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Apple to Sell Low-Cost 12-Inch and 13-inch MacBooks for $700 or Less
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I agree with much of what you have said. It is very difficult for any company to compete effectively in all market segments. Generally, companies have to pick a lane, and Apple strives to be a premium brand with a loyal customer base. So, why would they build an economy MacBook? The best answer I can generate is that they are losing to Chromebooks in the K-12 market, and they fear that will translate into fewer college and adult customers down the road. It's apparent that the iPad is not gaining nearly as much traction as Chromebooks in the K-12 market. So, Apple is trying to find another product that will capture the youth market.
BTW - When my kids were in middle school (15+ year ago), our district had an optional laptop program. All three of my kids participate. We purchased those white polycarbonate MacBooks for them.....except my youngest got the MBA. Anyway, this turned us into an Apple family. And, I converted my parents, wife's parents, and brother to Apple. I was "tech support" for the family, and I only wanted to deal with one platform. Apple got a lot of customer and sales leverage from that laptop program with my kids!
Agree on all this. Just got my wife a new iPad 10-gen, as she uses it to answer email, read her news feed, and play slots. But I balked at getting one for myself because they didn’t offer one at 128GB. Apple came out with the new iPad in 64GB and 256GB only, and many customers like myself are wondering WTF. Nobody needs 256GB. Apple’s upsell mentality shows how greedy they can be. My current iPad 6-gen has only 32GB of storage space and is maxed. Was their an iPad Air with 128GB? No. So I’m thinking maybe MacBook, but which? It would be nice if we could buy our devices the way we did in the ‘90s. Back then we could swap out HDs and RAM no sweat.
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You're right, after years with a 128GB iPad Pro, I skipped 256GB and went for more storage.
lol yeah it could age quicker than I was thinking.
btw, as iPhones show, you can have cameras thicker than the body so thickness alone or lack of it is not a show stopper. A MB would just need a matching indentation in the body to accommodate any protrusion of FaceID components. The back of the MB monitor could even have a bump.
Not that there can’t be other reasons to not put FaceID onto a Mac.
Ok, I'll give you that; we will get FaceID on the MBPs with a mega-3D notch. I'm sure there will be zero negative reactions to that camera bump. Considering you would still need to press a key to authenticate payment, just like you do on the iPhone, you'd have to be really dedicated to slightly faster unlocking to accept that compromise.
Here’s the iPhone Face ID array compared to the MBP lid.
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Hey MacBooks used to have a 3d notch below the trackpad. Maybe they still do for all I know. It was there for a different purpose but ,,,
Anyway all besides the point. Just was one possibility in one category of many specs/features that could be changed to differentiate between a low cost MB and higher cost MBs in the future.
The more I think about it, the more I think Apple COULD pull off releasing a low cost Mac for about $700 (or $600 with education discount). Here's how the specs would look:
Case: Plastic (probably some type of fancy recycle case though), in multiple colors, like the iPad 10.
Display: 11" Diagonal Retina
Memory: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 128 GB
Processor: A souped up A16 chip (call it M3se? Or maybe a binned M3 with two cores removed?)
Battery: 4561 mHa (for about 20 hours of use time).
External displays: One, mirroring (as a way to make the product different and encourage upselling).
Why this? Except for the case, Apple already has these parts. The Retina display can be the same as the iPad Pro 11". The memory and Hard Drive are the same on the current machines. The A16 chip can be extended so it's faster, and the battery could be the same as the MacBook Air (assuming there is space in the case).
Could it hit the profit margins? Maybe. Could it be used to make a dent in the used Mac market in India/ China? Yes.
A display that's any lower than 11" would be almost unusable for MacOS. Apple wouldn't want to sell a new machine with less memory or hard drive than a current machine.
Case: Plastic (probably some type of fancy recycle case though), in multiple colors, like the iPad 10.
Display: 11" Diagonal Retina
Memory: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 128 GB
Processor: A souped up A16 chip (call it M3se? Or maybe a binned M3 with two cores removed?)
Battery: 4561 mHa (for about 20 hours of use time).
External displays: One, mirroring (as a way to make the product different and encourage upselling).
Why this? Except for the case, Apple already has these parts. The Retina display can be the same as the iPad Pro 11". The memory and Hard Drive are the same on the current machines. The A16 chip can be extended so it's faster, and the battery could be the same as the MacBook Air (assuming there is space in the case).
Could it hit the profit margins? Maybe. Could it be used to make a dent in the used Mac market in India/ China? Yes.
A display that's any lower than 11" would be almost unusable for MacOS. Apple wouldn't want to sell a new machine with less memory or hard drive than a current machine.
I doubt this computer would have an A# chip because they aren't built to support desktop features like swap memory. Even the A12 used in the AS development computers were custom chips with a bunch of extra stuff added, and they didn't run MacOS as smoothly as the M1 did. If this computer is expected to be very low margin, Apple probably wouldn't see value in making a custom version of their A# every two years just for it. If anything, it will likely be M1-based.
