The 1980's were a fascinating period of Mini PC evolution and Micro PC de-evolution. Rapid technology change seemed to alter market dynamics overnight. IBM bought back our inventory of PCjr's. A family member of mine worked for a Micro computer company that went from startup, to stardom, then to bust within 15 years. I do remember having a $5,000.00 IBM RGB Graphics card for evaluation! IBM absolutely dominated the market with the 8088 and then with the 80286. Your family member should write a family memoir of their IBM days.
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Apple to Launch 'Low-Cost' MacBook Series Next Year to Rival Chromebooks
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You're right; I looked at the wrong price. So you're basically given the choice between "newer chassis, fanless, newer features such as MagSafe" and "better battery life and higher sustained performance", at the same price. Hmm.
I guess I just feel like it's a confusing marketing message to go from that to "just kidding, the 13 Pro chassis is actually really old and worse". Maybe if they remove the fan from it?
I currently find this more likely. (But it would make the rumor wrong.)
My daughter has a Chromebook because she works at the local school and they gave her one. I looked up the Geekbench 6 score and it was a third of her iPhone 8 and about 1/20th of her MacBook Air. I think that Apple would need to cut the number of cores in half or more to not blow Chromebooks (used in schools) out of the water.
Take an Apple Magic Keyboard for the iPad (they sold as low as $125), add a cheap-o display and M1, and they could sell it for less than $400.
Hey Tim Hardwick, @hardwickj you haven't specified the size on the article. Can we expect a smaller and lighter 12" MacBook? Or will it be still a 13.5" device? Does the source specify something about this? Thank you.
I'm in Europe and just got one for €780 brand new. It is 1200 at Apple, but even in the US it's $999 pre-tax officially. There's great discounts on it running all the time. Plenty of room for a budget one but currently the Air is a great deal is all I'm saying. Would love to see a good more budget version that doesn't rely on third-party discounts.
It’s not nearly enough for Apple to do some low price Mac and call it a day. Framework. Support. Software. It’s nonexistent. They’ll need much more to convince any district to switch.
Apple has proven this is something they don’t want to do.
I cannot be less than $800 because it would not only canibalize MacBook Air sales, but alse iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard sales. The only thing we are asking for a long time, is a MacBook Air, just like the current ones, but smaller, at 12.2" for example.
If this turns out to be true, I hope this is the return of true ultralight MacBooks. I'd be cool with a (well made) plastic shell if it meant extra light and inexpensive.
As long as it had a good keyboard and an acceptably decent display, it would be excellent as an auxiliary machine for writing, email, basic productivity stuff. Macs are at a point now where even the lowest spec'ed stuff Apple has to offer is more than sufficient for such use.
As long as it had a good keyboard and an acceptably decent display, it would be excellent as an auxiliary machine for writing, email, basic productivity stuff. Macs are at a point now where even the lowest spec'ed stuff Apple has to offer is more than sufficient for such use.
The polycarb Macbooks were late '00s (2006-2009) and replaced by the 2nd gen Macbook Air lineup as far as positioning/price. They actually weren't that cheap, starting at $999, which is ~$1500 adjusted for inflation.
Sounds like Apple is shooting for a rung clearly below, probably in the $600-800 area.
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Actually he worked in the same division as Tim Cook did
actually his office was not too far from his when he worked for IBM.
As a substitute in the high school I have witnessed the use of Chromebooks and Google classroom.
The Apple devices better be well built as the students do not treat the devices well. The abuse that is heaped on the Chromebooks from various vendors is astounding enough that I am surprised the devices continue to function.
The Apple devices better be cheap, as in real cheap. The school gets the Chromebooks for about $125.00 each and the students gets the same physical device each year. The devices are turned in at the end of the school year and reissued, the same physical device, the next school year.
Here is where I think the school system is incorrect. At the end of four years the devices are worth maybe $25.00 at best. A graduating senior should be allowed to just keep the device. Yet the school system spends a lot of time, and money, to collect those devices. Most are put on a pallet and the pallet sold for scrap value. Surely there is a better solution.
Within this school environment the only search engine allowed is Google. Other search engines are completely blocked. I don't know if that is a Google classroom requirement or the IT folks are clueless.
