On the contrary, I think that the reliable update cadence in modern electronics means that people should generally all but ignore future product roadmaps.

When you actually need to get a new device, just get whatever the up-to-date thing is.

OK, ok, I suppose that it's reasonable to check the rumor sites to see if you should delay by a month or two. But not any longer than that.

It's much harder with PCs, where you can get, for instance, new Thinkpad's with anything from 11th gen Core i all the way to new Core Ultras. And, now, ARMs as well...

I was inline to buy a 128GB M3 MAX, know that I know the M4 exists and already shipped in the iPad, it lets me know that the whole M4 pipeline has already started and what the perf numbers are, absolutely means I will be waiting. I survived yesterday without it, I can survive tomorrow. And now I can budget in the AMD Epyc bridge that covers that span.

I think Apple has been pretty good about hitting the right cadence with processor perf increases. They are making up for lost Intel time. The M6 is going to make us loose our minds. Apple is going to bring back "this is a munition" ads.

Both the M3 and the EPYC will be useful for far longer than the time it takes Apple to have the M4 on their next-gen laptops. Computers last a lot longer than they used to. I have a 10 year old Mac Mini that’s still comfortable to use, and, while an M3 Mac is a beast, it’s not that much faster than an M2 (or an i7) to create a qualitative change in my workflows. What is possible now was already possible last year. It’s just faster now. I get a higher return on investment with better keyboards and screens.