I know Apple's making some bank in the PC market, but I kinda wish they'd offer a cheaper MacBook too. Maybe an 11" MacBook Air M1 for $700 US. They could capture more PC market share at that price point, and down the road many of those purchasers would want to move to a larger screen Mac.
They are certainly first and foremost consolidating their changeover to Apple Silicon now. If they see paths towards increased market share that way without compromising their profitability with their new processors they have new options to actually go where PC manufacturers can't, but I wouldn't expect them to be in a rush yet.
I think they tried going down that path with the single port MacBook.
I'm not so sure: It was a "lighter than Air" machine and actually with a Retina screen, so arguably better quality – basically a "luxury Air", only let down by the completely crappy Intel CPUs.
So the 12"
should actually have been a premium product from several of its features but the Intel CPUs made it impossible to sell it at such prices. I don't think it was ever conceived as an extra-cheap product!
With Apple Silicon I wouldn't be surprised if they continued offering previous-generation Airs at bargain prices to round out their price range on the bottom, though, the way they're doing now with the M1 Air.
I hear you but consider that some people buy both Macs and PCs... so one mac sold is not necessarily at the expense of a PC.
People buy either of those because they need / want them, and usually one
or the other, not both at the same time, at least.
The relationship between Mac and PC (for some customers) is not either/or... it's both. I have both a PC and a Mac (I prefer the Mac, but I still need a PC).
In by far most cases when people are looking for a new computer it's an
either / or affair.
Also, many Apple Silicon mac purchases are from people who already owned older Intel macs, and are finally upgrading.
Again instead of replacing their Intel Mac with a PC, which is the obvious alternative.
While others are replacing their aging PC with a new Mac.
It is not an exact zero-sum game, but the two sales figures
do very much relate to each other: Both are computers which can be used for mostly the same purposes. Denying that is really a bit out there.
And finally, Apple isn't the number one laptop vendor, some like Dell, Lenovo, etc. are still ahead in terms of sales.
No, but they are
one of the biggest by numbers, and by very far the
most profitable computer manufacturer (when looking just at the Mac business, excluding iPhone etc.), and all that profit gets sucked out of the premium segments of the PC competitors, which is a critical threat to them, because they make little to no profit from the bulk of their sales, but only through accessories, services and "crapware" (Microsoft's(!) term for the junk that's being packed on shipping PCs by manufacturers).