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

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Serious question, why do American schools buy the computers? Why not just have the kids BYOD? The state government could subsidise the disadvantaged, who would still get to choose their device.

It varies from school district to school district. Some schools are BYOD, while others aren't because they want monitoring software installed on the computers so they watch the student's activities on the laptops and make sure they aren't doing anything inappropriate on them.

in my country they do and the most common school computer is the MBA.

What country is that?

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

The entry level priced portable is the iPad, Apple doesn’t do “low cost”

The iPhone SE and Apple Watch SE say hi. So why not a Macbook SE too? iPad Keyboards are expensive, some costing as much as an entry level iPad, and iPadOS is not designed well for keyboard and mouse anyhow. macOS is though. iPad still has it's uses as it's more portable and has a touchscreen, while a Macbook does not.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Schools are beginning to regret their investments in Chromebooks. They usually come from the manufacturer with two years of support left and the school has to pony up licensing money and prepare to buy new Chromebooks 2 years later. Apple and Microsoft should team up to eradicate this plague on education. Affordable MacBook with free or low cost access to Microsoft 365.

 

[GalileoSeven]

Unless this replaces one of the current models in Apple's laptop lineup, it will almost certainly cannibalize a portion of iPad sales.

As others have mentioned too, Apple's definition of "low-cost" differs substantially from the rest of the mainstream, so if this is legit, I'd be very curious to see what price point this comes in at and if it's locked specifically to the education market (or if the rest of us plebes can get at it).

My 11" MBA (now 10yrs old) is still chugging along fairly well. Would def. be interesting if Apple returned to a super small form factor like that too

 

[syklee26]

This is NOT happening. This is not how Apple does its business. BTW, when has Digitimes ever been right on stories they broke?

 

[ThomasJL]

Tim Cook doesn't give a damn about low-income people. Therefore, I doubt this rumor is true.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Unless this replaces one of the current models in Apple's laptop lineup, it will almost certainly cannibalize a portion of iPad sales.

The Mac is already cannibalizing iPad sales by just being a better product at a lower price compared to the higher end iPads. The Mac is already making more revenue than the iPad so might as well just expand on that.

If Apple wants the iPad to sell more, then make iPadOS better and stop cutting corners with the iPad.

As others have mentioned too, Apple's definition of "low-cost" differs substantially from the rest of the mainstream, so if this is legit, I'd be very curious to see what price point this comes in at and if it's locked specifically to the education market (or if the rest of us plebes can get at it).

The price isn't gonna be as high as people think it will be. The iPhone SE is $400, the Apple Watch SE being $250. A Macbook SE would most likely be between $500-700, and use an older M1 chip or maybe even an A series chip, and probably be built out of plastic instead of aluminum, just like the old white plastic Macbook (which for many was their first Mac and imo one of the best Macbooks Apple ever made)

Seriously, this thing was fantastic. Bringing that back as a Macbook SE like the rumors suggest would be a dream come true

 

[CPark98]

If this were to turn out to be a 12" MacBook revival, I'm all for it.

 

[ipaqrat]

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.

Control-wise, Apple devices can be managed similarly. There are tools within Apple's porfolio, as well as somewhat more expensive suites that add better metric reporting. One primary consideration for schools is that mass of gall dang lawyers, activist snowflake parents and nibby-nose Karens (Apologies to folks actually named "Karen"; you're pretty much done for), nutbag conspiracy theorists. And, of course, then there are all the faculty, staff and students that actually are miscreants. I wonder if Apple is more open to consider concessions to surveillance requirements or fast-tracking personal data warrants.

 

[Spock]

The iPhone SE and Apple Watch SE say hi. So why not a Macbook SE too? iPad Keyboards are expensive, some costing as much as an entry level iPad, and iPadOS is not designed well for keyboard and mouse anyhow. macOS is though. iPad still has it's uses as it's more portable and has a touchscreen, while a Macbook does not.

Compared to other devices on the market, the SE models are not exactly low cost. If we do see a MacBook SE, I don't think that it will be any less than $799. I base that off the price of the M1 powered iPad Air and Magic Keyboard starting at $749 with 256 gigs of storage.

 

[ttyRazor]

Sounds like this would cover the area where Apple tried positioning iPads as low cost education devices, which might have worked if it was just iPads but once they added on keyboard cases and other accessories the cost wasn’t so low cost anymore.