The 12" MacBook was basically the same size as the 11" Air so thats what I'm hoping this will be a new version of. I wonder if it will continue the design language of the current laptops.
Right, an M1 with fewer GPU cores (or the same M1 the current iPad Air uses) seems most likely. As a matter of fact, the fact that the iPad Air has an M1 (at roughly the same price point) with Apple’s profit margins seemingly intact is a large part of the reason why I think Apple could release a laptop that cheap. Apple clearly already has the processor.
The problem is in avoiding cannibalism of the MacBook Air lineup. I think the way to do that is mostly to have fairly limited RAM/storage (enough for web based tasks, similar to a Chromebook, though it ought to be sufficient as a thick client), and not to offer any upgrade SKUs. If someone wants more RAM or storage than the base (which many probably would), they could buy a MacBook Air. That’s the only way I see to create a lower cost MacBook that avoids cannibalizing MacBook Air sales. I guess that a plastic case vs the aluminum case the Air is known for could also be a useful differentiation point.
I think Apple would just prefer to keep more of its products on more recent designs, if it can.
We've already seen the HomePod move to a smaller, more appropriate SoC.
The A16 has about a 2 year newer architecture, with definitively better Machine Learning technology. In some cases it might even be faster than the M1, at much lower power. The only question would be RAM options, so maybe the A* won't work until the A17 Pro is cheaper for Apple to make.
So much for “we don’t ship junk”.
On one hand, Apple is much bigger now and possibly an iPad with the £330 iPad value proposition maybe can work with Apples resources.
But… like that iPad, and the first iPhone SE. They let both go stale. And then they brought out that awful HP like crappy square age basic iPad at iPad Air pricing. Made the SE3 a compliance update with just 5G… refusal to let the old Air and Pro design die. And a convoluted Apple Pencil ‘range’.
I’ve felt this a lot since the Cook era began. And while he was right to have multiple sizes.. I’m not so sure he’s handling the model price points correctly.
We’ll see. I just hope they don’t let it go stale like the base iPad and SE. From hero’s to zeros.
The PC industry is still trash. But it is not standing still. At £800. HP and Dell can offer something that might be more competent than you’d expect in todays age.
On one hand, Apple is much bigger now and possibly an iPad with the £330 iPad value proposition maybe can work with Apples resources.
But… like that iPad, and the first iPhone SE. They let both go stale. And then they brought out that awful HP like crappy square age basic iPad at iPad Air pricing. Made the SE3 a compliance update with just 5G… refusal to let the old Air and Pro design die. And a convoluted Apple Pencil ‘range’.
I’ve felt this a lot since the Cook era began. And while he was right to have multiple sizes.. I’m not so sure he’s handling the model price points correctly.
We’ll see. I just hope they don’t let it go stale like the base iPad and SE. From hero’s to zeros.
The PC industry is still trash. But it is not standing still. At £800. HP and Dell can offer something that might be more competent than you’d expect in todays age.
Agree.
As for pricing, I am not sure. Apple charges a premium for its laptops and if it offered a cheaper Mac, it could cannibalize the sales of more expensive models.
At the same time, as you mentioned, there are very good Windows laptops for $800. They are fast, thin, light, and some of them come with a high-res OLED screen with high refresh rate. The vast majority of users do not need the power of a MacBook Pro. So I suppose Apple is not increasing its market share by offering great and expensive high-end laptops that most people simply don't need.
For what it’s worth, the quoted comment was in £ not $. £800 is about $1000, give or take a few $10s based on whatever the current exchange rate is. I’m not sure what Apple charges for the entry MacBook Air in the UK or how much of that is VAT (presumably with VAT, the MacBook Air is a fair bit more than £800), but, if we figure that 20% of the purchase price on a £800 Windows laptop is VAT (looks like VAT in the UK is 20%, I swear I was just guessing but got it right), then that would give it a non-VAT price of about $800 (again, give or take a few $10s). I expected it to be a different result, but now I have egg on my face.
I've never had a hinge issue with any of my mbps over the years. They close and feel solid as is.
256 is plenty for me. As a secondary device. They need to do something, any district remotely worried about their technology budget can’t beat ChromeOS machines for a few hundred. Even at 699, that’s still 2 or 3 Chromebooks. Assessable district is going to struggle to justify that.
I’ve worked at schools where teachers and students had PC but there isn’t a ton of logic there.
Price it at 499. 799 is just too much for a lot of schools. Even 499 is a tough sell give how cheap and usable Chromebooks are.
Apple should bundle it cheapest iPad with the keyboard case with the trackpad for $299. Inches away a laptop but cheap enough that the budget aspect can make sense.