Kuo: Apple Considering Low-Cost MacBook Launch in 2024

[hieubui]

Apple these days, never buy anything “low cost” from them. You just get worse value for the money. Those products exist to just to upsell the “Pro” models.

 

[ignatius345]

I had my Retina MacBook for 5 years and never had an issue with performance.. its battery life was pretty good, had an amazing screen, never got warm... was perfect for light productivity, web browsing and email. Terrible keyboard tho.

My wife had a decent run with hers too... until she started trying to use it for Zoom routinely. It could barely manage it, especially when the weather started getting hot and it started throttling.

 

[Blackstick]

Check out Mosyle. $1/mo per user for basic MDM capabilities, $3/mo for full package of features. Works with Apple Business Manager and integrates with various directory services. That's for business. For education, prices are $0 - $9 PER YEAR per device.

Yep, I'm a Jamf admin. Very aware of Mosyle because we've considered it at work now and then -- but ultimately their support angle is nowhere near as mature as Jamf's... for now. In short, I've got 20 years supporting Macs in enterprise and there are still things I encounter where I don't have the answer but our Jamf reps can bug the product team and get it. We didn't get that vibe during our 90 day test run with Mosyle.

 

[ignatius345]

Apple these days, never buy anything “low cost” from them. You just get worse value for the money. Those products exist to just to upsell the “Pro” models.

Beg to differ. I'm using a base model M1 Air and I'm able to get a lot done with it, smoothly and quickly.

I will say, performance seems to have taken a little hit with Sonoma though, so the writing is probably on the wall.

 

[Fuzzball84]

My wife had a decent run with hers too... until she started trying to use it for Zoom routinely. It could barely manage it, especially when the weather started getting hot and it started throttling.

Sounds like a thermal system issue.... dust build up on older devices can have a big impact :/

 

[HiVolt]

I would be all over a 12" MacBook. I am a small laptop fan, having had a 12" PowerBook G4 in the past, and in the past decade have owned two Lenovo 12.5" laptops. I passed on the 12" Intel MacBook because it was a bad all around device being underpowered, the butterfly keyboard was bad and just one port, no thanks.

If they put two USB-C ports and MagSafe on a 12" MacBook, I'm buyin day one.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Yep, I'm a Jamf admin. Very aware of Mosyle because we've considered it at work now and then -- but ultimately their support angle is nowhere near as mature as Jamf's... for now. In short, I've got 20 years supporting Macs in enterprise and there are still things I encounter where I don't have the answer but our Jamf reps can bug the product team and get it. We didn't get that vibe during our 90 day test run with Mosyle.

I was referring to your statement "There isn’t an Apple MDM solution on the market that beats that pricing.", and there is (Mosyle)...which you seem to already know about so I'm a little confused why you said it? Doesn't really matter, I was just trying to be helpful, but like you said, you already know about it.

 

[megamacmanX]

Apple's product line is over complicated and a mess, like during the clone era.

A Steve Jobs line wide simplification needs to occur.

Devices:

iPhone Air, iPhone, iPhone Pro
iPad Air, iPad, iPad Pro
Apple Watch, Apple Watch Pro, Apple Watch Ultra
Macbook Air, Macbook, Macbook Pro
iMac Air, iMac, iMac Pro
Mac mini, Mac Studio or Mac Creative, Mac Pro

Chips:

M1, M1 Max, M1 Pro

 

[GalileoSeven]

People can dump on the idea all they want.....when my '09 MBP bit the dust, I replaced it with a 11" MBA with the 4/128 combo - thing was an absolute *champ* up until I replaced it with a M2 MBA last summer

Now though? Anything that small or that low priced would invariably cannibalize a certain percentage of iPad sales and make Apple's overloaded laptop lineup even moreso (and like others have said.....Apple and 'low cost' really don't go together anymore.....)

 

[Blackstick]

I was referring to your statement "There isn’t an Apple MDM solution on the market that beats that pricing.", and there is (Mosyle)...which you seem to already know about so I'm a little confused why you said it? Doesn't really matter, I was just trying to be helpful, but like you said, you already know about it.

Oh I have little doubt Mosyle could go toe-to-toe with Google on MDM pricing per user for hypothetical Macs/iPads... but Apple won't beat Lenovo on price, ever.

I mean, the retail price on this thing is $325 (seen it as low as $250)... and the schools pay half that amount.

I love Apple. I've built a career because of Apple... but public school districts are not about to start paying $500 per Mac when they could get 3 units for the same cost as one Mac. Private schools where the parents pay a "$900 technology fee"... that's another story.

 

[nvmls]

I'd be surprised if they released a MacBook in the £300-700 range. I'd probably have a heart attack from the absolute shock of it.

Oh Timmey would do it in a heartbeat.
Snap a spinning 128gb hard drive, 8GB RAM, A9 chip, 720p LCD panel, butterfly keyboard, the ultra max pro notch™, magic mouse & white plaster for your hand. Sold.

 

[Blackstick]

Apple's product line is over complicated and a mess, like during the clone era.

A Steve Jobs line wide simplification needs to occur.