 

[ngextreme]

$

Yeah, sure, 4GB of RAM, M1 or even A14 CPU, 128GB slow SSD, 13.3" display with lower-than-retina resolution(?) and, perhaps, encased in 13.3" MBP or even 13.3" MBA body?
599$

599 is still double the average Chromebook price.

 

[dgdosen]

Make one (or anything with MacOS) no wider than a full size keyboard and put at least an M1 in it. Have it weigh < 1 kg and I'd carry it everywhere.

 

[raythompsontn]

Control-wise, Apple devices can be managed similarly.

Yes, they can. The advantage that Chromebooks have over Apple for schools that are using Google Classroom, is that Google owns the OS, Google owns the browser, Google owns the search engine, Google owns the application. Apple stops at the OS.

It is easy to sell school district administrators on an environment where everything except the maker of the actual device is all within one infrastructure. A fancy Pages (or Powerpoint) presentation with lots of shiny baubles and beads will sway most school district administrators. Most of which are technologically challenged.

Case in point with the current district in which I reside. All the school board members were given/assigned/forced with new laptop computers to use during board meetings. One year later only one person is using the laptop, the others are back to shuffling paper.

 

[WilliApple]

Finally! We needed this for a long time! Just hope Apple won’t kill it off because it eats up MacBook Air sales.

 

[jlc1978]

Curious as to what Apple considers low cost. That being said: wouldn’t this kill iPad Pro sales?

Not if it was education only, possibly witout a touch screen.

Not really buying this one. I think Apples version of the Chromebook as the iPad.

I would suspect a device based on the 9th or 10th gen iPad. Encase it in a plastic body with integral keyboard, use the iOS versions of Keynote, Pages and Numbers or iCloud versions., delete non essential apps, no camera and built in MDM. All the pieces are there with little new work.

I suspect it would be an education only device and not sold to public. No need to compete with existing lineup.

Apple could build support with their educator community offering.

Serious question, why do American schools buy the computers? Why not just have the kids BYOD? The state government could subsidise the disadvantaged, who would still get to choose their device.

Standardized load, central control and locked down machines.

Also, in many districts, even in wealthy ones, all parents cannot afford a computer.

This is great news, but the problem is repairability Apple gonna be on a scale one to 10 It’s only gonna be three out of 10

Doesn’t matter if it’s cheap enough. You just replace and dispose.

 

[jz0309]

Apple "competing" in the low-end? I call BS ...

 

[dgdosen]

If they want to 3D print watch bodies from powdered metal, they can also print laptop bodies out of cheaper resin...

 

[JippaLippa]

Well, long ago they had the plastic macbook.
So, it would make sense.

 

[ipaqrat]

Are we sure Apple's definition of low cost is the same as the rest of the world's?

Hellooo, Peasants! Over here! Here is cake which King Tim, and his jesters in the Great Round Castle, now deigns you may eat.

 

[jlc1978]

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.

As long as it works faster processors are of little value.

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.

They have some of it and can easily buy any other they need. The educator community they have online can be one way to reach the audience.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

What does “low-cost” mean exactly?

 

[fourthtunz]

Curious as to what Apple considers low cost. That being said: wouldn’t this kill iPad Pro sales?

Heh $899

 

[El Szomorito]

Serious question, why do American schools buy the computers? Why not just have the kids BYOD? The state government could subsidise the disadvantaged, who would still get to choose their device.

in my country they do and the most common school computer is the MBA.

I guess politicians want to spend big on education to have something to show at next election, but are incompetent to do anything productive with that money?

 

[sgodsell]

I don't see Apple creating a really lower priced MacBook. Apple could easily bite the bullet and charge a lot less for their M1 MacBooks, especially since Apple makes their own SoCs. But Chromebooks have a lot of software that isn't available to Apple's MacBooks. Even ChromeOS Flex allows it to repurpose and reuse older laptops, Windows, and Macs. Apple has nothing like that. The maintenance software for Chromebooks is second to none. Plus Chromebooks today, can run not only Chrome apps, but Linux programs, and Windows programs as well. You want to teach kids about IoT, then Chromebooks are better than Apple's Macs. You want kids to work with the web development, then Chromebooks are superior to any Macs. You want kids to work with Linux, or with any SBCs, like Raspberry Pi's, Chromebooks are the way to go. Plus Google came out recently and said that new Chromebooks being product for a certain tier, must use a certain class of CPU/GPU/AI. This helps bring up Chromebooks to a certain standard, and allows a better experience overall. Cloud computing with Chromebooks is still second to none with Google.