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I've got a theory that I think is cool, and it's backed up by nothing except for the fact that I think it would be awesome. The MacBook Air currently runs $1,000 for the base model, which seems like a fairly reasonable amount considering how good that system is. But what if we had a MacBook 12-inch again or better yet, an iBook? Okay, just hear me out here, right?

So Microsoft does this with their Surface Go, which is a smaller, cheaper, and more portable laptop that's very much based on the Surface Line, but it's like what? Five, $600 bucks, and importantly, it gives you almost all those same features. Imagine if Apple with their new found savings from Apple silicon makes a smaller MacBook Air, trim out some ports, maybe just give me one port, make the screen smaller, I don't know, remove TouchID, whatever you gotta do.

But imagine they had like an $800 iBook that would sell like GameBurst. I'm just saying, free advice to Tim Cook if you aren't already working on it, that's fine. Think about it. Then we have the Mac Pro. This is I think the most complicated of all the Apple silicon transitions.

First of all, I don't expect to see this anytime soon. They said it's gonna take two years to do this full transition. I fully expect the Mac Pro to be the very last system in the line. Now to do this, there are a couple of ways they can handle it. So of course, the Mac pro just a couple of years ago saw a very major overhaul where they brought back a much more traditional tower style system.

But even though it is currently powered by Intel processors and AMD GPUs, this thing is loaded up with upgradability. You have tons of PCI slots, you have the MPX modules. There's a lot of stuff here which seems like it doesn't necessarily directly correlate to how they would make Apple silicon work.

Think about some of the limitations of at least current Apple silicon as it sits today. You can not connect any kind of external GPU, even over Thunderbolt. You can't connect additional RAM, it's all on package. So the M1s is just eight or 16, the end. And on top of that, what kind of GPU are they gonna put in here? Because Apple silicon, even if it did support an external GPU, has no AMD or Nvidia driver support.

If Apple is going to do this, they really only have two options. Either they scale up an Apple silicon GPU or they straight up let you throw in an AMD or an Nvidia GPU inside of the Apple silicon Mac Pro. They could do that, but they've spent all this time and all this money getting away from anything that's not Apple brand, they're trying to keep that vertical integration.

So does it make sense for them to really ship an AMD or an Nvidia GPU? Maybe, maybe for a short while, while they're transitioning, who knows? But the Mac Pro is absolutely the biggest question mark on what that system will look like once it does have that full Apple silicon glow up.

At this point, I think that the future for the Mac is incredibly clear. As a company, Apple has a ton of incentive to try to push this as far as they can, because they're not really sure Apple will make a car and they make some VR glasses, blah, blah, blah. They'll try all these other things.

But if you look at how they're going to grow their company and grow their market share at the moment, the Mac seems like the very obvious spot to start. And beyond that, Apple silicon gives them a huge advantage. They have a several year headstart on everyone else in this space, they have the full vertical integration.

And as far as the consumer side goes, it makes a lot of sense. It's buy an Apple silicon Mac. Again, they've amazing performance, great battery life, they have some really interesting designs, they run cool, they run quiet. I mean, there's so much to sort of support these things and we've only seen the very first generation of Apple silicon Macs.

I'm very curious, what do you think about where Apple is right now and where they're headed with the Mac? Because as far as I'm concerned, these are by far the most exciting Macs we've ever seen and there's so much potential. It is incredibly rare for a single company to make such a huge leap in the PC space, right?

