Very good, unbiased and accurate article. They've been hyping these Qualcom chips for months. Are they finally available? or is this just more PR spin? Even with the spin, they can't beat Apples 8 month old chip and the cheapest MacBook in single core 🤣
It boggles the mind that still no other major manufacturer has sought to replicate Apple's closed-system design paradigm, with operating system and hardware conceived and implemented as a single, unified thing.
Not a mystery. Microsoft has a monopoly on office automation software. They use this monopoly to effectively prevent new operating systems and platforms from entering the market. No PC operating system can be successful without MS Office. They continue to use this monopoly to capture all sorts of things. Like, messaging and MS Teams.
Even when the cost of the platform is free, like with Linux and ChromeOS, on hardware that is half the cost of average PC hardware, they can't really make inroads. A lot of the value in the PC platform market is locked up in MS Office and its satellite software and services.
Even Google, who burns up billions of dollars per quarter without accomplishing much, can't even make many inroads with ChromeOS. It is a little curious why they can't. Like, they won't make a deal with Valve for Steam, can't get developers to make good webapps, etc. Undercutting MS and PCs seems to have plateaued in the education market.
How well will the x86 emulator work? If history is any indication - it will be far from well oiled and ready for prime-time. Will it be able to properly run games?
Dunno. Enterprises, corporations, and Meta specifically for use with their servers?
Microsoft also use a lot of Nvidia chips in Azure, Oracle bought a huge amount for their cloud. I think most / all clouds are heterogenous, using the best chip solutions for themselves, as well as having multiple options in case their clients have certain requirements (I imagine many cloud clients would demand Nvidia chips for certain workloads)...
Leave it to Microsoft to keep you paying eternally for features that should be baked into the OS.
The same old crap, new day, new tagline.
Microsoft’s version of “AI” (amongst other versions) is unethical spiders crawling the web that ignore htaccess and bot text in order to “train” and basically just a search engine that summarizes well.
Roll in some glorified autocomplete for grammar, code, etc. and voila.
Apple got it rolling with Siri forever ago. Then everyone copied. Now we have Siri copycats on roids called ai.
Apple was the first of these guys to jump into machine learning hardcore from the ground up, hardware and software. The “experts” seem to be stuck in the 90s with their hot takes. This isn’t windows 95 again. This is, as the article put it, the Zune again.
Not only does Apple have everyone beat on the hardware side with super design and chipset performance, they’ve got the software on lock too. And with Apple’s machine learning rebranded to “AI” everyone will be comparing apples to well, apples.
With apples long head start into machine learning, better engineering, command of the hardware/software chain, and actual care, wwdc is going to be an eye opener.
The only folks who may be able to compete will be Google as they have somehow sneakily convinced customers that signing away your rights. To your creations (emails, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, YouTube videos, etc. ) for free use of their subpar software allows them to own your stuff and use it for whatever they want - ads, ai, etc.
ai currently is another excuse to take computing back to the ancient days when you were tied to a mainframe. No longer a personal computer, just a. Thin client. Would love to see apples solution entirely on-device, with periodic, regular updates (in addition to the obvious App Store ai apps for folks interested in those).
“… were shown to be tiny thinkers who all just repeated the low signal-to-noise clucking of the other birds in the same coup in their daily work of dutifully laying eggs for Microsoft. …”
When I read this, I was stopped in my tracks. It’s a gifted turn of words, and my favorite phrase to carry forward. Thank you DANIEL ERAN DILGER.
If you should go about reposting that line, be sure to change "coup" to "coop".
(Ah, the ancient art of proofreading. It's as dead as the Zune, but not in the same happy way.)
As an Apple user, due to the competition from Qualcomm, I hope we will see lower Mac prices, faster chips, 16GB RAM at a minimum, and touchscreen Macs.
For Windows users, there will be more companies making ARM laptops, and lots of choices. Not all of these will sell, and there could be fierce price competition. I imagine this will severely dent Intel machine sales. On the other hand, Windows on ARM machines have never sold well, so maybe the Snapdragon X Elite won't shake up the industry. If it doesn't, Qualcomm's purchase of Nuvia a few years back will be a bust, and other companies like NVIDIA may be the ones to dominate ARM PCs in the future.
I’m not so sure that the average PC or Mac buyer in 2024 really understands what AI brings to the party within the scope of the relatively few apps they use regularly. Even though some of the AI demos are frighteningly impressive for those who follow technology trends, AI in general is still Promise Mountain for the majority of consumers. This disconnect is plainly evident by the fact that so many pundits, who should know better, simply fail to see that Apple has been delivering useful and practical AI and ML in its products for years.
