New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599

[JSRinUK]

I don’t believe for a moment this will be the same price as a Mac mini.

If it is £599, I’ll probably buy one even though I definitely don’t need it. Or maybe wait a year til it’s on Apple refurb for almost £499.

My only real requirement would be a decent battery life.

 

[Siliconguy]

Would I be interested in an A18 laptop? I have a base M1 Air and I am not CPU bound at all. The A18 should be fine. I have no thunderbolt accessories so not having thunderbolt is not a problem. 8 GB RAM is tighter than it used to be but MacOS should be due for a slimming down as the rest of the Intel code is dumped. As long as I can run Libreoffice without swapping to storage then I'm fine.

What I would like is an extra USB port on the right side of the case and more storage. No, external storage is not a good answer for a laptop. Battery life should be all day of course, at least as good as the M1 Air.

Icing on the cake would be full disclosure of the hardware specifications so Linux can be properly supported. The M1 has been out for nearly five years and Apple still has not released the details needed. If Tahoe is not the last supported OS for M1 then 27 certainly will be and this M1 has years of life left.

 

[ricketysquire]

This should be the "One More Thing" at the keynote. The most affordable MacBook ever. Crushes the battery life and performance of all cheap laptops.

 

[tipoo]

Hmm. I figured the most likely thing is keeping the M1 air chassis which is super amortized and the display panel as well. I thought $649, same as the walmart MBA. If it's "shockingly affordable" as well as uses a new 12.9" display meaning probably a new chassis and design, I wonder what other price cuts will be in there.

 

[Macalway]

All depends on how light it is. If it's in the 2.2 lbs range, it would be on my radar. I used to really like the smaller, lighter MacBooks, so it would be wonderful if these returned (with a full size screen, no less)

Yes I'm a dreamer.

 

[victorvictoria]

Wonder if it will be offered with cellular? 🤣 🤣 🤣

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm going to temper my enthusiasm on this one until I see what it actually is.

I have a feeling we are getting a little overexcited on what the value prop here might turn out to be in reality.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

I don't like it . I feel it's going to make regular macs more expensive, slowly but surely

 

[ignatius345]

If this is truly an ultralight Mac in the style of the 12" Retina MacBook, I would potentially be on board, so long as it has a functioning keyboard this time.

From my point of view, if they could deliver an ultra-portable with
- decent display
- good keyboard
- 8+ hours of real world battery life

I'm willing to take hits to
- RAM
- SSD
- ports

All those latter features, I have well covered on my M4 Air. But it doesn't have a "forget if it's in my backpack or not" form factor. It's pretty light, but I also always know its there.

I really wanted to love the Retina MacBook, but that keyboard borked the whole value proposition for me because I couldn't stand typing on it.

 

[ignatius345]

I don't like it . I feel it's going to make regular macs more expensive, slowly but surely

Do you mean that the Air gets pushed up a notch into the $1200 area? I could imagine that. Still, though, the prices of Macs have been falling for 15 years now and I don't see that changing too much.

I think the way Apple works these days, they make money every time anyone gets brought on board with a new device because they buy apps and iCloud services. So I think it's in their interest to keep hardware prices fairly competitive.

 

[apparatchik]

I would love to be wrong but I do not believe one second that the company that charges desktop wheels and monitor stands for close to $1k and still continue to charge atrociously expansive upgrade on RAM / Storage on macbooks will canibalize its MBAs which sell pretty well with someing lower end at 599. 599 is just too competitive, Timmy wants a juicy margin. 799 maybe but 599 is copium
Once again I would love to be wrong but you don't become a trillion dollar company by canibalizing your product line.

You do know they sell an M4 16GB RAM Mac Mini for $500, right?

 

[turbineseaplane]

I don't like it . I feel it's going to make regular macs more expensive, slowly but surely

Nearly always the ultimate goal - yep!
Sort of like bumping up the starting price for iPhones with the move from SE3 to 16e.

 

[visualseed]

I have long said I'd buy a 12" MacBook even today and even if the only thing they did was add an M1 processor and kept everything else the same. Even the keyboard, VGA webcam, and single port.