But anyway, thank you very much for watching Austin's Rank Corner on Macs. Make sure to subscribe and ring-a-ling that ding-a-ling bell because WWDC is coming and my predictions will soon be proven incorrect.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Apple has an unfair advantageand the PC space may never be the same.So Apple's WWDC is right around the cornerand it's got me thinkinga lot about the Mac.Now it's no surprise,but in 2021 Apple's prettymuch dominating the majorityof their markets.Think about it,iPads are pretty much thetablet and think about AirPods.I don't really thinkmost people understandjust how massive the AirPod market is.In 2018 alone, AirPodsbrought in $8 billionwith a B in revenue,which for context is morethan the entirety of AMD,for AirPods.But while Samsung will happily sell youa sub $200 Galaxy phone,Apple are busy selling $400 iPhone SEsand $700 iPhone 12s,which they make a lot more moneyon per unit compared tothose budget Samsung options.Apple has always done wellin the premium PC space.Similar to the phone market,they almost exclusively sell laptopsand desktops that are very expensive,typically over a thousand dollars,and that is in search ofthat sweet, sweet profit.Now it makes sense, right?As Apple, why would you goafter the HP Streams thatare costing $200 of the worldwhen you can sell peoplethousand dollars MacBooks?It just makes sense if youcould actually pull it off.With the introductionof Apple silicon though,I really think that Apple is aboutto crack the PC market wide open.And in reality, it's allthanks to the iPhone.Back in the days of the OG phones,Apple were using a lot ofoff the shelf components,including CPUs.Now the first time theydesigned their own chipwas for the iPad with the Apple A4.This wasn't truly a custom CPUas Apple had purchased apromising chip design companycalled P.A. Semi to getthe project off the groundat least initially.It wasn't until 2013 with the A7 chipand the iPhone 5s where thingsreally started to take off.The A7 was a 64-bit processorand it was years aheadof what anyone expectedin the phone space.Competitors like Qualcomm scrambledto rush their 64-bit CPUs to market,but it was too late.Apple had snatched the performance crownand they have not looked back since.With over a decade of groundwork laid,Apple have the seeds tolaunch their next big play.Right now, the Mac isa relatively small partof the PC market, accountingfor only about 8% market share.Considering how dominant mostof Apple's other products are,in my opinion, this is definitelywhere they have themost potential to grow.And they're in a greatposition to do that,thanks to their new M1 chips.Even when Apple firstannounced their plansto switch over to their ownApple silicon-based chips,leaving behind over a decade of historywith Intel in their-- Partnership.- Partnership, thank you very much.There was a lot of speculationon whether there would beany upper groin pains transitioningfrom the previous Intelchips to Apple silicon.And trust me when I say, itis not as easy as it sounds.So for example, Microsoftintroduced Windowson ARM years ago, and yetthey've still come nowhere nearApple's level of compatibility.A great example of this is Adobe.Now on the Windows side,they only have a handfulof apps, they're really fully optimized,whereas in just a few months,somehow they were able toget almost all their appsup and running on Apple silicon.Funny at how that works, right?When you actually sell ARM based systemsand not just talk about making them.- Yikes.- As soon as we got ourhands on the M1 Macs,it was really clear.This was a completely different animal.Not only are the M1 chipsincredibly powerful,but importantly, they'realso power efficient,which means great battery life.It is one of those very,very rare situationsin the computer industry whereyou get to have your cakeand eat it too.Or you get to eat yourcake and have it too.- Why would I wanna have my cakeif I can't eat it?- You may want to save it for later.This video is sponsored by Logitech.Now the iPad has gotten a lotmore powerful over the yearsbut what really makes itmore than a laptop is this,the Logitech Combo Touch.Not only are you gettinga great backlit keyboardwith a full row of iPad shortcut keys,but you also get that track padwhich makes a big difference.If you've never used aniPad with the track pad,it is an absolute game changer.Essentially with a single device,you can seamlessly gofrom your touch screento using the Apple Pencilall the way to the track padon that single device.The compound touch designis also super versatile.So as it uses a smart connector,you never have to thinkabout charging the keyboardand it's also detachableso you can use the iPadas standalone tablet,pop out the kickstand,attach the keyboard,all the while keepingyour iPad Pro protected.So if you're lookingfor a premium