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Apple to Launch 'Low-Cost' MacBook Series Next Year to Rival Chromebooks

maxoakland said:
This is interesting. Apple avoided creating a Netbook/Chromebook for decades despite a lot of pressure from journalists. Seeing them do it now would be a surprise. But it might be a good thing. They really did lose a lot of their traditional education market due to Chrome books, and that means they are missing the chance to get their computers in front of kids
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Was the earlier 11.6" 2010, 2011, 2015 MBA models really what people consider as MBA's due to the parts/performance/smaller size involved versus PC Netbooks? Does Apple need to follow the Google game plan with the Chromebook? There is an opening here for Apple to persuade education looking for lower costed computing to use petite Mac laptops, then cloud based solutions.
 
Chuckeee said:
This is only true if the product line would have been idle, dormant, or abandoned. This is usually NOT case with high density electronic components. Usually the production lines are “retooled” for new components. It appears that the A and M lines are always running trying to keep up with demand for the new latest components. There aren’t older lines just sitting around or cranking out old designs
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I think the M1, as Apples new performance *floor*, is going to be around for a while as it’s already more oomph than 90% of computer users need.

We’ll see the rest of the lines move from M2 to M3 to M4 etc, but I think M1 is going to be the key to a “low cost” option for years to come.

Could be completely wrong, but that’s my take.
 
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I am probably one of the few blokes that would buy this release day, just for the sake it's a 12" ultraportable. The iBook G4, Macbook Air 11", Macbook 12", heck even the Google Pixelbook (which is my daily) are far more portable than their respective 13" counterparts. I'd sell my M1 MBA in a heartbeat for a smaller device with full MacOS even if it's an A16 or something.
 
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Chuckeee said:
Even if the rumor was true (and it most likely isn’t). This approach would be a poor business decision. Going this route would seriously eat into Apple’s existing market share. A large portion of the buyers of an “eco” MacBook would be people who would have likely purchased a MacBook anyways. The whole idea is to sell products to new users. That is one of the things that makes the educational market tempting.

The education market is a high volume low margin market (not something that Apple is traditionally known for). You would want a product to address the educational market that would NOT compete with your existing market. What the education market needs is low cost and high durability (kids beat up Chromebooks a lot).
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breilly said:
The eMate was Apple's low cost laptop for education. $799 in 1997. Lasted only a few months. Ran Newton OS.
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Remember the eMac well, but had forgotten the eMate 😂

en.m.wikipedia.org

eMate 300 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
en.m.wikipedia.org

eMac - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Wasn’t successful back then, but Tim might give it another shot, who knows?
 
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ChromeOS is the 2nd largest desktop/laptop OS thanks to Chromebooks. Since Apple demands more on their market share, selling luxury computers won't gonna help them. The edu market is quite big and Apple is trying to expand their market but they are failing. It's quite plausible to consider a cheap MacBook for sure.

But even $200~300 iPad failed and expensive for educational uses so I'm not sure if they really considering a cheap MacBook.
 
We returned all four of my daughters' school-issued Chromebooks during the pandemic because they were awful. The microphones, speakers, cameras and displays were so bad that the teachers could not understand the kids and the kids could not understand the teachers or see what they were doing. We got our older kids M1 MacBook Airs and our then-5-year-old used my wife's MacBook Pro in the morning. In all cases my kids were suddenly heard by the teacher when they tried to respond to questions and the teacher could understand their questions. The other kids were literally being left behind because of bad technology.

I would gladly welcome a plastic-shell MacBook with a decent camera, decent microphone, decent display and decent speakers for my younger kids to use in school over any Chromebook (my older kids have since graduated or are graduating this year).

Running Chrome and the Google Classroom suite on a MacBook is far better than running it on a Chromebook unless you want to pay $1200+ for your Chromebook.
 
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BC2009 said:
We returned all four of my daughters' school-issued Chromebooks during the pandemic because they were awful. The microphones, speakers, cameras and displays were so bad that the teachers could not understand the kids and the kids could not understand the teachers or see what they were doing. We got our older kids M1 MacBook Airs and our then-5-year-old used my wife's MacBook Pro in the morning. In all cases my kids were suddenly heard by the teacher when they tried to respond to questions and the teacher could understand their questions. The other kids were literally being left behind because of bad technology.

I would gladly welcome a plastic-shell MacBook with a decent camera, decent microphone, decent display and decent speakers for my younger kids to use in school over any Chromebook (my older kids have since graduated or are graduating this year).

Running Chrome and the Google Classroom suite on a MacBook is far better than running it on a Chromebook unless you want to pay $1200+ for your Chromebook.
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There's a significant delta between a battered school-issued Chromebook and a MacBook Pro / M1 Air. If video call quality is the primary concern, a $280 HP x360 14c would likely have sufficed.

Edit: Or an OLED Duet 5 if seeing the teacher is the primary concern. I don't think it's debatable whether you're getting more for your money with a Chromebook versus a laptop with a standard OS, like-for-like - particularly as most MacBooks barring the most recent examples were known to have mediocre webcams.
 
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East India Company said:
How about a small screen iPad in a laptop format with touch screen and pencil geared for the educational market? Sounds like a revolutionary idea!

View attachment 2255427
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I'm surprised it took this long in the thread for the eMate to show up.

$800 at the time it was released in 1997. Designed for the education market. Full-size keyboard. 6.8" diagonal screen (smaller than the current iPad Mini). Came with its version of Pencil. It was made out of polycarbonate and people loved it because it was durable.

