A strange phenomenon occurred with the arrival of Tim Cook at Apple.

The base configuration of Macs since 2011 has been stuck at eight gigabytes of RAM.. That’s what a new graph posted this week on social media site Mastodon shows. Whereas the previously considered volume was steadily increasing. However, it was in the same year that Steve Jobs left the post of CEO of Apple in favor of his COO, namely Tim Cook. From here to the appearance of correlation there is only one step, which we will not take, but which the author of these statistics does not hesitate to mention. This parallel is bold and reminiscent of Apple’s recent explanations for why we are not entitled to more RAM on its machines.

However, we can’t help but look at these disappointing numbers as a sign of a bright future for Apple computers. And for good reason: after nearly fifteen years of stability, the RAM capacity of base Macs looks like it has a good chance of increasing very soon. Let’s remember that today’s high-end smartphones come with twelve gigabytes of RAM: it’s time to improve.

What is RAM used for?

Recall that RAM is the component that supports multitaskingmaintaining chip performance when multiple applications are open simultaneously.

In Apple RAM (RAM) for several years now soldered to the rest of the motherboardwith SoC format (system on a chip). The processor and video card, as well as the Neural Engine, are also integrated on one board. And all this is combined with a proprietary operating system, allowing the publisher to optimize software and hardware together. Where an HP or Lenovo laptop running Windows, but also with eight gigabytes of memory, may not be able to compete.

However, note that welding the RAM to the chip now prevents us from upgrading the memory capacity, which was possible on older Macs. Considering the price Apple charges for adding RAM at the time of purchase, this is a real shame.

New Macs are on the way

In all likelihood, Apple is preparing to introduce new Macs. Some models could be unveiled later in the year, possibly in September during the keynote, where the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are also expected.

We don’t yet know whether the amount of RAM in the base Mac configuration will change in 2024, but it would still be surprising to see Apple start with twelve or sixteen gigabytes. Be careful, though, because the MacBook Pro has recently launched a rather surprising twenty-four gigabyte variant.

The current iPad Air and iPad Pro are also limited to eight gigabytes of RAM, while the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have six gigabytes under the hood, compared to two more for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Do you think it’s fair to only benefit from eight gigabytes of RAM when you pay over a thousand euros for your laptop? The editorial staff has mixed opinions. There are two of us who work daily on the base 15-inch MacBook Air, and sometimes that’s not enough, especially when you have multiple tabs open in Safari. However, for basic office use the computer is generally quite responsive.

Base Macs since 2011 have been stuck at eight gigabytes of RAM.
Tim Cook became CEO of Apple this year.
New Macs could be unveiled later in the year, but will likely still come with eight gigabytes of RAM in the base configuration.