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Today's Apple Event New Macbooks conjencture: a surprising price

C

Casimono

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 27, 2009
41
7
Hi folks,

here's a guess what will happen at tonights Apple event: Apple will announce MacBooks that start at just $500. That's lower than Macbooks have been for the last 20 years.

Why?
Well first of all MacBooks are now very similar to iPads, and you know how low they can price these.

But there is also the matter of the iPhone SE 2. Which sells a very low price. Why would Apple do that? There is a fundamental change of strategy at Apple: the focus is now about selling services. Selling more services is more important than selling high-priced items. What sells more services? Cheaper iPhones, that's why the iPhone SE 2 has that price.

And you know what also sells more services? Cheaper Macs.

Let me know what you think!

Casimono
 
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They definitely will not do that. The 16" may come down closer to the 13"'s starting price, since it has gotten so astronomically high, but I do not believe you will see even the lowest-end Mac notebook go below $999. Maybe $899 for the Air, but you have to understand that the 11" and 12.9" iPad Pros start at $799 and $999, respectively.
 
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$500 seems quite low but I agree, I think it's possible we will see a sub $1k MacBook.
 
Well, I am sure if Apple would release a $500 laptop, and the specs were not total doggie do, they would sell as many as they could produce...!
 
Casimono said:
Hi folks,

here's a guess what will happen at tonights Apple event: Apple will announce MacBooks that start at just $500. That's lower than Macbooks have been for the last 20 years.

Why?
Well first of all MacBooks are now very similar to iPads, and you know how low they can price these.

But there is also the matter of the iPhone SE 2. Which sells a very low price. Why would Apple do that? There is a fundamental change of strategy at Apple: the focus is now about selling services. Selling more services is more important than selling high-priced items. What sells more services? Cheaper iPhones, that's why the iPhone SE 2 has that price.

And you know what also sells more services? Cheaper Macs.

Let me know what you think!

Casimono
Click to expand...
I think there's a zero percent chance this happens... That is way too low... I don't know what the production costs are but I can't see it...

Personally... I'm hoping they surprise us with a new redesigned iMac.... I know people are speculating that it won't be avialable until 2021... but...
 
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The only cheaper computer I could really envisage would be if they brought the 12” MacBook back at the old 11” MacBook Air’s price of $899. I guess not too much longer until we see, though!
 
They do not need to charge a low price and I'd guess that they don't have the capacity to do so. I read that there are already chip capacity constraints and it would make more sense to sell more mid-range models until chip capacity improves. This to get people on-board to try it out, find the problems, and then make mass consumer devices down the road. I would not mind one of these to run office applications. It wouldn't need much horsepower - I'd just want good thermals.

I would actually prefer a Mini-format device for this. I actually wouldn't mind the development systems if they decided to dump them. They charged $500 for them but you have to return them. I wonder if Apple will just tell companies to keep them.
 
Interesting idea and whilst I agree that they may lower their prices a bit on some of the cheaper models, I think that going too low will cannibalise their cheaper ipad line up. They have worked hard to forge a place in their line up to necessitate the perceived need for an ipad, they wont now ruin their hard work by making a MacBook a similar price.
 
I doubt we'll see a price for any new Macbook less than $995, but what we may very well see is a product at that price point that's significantly faster (CPU +and+ GPU, the latter having been a bit of a shortcoming on the low[er] end machines).

I really hope there's a form factor/chassis update, I can't imagine Apple not making their big product reveal without some kind external visual update, maybe an edge-to-edge display so the 13" products are in closer to a 12" case[?]
 
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D.T. said:
I really hope there's a form factor/chassis update, I can't imagine Apple not making their big product reveal without some kind external visual update, maybe an edge-to-edge display so the 13" products are in closer to a 12" case[?]
Click to expand...
Yeah would be a massive missed opportunity if no redesign to go with it all!
 
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I think we are in for a rude awakening, apple don't do cheap, they make premium products, with premium prices. I would expect an entry point of $999, and quickly accelerating as you add more memory and storage.
 
