Back in the real world, so far you can at least run iPadOS 26 on an external monitor, with full windowed application support.
Here is my iPad Pro M4 using my 2010 27" Core i7 iMac as an external display via Target Display Mode.
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Apple's Low-Cost MacBook: Everything We Know So Far
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Here is my iPad Pro M4 using my 2010 27" Core i7 iMac as an external display via Target Display Mode.
I seem to be one of very few people who read “low cost” as “low cost for Apple, not the customer”.
I look at the non-Pro MacBook Pro at its £1500 price point, and I have to wonder if this is key. It’s kind of not one thing (Air) or the other (Pro) and looks like it was made to fit a price point mid-way between the Air (£1000) and the Pro (£2000).
So it seems to me this “low cost MacBook” is more likely to be “low cost for Apple” but go in at the price point of the Air (£1000) so that the Air can be bumped to the mid-point (£1500) and the Pro stays where it is (£2000). The “Air in a Pro case” non-Pro MBP will disappear.
They will then have a Mac at all price points. ~£500 (Mac Mini), ~£1000 (A18 MacBook), ~£1500 (MBA), ~£2000 (MBP), and ~£2500 (Mac Studio). That feels very “Apple-like” to me. But, what do I know? I’m only 8 months into Apple’s world.
If this turns out to be the case, then people wanting a decent MacBook might do well to jump on the M4 Air (especially at the slightly lower price due to Prime Day, or what other discounts those in the US can get) before the M5 Air is pushed to £1500.
I hope I’m wrong.
I look at the non-Pro MacBook Pro at its £1500 price point, and I have to wonder if this is key. It’s kind of not one thing (Air) or the other (Pro) and looks like it was made to fit a price point mid-way between the Air (£1000) and the Pro (£2000).
So it seems to me this “low cost MacBook” is more likely to be “low cost for Apple” but go in at the price point of the Air (£1000) so that the Air can be bumped to the mid-point (£1500) and the Pro stays where it is (£2000). The “Air in a Pro case” non-Pro MBP will disappear.
They will then have a Mac at all price points. ~£500 (Mac Mini), ~£1000 (A18 MacBook), ~£1500 (MBA), ~£2000 (MBP), and ~£2500 (Mac Studio). That feels very “Apple-like” to me. But, what do I know? I’m only 8 months into Apple’s world.
If this turns out to be the case, then people wanting a decent MacBook might do well to jump on the M4 Air (especially at the slightly lower price due to Prime Day, or what other discounts those in the US can get) before the M5 Air is pushed to £1500.
I hope I’m wrong.
"Rumors suggest that the low-cost MacBook could be made available in silver, blue, pink, and yellow. Those color options actually sound similar to the color options that Apple offers for the iMac, so we could be looking at iMac-style shades."
It would actually be a nice complement to the iMac for those who don't see an iPad in that light.
It would actually be a nice complement to the iMac for those who don't see an iPad in that light.
We all know it will be a much stripped down HW setup for just marginally less cash ($200?) so as to make the MacBook Air/Pro line look better value. Apple won't actually want anyone to buy this. It'll just be an price/spec-point to drive sales of the higher profit lines. 🤷♂️
Similar setups have been tried unsuccessfully. There are many factors that would make such a device a mess, IMHO:
1. USB-C would be a bottleneck for performance, so either you need to add costs and complexity by either adding another port or Thunderbolt in an attempt to boost performance.
2. By the time you add storage, screen, webcam, etc. the cost of the device would probably be close o what one that had the A18 or whatever in it anyway and not need the added cost of a phone.
3. If you try to do everything on the phone such as enough storage, graphics, etc. that would drive up the price of teh iPhone and impact sales to people who just want an iPhone. A specialty iPhone for such a device would likely be a niche product not worth making.
4. From a marketting perspective, it begins to blur the iOS/iPadOS/MacOS boundaries, something Apple has studiously avoided.
5. Battery run times could be an issue as well, as you'd need to charge the iPhone which has inherent losses impacting how long the device can run on battery power. If you didn't but just powered the iPhone without charging the iPhone size would limit battery size, and if you used the iPhone battery without charging you risk a dead laptop and phone at the same time.
I personally think we would see an iPad running MacOS before we see such a device.
I agree, but I doubt many are buying higher end Macs instead.
I suspect Apple's corporate buyers are different from the majority of corporate buyers, but I agree that many will not be interested in an A18 Mac and aren't a target market. Big companies that are buying hundreds or thousands of laptops are generally going to be very price sensitive and going with inexpensive Windows machines from the Likes of Dell, Lenovo and HP, vs, Macs. At least that has been my experience working in and with corporations and government. In many cases, they don't buy but lease the machines anyway. Apple does offer leasing terms to large and small businesses, but even then the focus, at least for small businesses, is on services rather than discounts.