experienceat a solid price, then definitely be sureto check out the Logitech Combo Touch,the link in the description.Of course, huge shout to Logitechfor sponsoring this portion of the video.Now we're getting a little bitinto speculation town here,but I expect that the M1 willstick around in base models,while we get somethinglike an upgrade versionof the processor with thethings that Pros want.Think more than one displayout your MacBook Proor more RAM, higher spec things.Then we don't know what the next versionof the M1 will be called yet.There's a lot of speculationthat might be the M1X,following the namingconvention of the iPad chipsbecause one of the issueswith the entire M1 lineup right now,is there's very, very littledifference between the models.You have eight and 16 gigs of RAM optionsand you get a seven core GPUversus an eight core GPUfor the more advanced model.My best guess for what thefull Apple silicon lineupis going to be, is something like this.So the base models forthe foreseeable futurewill likely have the M1 CPU.It's clearly more than powerful enoughfor the vast majority of people out there.And then we'll get the upgrade, M1Xor whatever they decide to call it,the model with more CPUcores, more GPU options.That'll go into the Pro Macs,not to be confused with the iPhone Pro Maxor the Mac Pro, the Pro level Macs.We've got all the ingredientscoming together now.Apple has a huge leadbuilding their own chips,which are legitimately someof the best in the businessand they no longer haveto pay Intel for chips.Can you imagine Apple pulling offthe new 24 inch iMac design,while having to cool anexpensive Intel processorand wait for Intel to bringthem that new generation?I mean, Apple silicongives them the performanceand importantly the flexibilityto design exactly like they want.Okay, so this might sound likea stretch but hear me out.Apple can also make the Mac cheaper.Look at the Mac Miniwhich actually did get a drop in priceas soon as they moved itfrom an Intel processorto the M1.No longer does Apple have topay Intel $150 plus per chipwhen they can use their own M1 processorsfor less than maybe what, 40, 50 bucks,at least that's my estimate.But regardless, it's definitely cheaperthan what they're buyingthem from Intel at.Sure, companies like Microsoftand Google are working on their own chips,but Apple has a huge lead basedon all the work they'vedone for the iPhonethat the Mac essentiallyinherited for free.Right now no one else inthe space is really preparedto take Apple on here.Apple gets to taking margin for themselveswhich either allows themto cut the pricing slightlywithout losing too much profitor just spend that money on designor Tim Cook's bank account.Regardless, Apple's alwaysbeen known as a premium brandand that expense now actually comeswith some of the best overallfundamentals in the industry.Those are a lot of upgradesthat I think you're going tobe coming over the next yearto two years for the Mac lineup.So of course, some ofthis stuff we may seeat WWDC next week,but one of the big ones reallyI expect is the next versionof the iMac.So we already have the 24-inchwhich I think is a very goodlook at what the iMac 30,32 maybe even call it the iMacPro will actually look like.So my prediction is this.Obviously larger screen,maybe we get a little bitmore on the port selection,ideally we have somethinglike 10 gig ethernet onboard.But realistically, the main differencebetween the standard iMacand the iMac Pro is goingto be the processor.I do think this will be oneof the systems that can really benefitfrom at least the option ofsomething like an M1X or M2X,whatever that next tier up processor is.Something else I reallywanna see is next generationof MacBook Pro.Now, of course the current MacBook Prodoes have the M1 processorbut it's only in thebase model, the 13-inch.Instead, I think what we'll see hereis something that's alreadyactually been fairly well leaked,a brand new 14-inch Mac Pro anda brand new 16-inch Mac Pro.Now the schematics have already shownthat they're going to shockon surprise, add more ports.So in addition to USB 4/USB-Cwe'll also have HDMI, we'll have MagSafe,which I'm actually very excited about,potentially even withethernet on the dongle similarto the iMac.And we'll also have an SD card slot.In addition, I thinkthe upgraded performanceshould be a big boon here.So whether it's the M1X or M2,whatever they decide to call it,I think these systemsshould have an optionfor more performance which would be niceto know I have more RAM.But on top of that,having the ability toconnect more displays.Something that is a realbottleneck for me personallywhen I'm using the M1 MacBookPro is that in additionto the internal screen, gonnahook up one extra display,something that prettymuch every other Intel,AMD and Nvidia laptop canallow you to do more than.However with M1X, I expect that you couldto at least connect it to acouple of different displaysif you wanna live thatmulti-screen lifestyle.It also seems like theMacBook Air is very muchin store for an upgrade as well.So a bunch of leaked renders have shownthat the MacBook Air willget a lot of inspirationfrom the iMac, includingthings like a white bezelwhich I might not be a huge fan of,but also things like a white keyboardand importantly a bunch ofcolors because I like colors,that's all, that's literallythe extent of this.