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

[Corefile]

If they price it wrong then it will flop. If The Price Is Right then it'll sell lots and lots.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If they price it wrong then it will flop. If The Price Is Right then it'll sell lots and lots.

(The Vision Pro and iPhone Air have entered the chat)

👀 🫣

 

[abcmax]

Why? You can get an E-ink tablet at a fraction of the cost and laptop displays are far more flexible with content. I don't believe any laptop has an E-Ink screen. Is this about battery life maybe?

That was ironic. E-ink would have allowed for further cost reductions, as it would have eliminated the screen backlight. And True Tone wouldn't have been necessary. And a smaller battery could have been used, as you said 😀

 

[Corefile]

Has anybody figured out a way to hack the new MB to install non-Apple Store apps?

 

[Tagbert]

Has anybody figured out a way to hack the new MB to install non-Apple Store apps?

Yea, you just download apps from the vendor's site. Same as any other Mac OS.

 

[platinumaqua]

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

I don't need 1TB; I want 1TB to make the machine last longer, since the SSD is not upgradeable.

I only need a computer for web browsing nowadays, so I can get away with the slowest variant CPU and save money along the way.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

You still aren't the target.

 

[Funny Apple Man]

Not for me, a bit too much compromises, the Air suits my needs.

The MacBook Air being the cheaper option is still a lot of money for many people, so I'm glad that this A18 MacBook is going to be a thing. I'd always thought a $600-700 MacBook sounds like a pipe dream but here we are and I'm all for it.

 

[Apple_Robert]

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

Some people will buy just for the color while others will buy solely because it is smaller than the MBA. It really doesn’t matter whether you understand the reasoning of others. There is no justification required for purchase.

 

[ronno]

Every M1 Mac with 8GB supports AI.

Who said 16GB was the minimum due to AI?

All iPhones received a RAM boost to... 8GB.

The M1 machines came out before Apple Intelligence was a thing.
Why do you suppose the current Airs have 16 gigs minimum??

 

[ronno]

All Macs have 16 gigs minimum RAM as of 2024 (due to AI)

All of Apple’s Macs now start with 16GB of RAM

A long overdue upgrade to Apple’s entry-level models.

www.theverge.com

 

[ronno]

but the cut off for devices to run AI has been 8GB of RAM. that is why the iPhone 15 Provwith its 8GB of RAM got Apple Intelligencebut the regular iPhone 15 with 6GB did not.

Any of the Apple Silicon Macs, even those with 8GB of RAM could run Apple Intelligence. Performance might not be ideal but frankly, a lot of people aren't going to really use AI anyway.

Doesn’t matter that it can run on old machines with 8 gigabytes. Even that is not necessarily true, as Apple Intelligence is not even working yet!!
Fact is the new machines are 16gb minimum.

 

[JPack]

The M1 machines came out before Apple Intelligence was a thing.
Why do you suppose the current Airs have 16 gigs minimum??

Apple offering more base memory doesn't mean it's required for AI. iPhone 16 introduced USB-C. Does that mean it's required for AI?

Why not just look at the Apple AI page instead of making up a reason?

Apple Intelligence and Siri

Next-generation Apple Intelligence and Siri AI bring helpful features to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27.

www.apple.com

 

[lifeinhd]

Maybe Apple will use this as an opportunity to increase the base storage option available for iCloud - from 200 GB to somewhere like 500 GB and the next highest tier from 2 TB to 3 TB

Since when is base iCloud storage 200 GB? Last I checked it was 5 GB, and then the lowest paid tier was 50 GB.

Either way, they're very unlikely to increase it for free given the current storage cost environment.

 

[Arran]

…No way it only has 8GB of RAM and/or 128GB of storage. Everything is about AI now, and Apple won’t sell anything that can’t be advertised as great at Apple Intelligence…

The AI will live in the cloud, not on the machine. Budget buyers won’t care.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I think this new MacBook is aimed specifically at replacing the Chromebook. It will be aimed at Grade 7-12 education users.

 

[Tagbert]

Doesn’t matter that it can run on old machines with 8 gigabytes. Even that is not necessarily true, as Apple Intelligence is not even working yet!!
Fact is the new machines are 16gb minimum.

I hope that they come with 16GB of RAM but I don’t think that it is required. The question is, with current RAM prices, will Apple keep the price low by keeping the RAM down or will they bump up the RAM and raise the price to the point that people will just buy an MBA instead or will they sacrifice profit margins to bring the RAM and keep the price competitive ?

 

[Vincent Hanna]

The AI will live in the cloud, not on the machine. Budget buyers won’t care.

No, Apple's stated policy and strategy is to run as much AI on device as possible. Not all of it, of course, that's what Private Cloud Compute is for, but as much as possible. It's core privacy differentiator with their competitors. 8GB RAM Macs are gone forever.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

I hope that they come with 16GB of RAM but I don’t think that it is required. The question is, with current RAM prices, will Apple keep the price low by keeping the RAM down or will they bump up the RAM and raise the price to the point that people will just buy an MBA instead or will they sacrifice profit margins to bring the RAM and keep the price competitive ?