My wife, after years of wanting a pink computer, just bought an iMac instead of any other reasonable choice, because it was pink. I'm going to be really upset if Apple releases a pink computer that's 1/2 the price. She could have got that, and a mac mini, and still had money left over. Ugh.
Walmart has m1 MBA's for sale on walmart.com right now. Today.
MacBook Pros are very popular with executives, sales, web developer departments, and design departments at corporations, but no they aren’t buying them for the secretaries and security guards.
The point was is that not regular retail pricing. It’s sale pricing, and in fact Apple doesn’t even acknowledge that model’s existence for sale new on their website.
YES! I literally came back on to add specifically this point in addition to my original comment.
This is absolutely the other possibility - that this new “low cost option” comes in at $899 or $999 (where the air is now), to simply provide another “entry level” machine while the Air dramatically increases in price, to an entry point of say, $1200-1400. (I think your $1500 mark is a little too steep, but who knows).
I also hope this isn’t the case, but I definitely wouldn’t put it past them.
While Atrix died. The slighty less ambitious DeX keeps on living.
The bandwidth problems just don't scale as quickly as silicon power.
Generally I think this future is bound to happen, but not this form factor.
Running a laptop/desktop from a phone: yes
Making your phone unusable AS a phone: no.
Ladies and gentlemen, the future!
Love the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule being in there, too. Really was a golden age for Apple, and it's amazing how many 15 year old Macs still work perfectly fine.
It doesn't take 20/20 vision to see the sunrise. It doesn't take a gym bro to lift a feather. It doesn't take a powerhouse machine to browse the web or check email. If you're doing video editing or Photoshop, this machine shouldn't be in your radar.
Nope. M4 MBA beats M1 MBP in literally every SoC benchmark. It's no contest. In fact, in many tests, even A18 Pro beats M1.
Or do you mean M4 vs M1 Max or something? If so, M4 still beats M1 Max in some stuff, but M1 Max beats M4 in other stuff. And of course, the MPB has a better screen and better speakers, but that has nothing to do with the SoC.
Well, FWIW, some professional video editors were still using Intel machines until recently, and from a performance standpoint, M4 non-Pro beats those Intel machines. However, the MBA screen isn't in the same class.
No but that's all marketing between Walmart and Apple. There's no way that Walmart "found" a few pallets of Macbook Airs just lying around, and then held on to them until back to school.
They can sell me this device for any price if they finally combine a full keyboard with 5G connectivity.
An iPad with a Magic Keyboard is way to bulky and heavy for me.
But a “MacBook light” with an integrated full-size keyboard and the new Apple mobile modem chip? And 10 hours of battery? A machine for documents, mails, pictures?
Perfect!! Instant travel companion.
An iPad with a Magic Keyboard is way to bulky and heavy for me.
But a “MacBook light” with an integrated full-size keyboard and the new Apple mobile modem chip? And 10 hours of battery? A machine for documents, mails, pictures?
Perfect!! Instant travel companion.
You don't seem to understand our point. We don't think Apple will have a retail price for the A18 Pro MacBook at anywhere the 2025 Wal-Mart M1 MBA pricing. However, we do think that Apple intends for this to replace that M1 MacBook at similar pricing, at third party stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, and Amazon. You just won't be able to buy it for that retail price at Apple (unless you can buy edu).
This type of Mac sales pricing practice is not new, but it's still not the same thing as Apple retail pricing.
The bill of materials doesn’t compare to the engineering and tooling costs that would need to go into a new product category like that. They would never do it at the entry level, if they do it at all today’s Apple tends to introduce new products at the high end and then bring it to the lower end as economies of scale allow them to maintain profit margins
Well that’s where I’m not sure what they’ll do. On the one hand I think they would love to increase the price of the Air and slide something in underneath it. At the same time they don’t want it to be good enough but it would cannibalize Air sales. I will be very shocked if this product is the same price as the M1 Air. The 16e was more expensive than the SE. I think this will be more expensive than the M1 Air but will have limitations (like no 4K external monitor support, display, webcam, speakers will be not as good) so it won’t cannibalize Air sales. It probably will be called MacBook but if it’s thicker/heavier than the 12” MacBook that might be confusing.
I'm hoping Apple brings back the Newton name. It will let consumers know that it's not a competitor to the MacBook line, but a compliment.
I would love for it launch by Christmas. That way I can stack my 10% employee discount with my 15% Christmas discount for a nice 25% off.
I have a 2013 air and it does everything I need at this point in time. So this would be a great machine for me.
If not I will get a new old stock m3. I have seen them for 750ish.
I have a 2013 air and it does everything I need at this point in time. So this would be a great machine for me.
If not I will get a new old stock m3. I have seen them for 750ish.
Why is this not perfect for schools (aka 100’s of thousands of sales in the U.S. alone). Gateway device to be sure, but still useful for probably millions. Especially as a driver to other sales.
I reckon it’ll sell at the same price as the base Mac Mini.
K-12 for example generally doesn't buy MacBooks anymore. They tend to buy iPads and Chromebooks.