Report: Low-Cost iPhone, iPad, MacBook Coming Early 2026

[Apple Fan 2008]

It’s hard to imagine this starting at more than 600$, unless the base MacBook Air gets a price hike.

If they raised the price of the Air by like $100 but also added ProMotion and more base storage, I wouldn't mind so much.

 

[ChrisMac47]

you know what would be the cheapest entry iphone could be?

iphone se '22 form factor (with home button+touchid) with upgraded specs!

do iiitttt!!

YESSSS! And at $399 and the equivalent outside the US, it would take iOS market share worldwide above 50%. Apple would also sell more Services to those new users, a win-win for everyone.

 

[lapstags]

A18 instead of A19 seems peculiar. But presuming it is A18 - where would that put it against an M1 or M2? I suppose M1 speeds are absolutely fine for a budget machine - but how much RAM does an A18 support? I'm going with $599 / £599 and the fun colours being the selling point. Although if they can market it at $499 / £499 that would be HIGHLY tempting to parents and make a lot of headlines.

They put the a18 in the base iPad next year and I think they will put the a18 in the appletv as well. Probably saves money

 

[MacAttack2024]

Do not understand creating a new device (phone) for this price point, just lower the price of the 2yr old model and keep selling, add some colors to keep fresh. No new development or production cost changes and the customer doesn't feel like they are getting some cheap crap. This years pro at 1099, last years at 899, and the year before at 699; cover all your price points without sacrificing content or premium features.

 

[delsoul]

That new MacBook will sell like hotcakes as long as Apple marketing doesn’t blow it like they did with the Vision Pro, iPhone Air, etc. Sadly, Apple marketing seems to be on a roll lately and not a good one.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

A18 instead of A19 seems peculiar. But presuming it is A18 - where would that put it against an M1 or M2? I suppose M1 speeds are absolutely fine for a budget machine - but how much RAM does an A18 support? I'm going with $599 / £599 and the fun colours being the selling point. Although if they can market it at $499 / £499 that would be HIGHLY tempting to parents and make a lot of headlines.

A18 Pro: 8gb RAM. Geekbench 3442 single-core, 8596 multicore
M1: varying RAM, Geekbench 2346 single-core, 8346 multicore

Single core speed is what drives most of the performance for normies (basic UI, web browsing). 50% boost is yuge.

At 8gb RAM, won't be great for “Apple Intelligence”; purely speculative need as far as I'm concerned.

I'm telling all my normy friends on 12-year-old 11" Intel Airs to budget for one next year, and getting one myself as a "burner".

 

[Eric_WVGG]

That new MacBook will sell like hotcakes as long as Apple marketing doesn’t blow it like they did with the Vision Pro, iPhone Air, etc. Sadly, Apple marketing seems to be on a roll lately and not a good one.

no amount of the best marketing in the world could have made Vision Pro a successful consumer product

It's more of a dev kit for some future mainstream Apple product

 

[rp2011]

Great timing for Apple. A lot of folks that would need an affordable computer would not only be getting just that, but the best of the best not just as an affordable quality device, but software wise as well. Especially as the Windows operating system is an absolute disaster right now. Great timing for Google and their upcoming Android desktop/laptop operating system as well. Perfect time to move away from Windows as there are more. and far better options today.

 

[Biro]

A very stripped down MacBook selling for $700-900 will be a tough sell when you can currently pay $749 for the current base MacBook Air and still get an M4 chip, 16GB memory, etc. At least until that stripped down model sees its own discount to get it close to $499.

That’s why many believe the rumors that put the price of the A18/A19 MacBook at $599. I have a MacBook Pro but a $599 offering would cause me to pick one up to replace a 13-inch iPad Air with Magic Keyboard.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

Another way of looking at it is, Apple isn't really breaking into a new market here: The M1 Macbook Air is still on sale at Walmart for $599.

That has to end some day, it's probably already cheaper to make A18 Pro chips that M1 chips. The nice notch screen of the modern Air is probably still too expensive to meet that price point, so the M2 Air isn't going to fill that void. So something new will.

So yeah, this is just the new Walmart Macbook. It might even use the same damn Intel Air chassis (that would be a bummer). But the $599 price point looks very possible.

 

[richinaus]

no amount of the best marketing in the world could have made Vision Pro a successful consumer product

It's more of a dev kit for some future mainstream Apple product

this is precisely what it is and for very early adopters.

The absolute opposite in fact of cheaper mainstream consumer hardware.

 

[Biro]

Not sure, but isn't that $749 Air deal something that is on for this week only?

Hard to compare an exceptionally low but temporary price for one device with the normal base price for another device.

No, $799 has been the going price for the base MBA for many months - everywhere but Apple itself, of course. The price dropped to $749 at Amazon, Best Buy and Costco (and possibly other places) a couple of weeks ago. I suspect it may last at least through Christmas. Who knows? Maybe until the M5 MBA comes out in the spring.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

Ten years ago, a “sale” on any kind of Apple product was unheard of. Even on iPods. My understanding was that retailers were even contractually obligated not to discount them, because pricing is part of the Apple marketing strategy.

Curious what changed. Strategy, or was there some antitrust thing that flew under the radar?

