You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

iOS development - optimal Mac for this task

Hello all, firstly, sorry for this stupid question, but I would like to get an answer from a people, who knows how is it going in this world of iOS dev.

I own Mac mini M1, 16GB ram, 256GB ssd, basically bought at 2022 at sale, but I know it is 4 years old already. I would like to start iOS development, start learning, then maybe after year or two to be able to have at least one app at App Store, so, I would like to ask, what do you think, what is the longevity of this chip M1 from iOS dev perspective, how long could I be able to use Xcode without any troubles related to "old" M1 chip? Thank you for your answer, hope you are doing well.


Bye :-)


Robert

Mac mini, macOS 14.5

Posted on Jul 3, 2024 11:04 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 4, 2024 11:29 AM

While Apple introduced the M1 in 2020, they just stopped selling M1 Airs in March 2024 (still available to education when I checked last month). The M1 is such an amazing chip that Apple sold as new products for nearly 4 and a half years. (M1 mini was available through January 2023) Relax. You have a lot of time left on the M1. Let's do some napkin math.


Let's assume a 2020 M1 Air was purchased in early March 2024 before Apple removed it from the retail store. That unit could have been purchased with a 3 year AppleCare. This means the M1 model classes will be supported through at minimum March 2027 (to allow the 3-year AppleCare to run out). Generally, you can add 2 additional years which likely will push the unit into 2029. And then, there could still be two years beyond that for the -1 and -2 OS version (when Apple drops a model from current OS support, it still receives supported updates for up to two years on the prior OS).


This being the case, and since you are just starting out, you will be fine with the M1 mini. Download Xcode and start creating. The extra RAM is fortuitous. The 256 GB storage may be constraining if you are working on a lot of projects and have a lot of local data. But don't make storage a concern until it needs to be. And when it is, just offload to external storage or the cloud.


Oh, and if you are not aware, Stanford University provides the iOS development class online for free. https://cs193p.sites.stanford.edu/2023.


Hope this is helpful and best of luck on your journey.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 4, 2024 11:29 AM in response to robkobobko

While Apple introduced the M1 in 2020, they just stopped selling M1 Airs in March 2024 (still available to education when I checked last month). The M1 is such an amazing chip that Apple sold as new products for nearly 4 and a half years. (M1 mini was available through January 2023) Relax. You have a lot of time left on the M1. Let's do some napkin math.


Let's assume a 2020 M1 Air was purchased in early March 2024 before Apple removed it from the retail store. That unit could have been purchased with a 3 year AppleCare. This means the M1 model classes will be supported through at minimum March 2027 (to allow the 3-year AppleCare to run out). Generally, you can add 2 additional years which likely will push the unit into 2029. And then, there could still be two years beyond that for the -1 and -2 OS version (when Apple drops a model from current OS support, it still receives supported updates for up to two years on the prior OS).


This being the case, and since you are just starting out, you will be fine with the M1 mini. Download Xcode and start creating. The extra RAM is fortuitous. The 256 GB storage may be constraining if you are working on a lot of projects and have a lot of local data. But don't make storage a concern until it needs to be. And when it is, just offload to external storage or the cloud.


Oh, and if you are not aware, Stanford University provides the iOS development class online for free. https://cs193p.sites.stanford.edu/2023.


Hope this is helpful and best of luck on your journey.

iOS development - optimal Mac for this task

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.