Man every time I want to get a new macbook air they come up with a new macbook pro which means 6 months later they're going to come up with a new generation of airs by which time I think "let me wait a bit and see if people like it", and so here I am with a 2022 M2 that is perfectly fine except for the disk being too small.
I still have the original M1 Pro (thankfully with enough disk space) and I still don't really see a reason to upgrade. Since the M1 all these MacBooks are more than powerful enough for anything I might want to do and the original battery life was so good an upgrade would harldy be worth it.
Yeah you Mac users are spoiled. I bought this Framework 13 with the Ryzen 5 340 last year and was blown away at how fast it was, only to discover that it's roughly on par with the M1 Pro that came out 4 years earlier (and has much better battery life).
I don't _need_ the battery life and still prefer to run Linux so the tradeoff is worth it to me, but for most users it's pretty hard to not recommend a Macbook.
> I don't _need_ the battery life and still prefer to run Linux so the tradeoff is worth it to me, but for most users it's pretty hard to not recommend a Macbook.
The thing is I never had a Mac(Book) before, but the hardware at the time was just so much ahead of anything else that I didn't mind that limitation. At least for what I bought it any OS (Windows/MacOS/Linux) would have been totally fine.
I picked up a 24GB 2TB M2 air and it's still cruising along. Short of having the foresight to pick up 512GB Ultra prior to the rampocalypse, I'm happy.
I bought my 2022 M2 Air with 24GB/1TB/10-core GPU. Very very glad I did.
The only reason I’m bitter is because they put in WiFi 6E in the M3 generation. Now I just use a 2.5Gbe USB-C adaptor when transferring large files to and from my NAS.
They are soldered in. Replacement itself can probably be done by a professional repair technician who is equipped with the right tools. But it is not a self-service job that anyone can do.
On top of that, the drives might be somehow paired to the motherboard. And I would imagine that pairing a new one with the existing motherboard may require some proprietary software that only Apple has.
These are only my assumptions though. People e.g. at Louis Rossmann's repair shop might know more.
Apple does not use common parts for its storage. People are used to M.2 drives, but those have the controller on the stick, and Apple has integrated the controller inside its M-series. So you first need to find compatible storage in the first place, and the only place it can come from is a donor Mac.
For those who can't see the video, I think the above two commenters are being facetious for humor.
It is funny because the video is 50 minutes long which requires a difficult soldering job and chip reprogramming. This does not include the process of opening the Macbook Pro, disassembling it, removing the logic board, nor the reverse process.
Of course it does! You just have to go to a Genius Bar after the release of a new MacBook, and tell them you're interested in buying one. They'll even handle recycling your old one for you!
I'm still on my early 2022 macbook 14" M1, which I was thoughtful enough to get 64gb ram for at the time, and remain still incredibly happy. M6 must be nuts!
Yeah, I'm still on a 2021 M1 Pro and the only real complaint is that the battery has weakened somewhat, but still fine. and if I really cared I would probably figure out what to do to get firefox from being such a constant drain.
Great hardware, but I can't stand MacOS anymore after switching to Linux on home dekstop. KDE is such a breath of fresh air after years of dealing with Apple's idiosyncrasies.
I’m using KDE on the gaming box I recently transitioned away from Windows as well as on a secondary single-use laptop where Linux has been installed for a while.
It’s not bad, but I find it still to be very much an acquired taste. It’s fine for my usage, where the DE has barely any impact but having been using macOS as my main OS for the better part of 30 years, it would probably drive me insane if I had to shift my main body of computer use to it. It’s not any one thing, but dozens of papercuts that can’t be configured away (I’d need to maintain my own fork to fix them) as well as the more Windows-like desktop paradigm.
In theory maybe, but in reality it’s a full-time job keeping up with changes from mainline with big projects like KDE, which isn’t very practical if you need to do other things to keep a paycheck coming in.
Yeah I use KDE as well for my desktop and it’s the perfect environment. (Btw I use Arch)
Still I’m very tempted by the new MacBooks. I don’t know of any laptop that is a tenth as good and I don’t want to sit at my desk all day to use a computer.
I would buy apple hardware instantly if you could seamlessly install Linux on it just like a PC. Even if you had to "burn a fuse" to permanently detached it from Apples support and ecosystem.
I love and respect what Asahi has done but I want apple to support a turn key, open drivers, everything works, system.
