Apple announced two new chips, the M2 Pro and M2 Pro Max, that are available in the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini. I estimate that these two products account for about 6% of Apple’s total revenue, compared to Mac sales accounting for around 10%.
One perspective is that these next-generation chips are just to-be-expected improvements that don’t move the revenue needle. My read is that there’s something bigger going on: Apple is well aware of the power of their marketing to win over users, new and old. Consumers view Macs as faster than the competition and faster than previous generation products, so the probability of them upgrading, or purchasing for the first time, increases.
And, the beauty of the Apple model is that they’ll continue to make their chips faster than any other hardware company, selling the benefits of speed for decades to come. When it comes to retaining customers and growing Mac revenue, speed is the gift that keeps giving. That selling point alone can power Mac growth in the 3-5% range for the next few years.
Apple Marketing 101: make the value to the customer clear
As I watched Apple’s 18-minute announcement video for the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, it quickly became clear that the central selling point was speed. Every 33 seconds, you’ll hear the words “faster” or “performance.” Talk about driving a message home.
The word “faster” was mentioned 23 times (once every 0:48 seconds). That easily surpassed phrases which included the word “performance,” mentioned 11 times (once every 1m42s). If you’re curious, the word “performance” was preceded by the following eight adjectives: increase, astonishing, amazing, blazing, phenomenal, greater, incredible and unbelievable.