2024 Apple MacBook Air 15.3" Laptop (M3 8GB 512GB)

With the M4 chip, Apple set the machine base memory is 16GB - no more 8GB. Something is about to change in the next few years that caused Apple to make that decision.
Apple machine is not cheap. You may have spend above $1K to buy a machine that can be crippled/excluded to future updates because of the hardware limitation. And there is no way to upgrade the memory, storage to bigger capacity on a Mac If you definitely have to buy a Mac, get the 16 GB memory.

Our economic is more fragile //@anonymous: Apple claims to be an environmentally friendly company but continues to release 8GB laptops with tiny SSDs, neither of which can be upgraded.
Why do they do it? Well they know these devices won't last very long because the OS and apps quickly use over 8gb leading to ssd being used as ram(virtual memory), making ssd die prematurely from repeated writes to same location. Thus, they can be fairly certain many of these users will need a new laptop in 3-5 years. Not only that but as other's mentioned, they also can make 16gb the minimum for mac OS in ~2-3 years from now and all those users won't be able to upgrade. At least then they'll finally stop selling 8gb models by then ... which they've been selling for the last 20 years or so.

Apple IS environmentally friendly, what are we going to do with all those 8gb ram that nobody wants? The specs are trash but Apple charges the hell outaya, that's the enviornmental fees kicks in. //@Anonymous: Apple claims to be an environmentally friendly company but continues to release 8GB laptops with tiny SSDs, neither of which can be upgraded.
Why do they do it? Well they know these devices won't last very long because the OS and apps quickly use over 8gb leading to ssd being used as ram(virtual memory), making ssd die prematurely from repeated writes to same location. Thus, they can be fairly certain many of these users will need a new laptop in 3-5 years. Not only that but as other's mentioned, they also can make 16gb the minimum for mac OS in ~2-3 years from now and all those users won't be able to upgrade. At least then they'll finally stop selling 8gb models by then ... which they've been selling for the last 20 years or so.

Apple claims to be an environmentally friendly company but continues to release 8GB laptops with tiny SSDs, neither of which can be upgraded.
Why do they do it? Well they know these devices won't last very long because the OS and apps quickly use over 8gb leading to ssd being used as ram(virtual memory), making ssd die prematurely from repeated writes to same location. Thus, they can be fairly certain many of these users will need a new laptop in 3-5 years. Not only that but as other's mentioned, they also can make 16gb the minimum for mac OS in ~2-3 years from now and all those users won't be able to upgrade. At least then they'll finally stop selling 8gb models by then ... which they've been selling for the last 20 years or so.

8GB is not enough. It is very possible in the next 2-3 years Apple will not allow iOS update due to not enough memory .

Here is the comment from XDA.

By setting the minimum memory requirement for Predictive Code Completion higher than what base-model Macs offer now, Apple is effectively admitting that 8GB isn't really enough. Even if it is enough for today, it certainly won't be enough for much longer.

Lol, why does Apple sell 16GB, 32GB models? //@anonymous: 8GB and 16GB M chip Mac have no performance difference, YouTube has a lot of performance test on 8/16 gb M? Mac’s.

8GB and 16GB M chip Mac have no performance difference, YouTube has a lot of performance test on 8/16 gb M? Mac’s.

It is OK, it is for Apple users. If Apple don't give them 16gb, they won't need it.

8gb must be a typo , u mean 16gb?

8GB memory is so generous in 2524.