For the first time in a long time, the battle between Macs and PCs is interesting again.
Apple’s (AAPL) products have been outperforming Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows-based computers for years thanks to superior battery life and performance. But Microsoft says it has finally tipped the balance in its favor.
“We have stronger silicone. We rewrote [Windows 11] to take advantage of it. “And then we have the unique experiences that we build on top of that platform,” Microsoft consumer marketing chief Yusuf Mehdi told Yahoo Finance. “So I think we have a distinct advantage here for a while.”
Microsoft says it achieves this through a new category of AI PCs it calls Copilot+ PCs.
You’ve probably already heard of AI PCs, which are computers with special neural processing units (NPUs) that can run AI applications locally rather than relying on cloud-based services like ChatGPT.
Copilot+ PCs feature the same NPUs, but also come with a minimum of 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and importantly, run Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant for Windows 11.
Microsoft’s Copilot+ computers arrive at a time when the PC industry is hoping to enter a period of sustained growth in sales after two years of sharp declines. PC sales rose 1.5% in the first quarter, compared to a 28.7% decline in last year’s first quarter, according to IDC.
“I have no doubt that the demand is here,” Mehdi said. “And this will encourage computer purchasing in ways we haven’t done before.”
Mehdi added that he felt Microsoft had an advantage over Apple for the first time in decades, both in terms of performance and because it offered “completely unique things you can’t do anywhere else.”
Windows gets GPT-4o
Apple is notoriously behind Microsoft in the AI race and until very recently was on the sidelines; but it had made sure its hardware had blazing-fast, AI-ready chips.
Seeking to capitalize on Apple’s doldrums, Microsoft is hoping Copilot+, powered by GPT-4o, will deliver a seismic productivity boost with its ability to serve as the user’s go-to assistant for tasks ranging from running errands. Common problems such as audio problems when summarizing documents.
Microsoft also introduced the new Copilot Recall feature, which makes it easier to search almost anything you do on your computer, including documents, photos, and web pages. So if you’re planning a trip to Seattle but lost the site you were using to search for things to do, you can type “Seattle” into Recall; this will bring up the site you are browsing.
Microsoft says it does this by taking a snapshot of your screen over time and then using Copilot’s visual search feature to find the content you’re looking for. The company also says that content saved to Recall is only stored on your device, and you can customize which apps use the feature.
Microsoft’s first Copilot+ computers will be available in June, starting at $999; That’s remarkably the same price as Apple’s MacBook Air.
Performance and battery life
Windows and Mac users may have different priorities; most of these are entrenched in a particular ecosystem and are unlikely to change. Unless, of course, new and exclusive AI functionality drives someone over the fence. But they can still be put together.
Performance benchmarks have become major talking points, and Apple’s Mac laptops have been outpacing Windows-based PCs in terms of power efficiency since the iPhone maker introduced its first M1 chip for MacBooks in 2020.
These Arm-based (ARM) chips have enabled MacBooks to last all day on a single charge and deliver outstanding overall performance across a wide range of use cases. But Microsoft says Windows PCs have a new weapon that will put it back in the lead: Qualcomm’s (QCOM) Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Pro chips.
In an announcement Monday, the company said the Copilot+ PC, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon He said he achieved thread performance.
What’s more, Mehdi said Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs outperform Apple’s latest M4 chip in terms of trillions of operations per second, or TOPs, a common metric for measuring potential AI application performance.
For now, Microsoft has the advantage thanks to a true AI product. But Apple isn’t taking any of this lying down. The company will host its annual WWDC event on June 10, where it is expected to present its own AI applications and services, including some applications that Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said will run on OpenAI’s AI software.
As for MacBooks, Apple is likely to announce M4 Pro and M4 Max chips; These chips will offer better performance than the M4 and can surpass Qualcomm’s chips.
Mark June 10 on your calendar.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DanielHowley.
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