The current state of AI bragging reminds me of someone who brags about their “high IQ” but fails to deliver anything that is indicative of their claim. Let’s see what kind of real value all those TOPS deliver to everyday consumers and working folks trying to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently so they can afford to live more comfortably and fulfill their dreams.
Is it fair to compare hardware of two laptops when they are running different operating systems? Would it be better if they both ran the same operating system while comparing how the hardware affects the experience?
Love the article DED. You remember history that us mere mortals tend to forget.
The other issue is that MSFT has evolved to a service first industry and like all of the PC industry—hardware (including servers) are sold close to cosf to subsidize services. Any MSFT AI office offerings will be served to Apple enthusiasts as well. Why? For the simple reason that Apple users spend more on technology, apps and services. MSFT’s flashy hardware is just a show horse to show they can still be in the game but contributes little to their bottom line.
Apple has a several year lead in the post x86 ARM world with Apple silicon and gets the cutting edge of TSMC chip output.
As DED says, we have seen this story play out again and again. And favorable reviews on clickbait technology websites by non-clothes wearing pundits is not going to change this repeat of history,
I was getting ready to send an email last week using Mail. In the text of the email I had stated “attachment.” When I hit the send button the Mail app asked me something like “Did you want to specify an attachment?” In fact, I did but forgot to attach the attachment. If that’s AI in action then I found it to be useful. I’m not looking for an AI that can generate a rock opera based on keywords that I supply, but if it can step in and lend a hand as needed in a totally unobtrusive way, I’m okay with AI. In my opinion, the best AI is the AI that you don’t even know is there, which is basically how Apple’s been approaching AI so far. The minute you start trying to “sell” AI as a product its value quickly diminishes into a cloud of hype and over promising.
Unfortunately, I think Apple may now feel like it’s being forced to follow the hype & promise route due to market pressure that is based on a gross lack of understanding of what AI entails and where it fits and where it doesn’t fit. I hope Apple continues to focus on products that deliver value in ways that customers connect to and steer away from selling hype & promise.
Is it fair to compare hardware of two laptops when they are running different operating systems? Would it be better if they both ran the same operating system while comparing how the hardware affects the experience?
As you know, Apple does not allow third parties to run Mac OS on their systems and Microsoft seems happy not to have Windows on Arm as an option for Apple Silicon Macs. So the test you suggest is simply not possible.
There will be tests of differing applications that are multi platform. One just needs to be sure that said tests are properly optimised on both platforms.
Microsoft's strength - a large base market of third-party PCs - is also its weakness. Rolling out an on-machine artificial intelligence operating system is made orders of magnitude more difficult when their only control over the hardware is a set of somewhat optional hardware specifications. Even if this AI-based operating system is really pretty good when running on an optimally-designed PC that carefully observes all of the recommended specifications, the implementation across-the-board will trail downward from that. The hardware manufacturers will compete in both directions, with many cutting every possible corner to lower the price of the device, while others will try to push out new bells-and-whistles faster than the Windows design teams can reasonably anticipate them. Both will tend to yield suboptimal user experiences.
It boggles the mind that still no other major manufacturer has sought to replicate Apple's closed-system design paradigm, with operating system and hardware conceived and implemented as a single, unified thing. This is how Apple is actually the company that repeatedly enters product categories "late," but then flips the whole category on its head by implementing something that's actually well thought out and ultimately desirable and useful to customers. I suppose the ability to start now and be competitive with any sort of new closed-system device is a nearly vertical uphill climb for a competitor, but it's how Apple has made it to where it is now. It will be unsurprising if we one day learn that Apple's shift to in-house silicon from Intel was all about implementing on-device machine-learning and AI. This would mean that for years now, while folks in places like this have heaped snark and criticism on Apple for missing the AI boat and under-powering Siri, etc., Apple has been cruising down a long runway to implement a next-big-thing that will actually fly. Meanwhile, others are alpha-testing on an unsuspecting public things like generative AI chatbots, search and audio/visual media that's of questionable utility and bereft of ethics at its best.
So, you know, good luck to Microsoft. Competition can be a good thing. Still, if you only have a dollar to invest in either Microsoft or Apple and this product category is the basis for your decision, you might want to put that dollar towards Apple stock.
I think you're getting ahead of yourself.
It doesn't boggle the mind because it isn't really true.
Every major project needs a 'runway'. Others simply took off first with generative solutions and all types of language models. Don't forget that Apple is rumoured to be including at least some of those solutions in its next releases.