They can redo this again in multiple colors with a webcam and an A-series processor running iPadOS and I think it would have good appeal. The attached keyboard gets around Bluetooth restrictions in schools too. It would be different enough from a Mac and an iPad to be its own product.
 
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raythompsontn said:
The problem is that old, technologically challenged adults raised in a different paradigm with preconceived notions of what an education computer should be are making purchase decisions for kids who thrive on touch devices.

Fixed it for you. Many of the people on the school boards making decisions still have VCRs that are flashing 12:00.
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You didnt have to fix anything. That's exactly what I meant. 🥴
 
hippopotamusglorypig said:
There's a significant delta between a battered school-issued Chromebook and a MacBook Pro / M1 Air. If video call quality is the primary concern, a $280 HP x360 14c would likely have sufficed.

Edit: Or an OLED Duet 5 if seeing the teacher is the primary concern. I don't think it's debatable whether you're getting more for your money with a Chromebook versus a laptop with a standard OS, like-for-like - particularly as most MacBooks barring the most recent examples were known to have mediocre webcams.
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I bought a 2015 iMac 27 with 32 GB of RAM, Apple keyboard and mouse for $200. It's fantastic for video conferences. Not that portable but it's definitely really nice at home.

Apple could just sell an M0 chip with 2 efficiency cores to Google.
 
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pshufd said:
I bought a 2015 iMac 27 with 32 GB of RAM, Apple keyboard and mouse for $200. It's fantastic for video conferences. Not that portable but it's definitely really nice at home.

Apple could just sell an M0 chip with 2 efficiency cores to Google.
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My laptop is a refurbished enterprise Windows device running ChromeOS Flex, so I'm all about the used, high-spec bargain.

But it's not as if Chromebooks don't also drop off a cliff in value in the used market, while Apple products typically retain their value! You're likely still better off with a Chromebook if you have basic needs.
 
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hippopotamusglorypig said:
My laptop is a refurbished enterprise Windows device running ChromeOS Flex, so I'm all about the used, high-spec bargain.

But it's not as if Chromebooks don't also drop off a cliff in value in the used market, while Apple products typically retain their value! You're likely still better off with a Chromebook if you have basic needs.
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With a 5k monitor?
 
Something that occurred to me whilst messing around with my OneDrive archiving photos, Apple will seriously have to up its game for cloud storage if this rumour is to be true. Presentations and video take up large amounts of storage and the education market I would imagine uses a lot of both. I can’t imagine 5gb would be enough for a student let alone a teacher for one year and you know they aren’t likely to collaborate too well with any of the other storage providers. They don’t really on our expensive equipment so why would they on something cheaper?
 
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If Apple can make a 12"-13" retina notebook with an M1 or perhaps a binned M2 with 6 cores instead of 8, and 12GB of RAM standard, 256GB storage, and cost less than $1,199 AUD, then I think it would sell like hotcakes in Australia. That's around $768 USD for you yankees.
 
VampyricGentleman said:
Something that occurred to me whilst messing around with my OneDrive archiving photos, Apple will seriously have to up its game for cloud storage if this rumour is to be true. Presentations and video take up large amounts of storage and the education market I would imagine uses a lot of both. I can’t imagine 5gb would be enough for a student let alone a teacher for one year and you know they aren’t likely to collaborate too well with any of the other storage providers. They don’t really on our expensive equipment so why would they on something cheaper?
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They could just do a special deal with schools. Apple makes a lot of money from services. Google makes money from advertising. So you're likely to get less advertising and tracking with Apple products.
 
pshufd said:
They could just do a special deal with schools. Apple makes a lot of money from services. Google makes money from advertising. So you're likely to get less advertising and tracking with Apple products.
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Inclined to think this is where it all falls down. There are things from what I have seen in the Google education ecosystem which Apple would have to develop software wise. Being childless and out of full time education 3 plus decades (my high school had 15 BBC model B as it’s entire IT quota) I’m also assuming most schools have their ecosystem now and unless there is really good migration tools they aren’t going to want to change it.
 
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pshufd said:
I bought a 2015 iMac 27 with 32 GB of RAM, Apple keyboard and mouse for $200. It's fantastic for video conferences. Not that portable but it's definitely really nice at home.

Apple could just sell an M0 chip with 2 efficiency cores to Google.
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I’m not sure I get your point? You can get used laptops of any make and model for a significant drop in cost from new - probably one of those chromebooks for as low as $20-30 if you keep your eyes open. Surely the conversation has to stick to new prices (to either the consumer or the school) for it to be worth debating?
 
VampyricGentleman said:
Inclined to think this is where it all falls down. There are things from what I have seen in the Google education ecosystem which Apple would have to develop software wise. Being childless and out of full time education 3 plus decades (my high school had 15 BBC model B as it’s entire IT quota) I’m also assuming most schools have their ecosystem now and unless there is really good migration tools they aren’t going to want to change it.
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My high-school computer is on my desk in the basement. I suspect that I could get about as much as a Chromebook for it.

I bought it in the 1970s and it still gets regular use.
 
xantufrog said:
I’m not sure I get your point? You can get used laptops of any make and model for a significant drop in cost from new - probably one of those chromebooks for as low as $20-30 if you keep your eyes open. Surely the conversation has to stick to new prices (to either the consumer or the school) for it to be worth debating?
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I was replying to a conversation about new devices.

Two different thoughts in one post.
 
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