MacBook SE in the future?

[dasjati]

The iPad line is the convertible, modular, low(er) budget MacBook already. The iPad Air 4 is a lot of value for its price and you decide yourself if you need a keyboard and a pointing device and which one. It also has things the MacBooks don't have like a camera and a touchscreen with support for Apple Pencil.

Sure, iPadOS still needs improvements for heavy multitasking. But the target audience for these price points might already be very well served at least from Apple's perspective.

I personally don't see them diversifying the MacBook lineup even more than now. Apple makes similar money with the iPads compared to all (!) Macs – desktop and portable, consumer and pro.

 

[Argon_]

^^^ If you could install MacOS on one, I'd agree with you.

 

[thenewperson]

Isn't the Air already an SE of sorts?

Not really. It's still just the current lowest model. The SE (typically; the Apple Watch SE kind of made this harder) would be an old design with updated internals. So if we get an MBA redesign and this one returns.

 

[KShopper]

Given Apple will soon control the entire ecosystem of their Macs and won’t be subject to Intel’s chip roadmap I can see -

MacBook SE or iBook - plastic, low end, education, $799

MacBook Air 13” - good for nearly everyone, $999

MacBook 12” - ultraportable, $999

Macbook Pro 14” - $1299

Macbook Pro 16” - $1799

The differentiators will be screen size, # of ports, eGPU support (or not) and memory/storage options.

Apple can bin their chips so the worst ones go to the SE, medium to the Air or 12” and the best for the MBP. Probably 2 lines of chips where the M1 goes mainstream and a M1X or M2 with more cores for the MBP, especially 16”.

I agree with your analysis. Apple will have enough products to allow it leverage massive scale by re-using the same core components in the chips and using chip testing and binning to allocate them to the various products.

I can see a true MacBook SE based on M1 class chip but with say 2 performance cores and 4 gpu ones, lower quality screen, 8GB max ram. This would allow Apple to complete more directly with Chromebooks while still completely outclassing them.

...bringing back a plastic case would be a nice nod to the classic Macbooks of yesteryear, though I doubt they'd do it.

 

[Falhófnir]

I just don’t see a significantly cheaper MacBook, even using Apple chips. There’s so many more component costs than say a Mac Mini that retails for $699 - display, hinges, keyboard, trackpad, battery; all that probably makes anything much less than the Air very tricky to actually make a profit on. Of course you have the potential service income any such machine could generate to factor in, but I just don’t see Apple being willing to cut enough corners to put out a machine at that price. Every Windows laptop in this price bracket compromises in some way over what the MacBook Air offers. At the very most the return of the 12” MacBook at the old Air’s price of $899 is as close as I can envision to a reduced PoA for the MacBook lineup.

 

[Frank Philips]

They could do a plastic body instead of milled aluminum and lower end chips - would be good for the education market.

Am I the only one shuddering when hearing "plastic body", and suddenly having flashbacks of the white MacBook plastic body peeling off?