Nano-texture upgrade option is coming for the whole line of products.
Edit: the thing I'm confused about is it seems there are at least two but maybe three different things that they are calling "nano-texture". On buying screens, the Studio Display and iPad Mini say "Nano-texture glass" and the new MacBook Pro says "Nano-texture display." But the Duo marketing says "Nano-texture finish."
I get that the internal Duo screen has the film over it and so it says "finish," but is there a difference between "glass" and "display"?
"Nano-texture glass" and "Nano-texture display" should refer to the same: A microscopic etching into the display glass.
"Nano-texture finish" on iPhone Duo refers to an additional layer they put on top of the display panel. It's basically a sticker with a similar (same?) surface structure (they can't put it on the display glass itself because it's too thin)
I get glass vs finish. But there's a third term being used for the new M6 MacBook Pro, which is nano-texture "display." Someone clarified that it's the same as the "glass" so I take this to just be Day 1 marketing confusion that'll hopefully get cleaned up on the buying screen.
They are very similar, but maybe not identical. The iPad nano-texture reportedly is less prone to fingerprints than at least the XDR monitor; perhaps that’s just an additional oleophobic coating. There may also be generational differences as these weren’t introduced at the same time and may come from different production lines.
Interesting choice of pic...a guy with a military camo hat, laptop propped up on a hardshell field deployment case...but in a crop field. That's quite a departure from Appe's usual creatives sipping soy lattes vibe
That is RealTree camo, not military camo. And it's really not a crop field? I'm guessing this is AI-generated. It's odd. It looks like a backyard garden, because you have mixed greens with kale, plentiful weeds, and marigolds (which are commonly used to keep pests at bay in small, hand-harvested gardens, but cannot be mixed into mechanically harvested fields). But the permanently-installed drip irrigation says commercial operation.
My guess is this photo was taken in a local garden co-op or small farmstead, but it looked too barren to use for advertising so they added a bunch of plants later.
I had a similar thought too looking at that photo and then I realized that personally, the only computer I've ever used out 'in the field' for extended durations was a MBP when I was working on an autonomous drone project senior year of undergrad.
It was November/December in Iowa, so it was freezing and the local R/C club airfield was nestled between an ocean of corn fields and the city dump, so it smelled terrible.
But that 16" MBP was red hot from Android Studio and kept my fingers from freezing, so credit where credit is due. Really fun project too!
To me it looks like farmers or biologists that use a MacBook because it is durable and has excellent battery life (or at least that seems to be the message when you read the rest of the announcement).
> They missed a chance to have the lady holding an iPad though.
Yeah this was a big miss. Farmers typically don't bring laptops out into the field, but tablets are extremely common. Tablets aren't nearly as susceptible to damage from dirt and dust and are easier to use on the go.
The hat looks like one of a million other hats you see any guy wearing out in Iowa, from farmers to students to contractors. I have a hat just like it myself.
There's never been a more confusing time to buy a MacBook. I understand there are technical variations, but it's difficult to compare when different screen sizes require different chip generations. Different memory amounts require different processor types. Etc. Etc.
I probably complained when Apple offered too FEW options too - but hey, this is the Internet.
I purchase the hardware, I should be able to do what I want with it. I want apple hardware for the good processor specs and battery life and general hardware quality.
Apple should be forced to release the necessary hardware specs to develop drivers so that I can use my hardware I purchased as I want. They should be required to let me own my own signing keys to boot my own software.
Anyway, I'd personally want bootcamp because it's a step closer to being able to install Linux, an operating system that lets me have a good tiling window manager that works.
Why the heck would anyone want to use macOS willingly, where the window manager and file browser are both complete unconfigurable trash.
There's just no getting "then don't buy it" for people who obviously don't agree with Apple's terms and conditions, is there? Not every product sold in the market will be done your way, and you can't act oppressed here because if you don't like Apple computers, you have a ton of other options...
Apple's terms are completely arbitrary. People will complain about this until the computers are capable of it again, because there is no legitimate technical reason that Apple Silicon cannot support third-party OSes.
I recently snagged a really good deal on a Macbook (very nice hardware!), but the more I use it, the more I struggle with macOS (even though a few utilities can help bring some of Windows' features).
I used to be able to completely boot into Windows on my Intel mac a few years ago, but Apple no longer supports it for some reason. It's a shame, especially since the ARM64 version of Windows 11 has gotten very good now.
