I don't think the linked discussion about the earliest Macs in the early '80s not having extra peripheral slots is saying the same thing as consumers being able to upgrade memory and storage.
To the best of my knowledge / memory / experience, all of the Mac models introduced prior to the Air in 2008 had upgradable memory and storage.
Apple's unified memory is great for bandwidth and efficiency and terrible for upgrades.
However, I suspect that a large portion of PCs are used as-is and are replaced rather than upgraded, much like phones or tablets.
It's worth noting that Steve Jobs was originally against RAM and other upgrades for the Macintosh. It was supposed to be an appliance like a toaster, and (most) toasters are non-upgradable. He also didn't want it to have a fan - making it more like a toaster or a MacBook Air.
Given Apple's target market is not hobbyists, that there is already an embarrassment of components you can buy and build your own system from, being able to add after-market memory was never a priority for them for this spot in the product line.
Historically it wasn't advantageous to lock it down like that, people would typically upgrade their memory several times over the course of a system's lifecycle. If you look at what the original G3 case was like, where there was a latch on the side that lays the case open with easy access to memory and hard-drives, a design improved upon throughout the early Mac Pro models, you can see they were never intentionally user-hostile.
In the interests of shrinking components and improving reliability, though, in an appliance-like product such as the Mac Mini, it makes sense.
Notice that the new Mac Pro has extremely easy access to the memory slots.
For most people, the memory that comes with their computer is the memory that computer dies with. This holds true for all kinds of systems, especially laptops where in most cases people don't even know or care how much memory they have.
It was nice to be able to save a little by buying third party memory, but it's not the end of the world that you can't. The Mini can only go to 16GB, so the savings are minor. The Mac Pro can go to 128GB, so it's almost expected you can do that.
I was quite disappointed to see that after the latest upgrade the air still doesn't support more then 8 gb. If I buy a machine for the next few years, I want more ram than the current 2008 MacBook Pro I have...
Yes, the non-upgradability of RAM on MacBook Airs and later other MacBooks has been widely called out in reviews and media at the release of those models. You can easily verify that by going back to read those reviews.
Haven't the iMac and Mac Mini always offered (relatively) easy memory upgrades? I've upgraded probably 10-15 of them at work. They just use the samller laptop modules instead of a desktop module, and (usually?) only support 2 modules. Mac Pro offers it too, though that's a different style of computer entirely.
Whilst I can't speak for the storage part, Mac's have often always had lower RAM than their PC counterparts due to the fact that they had often needed less.
That doesn't mean they can't give more, but it's not an 'apples' to apples comparison.
If 8GB will be a bottleneck for many today, imagine the performance of that non-upgradeable laptop in a few years’ time.
Apple used to sell an iMac with non-upgradable RAM:
we found this iMac has the memory soldered to the motherboard removing any possibility of adding additional memory. Users will be permanently locked in to the 8GB of memory, as there is no Apple factory upgrade option.
I do not believe Apple will ever release another expandable/upgradable computer - mobile, laptop, or desktop.
We've accepted that Apple will never have expandable storage on an iOS device, but are still mourning the loss of it in Macs.
The desire for upgradability is driven by cost - either to get around Apple's cost-gate to get a larger RAM/SSD for lower cost, or to avoid Apple's cost-gate to upgrade later rather than buying a new device.
Apple has had great success with the luxury goods model: premium price for the base item, additional premium price tiers for incremental improvements.
Which is all of them now, besides the Mac Pro. The super thin laptops have the excuse that upgradable storage would add bulk at least, but there's not really any excuse for the Mac Studio not having M.2 slots.
>I could put a Mac Mini on my desk with half a dozen adapters sticking out of it, but even then I still can't upgrade the RAM. The last Mac Mini with user-upgradeable RAM was 2012.
The 2018 Mac Mini is user-upgradeable up to 64GB. Storage is soldered on however.
> Apple lets customers configure the 15-inch MacBook Air with 8, 16, or 24 GB of integrated RAM
I wish Apple wasn’t as stingy with RAM upgrade options considering this can’t be upgraded later. For all the talk on the part of Apple of being more sustainable and green, allowing more competitive memory options would help extend the useful life of these products.
On the other hand, Time Machine is a core feature of Macs and requires a separate hard drive, so Apple clearly doesn't believe that expansion in general is a concept only suitable for geeks. And when they charge such ridiculous markups on RAM and storage, I can't help but think that non-upgradability isn't a decision made in the interests of their customers.
To the best of my knowledge / memory / experience, all of the Mac models introduced prior to the Air in 2008 had upgradable memory and storage.
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