Leaker Says Apple's Lower-Cost MacBook Will Have These 8 Limitations

[Apple_Robert]

out of the entire list, the only things that give me pause are no 1tb and no backlit keyboard. The rest I can live with

If 1TB is mandatory for you, you aren't the target.

 

[darkblu]

right? Im thinking 'good, good, Fine, no problem... I dont see an issue.. I want a replacement for my 2017 MB retina. my 16" and 14" can do the heavy lifting, I want thin and light with tons of battery life, with macOS for travel.

Ditto, I'm totally interested in this. The only deal breaker for me would be no multi-screen extensibility to an external monitor.

 

[Apple.Fanatic]

Unsure what the MSRP will actually be, but that is a lot of compromises when the Air exists and is always heavily discounted to what is likely to be near the MSRP of this. This product feels like an enterprise and education-only type of product.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

Why do people insist on comparing the discounted price of Product A to the retail price of Product B?

This might shock you, but Product B will get discounted too....

 

[macfacts]

So the "low cost macbook" is a chromebook competitor. That's pretty much what we all expected anyway isn't it? 🤷‍♂️

so the only reason to buy this is the apple logo?!

 

[Apple_Robert]

so the only reason to buy this is the apple logo?!

He didn't say any such thing.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I guess I'm just a little confused as to why this will take off, but the dirt cheap M1 MBA at Walmart didn't?

Are we hanging it all on Apple selling it and not just shoving it into the Walmart supply chain?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I guess I'm just a little confused as to why this will take off, but the dirt cheap M1 MBA at Walmart didn't?

Are we hanging it all on Apple selling it and not just shoving it into the Walmart supply chain?

Too many "ifs" involved at this point, for people here to be saying the MacBook will be a hit. A bright color can only do so much.

 

[Howard2k]

I like the sound of this. I won't buy one, but the positioning makes sense to me.

 

[Howard2k]

I guess I'm just a little confused as to why this will take off, but the dirt cheap M1 MBA at Walmart didn't?

Are we hanging it all on Apple selling it and not just shoving it into the Walmart supply chain?

I think so.

The Walmart thing is limited to both Walmart AND the US, so this allows them to expand to other distributors and other countries, leveraging what they learned from the M1 MacBook Air Walmart experiment. There are people who want the Apple experience and ecosystem but don't need a MacBook Air for either performance or price. This is for them.

I will say that for me a backlit keyboard is mandatory. I won't be buying one, but again I see that people might.

 

[Arran]

This is what jumped out at me and is consistent with my pricing projections.

Just two configurations: 16/256 for $799, and 16/512 for $999. No RAM upgrades, no build-to-order for Apple to manage, just two SKUs in four colors that they ship out "as is" to all the stores. If one color is less popular, Apple makes a little less of them until the channel equalizes.

Want a 1TB hard drive? That'll be in a $1399 MacBook Air. Just as before, no price increase.

I agree with you on everything but pricing. I'm thinking it has to be more along the lines of 8/128 for $399 or 8/256 for $499 if it's going to create a new segment for "brand-new" Apple laptops.

Anything above that (before hitting Airs) is already addressed by "certified" refurbs of old models (either Apple Certified or others such as BBY Geek Squad Certified)

I know that sounds a bit low, but Apple can recoup that with a montly AppleCare sub that'll be pure profit as the machine itself will be so stripped-down there won't be much to go wrong.

 

[NewOldStock]

Is this the Laptop of the 90`s we were supposed to get when we bought a new car?
Oh there was a glut of laptops back then and still is and desktops too.
Why a glut because they still cost too much.

 

[macfacts]

He didn't say any such thing.

with all these limitations, what is the reason to buy it?

 

[Tagbert]

Is this the Laptop of the 90`s we were supposed to get when we bought a new car?
Oh there was a glut of laptops back then and still is and desktops too.
Why a glut because they still cost too much.

In the 90’s laptops were still quite rare. Hardly a glut. Most people were still getting desktop. Were those also a glut? Sounds confusing.

 

[McNoise]

They all make sense. Internally, this is almost a low-cost iPad redesigned for a MacBook. Nobody buying this is really going to effectively use 1TB storage or 16GB of RAM.

Effectively, a mobile device equipped with plenty of SSD storage is ideal for backing up photos/videos when travelling or similar. I recently bought a 13" iPad Air for this purpose... it's a little lighter than the MB Air.

iPadOS will run on the new MacBook. That seems logical to me, because Apple certainly didn't expand the desktop features of iPadOS just to appeal to iPad keyboard users or the few iPad mouse users out there. 😉

It will probably be a kind of Google Chromebook from Apple, in which Apple's intelligence also plays an important role.
The price is also right – Lenovo's Chromebook Plus, for example, is listed at $749.😉

 

[Thehangmn]

I think this is going to be big for Apple. It could really bring them back into the education market. Especially if they do good tools for educators and their IT teams.

 

[baconcat_8964]

All depends on how much this "low-cost MacBook" actually costs.

If it's cheap enough, those won't be bothered. But if it priced like iPhone 16e, those will be big NOs.

 

[jonasen]

If it’s a 12” I’d get one for portability. If it’s the normal 13” I see no point in it.

 

[JPack]

Effectively, a mobile device equipped with plenty of SSD storage is ideal for backing up photos/videos when travelling or similar. I recently bought a 13" iPad Air for this purpose... it's a little lighter than the MB Air.

No, a portable USB-C SSD is ideal for backing up photos. Or simply uploading to cloud storage.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

with all these limitations, what is the reason to buy it?

Because you’ll get a decent device from a company that doesn’t sell your data to make a living.

And it runs an OS that doesn’t require a virus scanner subscription because it’s leaky as a sieve, despite being on the market for +30 years.

 

[OGdrknight]

$599 still feels to expensive for all these limitations. $499 should’ve been the target entry point if they wanted to competitive with Chrome books that $200-$300.

 

[vgmrm]

128 GB for education? If 256 GB is already insufficient for that market!

 

[darthbane2k]

128 GB for education? If 256 GB is already insufficient for that market!

Perhaps like a Chromebook, the focus will be cloud. The iWorks suite is available via iCloud right?

 

[germinator]

The storage limitation is really bad. I don't care much for the others, but not having at least 1 TB is kind of a deal breaker. What about RAM?

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Or… give people the option to pay for the extra 1TB or 2TB if they want to or have the money.

Very happy to have the base specs there to keep the cost absolutely as low as possible to compete with Chromebooks.

However, there are use cases for people looking to extend their ecosystem with a lightweight laptop that have significant HDD requirements ie running multiple OS, large gaming files, audio plugins, photo libraries. Ideally this would be achieved without the need for external dongles and HDDs.

I think, if someone is looking for a MacBook to use for audio plug-ins, gaming libraries and running multiple operating systems, the one based off of the iPhone chip at $699 probably isn’t the one they should be looking at.
Additionally, assuming Apple keeps its regular pricing structure, if the 256 GB MacBook is $699, Then the 512 GB MacBook is $899.
Which would put a one terabyte above the MacBook Air, and the 2 TB within MacBook Pro range, and at that point it has no reason for being. Just go with a MacBook Air or pro.