- I want a yellow one.- Now, if we can allkind of just sit down,we can all kind of tip ourrumor hats for a moment.I have a theory.This is backed up byno evidence whatsoeverbesides the fact that Ithink it would be cool.The MacBook Air currently runs$1,000 for the base model,I think a fairly reasonableamount consideringjust how good that system is.But what if, we had aMacBook 12-inch yet againor better yet, an iBook.Okay, just hear me out here, right?So Microsoft does thiswith this Surface Go.It is a smaller, cheaper,and more portable laptopthat's very much basedon the Surface Line,but it's like what?Five, 600 bucksand importantly it gives you almost allof those same features.Imagine if Apple withtheir new found savingsfrom Apple silicon makesa smaller MacbBook Air,trim out some ports, maybejust give me one port,make the screen smaller,I don't know, remove TouchID, whatever you gotta do.But imagine, they had like an $800 iBook.That would sell like GameBurst.I'm just saying, free advice Timmy Cookif you aren't alreadyworking on it, that's fine.Think about it.Then we have the Mac Pro.This is I think the most complicatedof all of the Apple silicon transitions.First of all, I don't expectto see this anytime soon.They said it's gonna take two yearsto do this full transition.I fully expect the Mac Proto be the very last systemin the line.Now to do this, there are a coupleof ways they can handle it.So of course the Mac projust a couple of years ago,saw a very major overhaulwhere they brought backa much more traditionaltower style system.But even though it is currentlypowered by Intel processorsand AMD GPUs, this thing isloaded up with upgradability.You have tons of PCI slots,you have the MPX modules.There's a lot of stuff herewhich seems like it doesn'tnecessarily directly correlateto how they would make Apple silicon work.Think about some of the limitationsof at least current Applesilicon as it sits today.You can not connect anykind of external GPU,even over Thunderbolt.You can't connect additionalRAM, it's all on package.So the M1s is just eight or 16, the end.And on top of that, what kindof GPU are they gonna put in herebecause Apple silicon,even if it did supportan external GPU, has no AMDor Nvidia driver support.If Apple is going to do this,they really only have two options.Either they scale up an Apple silicon GPUor they straight upletting you throw in an AMDor an Nvidia GPU inside ofthe Apple silicon Mac Pro.They could do that, butthey've spent all this timeand all this moneygetting away from anythingthat's not Apple brand, they're tryingto keep that vertical integration.So does it make sense forthem to really ship an AMDor an Nvidia GPU?Maybe, maybe for a short while,while they're transitioning, who knows?But the Mac Pro is absolutelythe biggest question markon what that system will look likeonce it does have thatfull Apple silicon glow up.At this point, I think that the futurefor the Mac is incredibly clear.As a company, Apple has a ton of incentiveto try to push this as far as they can,because they're not really, I mean,sure Apple will make a carand they make some VRglasses, blah, blah, blah.They'll try all these other things.But if you look at how they'regoing to grow their companyand grow their market share at the moment,the Mac seems like thevery obvious spot to start.And beyond that, Apple silicongives them a huge advantage.They have a several yearheadstart on everyone elsein this space, they have thefull vertical integration.And as far as the consumer side goes,it makes a lot of sense.It's buy an Apple silicon Mac.Again, they've amazingperformance, great battery life,they have some really interesting designs,they run cool, they run quiet.I mean, there's so much tosort of support these thingsand we've only seen thevery first generationof Apple silicon Macs.I'm very curious,what do you think aboutwhere Apple is right nowand where they're headed with the Mac?Because as far as I'm concerned,these are by far the mostexciting Macs we've ever seenand there's so much potential.It is incredibly, incredibly rarefor a single company tomake such a huge leapin the PC space, right?But anyway, thank you very muchfor watching Austin's Rank Corner on Macs.Make sure to subscribe and ring-a-lingthat ding-a-ling bellbecause WWDC is comingand my predictions willsoon be proven incorrect.