The Apple devices better be well built as the students do not treat the devices well. The abuse that is heaped on the Chromebooks from various vendors is astounding enough that I am surprised the devices continue to function.
The Apple devices better be cheap, as in real cheap. The school gets the Chromebooks for about $125.00 each and the students gets the same physical device each year. The devices are turned in at the end of the school year and reissued, the same physical device, the next school year.
Here is where I think the school system is incorrect. At the end of four years the devices are worth maybe $25.00 at best. A graduating senior should be allowed to just keep the device. Yet the school system spends a lot of time, and money, to collect those devices. Most are put on a pallet and the pallet sold for scrap value. Surely there is a better solution.
Within this school environment the only search engine allowed is Google. Other search engines are completely blocked. I don't know if that is a Google classroom requirement or the IT folks are clueless.
Yeah. Honestly the "still made of metal" thing makes me instantly think the rumor fails the sniff test. A polycarbonate MacBook with an M2 or something seems more possible (or maybe they use iPhone chips?), but I don't see how they're going to ever compete with $399 netbooks for school deployment, and I don't know why they would want to; that's chasing volume at the expense of margins, and I think Apple cares much more about the latter. Especially when they've got iPads sitting around at the lower end. Plus the lower-end you make it, the less performant it is running MacOS, and you run into the "why would we use these over web-based network computers" question again.
I do think a colorful rebrand of its older-gen machines at the low end instead of just shipping the last year's model could fill an interesting niche, but I don't see that squaring with Apple taking on chromebooks.
Yeah, this is the other side of things. Apple makes much more durable machines than Chromebooks, but they aren't reparable with the ease of a lot of cheaper stuff, and I'm not sure they're durable enough that they make sense (if you can get 3+ chromebooks for the cost of an Apple computer, then the MacBook needs to be at least 3X+ tougher to make dollar sense.)
Using this argument, there is no point for the 12.9" iPad Pro - solo, no MK - to exist as it is already more expensive than a base 13" M2 Air. They're different products.
I really don't think this is a concern, or at least as much of a concern as capturing more of the laptop market.
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"Low Cost"
For Apple thats $899 with 128GB of storage and 8GB RAM.
For Apple thats $899 with 128GB of storage and 8GB RAM.
I will disagree with you on that. The current Chromebooks are purchased/subsidized to the school district in which I sub, for about $125.00. How much is real money vs subsidized I do not know. Apple will need to be at $200.00 or less or get heavy subsidies to the school.
Maybe it's already been mentioned, but Apple relies on third-parties for MDM. Schools can get Google licensing at $33 a device (one time fee) and it makes managing fleets of Chromebooks effortless.
Until Apple has some kind of native MDM solution in place (honestly, if they were to buy JAMF and give it away to schools and businesses that would go a long way) then they aren't going to have the kind of traction that Chromebooks have in K-12.
Until Apple has some kind of native MDM solution in place (honestly, if they were to buy JAMF and give it away to schools and businesses that would go a long way) then they aren't going to have the kind of traction that Chromebooks have in K-12.
Many families in rural areas do not have that kind of extra money. Even $125.00 is way outside the capability to pay. Many families cannot even afford to pay for school lunches. A computer is a luxury when there is barely enough money for food and utilities.
The school needs to have a level playing field and provide the same benefit for all the students.
The school can also control the Chromebooks provided by the school. They can control what is accessed, how it accessed, and when it is accessed.
To what end? The iPad sits happily as Apple’s sub-£1000 computing lineup with a £400, £600 and £800 price point of good, better, best models.
I would strongly argue that for someone looking to spend £300-400 on a computer that the iPad is a much better option than the equivalent low-spec Windows or Chrome platform.
I would strongly argue that for someone looking to spend £300-400 on a computer that the iPad is a much better option than the equivalent low-spec Windows or Chrome platform.
Perhaps not. Any comparable system to the M2 Air is about the same price from other vendors. My surface Laptop with 16 gig and 1 TB was really close in price to the M2 air with the same specs. And Apple took my old device in trade and gave me a 10% veteran discount. The same as Microsoft except Microsoft does not take trades. I don't know of any other vendor that takes trades. The accessories is where Apple is really proud of their product