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Apple Launching Budget MacBook in 2026

Churchman said:
This is a revealing statement that I have seen from a few others.

In the USA, I read a new product article or rumor about Apple and immediately assume it is for the US market.

But what if this product is not for the US market? What if this is Apple's Walmart CheapBook for world markets that do not have Walmart - The Home Of Every Day Low Prices?

In the US, I can't see Apple ending the sale of the M1 CheapBook at Walmart. And I can't see them adding another CheapBook in the USA alongside what Walmart gets. (side note: I have no science or evidence to back this up, but based on the likes and comments Apple's M1 Air gets on Walmart's website, one could assume Walmart does brisk business with these. I have checked at my local Marty-Mart a few times and these cheap M1's are always sold out. So Apple must be doing well enough to keep the factory pumping them out. Thus Apple could assume similar success in global markets.)

So, what if Apple creates one global CheapBook offering based on their Walmart Learnings? What if they update it a bit from the current M1 Air product that WalMart gets? Then what if they offer that updated product via WalMart in the USA, and through non-Walmart outlets globally?

Yes - I started off positing that this may not be for the US, then I ended saying that it could be. Sorry.

Finally, Apple has been doing their M1 Air Cheapbook throughput at Walmart for some years now. They have sold well. There has been no harm to Apple (the company or the brand). There has been no harm to MacBook (the brand). I have seen no indication that Apple sales and profits have been harmed by people buying the WalMart M1 Cheapbook over a new iPad or a new MacBook Air. It's pure profit and customer acquisition / conquest of people who might normally have purchased other entry-products from Google, MSFT, Asus, whatever. Not just notebook customers. These M1 Air CheapBook customers - I speculate maybe 20-30% have probably decided to add an iPhone SE or E... or an iPad mini to their collection of Apple tech after they have had the M1 for 12-18 months. So again, no brand harm with this. It is extending the product ladder down a bit to gain new/more customer acquisitions and conquests in general... that ultimately results in volume growth of other new Apple products sold per person / per household.

It's all good math and good business.

It's all good.
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I'm not from the States, but I don't see the logic of Apple having to open a new production line for the rumoured macbook just for the sake of entering into other markets. It could well just keep the M1 production line and make more shipments to those markets and could do just fine, right? Especially the rumoured spec is 12.9" with a A18pro at the price of USD599, which is quite identical to the M1 air.
 
Makes no sense. Would make more sense to sell the MBA M1/M2/or M3 in addition to M4 at a price reduction of $200 lower than M4 per chip generation. So M1 can be maybe $500ish ($400 would be too low I suppose).
 
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aakshey said:
Makes no sense. Would make more sense to sell the MBA M1/M2/or M3 in addition to M4 at a price reduction of $200 lower than M4 per chip generation. So M1 can be maybe $500ish ($400 would be too low I suppose).
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Makes probably sense in terms of available chips and yields. There are only so many chips the fabs can produce. The A18 is still in productionas it's being sold via the previous iPhone. Also instead of the M1 & M2 the A18 (similar to the M3 & M4) is on the 3nm line.
 
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I can't wait - I hope it's no wider than a 13" iPad Pro is tall (11.09") - That would be a pretty insignificant difference compared to the 11.04" 12" Macbook width - or 10.98" Magic Keyboard width.
 
aakshey said:
Makes no sense. Would make more sense to sell the MBA M1/M2/or M3 in addition to M4 at a price reduction of $200 lower than M4 per chip generation. So M1 can be maybe $500ish ($400 would be too low I suppose).
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Why would Apple want to sell M1 for $500 when they can sell A18 for $600?
 
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b.inazawa-fan said:
This is going to be an extinction level event for the iPad magic keyboard.

And for those worried about cannibalization and not-as-great experiences... the $599 M1 Air is out there. It's fine for a lot of people. No contrived drawbacks. The sky hasn't fallen and the world kept turning.

If this matches the M1 Air capabilities with a modern design (full height function keys and not wedge shaped), and a newer microarchitecture for longer Mac OS support, and it's available more widely than Walmart, it'll be a home run. Go browse the laptop aisle at Best Buy one day, the M1 Air destroys any $599-and-below Windows laptops.
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An iPad is an iPad, and the Mac is a Mac. Obviously there’s some functional overlap, but they’re two completely different products. So in the same way a cheap Mac doesn’t kill a cheap iPhone, it doesn’t kill a cheap iPad. Many people will still prefer the iPad.
 