 

[Plerf]

I would love to be wrong but I do not believe one second that the company that charges desktop wheels and monitor stands for close to $1k and still continue to charge atrociously expansive upgrade on RAM / Storage on macbooks will canibalize its MBAs which sell pretty well with someing lower end at 599. 599 is just too competitive, Timmy wants a juicy margin. 799 maybe but 599 is copium
Once again I would love to be wrong but you don't become a trillion dollar company by canibalizing your product line.

The trick is to make it compelling enough, but limited enough, that spending $200-300 more suddenly seems cost-savvy.

Introduced at $699, but for “only” $200 more, you get 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. And only for another $100, you can get the “much better” MBA.

You’ll pay $1000 bucks buying a $700 laptop and convince yourself you’re being a savvy customer. 😂

 

[turbineseaplane]

The trick is to make it compelling enough, but limited enough, that spending $200-300 more suddenly seems cost-savvy.

Coming up on HGTV at 8ET/5PT it's "Cooking with Tim!"

 

[ThatsMeRight]

Wouldn’t this heavily cannibalize MacBook Air sales?

 

[azwindmill]

Apple has been selling M1 Air on Walmart at $599 for a long time. Why would people get excited for a $599 MacBook with an iPhone chip?

 

[mjs916]

Apple's rumored new more affordable MacBook could have a starting price as low as $599 and launch as soon as this year, according to a new report out of Asia.

We first learned of Apple's low-cost MacBook plans in late June, when analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company was developing a "more affordable" 13-inch laptop (the analyst did not mention a price) that would with compete with Chromebooks and drive MacBook purchases.

Kuo said the new MacBook is set to use an A18 Pro chip, which debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. That would make it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. So far, all Apple silicon Macs have used M-series chips, which feature more cores, greater memory capacity, and improved external display support.

The analyst said he expected the model to enter mass production late in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026. Today, DigiTimes has independently corroborated Kuo's prediction and suggested that the MacBook will start between $599 and $699. The current 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 in the U.S. (or $899 under Apple's student discount).

Today's report adds that the laptop will have a 12.9-inch display, making it slightly smaller than the MacBook Air's 13.6-inch screen. DigiTimes reports that some components are expected to enter mass production by the end of the third quarter of 2025 – a schedule that could see full system assembly begin before the end of the year.

Final assembly is expected to take place at Quanta's facilities in the fourth quarter, with the laptop becoming commercially available in late 2025 or early 2026, similar to Kuo's launch estimation.

According to market projections, annual shipments of the low-cost MacBook could reach between 5 million and 7 million units, potentially boosting Apple's total MacBook volume from the current 17 million to 18 million units by 30% to 40%.

Kuo believes the more-affordable MacBook will feature an ultra-thin, lightweight design and could come in Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow finishes.

One thing to bear in mind is that the A18 Pro chip lacks Thunderbolt support, so the new MacBook would likely be equipped with regular USB-C ports. But that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker for customers seeking the most affordable Mac they can get their hands on. Would you be interested in such a laptop? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599

As a consumer I don’t think I have a need for this myself. (I could always use lower prices but not for the trade-offs here).

The education market has Chromebooks, Surface and iPad so perhaps this is another option for schools, but they don’t compete on cost when compared to the others.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I expect the new MacBook to have 256 GB of local storage and 16 GB of RAM standard, using a modified A18 Pro SoC. It will have WiFi 6E (extended 802.11ax) support and possibly USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 gigabits/second support for external storage.

 

[visualseed]

Apple has been selling M1 Air on Walmart at $599 for a long time. Why would people get excited for a $599 MacBook with an iPhone chip?

Smaller form factor would do it for me. I loved my 12" MacBook despite its performance limitations. Stick an Apple Silicon chip in it and I would buy it again without hesitation.

 

[Dotty...]

Apple's rumored new more affordable MacBook could have a starting price as low as $599 and launch as soon as this year, according to a new report out of Asia.