It would also be nice to be able to install Linux too. It's my own hardware, after all!
Are you sure? It is my understanding that Parallels is just a VM, like VMWare Fusion, and that there's no way to natively dual boot Windows on Apple Silicon.
Looks like you're right about Linux though, I didn't know about Asahi Linux. Thank you for sharing.
It achieves the same thing or close enough. Apple isn't going to spend engineering resources (i.e. time and money) to build an easy way to install Windows. There isn't really a point for them to do so. There are other ways around it to be able to actually install Windows 11 specifically but Parallels is going to be your best bet.
Sadly I also can't natively install my Nintendo Switch software on my Xbox.
Apple is spending engineering resources every day to _prevent you_ from installing what you want on your own device. They're actively spending R&D money to fuck you over.
Minor rant – why come up with a consistent CPU naming scheme (Mx generation with Pro, Max etc. tiers) but then sell variants of each with different numbers of cores? It tosses the entire convention out of the window.
It is especially annoying during resale or benchmarking, because “M5 Pro” by itself doesn't mean much, and you have to count the number of CPU & GPU cores to figure out the actual SKU.
After getting my M1 MBP I mostly stopped paying attention to the new releases until the M4 came out and I decided to see how much "better" it was and was equally completely baffled by the insane number of SKUs and their seeming overlap. Insane product lineup decisions.
They’re binned, not every piece of silicon will work perfectly so they’re selling the ones that did as higher SKUs and the ones with minor flaws become the lower core counts.
Yes which is why every company that does this kind of binning advertises the actual SKU they are selling. This doesn’t fit the Apple marketing vibe, and so we end up having to guess.
The Pro has a bigger brighter ProMotion display. It has active cooling, larger speakers, more ports, longer battery life, better graphics performance, better keyboard, and a larger default storage option (starts at 1tb).
If the Base M6 is good enough processor for you but want a more "premium" product, then the base Pro makes sense.
In terms of performance, the difference is active cooling. That will matter to people who are regularly doing sustained CPU or GPU intensive workloads.
I was considering getting the M6 with 32GB which would come down to €2769 here in the Netherlands. But now I have an offer for a used M2 Max 64GB for €1900.
I don't want AI. I am preparing for a jump (back) to Linux. "Choice" disappeared, and yes, I know about the "fix" [0]
Maybe this idea may be foreign to many, but personal computers were something I built from bags of parts socketed and/or soldered onto S-100 cards, and that experience was the foundation of most of my career.
I was a Henry Higgins, and proud of my Eliza(s). While I get along cooperatively with Eliza (the happy ending to "My Fair Computer") I don't want Eliza to be my caretaker. This morphing of computers and internet into nannies and caretakers is IMO reverting to the "good old days" of servants. While some inventions are truly liberating (ask the guy who missed his Mom at an airport and freaked out for hours until she showed up at my home, courtesy of a cab or bus) how many are just replacing people with machines?
I could seriously use some friendship of the human variety, rather than a humanoid in a box (or an especially nice robot as in "I Sing the Body Electric" by Ray Bradbury, memorable on The Twilight Zone) Try being older and living alone, typing away.
I don't even use GPS any more, since I trashed Apple Maps when they kissed the Emperor's big fanny.
Apparently after the memory and storage shortage we are also experiencing a power supply shortage now - if you choose the base 16GB/1TB config you cant even choose any power supply as an option, guess its a use-once device now...
In some parts of EU and the UK there's no bundled power adapter, due to regulations. Historically, Apple has offset the cost of the laptop to accommodate this. Not sure if they're doing the same here.
For Apple's laptop range when was the last time you could choose your power supply? Was that ever an option?
Am I missing something?
(since I'm rate limited)....
With the OP's comment "guess its a use-once device now..." I was thinking they meant power supply in the desktop sense, not the power adapter. I have no idea why a power adapter would be the thing that makes a laptop a "use-once" device.
But yes in the configuration options you can choose between two power adapters.
Apple laptops historically included a power supply. Now some models don't, and you have to buy it as a separate item.
I appreciate the frustration, but as a separate item then a user can choose any power supply on the market, rather than being stuck with one that Apple chose.
It seems that you can only get 32GBs of RAM maximum for the new 14" M6 Macbooks? M5 still has 64GB options available. edit: the larger configurations are only available for the Pro and Max chips apparently.