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AlexESP said:
An iPad is an iPad, and the Mac is a Mac. Obviously there’s some functional overlap, but they’re two completely different products. So in the same way a cheap Mac doesn’t kill a cheap iPhone, it doesn’t kill a cheap iPad. Many people will still prefer the iPad.
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They might be different from a branding perspective but this low-end MB will be used for 99% of the tasks that an iPad / iPad Air are used for. Outside of the corporate world, most people just need an affordable laptop to perform basic tasks.
 
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smulji said:
They might be different from a branding perspective but this low-end MB will be used for 99% of the tasks that an iPad / iPad Air are used for. Outside of the corporate world, most people just need an affordable laptop to perform basic tasks.
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Actually even inside the corporate world (and I mean corporate commercial world), most people just do basic tasks like text editing for contracts and stuffs.
 
seifer_s said:
this price does not include trackpad and keyboard, and also macos is supposedly more powerful so apple will charge a bit more
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But we already have Bluetooth peripherals we can use…

All I’m saying is the work to port the OS is done… let us run it on the hardware we have.
 
erihp said:
iPhone/low end iPad chip + screen (=iphone/ipad) + keyboard/trackpad + special build of macOS.

Is that not exactly what this is?
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you could say so but I think "macOS lite" has been there since m1 ipad pro or even earlier, and look what apple has given us, the all new crappy IpadOS26
 
erihp said:
But we already have Bluetooth peripherals we can use…

All I’m saying is the work to port the OS is done… let us run it on the hardware we have.
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I think the problem is if they want to port the macos to ipad, they will either have to redesign the UI to make it touch screen friendly, or disable the touch screen

You can see how MS Surface switch between touch mode and laptop mode (still with touch function), and the user experience is very poor
 
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seifer_s said:
I think the problem is if they want to port the macos to ipad, they will either have to redesign the UI to make it touch screen friendly, or disable the touch screen

You can see how MS Surface switch between touch mode and laptop mode (still with touch function), and the user experience is very poor
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There are rumors of MBP getting touch screens late next year / early 2027. If true, macOS will become touch-enabled
 
seifer_s said:
I think the problem is if they want to port the macos to ipad, they will either have to redesign the UI to make it touch screen friendly, or disable the touch screen

You can see how MS Surface switch between touch mode and laptop mode (still with touch function), and the user experience is very poor
Click to expand...
This. Nice to hear from someone that has actually tried to use a touchscreen with an OS that wasn't originally designed for touch.

Sorry, but even iOS usability has kept getting worse as they add more gestures. Unless someone comes up with some major UI redesign, touch really works best with as few gestures as possible, and the irony is that the more functionality they add, the worse usability becomes as the user needs to figure out how to access that functionality.

As much as I don't like it when people say "Steve Jobs would never...", in this instance it seems appropriate:
www.cnet.com

Steve Jobs Hated This Idea for Macs. Apple Might Go There Anyway

This hands-on tech could reportedly land on the MacBook Pro in 2025.
www.cnet.com www.cnet.com
 
bgillander said:
This. Nice to hear from someone that has actually tried to use a touchscreen with an OS that wasn't originally designed for touch.

Sorry, but even iOS usability has kept getting worse as they add more gestures. Unless someone comes up with some major UI redesign, touch really works best with as few gestures as possible, and the irony is that the more functionality they add, the worse usability becomes as the user needs to figure out how to access that functionality.

As much as I don't like it when people say "Steve Jobs would never...", in this instance it seems appropriate:
www.cnet.com

Steve Jobs Hated This Idea for Macs. Apple Might Go There Anyway

This hands-on tech could reportedly land on the MacBook Pro in 2025.
www.cnet.com www.cnet.com
Click to expand...
Honestly I'd rather the macbook use a hinge similar to that of lenovo yoga or dell x360 so that I can flip the screen over for video purpose, than having a touch UI
 
Why not just a 12.8" MacBook for $799 and $699 for Students ? Then the MacBook Air can feature Pro Motion with M5 for $999.

Current M4 MBA goes on sale for far too often suggest the margin and pricing of MacBook Line up is not that well positioned.
 
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