From some knowledge from a year working for the first really big “apple store” before the real apple stores existed (tekserve) many years ago: Apple typically gives retailers/resellers very little discount from the MSRP, but sometimes retailers will sell at break even or even a loss to get customers that may buy significantly more profitable accessories or service/support contracts.
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Apple Planning to Launch Low-Cost MacBook Powered By iPhone Chip
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Just look into the concept of wholesale pricing and loss leader. A company would absolutely take a loss on selling something if it increases their sales on other accessories etc. A lot of businesses have a loss leader because it makes business sense, if it didn’t no one do it. You say Apple is overcharging but what are you basing that off of? The raw price of just the individual components? The fact an authorized dealer has it for cheaper? Again, wholesale and loss leader. Obviously Apple’s margins have to cover soooo many other things, including R&D, and a million other things.
I think a majority of that high price came from all the R&D that it required. And not just Apple’s, but Intel’s too with those chips. Apple had to redesign every aspect of the laptop to get it that thin, which would’ve incurred huge R&D costs. And whenever Apple does that with a new design they price it higher to recoup all of that cost, and then after time, the price comes down, just look at the MacBook Air as an example. But since Apple has already done all of that work, figured out all the manufacturing and design of the 12” MacBook etc, have chips ready to go for it, they are able to start from a much better starting point and could very well make it much cheaper from the get go. The 12” MacBook design is technically 10 years old now, they just have to tweak a few things, such as the keyboard, thinner bezels and whatnot, and there you have it.
Hard to say but Apple still makes 8/256 M1 Airs for Walmart alone; those sell for $700, currently discounted to $650.
It's possible that Apple is positioning itself for the end of support for Windows 10. There are recent reports of a slight uptick in Mac OS and Linux machines while a decline in Windows systems.
An inexpensive Macbook offering (analogous to the entry level 10th gen and 11th gen iPads) would be very appealing to people who don't want to buy a new system to run Windows 11 and are interested in switching to a Mac without the need to pay the "Apple tax".
It has the added benefit (as @turbineseaplane previously stated) of giving Apple headroom to raise the prices of the rest of the Macbook lineup... again, just as they did with iPads.
An inexpensive Macbook offering (analogous to the entry level 10th gen and 11th gen iPads) would be very appealing to people who don't want to buy a new system to run Windows 11 and are interested in switching to a Mac without the need to pay the "Apple tax".
It has the added benefit (as @turbineseaplane previously stated) of giving Apple headroom to raise the prices of the rest of the Macbook lineup... again, just as they did with iPads.
I expect Apple has given this new venture a lot of thought, but they may do well to keep the price at USD 400 or lower and use this new iPhone-chipped MacBook as a loss leader. This would entice the parents to go with Apple and get the kids hooked on Apple and MacOS.
If this is to be a Chromebook challenger, the price will need to be quite low. The price range of Chromebooks is across the board, but I suspect that most parents buy in the USD 200 to USD 400 range.
If this is to be a Chromebook challenger, the price will need to be quite low. The price range of Chromebooks is across the board, but I suspect that most parents buy in the USD 200 to USD 400 range.
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FYI anyone saying Apple can't do this for under $700, they already currently sell through Walmart, the M1 MacBook Air for $650 with 8GB, 256GB SSD, so if they were able to say, keep the screen tech where it is now, and the thing simply have 1-2 USB-C, 256GB SSD, and the guts of a iPhone 16 Pro, they definitely could sell it at $600. There is also the problem of Apple not wanting to erode their brand or profits to much, so likely no matter what the MSRP for this will be at least $700 but I foresee it selling for $500-600 also.
My guess is $699 simply as a MacBook's necessary extra costs (display, input, battery) will drive the price higher even using a lower-end chip. This would be about eliminating the need for those Walmart clearance sales on top of reaching a mainstream laptop market it has rarely even acknowledged.
A lot of the appeal will depend on the exact specs, but a 13- or even 12-inch laptop at $699 that has most of the performance of an M4 for hundreds less? Yeah, that could be a hot seller in a price range where there are way too many mediocre options.
Or will they launch a 12th gen base iPad sooner? And tout about having Apple Intelligence?
Even an M1 chip in a 12/13 inch Macbook would be more than enough for people who want ultra portability.
Compared to the 2015-19 12" MacBook, this could be a much better premium ultraportable Mac laptop. With such an iPhone chip having identical power to the original M1, it should be more than enough for everyday computing. Heck, I still see plenty of digital media creators using Apple Silicon MacBook Airs to get the job done, and this is meant to be Apple's entry-level consumer laptop! (My M1 MacBook Air with 8-core graphics and 16 GB of RAM is still a very good computer for moderate audio and video work!)