JeepGuy said:
I think we are in for a rude awakening, apple don't do cheap, they make premium products, with premium prices. I would expect an entry point of $999, and quickly accelerating as you add more memory and storage.
Click to expand...
That’s not entirely true these days. Whilst not cheap cheap, there are certaily cheaper iPhones, iPads and first party accessories.
 
I agree, Apple is indeed a premium brand. They are all about profit and it will obviously depend on how much less it costs to produce and the demand they can generate.

Let's says Apple builds a 12" Macbook with internals similar to the iPad Air. Start the storage at 256gb and ram at 8gb. They save on the touchscreen but spend on the keyboard. Wouldn't it make sense to offer it for ~$100 more, so 849$ ? I would be extremely interested in such a device and I think a lot of people would be. Apple would make an even better profit margin than on the iPad and everyone is happy.
 
Casimono said:
Hi folks,

here's a guess what will happen at tonights Apple event: Apple will announce MacBooks that start at just $500. That's lower than Macbooks have been for the last 20 years.

Why?

Let me know what you think!

Casimono
Click to expand...

iPad has nothing to do with Mac pricing other than Apple tries to keep the iPad generally lower than macs to boost the sales a bit .

Apple charges high mark ups on both RAM and SSS ( e.g. about $400/TB for SSD ) . So if the CPU package cost goes down $200 then all Apple will do is add 512GB to the SSD entry capacity and the MBA price would stay exactly the same .


IPadOS doesn’t come with the same bundled software and drivers . That costs more too .

If Apple is trotting out the exams same enclosure and screen tech then perhaps the other components have fallen to level Apple would get bcak to the $899 ( or so ) price for the stripped down MBA .

But $500 . No Apple isn’t going anywhere near sub $600 let alone down to 5 .
 
Glmnet1 said:
$500 seems quite low but I agree, I think it's possible we will see a sub $1k MacBook.
Click to expand...

That exists now . The $999 MBA is almost routinely discounted by $50-100 at 3rd party retail outlets. Apple doesn’t run sales often but the entry model is pragmatically discounted almost all the time where there are multiple stores the consumer can purchase.
 
Whilst I'm skeptical of cheaper prices I have noticed there's a $799 Air rumour floating around I've seen pop up in quite a lot of places recently - it may be nothing, but Apple supposedly manage expectations with staged leaks and they haven't quashed this one when it might lead to some disappointment? Well, less than 2 hours now...
 
deconstruct60 said:
That exists now . The $999 MBA is almost routinely discounted by $50-100 at 3rd party retail outlets. Apple doesn’t run sales often but the entry model is pragmatically discounted almost all the time where there are multiple stores the consumer can purchase.
Click to expand...
Of course, and it can also be bought refurbished but we're all talking base price here.
 
I can imagine a $800-900 entry-level Mac, but $500 is ridiculous. There would be no point for Apple to do this. Even if going for volume - they simply won’t be able to produce enough of them.
 
I have an offer from Xfinity Mobile for $250 off any iPhone 12 right now. I don't really need a new phone though. But that would be under $500 for the Mini (the only one I'm interested in). So they can sell inexpensive computers.
 
pshufd said:
I have an offer from Xfinity Mobile for $250 off any iPhone 12 right now. I don't really need a new phone though. But that would be under $500 for the Mini (the only one I'm interested in). So they can sell inexpensive computers.
Click to expand...
Comcast is taking a mild hit on that deal to make it (and more) up over the lifetime of your service with them. I don't know exactly how much retailers pay for iPhones but it certainly isn't $250 under MSRP. Also, the manufacturing and materials costs between a 5.4" iPhone and a ~13" MacBook are... different.
 
AceFernalld said:
Comcast is taking a mild hit on that deal to make it (and more) up over the lifetime of your service with them. I don't know exactly how much retailers pay for iPhones but it certainly isn't $250 under MSRP. Also, the manufacturing and materials costs between a 5.4" iPhone and a ~13" MacBook are... different.
Click to expand...

I pay $20/month for service for five phones. I don't think that they're exactly making a ton of money off of me. I can just drop Comcast service at any time too.

The deal is for all iPhone 12s, not just the Mini.
 
If you think the idea through then in 10 years they will give away iPhones for free.
Money earning alone through services.
 
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