For LLMs (apart from Apple's foundation models) the M1 Max still holds its own for the most part.
The base M6 is faster (much much faster) than the M1 Max at prefill (compute bound).
The M1 Max outperforms the base M6 at token generation; this is memory-bandwidth-bound, and while the M1 Max can't actually saturate its memory bandwidth, it gets a lot closer with the GPU.
So I suspect the M6 is better if your AI tasks are decision-based or video/image based, and the M1 Max is better if you're running a coding LLM. Though prefill is a bit of an issue.
You're correct, the base (non-Pro, non-Max) chips are still not great for local LLMs. M5 and M6 both improved prefill speed/time-to-first-token over prior gens, but bw is still a bottleneck.
There's rumored to be no M6 Pro or M6 Max coming, i.e. the higher bandwidth chips will skip a gen. M7 is also rumored to have better memory bandwidth across the range.
Really just function of mobility? Move a lot? 15-16 is combersome. Stationary often, maybe just roaming from your desk to your couch/bed? 16 is totally fine.
I'm in the 14-15 camp w/ lighter form factors being worth the premium.
I tried below 13 after the trend of smaller laptops from a couple years back - I now don't believe anyone who tells me they're regularly productive on these smaller form factors lol.
32GB of RAM only? What? Also weird that they are talking about token speed, but no larger LLMs can fit on this thing.
Also, what happened to the I/O?? I was happy to see on the M4 they had HDMI, an SD card slot, and more. Why are they back to 2 USB-C ports? I only see pictures of one side, but the left side has traditionally had more I/O.
C'mon, Apple, do better. It's a PRO model, not a MacBook Air
while understandable i think you are too hasty.
the side shown does indeed only have two usb c ports and the magsafe port, but the other side will almost certainly still have the usb c, hdmi, and card reader (cant remember if they added a second usb c port there at some point as well)
also, i don't blame you for this given that Apple's naming scheme is so fucked here but the 32gb limitation is for the MacBook Pro with the M6, _not_ the MacBook Pro with the M6 Pro or M6 Max.
yes, that is confusing, but imo the standard MacBook "Pro" with the base M chip is basically a glorified MacBook Air with a better chassis. I feel like they only sell these things to make the Air seem like a better deal and to justify a higher price for the M Pro / Max versions
edit: those M Pro versions may be announced tomorrow alongside a version with, or those being the version with a touchscreen
16gb for default ram? is this a joke? base level is same for almost 5 years now, crazy level of slow upgrades, basically anyone needs pro device will never purchase the default specs, even air makes more sense.
> With 16GB of unified memory standard, configurable up to 32GB, and higher memory bandwidth up to 170GB/s, MacBook Pro makes multitasking and working with demanding apps and large projects even faster.
So they're basically removing the ability to run local models effectively. I wonder if they'll bifurcate their market to enable those.
> I wonder if they'll bifurcate their market to enable those.
No they won't, the market for "running local models" is approximately 0. There's nothing to bifurcate anyway because once they release the more capable chips they'll be able to be configured with hiring amounts of RAM.
Apple in recent years has been updating their laptop range or specific models (Air or something) with their latest base M series chip (M4, M5, M6, &c.) and then later comes the higher end CPUs. But the base series chips don't have the hardware to it seems support higher RAM loads, or maybe they are artificially restricted in some way.
Apple has moved from a "Big day out" of marketing per year, where all product lineups would be announced, with novelty and conferences, to rolling releases along the year.
I don't _need_ the battery life and still prefer to run Linux so the tradeoff is worth it to me, but for most users it's pretty hard to not recommend a Macbook.
The thing is I never had a Mac(Book) before, but the hardware at the time was just so much ahead of anything else that I didn't mind that limitation. At least for what I bought it any OS (Windows/MacOS/Linux) would have been totally fine.
"You didn't even finish your M2 yet and already want to refill your plate?"
The only reason I’m bitter is because they put in WiFi 6E in the M3 generation. Now I just use a 2.5Gbe USB-C adaptor when transferring large files to and from my NAS.
On top of that, the drives might be somehow paired to the motherboard. And I would imagine that pairing a new one with the existing motherboard may require some proprietary software that only Apple has.
These are only my assumptions though. People e.g. at Louis Rossmann's repair shop might know more.
