Intel attacks Mac devices, and itself, in a new series of ads

By Sean Endicott
published

New ads from Intel say why you should get a PC instead of a Mac, even though some Macs still have Intel chips.

Intel Core i9-10900K review
Intel Core i9-10900K review (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • A series of ads from Intel attacks Apple's Mac devices.
  • The ad campaign highlights Intel Evo laptops.
  • Several Mac devices still have Intel chips inside.
  • The ads link to a video comparing Intel and Mac devices from Jon Rettinger.

A series of ads from Intel takes a swipe at Apple's Mac lineup. The ads highlight Intel Evo and several things that you can do on Intel-based machines, like using a touch screen and playing games (via iMore).

It's a bit odd to see a campaign of ads from Intel that directly puts down Mac devices. There are still plenty of Mac devices with Intel chips inside. While Apple has its own silicon in the M1 chips, it's not like there aren't Intel-based Macs around. In a way, Intel is attacking itself by pointing out the flaws in Mac devices that use Intel's chips.

Apple is moving over to its own silicon in a transition that should be complete by 2022, but that leaves a year or more in which Intel chips will be inside Apple devices.

An ad from February 2 highlights that Macs don't have a touch screen. That's true, of course, but Intel doesn't mention that Apple makes iPads that run on Apple's own chips.

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A more recent ad from February 10 highlights that Windows devices with Intel chips can run rocket launches and launch the game Rocket League, and that Macs can't. I don't work for any rocket companies, so I can't testify that Macs can't be used to launch rockets. It is true that Rocket League is no longer supported on macOS.

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Both of the Twitter ads link to a sponsored video from Jon Rettinger. The video highlights that "with the Evo platform, you're getting just a ton of stuff that you just can't get from the Mac." Rettinger runs through a few Intel-based laptops and highlights eGPU support and other benefits of Intel devices.

The battle between Windows and macOS isn't going anywhere. Similarly, the battle between chip manufacturers is here to stay. With Apple moving away from Intel chips, this likely isn't the last we hear from Intel on the topic.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