I was getting ready to send an email last week using Mail. In the text of the email I had stated “attachment.” When I hit the send button the Mail app asked me something like “Did you want to specify an attachment?” In fact, I did but forgot to attach the attachment. If that’s AI in action then I found it to be useful. I’m not looking for an AI that can generate a rock opera based on keywords that I supply, but if it can step in and lend a hand as needed in a totally unobtrusive way, I’m okay with AI. In my opinion, the best AI is the AI that you don’t even know is there, which is basically how Apple’s been approaching AI so far. The minute you start trying to “sell” AI as a product its value quickly diminishes into a cloud of hype and over promising.
Unfortunately, I think Apple may now feel like it’s being forced to follow the hype & promise route due to market pressure that is based on a gross lack of understanding of what AI entails and where it fits and where it doesn’t fit. I hope Apple continues to focus on products that deliver value in ways that customers connect to and steer away from selling hype & promise.
I wouldn't call that AI (although some might).
The example is more in line with Apple Data Detectors which have been around forever (or almost forever).
Detecting the word attachment/attached/attach etc and checking to see if anything is actually attached.
I definitely agree that any AI should not be intrusive and also useful when summoned.
Comments
They've been hyping these Qualcom chips for months.
Are they finally available? or is this just more PR spin?
Even with the spin, they can't beat Apples 8 month old chip and the cheapest MacBook in single core 🤣
Even when the cost of the platform is free, like with Linux and ChromeOS, on hardware that is half the cost of average PC hardware, they can't really make inroads. A lot of the value in the PC platform market is locked up in MS Office and its satellite software and services.
Even Google, who burns up billions of dollars per quarter without accomplishing much, can't even make many inroads with ChromeOS. It is a little curious why they can't. Like, they won't make a deal with Valve for Steam, can't get developers to make good webapps, etc. Undercutting MS and PCs seems to have plateaued in the education market.
Doomed! Apple is doomed - again. Sell your shares, close down the company and fire-sale the assets.
The same old crap, new day, new tagline.
ai currently is another excuse to take computing back to the ancient days when you were tied to a mainframe. No longer a personal computer, just a. Thin client. Would love to see apples solution entirely on-device, with periodic, regular updates (in addition to the obvious App Store ai apps for folks interested in those).
(Ah, the ancient art of proofreading. It's as dead as the Zune, but not in the same happy way.)
For Windows users, there will be more companies making ARM laptops, and lots of choices. Not all of these will sell, and there could be fierce price competition. I imagine this will severely dent Intel machine sales. On the other hand, Windows on ARM machines have never sold well, so maybe the Snapdragon X Elite won't shake up the industry. If it doesn't, Qualcomm's purchase of Nuvia a few years back will be a bust, and other companies like NVIDIA may be the ones to dominate ARM PCs in the future.
The current state of AI bragging reminds me of someone who brags about their “high IQ” but fails to deliver anything that is indicative of their claim. Let’s see what kind of real value all those TOPS deliver to everyday consumers and working folks trying to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently so they can afford to live more comfortably and fulfill their dreams.
The other issue is that MSFT has evolved to a service first industry and like all of the PC industry—hardware (including servers) are sold close to cosf to subsidize services. Any MSFT AI office offerings will be served to Apple enthusiasts as well. Why? For the simple reason that Apple users spend more on technology, apps and services. MSFT’s flashy hardware is just a show horse to show they can still be in the game but contributes little to their bottom line.
Apple has a several year lead in the post x86 ARM world with Apple silicon and gets the cutting edge of TSMC chip output.
As DED says, we have seen this story play out again and again. And favorable reviews on clickbait technology websites by non-clothes wearing pundits is not going to change this repeat of history,
Unfortunately, I think Apple may now feel like it’s being forced to follow the hype & promise route due to market pressure that is based on a gross lack of understanding of what AI entails and where it fits and where it doesn’t fit. I hope Apple continues to focus on products that deliver value in ways that customers connect to and steer away from selling hype & promise.
There will be tests of differing applications that are multi platform. One just needs to be sure that said tests are properly optimised on both platforms.
It doesn't boggle the mind because it isn't really true.
Every major project needs a 'runway'. Others simply took off first with generative solutions and all types of language models. Don't forget that Apple is rumoured to be including at least some of those solutions in its next releases.
We'll see. Not long now.
The example is more in line with Apple Data Detectors which have been around forever (or almost forever).
Detecting the word attachment/attached/attach etc and checking to see if anything is actually attached.
I definitely agree that any AI should not be intrusive and also useful when summoned.