Did Apple announced A18 Pro capable of Thunderbolt? I think iPhone 16 Pro only reaches USB 3 10GB/s speed.
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All iPads MacBook with iPhone chip rumor - what if it runs iPadOS
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But again, how many potential buyers of this laptop need Thunderbolt (or even know what it is)?
I don't expect to see many, if any, "power user" specs in this laptop. Number one, it would cannibalize their sales of MacBook Air/Pro, and number two, power users aren't the target demographic. Obviously I don't know any more than the next schmuck and am just guessing, but I anticipate that it's going to be a pretty basic/stripped down model.
Agreed, probably zero, almost posted that this is a perfect replacement for the original 12" MacBook and that never had thunderbolt either.
It would however be nice if it was thunderbolt4/usb4, purely to avoid confusion in the apple ecosystem about what docks will work with what laptops. For the sake of a couple of dollars for a single controller, having all thunderbolt peripherals "just work" with all Apple laptops would be nice.
Having a bunch of identical looking ports on various machines that might be anything from USB1 to USB3.2 gen2 speed is exactly the sort of PC crap we don't want. Just please, Apple make it thunderbolt to avoid confusion!
The Chromebook I used in school currently costs 328$ (converted to USD) at Elkjøp (Scandinavian Best Buy). Maybe even less because they bought them in bulk.
How would Apple attract schools with a reported 599$ price tag? Heavy price cuts for bulk orders?
To be fair this is coming from someone who went to an underfunded Norwegian private school, so I'm probably biased.
if it ran iPadOS it wouldn't be called a Mac. it will run macOS
It will likely be running MacOS and would finally kill the stupid view that the "Mx" SoCs are "Mac" SoCs. I still think that iPadOS 26 clamshell device is an interesting thought whatever it will be called.
Yeah the idea that Apple put a "Mac" chip like the M1 in the iPad pro is ridiculous and shows how marketing brainwashes people who don't know any better. The M1 is an iPad chip, the A14X with Thunderbolt support et a couple of minor tweaks, that was just first used on a Mac and then put back where it was originally going to go anyway, in the iPad pro... The only real Mac chips are the M1/2/3/4 Pro and Max, and even then those are directly derived from the iPad chips. Macs have been running on iPad chips since 2020 and now will be running on iPhone chips too.
Not to mention that the M3’s ANE only supports 18 TOPS compared to 35 TOPS on the A18 Pro ( and A18/A17 Pro). And also that the “A17X” itself uses an older generation of ANE ( I forgot what you call it) hence the performance ( and that right there is the only thing that makes the Mini (A17 Pro) better than the Air 7. And if rumors are right A18 Pro versions of MacBooks will all have 16GB of RAM compared to the M3 ones where some of them got 8GB.
And also since the A18 Pro has equal performance to the A14X SoC ( but far better in single core) that is yet another good reason
I like the idea as I’m one of those weirdos who prefer iPadOS. I just don’t see it happening. It'll confuse customers if the device is marketed as a MacBook. They'll wonder why their Mac applications can’t work on their new MacBook.
Apple still owns the "iBook" moniker if they want to relaunch it as a distinct product line.
There’s a sizeable “premium” Chromebook market emerging. In Canada, they can range up to $800 CAD, compared to 1250 CAD education pricing for the base MBA. So there’s definitely some potential overlap there for a cheaper Mac.
Apple will highlight the favorable TCO numbers (higher performance meaning longer lifecycle) and higher resale value.
But realistically, I seriously doubt Apple's main goal is to position A18 MacBook as a Chromebook competitor. A lot of parents BYOD for their kids and many schools encourage it. The A18 is the alternative option for parents who don't want their kids to use the regular stuff.
Many people point to $799 M4 MacBook Air as if that's something Apple celebrates. Apple's goal is to maintain MacBook Air at $999 and not have to pull the price lever. The A18 lets Apple fight in the trenches without degrading the Air product line.
I do agree with you but the M1 was officially launched on the Macbook Air and MBP 13 running Mac OS like you said, with massive improvements across the board over the previous Intel chips, thats why M chips where/are referred as Mac chips.
The vast majority of people have no idea that M chips are just upscaled ‘A’ iPhone chips, so they are none the wiser really.
Nearly all core SoC architectures comes from the Ax chips anyway. I saw in a recent MR article that one of the listed flaws of iPad Pro M4 was that got the M4 Soc before the Mac. Marketing brainwashed indeed. I expect better from MR authors and forum members, but alas.