It is funny because the video is 50 minutes long which requires a difficult soldering job and chip reprogramming. This does not include the process of opening the Macbook Pro, disassembling it, removing the logic board, nor the reverse process.
If you throw enough money at a sufficiently skilled technician it can be done, but no M.2 slots in sight here.
Plus it runs Asahi linux on the metal.
I think I'll keep my Framework 13 Pro preorder.
It’s not bad, but I find it still to be very much an acquired taste. It’s fine for my usage, where the DE has barely any impact but having been using macOS as my main OS for the better part of 30 years, it would probably drive me insane if I had to shift my main body of computer use to it. It’s not any one thing, but dozens of papercuts that can’t be configured away (I’d need to maintain my own fork to fix them) as well as the more Windows-like desktop paradigm.
Exactly how I feel about having to use macOS at work, except some of the 'configurations away' are overpriced plugins/third party tools.
At least this is an option with Linux
Still I’m very tempted by the new MacBooks. I don’t know of any laptop that is a tenth as good and I don’t want to sit at my desk all day to use a computer.
I love and respect what Asahi has done but I want apple to support a turn key, open drivers, everything works, system.
Edit: the thing I'm confused about is it seems there are at least two but maybe three different things that they are calling "nano-texture". On buying screens, the Studio Display and iPad Mini say "Nano-texture glass" and the new MacBook Pro says "Nano-texture display." But the Duo marketing says "Nano-texture finish."
I get that the internal Duo screen has the film over it and so it says "finish," but is there a difference between "glass" and "display"?
"Nano-texture finish" on iPhone Duo refers to an additional layer they put on top of the display panel. It's basically a sticker with a similar (same?) surface structure (they can't put it on the display glass itself because it's too thin)
> Made with soft, non-abrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture, safely and effectively.
My guess is this photo was taken in a local garden co-op or small farmstead, but it looked too barren to use for advertising so they added a bunch of plants later.
It was November/December in Iowa, so it was freezing and the local R/C club airfield was nestled between an ocean of corn fields and the city dump, so it smelled terrible.
But that 16" MBP was red hot from Android Studio and kept my fingers from freezing, so credit where credit is due. Really fun project too!
That's just how Iowa smells. If anything, the city dump was probably improving things!
/s
lived here my whole life, it's an olfactory adventure :P
They missed a chance to have the lady holding an iPad though.
Yeah this was a big miss. Farmers typically don't bring laptops out into the field, but tablets are extremely common. Tablets aren't nearly as susceptible to damage from dirt and dust and are easier to use on the go.
I probably complained when Apple offered too FEW options too - but hey, this is the Internet.
Apple should be forced to release the necessary hardware specs to develop drivers so that I can use my hardware I purchased as I want. They should be required to let me own my own signing keys to boot my own software.
Anyway, I'd personally want bootcamp because it's a step closer to being able to install Linux, an operating system that lets me have a good tiling window manager that works.
Why the heck would anyone want to use macOS willingly, where the window manager and file browser are both complete unconfigurable trash.
How about suffer a lightly deoptimized workflow on one platform for the interoperability of the ecosystem…?
I used to be able to completely boot into Windows on my Intel mac a few years ago, but Apple no longer supports it for some reason. It's a shame, especially since the ARM64 version of Windows 11 has gotten very good now.
It would also be nice to be able to install Linux too. It's my own hardware, after all!
As for linux, https://asahilinux.org/ currently supports M1/M2 quite well, and is approaching ready on M3+
You can install both Windows and Linux on MacBooks. For Windows you may need to buy Parallels[1] or something but you can do it.
[1] https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/
Looks like you're right about Linux though, I didn't know about Asahi Linux. Thank you for sharing.
Sadly I also can't natively install my Nintendo Switch software on my Xbox.
If you could install linux, however, then I would buy one yesterday.
https://asahilinux.org/
You might be better off waiting for an Asahi linux update.
It is especially annoying during resale or benchmarking, because “M5 Pro” by itself doesn't mean much, and you have to count the number of CPU & GPU cores to figure out the actual SKU.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672732 https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/apple-raises-pric...
https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m6-12-core-vs-ap...
Also, there is no M6 Air yet.
If the Base M6 is good enough processor for you but want a more "premium" product, then the base Pro makes sense.
Which one should I pick?
Makes me now wonder what's in store for tomorrow's pro launch.
