The $349 iPad 11 says otherwise. It is Apple's best-selling iPad and an incredible value.
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Could Apple's Rumored Budget MacBook Still Debut Before Year's End?
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A $349 iPad is probably the very reason they wouldn’t release a $599 MacBook. But, then, so is the Mac Mini. Apple have no reason to release a $599 MacBook. It’s wishful thinking.
They wouldn’t release a $599 MacBook because they offer a cheap iPad and cheap desktop Mac? 🤪
Precisely. They’d say “you want cheap, get an iPad; you want MacOS, get a Mac Mini”. Why on Earth would they release a fully-featured MacBook at the price of their cheapest iPhone? It’d damage Mac Mini sales for one thing.
You keep believing Apple is altruistic. I’m sure you’ll be proven right. Well, I hope you are. I’d buy one at £599 - even without the charger.
The iPad and Mac mini are separate product lines that don't overlap.
It's not about "altruism", just as the £199 Watch SE isn't, or the £329 iPad, or the £599 (£499 edu) Mac mini, or the £599 iPhone 16e, or the £119 AirPods 4, or the £79 Pencil USB-C, or the £99 HomePod mini etc. These lower tier products don't cannibalise anything, they just expand Apple's reach.
Apple is now able to hit that price point while maintaining its usual fat margin and high standards so why not? It's not going to cannibalise any other product category or other MacBook models, just open up the platform to more people.
Anyway, Apple has already acted "altruistically" by continuing to sell the M1 MacBook Air through 3rd parties like Walmart for so long 😛
Are there plastic laptops/Chromebooks that light?
I feel like plastic at the thickness required for Apple’s standard of durability wouldn’t save much weight over an aluminum unibody
Just looking at Apple’s hx, the polycarb unibody 2009 Macbook was 4.7 lbs. The aluminum unibody Macbook Pro the same year was lighter at 4.5 lbs
Aluminum is also more recyclable, which I think Apple really cares about
There are Windows laptops lighter than what I said (800g).
For example, this is the 14" Fujitsu FMV UX-K3 at 634g, but with carbon fiber and magnesium chassis (I said Apple could get both ends of the market, one plastic, one carbon fiber). Would be nice to pick one up.
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Yes, very altruistic. If you happen to be in a country where Walmart exists and is selling the M1. If Apple wanted to be altruistic in that way, they’d have had the M1 at that price available from themselves.
But, still, hope springs eternal. Keep hoping!
Wow - I had no idea that thing existed. It's not cheap, but it's almost half the weight of my MBA!
In Japan, most people use public transport and don't drive. So there is a market for quite a few lightweight laptops. In the USA, we only really notice the weight of a 16" MacBook Pro when we have to travel internationally and schlep it around all day. Gets old fast.
It was horrible to type on with near zero travel. In fact when Apple finally came back to their senses and went back to the tried and true scissor switch keyboard, they specifically touted "key travel" in the marketing materials back in 2020. A lot of people hated typing on these things and Apple eventually listened.
And the incredibly widespread hardware failures were not "the smallest things". WSJ literally ran an entire article loaded with examples of the typos the reporter was getting from her dying butterfly keyboard. Apple had to institute a massive special repair program for fixing millions of butterfly keyboards, which involved replacing the entire top case of the laptop (!)
So no, none of this was "overblown" in the least. The butterfly keyboard was one of Apple's biggest hardware failures ever, no question.
I had one. I wrote plenty of code and research papers on it. They replaced my keyboard after one key died. No biggie.
Then the lawyers got involved. And I got a check in the mail as well. I didn't even own the 12" MacBook, but I bought AppleCare on it. I finally returned the laptop about a year or two ago. Was sad to see it go, but it became unusably slow with software.
Sorry to disappoint, it’s not just a US thing.
You can still buy the M1 Air from Laptops Direct for £569 in the UK 😘