We first learned of Apple's low-cost MacBook plans in late June, when analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company was developing a "more affordable" 13-inch laptop (the analyst did not mention a price) that would with compete with Chromebooks and drive MacBook purchases.

Kuo said the new MacBook is set to use an A18 Pro chip, which debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. That would make it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. So far, all Apple silicon Macs have used M-series chips, which feature more cores, greater memory capacity, and improved external display support.

The analyst said he expected the model to enter mass production late in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026. Today, DigiTimes has independently corroborated Kuo's prediction and suggested that the MacBook will start between $599 and $699. The current 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 in the U.S. (or $899 under Apple's student discount).

Today's report adds that the laptop will have a 12.9-inch display, making it slightly smaller than the MacBook Air's 13.6-inch screen. DigiTimes reports that some components are expected to enter mass production by the end of the third quarter of 2025 – a schedule that could see full system assembly begin before the end of the year.

Final assembly is expected to take place at Quanta's facilities in the fourth quarter, with the laptop becoming commercially available in late 2025 or early 2026, similar to Kuo's launch estimation.

According to market projections, annual shipments of the low-cost MacBook could reach between 5 million and 7 million units, potentially boosting Apple's total MacBook volume from the current 17 million to 18 million units by 30% to 40%.

Kuo believes the more-affordable MacBook will feature an ultra-thin, lightweight design and could come in Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow finishes.

One thing to bear in mind is that the A18 Pro chip lacks Thunderbolt support, so the new MacBook would likely be equipped with regular USB-C ports. But that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker for customers seeking the most affordable Mac they can get their hands on. Would you be interested in such a laptop? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599

 

[tenthousandthings]

Wonder if it will be offered with cellular? 🤣 🤣 🤣

Not at $599, but the product doesn’t make sense without cellular (Apple C1) as an option.

It’s surprising you and I are the only two people so far to mention this. It will set off intense speculation about M5 Air and Pro.

 

[Tagbert]

M2 would been more reasonable.

... and slower. Why use the M2?

 

[ph001bi]

Apple's rumored new more affordable MacBook could have a starting price as low as $599 and launch as soon as this year, according to a new report out of Asia.

We first learned of Apple's low-cost MacBook plans in late June, when analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company was developing a "more affordable" 13-inch laptop (the analyst did not mention a price) that would with compete with Chromebooks and drive MacBook purchases.

Kuo said the new MacBook is set to use an A18 Pro chip, which debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. That would make it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. So far, all Apple silicon Macs have used M-series chips, which feature more cores, greater memory capacity, and improved external display support.

The analyst said he expected the model to enter mass production late in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early in the first quarter of 2026. Today, DigiTimes has independently corroborated Kuo's prediction and suggested that the MacBook will start between $599 and $699. The current 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 in the U.S. (or $899 under Apple's student discount).

Today's report adds that the laptop will have a 12.9-inch display, making it slightly smaller than the MacBook Air's 13.6-inch screen. DigiTimes reports that some components are expected to enter mass production by the end of the third quarter of 2025 – a schedule that could see full system assembly begin before the end of the year.

Final assembly is expected to take place at Quanta's facilities in the fourth quarter, with the laptop becoming commercially available in late 2025 or early 2026, similar to Kuo's launch estimation.

According to market projections, annual shipments of the low-cost MacBook could reach between 5 million and 7 million units, potentially boosting Apple's total MacBook volume from the current 17 million to 18 million units by 30% to 40%.

Kuo believes the more-affordable MacBook will feature an ultra-thin, lightweight design and could come in Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow finishes.

One thing to bear in mind is that the A18 Pro chip lacks Thunderbolt support, so the new MacBook would likely be equipped with regular USB-C ports. But that's unlikely to be a deal-breaker for customers seeking the most affordable Mac they can get their hands on. Would you be interested in such a laptop? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599

It all sounds very exciting until you read DigiTimes. At this point you know it’s nowhere near accurate and this is pure conjecture.

 

[macbookj0e]

I hope it has the same chassis as the 2015 12” MacBook, just with a few more ports/magsafe.