Maybe this idea may be foreign to many, but personal computers were something I built from bags of parts socketed and/or soldered onto S-100 cards, and that experience was the foundation of most of my career.
I was a Henry Higgins, and proud of my Eliza(s). While I get along cooperatively with Eliza (the happy ending to "My Fair Computer") I don't want Eliza to be my caretaker. This morphing of computers and internet into nannies and caretakers is IMO reverting to the "good old days" of servants. While some inventions are truly liberating (ask the guy who missed his Mom at an airport and freaked out for hours until she showed up at my home, courtesy of a cab or bus) how many are just replacing people with machines?
I could seriously use some friendship of the human variety, rather than a humanoid in a box (or an especially nice robot as in "I Sing the Body Electric" by Ray Bradbury, memorable on The Twilight Zone) Try being older and living alone, typing away.
I don't even use GPS any more, since I trashed Apple Maps when they kissed the Emperor's big fanny.
[0] https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI
Am I missing something?
(since I'm rate limited)....
With the OP's comment "guess its a use-once device now..." I was thinking they meant power supply in the desktop sense, not the power adapter. I have no idea why a power adapter would be the thing that makes a laptop a "use-once" device.
But yes in the configuration options you can choose between two power adapters.
I appreciate the frustration, but as a separate item then a user can choose any power supply on the market, rather than being stuck with one that Apple chose.
Edit: Even today if you go to the Macbook Pro config tool you get to choose between the standard 70 W or upgraded 96 W.
The base M6 is faster (much much faster) than the M1 Max at prefill (compute bound).
The M1 Max outperforms the base M6 at token generation; this is memory-bandwidth-bound, and while the M1 Max can't actually saturate its memory bandwidth, it gets a lot closer with the GPU.
So I suspect the M6 is better if your AI tasks are decision-based or video/image based, and the M1 Max is better if you're running a coding LLM. Though prefill is a bit of an issue.
The fastest M6 MacBook Pro (24/32GB config) has a memory bandwidth of 170 GB/s. And the M5 Max is 614 GB/s.
Am I missing some nuance of the M6 MBP here, or am I right to assume it won't set the local LLM world on fire?
There's rumored to be no M6 Pro or M6 Max coming, i.e. the higher bandwidth chips will skip a gen. M7 is also rumored to have better memory bandwidth across the range.
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/25/macbook-pro-with-touchs...
I'm in the 14-15 camp w/ lighter form factors being worth the premium.
I tried below 13 after the trend of smaller laptops from a couple years back - I now don't believe anyone who tells me they're regularly productive on these smaller form factors lol.
Love both.
It's much, much easier to transport even though I do miss the screen real estate.
So tired of their PR grandiose.
Also, what happened to the I/O?? I was happy to see on the M4 they had HDMI, an SD card slot, and more. Why are they back to 2 USB-C ports? I only see pictures of one side, but the left side has traditionally had more I/O.
C'mon, Apple, do better. It's a PRO model, not a MacBook Air
also, i don't blame you for this given that Apple's naming scheme is so fucked here but the 32gb limitation is for the MacBook Pro with the M6, _not_ the MacBook Pro with the M6 Pro or M6 Max. yes, that is confusing, but imo the standard MacBook "Pro" with the base M chip is basically a glorified MacBook Air with a better chassis. I feel like they only sell these things to make the Air seem like a better deal and to justify a higher price for the M Pro / Max versions
edit: those M Pro versions may be announced tomorrow alongside a version with, or those being the version with a touchscreen
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/25/macbook-pro-with-touchs...
> With 16GB of unified memory standard, configurable up to 32GB, and higher memory bandwidth up to 170GB/s, MacBook Pro makes multitasking and working with demanding apps and large projects even faster.
So they're basically removing the ability to run local models effectively. I wonder if they'll bifurcate their market to enable those.
No they won't, the market for "running local models" is approximately 0. There's nothing to bifurcate anyway because once they release the more capable chips they'll be able to be configured with hiring amounts of RAM.
Apple in recent years has been updating their laptop range or specific models (Air or something) with their latest base M series chip (M4, M5, M6, &c.) and then later comes the higher end CPUs. But the base series chips don't have the hardware to it seems support higher RAM loads, or maybe they are artificially restricted in some way.
Do they get the same marketing impact?
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#mac https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#ipad