 

[FlyingDutch]

Agreed. Apple needs a proper low cost model, say $349 or better $299, which would grow their iOS market share outside the US. You can buy very nice Android phones in the EU for less than €250, they are well-built phones, but the downside is they run Android!

Well, I’m not really expecting an €250 Apple’s product, to be honest, but a €499 iPhone would be a real “low cost model”.

€700 in Apple terms is low cost product

Nope. There is NO low cost product , even in Apple’s terms, and they know it.

Do carriers there ever have sales on them? You can often find it here (US) for $200, or close to it, on prepaid and without a contact. I’ve seen postpaid have them for zero without a trade-in.

I suspect few people actually pay the Apple retail price for it.

Not in the same way it happens in US. In EU most of the times you just can have an installment plan for your iPhone, if you are lucky at a slightly discounted price (but often not even that…).

 

[Tagbert]

I seriously wonder how Apple is going to position this in terms of what apps it can run tho - surely MacOS isn't going to be a pleasant experience on an A18-19 SoC unless it's cut down, and on the flip side, if it runs iPadOS, well it's just an iPad with built-in keyboard and trackpad.

We all assume this is aimed at the low-end and education markets so that it competes against cheap Windows S notebooks and especially Chromebooks, but I feel an identity crisis coming as we all know Apple isn't going to shove these out at the $300 price point they should be going for.

The A18 pro chip is faster than the M1 chip in single-core and as fast in multi-core. Mac OS apps will run just fine. These are not crippled machines.

 

[TruthAboveAllElse]

Gonna place a bet: They're going to kill the M1 Macbook Air for $599/699 (for Walmart) and swap it for this A18 Macbook at $599/699ish.

Agreed. And we will see much less frequent discounting of MacBook Air models in general.

I've wondered this, whether the cheap model might not make it to the Apple stores and only be available via a few retailers.

Never going to happen. That only happens because the M1 is an older model. They will probably kill the M1 like kotaKat speculated, but there's no way the new more affordable option will be only sold through discount channels.

 

[ksec]

$799 Macbook, A18 Pro with 12GB Memory, 256GB NAND.

$999 MacBook Air, M5, 16GB Memory, 256GB NAND.

$1599 MacBook Pro never quite make sense to me, You are paying $600 for extra 256GB NAND, better screen and two more port. I would have thought it should be $1399.

Actually I am thinking if they will keep the M4 MacBook Air at $899, this give them room for MacBook A18 Pro at $699.

 

[svish]

Think these new devices will be launched in April 2026. Don’t know how many will buy the low cost MacBook if it is priced above $699, especially when MacBook Air 13” can be had at significant discounts. Think if it is priced at $699 and maybe $599 for education, it can be a successful product.

 

[The Game 161]

Smart of Apple to keep releasing from different price points

 

[navaira]

My guess is that M5 Air and base MBP M5 will get double the storage space and the price will go up by $100 when the new MacBook is introduced. With the current Air dropping to $749 when it’s on sale they can’t release a lower-powered laptop for $799.

 

[Downundermac]

Rather buy a one or two year old refurbished pro model of any Apple.

 

[Warped9]

The MacBook Air doesn’t have to go up in price even if they make 512gb standard. And it shouldn’t and likely won’t given the current market. All they need do is price the new entry MacBook right and drop the deep sales cuts with Amazon and Walmart in the U.S. (those don’t exist in Walmart and Amazon in Canada).

Ideally the forthcoming 17e should be reduced $100, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it.

If the base 12th gen iPad gets a decent spec update while holding price it will remain a good value. If, as rumoured, they actually drop the price it’ll be a great value and could hurt the Android tablet market particularly Samsung.

C’mon Apple, do it right. And make it sweeter by bringing these in January/February.

 

[Falhófnir]

If an M4 (soon to be M5) MacBook Air with 16 GB of memory starts at 1000$ (900$ for edu), a meaningfully worse MacBook would have to be AT LEAST several hundred dollars less expensive—or even cheaper if it also has its own spec upgrade options.

It’s hard to imagine this starting at more than 600$, unless the base MacBook Air gets a price hike.

It's just how Apple product lineups work, the base A18 MacBook might look tempting, but will have a major compromise (8GB RAM?) which will make you look at paying the extra $200 to upgrade it to 16GB, but once you add that $200 the Air will look like a far better option for just $100 more, and so on and so forth.

 

[Biro]

Rather buy a one or two year old refurbished pro model of any Apple.

That’s an understandable opinion. And, in fact, the value in a base MBA at $749 is extremely hard to beat. For many, that base MBA is still the way to go. If one is in the market and doesn’t already own another Mac (or one’s current Mac is ready for retirement), I urge them to act now. But in a case like mine - where I already own an M4 Pro MacBook Pro, I’m not not looking for another device to do heavy lifting. What’s got me focused on this new MacBook are reports that indicate it will be a bit lighter and thinner even than the MBA. If that turns out to be true, it will replace my clunky 13-inch iPad Air with Magic Keyboard. I’ve posted this before. But I repeat it to remind others that everyone’s use case is different. This new MacBook will appeal to many different people for different reasons.

 

[SFjohn]

Can’t really imagine lower cost hardware selling well for Apple…🤷