Devices:

iPhone Air, iPhone, iPhone Pro
iPad Air, iPad, iPad Pro
Apple Watch Air, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Pro
Macbook Air, Macbook, Macbook Pro
iMac Air, iMac, iMac Pro
Mac mini, Mac Studio, Mac Pro

Chips:

M1, M1 Max, M1 Pro

Alas, Apple is a $3 trillion organization right now. Different rules apply. Still, all the products they make could fit on a average sized conference room table - that hasn't changed.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and did his elegant, Pro/Consumer notebook/desktop quadrant, it was a $1.6 billion organization. To give you an idea, quick lookup tells me Boot Barn, a small retailer that sells cowboy boots in 78 stores... is a $1.6 billion organization today. Apple is more often compared to oil companies, Walmart, Amazon, P&G and Microsoft, not Boot Barn

 

[DanneP]

Lowering the cost should start with the display. Putting in a 2560x1600 panel (M1 Air) in a machine which most people use in 1440x900 or 1680x1050 is a luxury. Looks better? Of course. But for a lot of use cases it's mostly meaningless. It's like Apple thinks only graphic designers buy their products.

Having two performance cores could work, but not with limiting the soc to 8GB RAM. And this step would make ipads more powerful than this macbook. External display support is also questionable. Just stick to the regular M3. It's only a ~25% transistor count difference after all, which translates to a couple dollars, a dozen at max.

The screen is what you look at 100 % of the time using the computer, is it really a good idea to ditch the retina display? With a retina display everything would still look beautiful and better than the average PC laptop. A lower specced SoC with a smaller battery should be way to go, the device would still have that premium feeling of an Apple product while beeing semi-cheap. And, for instance, a A15 would probably be enough for everyone writing emails and watching netflix.

I mean, if you're willing to go back to non-retina displays why even bother with a MacBook? Just buy a cheap PC laptop for a couple of hundred dollars. Everything above a cheap Windows laptop is luxury or "mostly meaningless" if you're just writing some emails and editing documents.

 

[Steve-Jobz]

The best rumor I have ever heard since the September event.

 

[boak]

M1 MBA body with A series chip, 8 GB RAM and storage starting at 128 GB. $799

Basically an iPhone with an old MacBook body.

 

[Mori0690]

M1 MBA body with A series chip, 8 GB RAM and storage starting at 128 GB. $799

Basically an iPhone with an old MacBook body.

Not gonna happen.

 

[boak]

Not gonna happen.

Care to elaborate?

 

[GeneralChang]

I've been saying it for years, if you want people to buy your expensive computers, sell them a cheaper one when they're young. Every single Mac user I know started out on an entry-level MacBook or iBook back when you could get one for $7-800 new.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Apple these days, never buy anything “low cost” from them. You just get worse value for the money. Those products exist to just to upsell the “Pro” models.

Funny then how the non-Pro models still sell like crazy. Most people I know don't care anything about the Pro line, MacBook or iPhone.

I have a iPhone Pro 13, but could easily use the regular. My M1 Air does more than I need it do, and I have zero interest in a MBP, even though I upgraded from a 2012 Pro. I've never even seen a M-series MBP in person, outside of an Apple store. I see a lot of Airs, however.

 

[Mori0690]

Care to elaborate?

Apple is not going to make a cheap macbook, not for 800 at least. The same reason we are not going to have MacOS on iPads. We have base model m1 MBA as a cheap macbook from Apple's perspective, there's not going to be cheaper. And cutting corners with plastic bodies and fewer storage options sounds insane.

 

[canon-cinema-0r]

The screen is what you look at 100 % of the time using the computer, is it really a good idea to ditch the retina display?

Nope, 95% of the time I look on the external display. So yeah, it's a good idea. If you insist on a retina display, you'll pay more, that's a win for Apple.

With a retina display everything would still look beautiful and better than the average PC laptop. A lower specced SoC with a smaller battery should be way to go, the device would still have that premium feeling of an Apple product while beeing semi-cheap. And, for instance, a A15 would probably be enough for everyone writing emails and watching netflix.

If it's a low cost-device, so it doesn't have to look better than the average PC laptop. Lower-speced soc would save a couple dollars only.

I mean, if you're willing to go back to non-retina displays why even bother with a MacBook? Just buy a cheap PC laptop for a couple of hundred dollars. Everything above a cheap Windows laptop is luxury or "mostly meaningless" if you're just writing some emails and editing documents.

You make it sound like if the point of the Mac is the retina display not the OS, lol.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I mean, if you're willing to go back to non-retina displays why even bother with a MacBook? Just buy a cheap PC laptop for a couple of hundred dollars. Everything above a cheap Windows laptop is luxury or "mostly meaningless" if you're just writing some emails and editing documents.

MacOS > Windows. I buy MacBooks for the OS and ecosystem, not the hardware. That's a nice bonus, but not my primary concern. Cheap Windows computers suck something fierce.

I have a Dell work laptop and have no interest in more Windows in my life.

 

[Mori0690]

MacOS > Windows. I buy MacBooks for the OS and ecosystem, not the hardware. That's a nice bonus, but not my primary concern. Cheap Windows computers suck something fierce.

I have a Dell work laptop and have no interest in more Windows in my life.

Have you heard of Linux?

 

[jarman92]

„Cheaper“ with Apple means a re-packaged device with old specs and a price increase on the actual new device.

4 Gb of ram and 128 GB SSD would be real courage 😅

Not sure what you're alluding to, but I don't believe Apple has ever done this. Their typical MO is to keep the previous year's device around at a lower price and maintain the same pricing on current models. Even the iPhones SE were released with modern internals, and the higher-end phones didn't increase in price at all.

 

[Saturn1217]

We all know any “cheap” MacBook is going to come with an unusable amount of storage and ram. To bump up to a reasonable amount (for even an average consumer) will be an extra $500+ and then it isn’t cheap anymore.