device model on Mac, an M3 chip will be required. So if AI's your thing, perhaps those M1 and M2 chips are about to feel ever-so-slightly obsolete.