19 Comments
  • All this campaign by Intel probably means that the treat Apple is bringing to PC universe is very dangerous. Apple market share in this segment is going to increase significantly and will pose OEM the strategic option to move to ARM if they want to reatin at least a minum part of high end segment.
  • ...or simply that the treat Apple brings to Intel chips is very dangerous to the Intel universe, whereas the treat that PCs bring is the opposite.
  • "Apple market share in this segment is going to increase significantly"
    I predict it won't. PC sales, in general, are only up slightly and that's mostly due to the pandemic with a boost last year from Win 7 EOL. Gaming laptops are still doing very well, as they always have and 2-in-1s are still increasingly popular. Enterprise and EDU markets are the biggest buyers of laptops and most will not be switching to Apple due to upfront costs of the devices as well as long term servicing and support. Chromebooks are the big movers in that category. But, overall, laptops are not a growth market. It's very hard to swing the pendulum strongly in one way for more than a couple of quarters. Certainly not enough to sway overall market share. It'll take years of sustained exponential growth by Apple to break past its current steady-state of shipments per quarter. And that assumes AMD/Intel/Qualcomm have absolutely no response to M1, which, I hate to tell you, is far from true. Apple currently sells more iPads than Macs and I expect that trend to continue. Most people getting new M1 Macs will be current Intel Mac owners simply doing a side-grade. That's because Apple's biggest customer base is, and always has been, its own for laptops. New processors are rarely drivers of mass buying sprees for new devices because we get new ones every year that are "faster than before" and "get longer battery life." It's an old story. (By the way, I say this as someone testing out an M1 right now. For daily use, it's less groundbreaking than what you read about in comments from people who have never tried one).
  • According to GS Stat counter OS X has now almost 17% of operating system market share excluding tablet and mobile. It was 5% in 2010. If we consider that Windows has strong enterprise user base, we can suppose that Apple has been increasing its market share in consumer's market with an impressive path.
  • None of that changes what I have noted. PC and laptop sales over the last few years are effectively flat. It's not a growth market. Phones are/were (it's teetering lately). We have seen an uptick in "creators" which is where Apple comes in, but it's also just a small sliver of the entire laptop market. Average user upgrades a laptop every 5 years. That was accelerated with WFH/SFH for the pandemic, which is now, arguably, winding down. I don't see a continued trend of increasing laptop sales going past another couple of quarters. This is one reason why PC attempts new form factors/designs, to incentivize users with new experiences/abilities that a normal laptop cannot offer e.g. pen, touch, convertible, 5G, etc.
  • "According to GS Stat counter OS X has now almost 17% of operating system market share excluding tablet and mobile." That is worldwide share. The U.S. share is even more impressive. Windows is down to 61%, while Mac is up to 30%. 15 years ago it was 95% Windows and 4% for Mac. That is a VERY clear trend. Intel knows this, and they are (rightly) scared. It's only a matter of time before other PC vendors start selling ARM Windows laptops, assuming MS gets WOA 100% OA. Right now it is FAR from that. Intel's market share is only going to shrink in the next few years. Now is the time to sell your Intel stock. If you still have any.
  • OSX market share gain happened before M1, so it is more a MSFT problem than an Intel one. Apple success in mobile market eroded Windows dominance in desktop business. If someone owns an IPhone and an IPad is more likely to choose a Mac over a PC. MSFT will see Windows more and more relegated to business segment, consumers will switch to OSX or Chrome.
  • Bruh, no one cares about that switch. (I don't mean that in a rude way. I mean the average consumer doesn't care. They don't know the differences to care nor want to worry about the technicalities of how the Mac works vs if it does want they want it to do for them. And the ones who would be specifically getting a Mac was already going to get it or was already a upgrading Mac user PRIOR to the m1 release)
  • This 👆 Even Apple isn't pushing the M1 as an advertising angle for ads/commercials. It's a tough sell to consumers by saying "it's faster" as it's hard to quantify. I have a few mac user friends, I mention I have the new M1 Mac and they have no idea what that is/what that means. Tech nerds in comments do, and to them, it's a big deal. (even though most haven't even tried it for themselves). But bring up ARM vs x86 to your average Mac user? Good luck. For 4K video editing, it's a big deal and something you can show, but if you're opening a web browser, typing in Office, opening Slack, using Face Time, etc. I can assure you this is not something you're going to be blown away by. The increased battery life is nice, but again, there are diminishing returns on anything past 8 hours for average users. Apple rightly knows its iPad line is where the momentum is as they literally have no competition there anymore. iPads are sold to and used by kids, 30-year-olds, and 70-year-olds. Much broader mass-market appeal than a MBP.
  • @Mister Burns Well said. Not sure how this got past common sense at Intel... I guess the lack progress on their nodes has really gotten to Intel. Sort of evident by a presentation where they focused non stop on the competition whilst being unable to say the names of their own CPUs lol. As after all, most techies will know the difference and the average consumer won't give two hoots about the underlying architecture. The main drivers for an average consumers are - does it do what I'm used to and does it run longer off a single charge?
  • "no one cares about that switch" They will absolutely care when their stuff doesn't work. Today M1 has some gains for the average user but is also full of sacrifices. In two years, when it's time to get a new computer or mobile device, they can reconsider.
  • As I said, all the consumers care about is if it does the same thing they are used to.. If it does then it really doesn't matter what the mac is running on.
  • Microsoft be like, FREE ADS THANKS
  • Jon is a shill for real lol. I ain't mad at ya. Get ya money, lil buffalo. I'm still unsubscribing right now though
  • He sold and left TB years ago. Mobile Nations owns what is left of if which is a joke of a site.
  • "Only a PC offers tablet mode, touch screen and stylus capabilities in a single device." Guess they've never seen an iPad.
  • But an iPad isn't a laptop. If it were, why does Apple sell MBP?
  • Irrelevant, because the ad doesn't actually talk about being a laptop. It lists three specific things which a PC can do. But those three things an iPad can also do. It is a poorly worded advertisement, basically. I don't disagree with the sentiment (I feel Macbooks have stagnated for quite a while now) but the execution was very poor.
  • Apparently this guy John Rettinger is (was?) an Apple fanboy, but now that he's talked up an ASUS Zen Book and a Razer Book 13 all the Mac apologists HATE him. The comments on his YouTube video are simultaneously hilarious and depressing. I'm paraphrasing here but it's basically like, "You can only hook up one external monitor to the M1, but THIS IS THE FUTURE!"