Whichever they do, the price delta between the MacBook and MacBook Airs will be maintained. Therefore, the new MacBook will always have a huge market of people who buy on price.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I think this new MacBook is aimed specifically at replacing the Chromebook. It will be aimed at Grade 7-12 education users.

My daughter had to rent a Chromebook from school when she was between 15 and 17. The way it works is this: the school buys them and they rent them out to students for a few years. My guess is that those Chromebooks are written off after a few years and the school buys new ones.

No one of the students liked them. She brought it home on a few occasions. Have you seen one? This one oozed “plastic” and it has a powerbrick the size of Manhattan.

There is nothing desirable about a Chromebook. I don’t know which version she had or how expensive it was but price wise Apple’s new laptop will never compete. Many schools are up to their neck in financial struggles so even if this laptop is only €200 more than a Chromebook … multiply that by a few dozen and that is too big an expense for school.

The reason schools buy Chromebooks is because they are dirt cheap and they need to be expendable because they get banged around a lot. The software needs to be the absolute minimum because no one in a school has time to spend on it.

I also don’t think that Apple has any intention to setup a backend with school software etc. like Google does.

This new laptop might make the price gap with Chromebooks smaller but replacing Chromebooks is not the idea - I think.

 

[spac3duck]

What you've described are extreme corner cases. To put it simply, it's the wrong tool for the job.

Offering a 1TB or 2TB option isn't just plug and play. Those higher capacity NAND chips are physically larger by a couple mm which affects the logic board design. All for what? The 1 in 100,000 people who want that storage capacity?

You’re dreaming if you feel people who would want to play games, make creative projects or run VMs on a lightweight and super portable machine are considered “edge cases”.

And, what makes you think that the company who make an iPhone 17 Pro with a 2TB HDD within a 6.9” phone, could not factor in the future capability of up to 2TB in a 12” Laptop?

 

[darkblu]

My daughter had to rent a Chromebook from school when she was between 15 and 17. The way it works is this: the school buys them and they rent them out to students for a few years. My guess is that those Chromebooks are written off after a few years and the school buys new ones.

No one of the students liked them. She brought it home on a few occasions. Have you seen one? This one oozed “plastic” and it has a powerbrick the size of Manhattan.

There is nothing desirable about a Chromebook. I don’t know which version she had or how expensive it was but price wise Apple’s new laptop will never compete. Many schools are up to their neck in financial struggles so even if this laptop is only €200 more than a Chromebook … multiply that by a few dozen and that is too big an expense for school.

The reason schools buy Chromebooks is because they are dirt cheap and they need to be expendable because they get banged around a lot. The software needs to be the absolute minimum because no one in a school has time to spend on it.

I also don’t think that Apple has any intention to setup a backend with school software etc. like Google does.

This new laptop might make the price gap with Chromebooks smaller but replacing Chromebooks is not the idea - I think.

I had to make the exact same argument several threads ago, when people were insisting the new 12-inch would compete with chromebooks in schools. It won't. What it will compete with, though, is the chromebook plus category, which, low and behold, is not used in schools for the reasons you just outlined. The chromebook plus is for financially-independent people, who still would appreciate a decent-ish hw with a non-imposing sw side. And this is precisely where Apple are aiming at with this new device. The hw is decent, and if customers can live with chromeOS, they may also be able to live with macOS. Time will tell.

 

[spac3duck]

Multiple OSes? Audio plug-ins? C'mon, these are not entry-level users. These people are welcome to buy a $1399 MacBook Air with a proper M5 chip, which is the machine they should be getting anyway.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and it’s dismissive and belittling to claim someone must buy a higher-spec machine just to explore creative projects or learn cybersecurity using VMs.

 

[JPack]

You’re dreaming if you feel people who would want to play games, make creative projects or run VMs on a lightweight and super portable machine are considered “edge cases”.

And, what makes you think that the company who make an iPhone 17 Pro with a 2TB HDD within a 6.9” phone, could not factor in the future capability of up to 2TB in a 12” Laptop?

You answered your own question. Why do you think iPhone 16e doesn't have a 2TB or even 1TB option?

Apple serves the mass market, not the weird edge cases you describe.

 

[spac3duck]

You answered your own question. Why do you think iPhone 16e doesn't have a 2TB or even 1TB option?

Apple serves the mass market, not the weird edge cases you describe.

You think gaming and creative projects are edge cases? Right….

The mass market buy a ton of external HDDs because they want and need the extra capacity. “Offering” (read - not forcing) the option of more storage space enables the end user to buy that storage directly from Apple. That in itself ‘could’ prove financially beneficial to Apple by controlling that buyer decision and directing their funds to Apple instead of a third party.

Will it appeal to everyone? No. (Eg those who want external back ups etc)