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Walmart Begins Selling MacBook Air With M1 Chip for $699 in U.S.
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They were still on sale leading up to the M3 MBA announcement. This is just Walmart clearing stock.
I got my mom the 2018 Retina MacBook Air for Christmas that year and it has basically been a disappointment for us all. Given that it will probably be EOL and support will likely be dropped this year, I want to get her a new MBA -- she also needs a new iPad, but I'll wait on those -- and I'm *very* tempted by this. My only hesitance is that I want her to have this for at least 5 years and that puts me off buying a 4 year old machine, even at this price.
And yet. $700 is such a great price. Decisions, decisions.
And yet. $700 is such a great price. Decisions, decisions.
What?
Apple makes software in-house, but they hire all the global big names in electronics to make their products. Even when it is claimed that Apple is "making" a product in some new locale, like Brazil, Apple is doing more contracting than anything else.
There is probably not a big electronics company in Korea and Taiwan who do not have big Apple contracts.
EOL is about life-cycle support. All manufacturers have to decide for how long to support their products. Some industries are regulated in some countries regarding this (e.g., automobiles in the US.)
Walmart does sell iPhones at full price. I was just there yesterday killing time in electronics
What a sad world we live in when something could sell very well. It gets shut down it seems
Ok, and I was just pointing out that I didn't think the quote accurately represented the situation as Apple and/or third party Apple retailers have been "being Walmart" and selling discounted Apple products for over 40 years. Things haven't really changed in that sense nor do I feel any of it is necessarily a reflection on Apple’s ability or lack of ability to innovate.
Who knows
Could be continuing to make it for Walmart, but the immediate price actions by Costco and Best Buy tell me it’s a “get rid of inventory” situation for them in particular
? Sure that's a nice feature, but I've been able to use an external webcam forever and a day so that's hardly a game changer
If Apple was able to push down supply chain cost to allow for <$700 then this is there way to get market share
Time will be our real gauge here
Personally, I remain steadfast that this Walmart thing is just to run through the M1 MBA stock in a somewhat hidden way so as to most minimally impact their pricing tier perceptions elsewhere
I will need to be convinced, over an extended period, that Apple suddenly wants to have a laptop product presence in Walmart. It'd be a pretty substantial change for them and I remain highly skeptical.
Now - if all the other places Apple normally shuffles stuff through end up also offering the M1 MBA, new, in perpetuity at the $699 price point, we can talk.
But -- for that matter -- if this a serious long term play, Apple themselves should be offering the now discontinued 4 year old M1 MBA (Macbook SE rebrand or w/e) for $699. "Hiding it" over at Walmart is where the suspicion of motivations begins.
We don't know for a fact, but it's quite unlikely they'll discontinue support for the M3 the same time as the M1. We can extrapolate based on previous Macs, and also based on iPhones.
An M3 is 30% faster than an M1. An M3 Max is, at multi-core, 68% faster than an M1 Max. You may be unhappy with the pace of improvement, but it's a real stretch to argue that there's "very little differentiation".
Manufacture, yes, but not design. Since the A6, Apple's CPU designs have been in-house, and since the A11, their GPU designs as well.
Apple going down market is a good thing for Macs. It will sell volume product.
People aspire to the brand... It not being available on Apple.com helps with the brand equity.
I agree
I'm just not convinced that's really what they are doing here (not yet convinced anyhow)
Like I said - time will tell
Truly going "down market" would be selling a brand new MacBook SE that's not running a now discontinued chip
Man ...if they had socketed NVMe on these...they'd truly sell like hotcakes
If you could pick one up for a song and pop an NVMe stick in there, there'd be no stock laying around.
(I'd have already bought one just to have around - but more storage is a must on all my machines as I always want my local music library with me, and it's many hundreds of GB. If I have my druthers, I also want Photos with me locally too, so 1TB is basically my min these days.)
If you could pick one up for a song and pop an NVMe stick in there, there'd be no stock laying around.
(I'd have already bought one just to have around - but more storage is a must on all my machines as I always want my local music library with me, and it's many hundreds of GB. If I have my druthers, I also want Photos with me locally too, so 1TB is basically my min these days.)
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I think that’s exactly what’s happening here. I stated a long time ago that the M1 provides an excellent way for Apple to dip into lower price points by keeping this new line alive once newer generations come out. It appears that’s what Apple is doing. Will be very interesting to see what happens in the Fall when it’s college time for kids.
The challenge is will Apple generate additional sales without cannabalizing th M3 sales during its "Back to School" sale period? If they don't ct the price of teh M1 enough so it' not close to their promo price plus gift card, Walmart will be upset. If they do, they risk cutting into M3 sales and the resultant margin hit. That's why I think this is a way to get rid of inventory rather than a new price point.
My guess, given the close price point between the M1 and M2 more people opted for the M2 than expected, leaving Apple with M1 inventories larger than expected; rather than a "budget" Mac strategy.
There’s more margin to be had by moving product on already years long established supply chains. Everyone M1 sold means the margin has actually increased in that because the life cycle costs have gone down for Apple.
That and the fact that this exclusive to Walmart rather than parents having the option at the Apple Store also means it’s a non-issue.
Lastly, as Apple themselves has stated (but people can’t seem to believe), Apple is perfectly fine with their products cannibalizing other lines. The ecosystem still thrives any time a new Apple product is in the hands of a NEW customer.
This price point is going to draw in a TON of new Mac users who would never spend $1000+ on a computer.