Not "even more confusion for the consumers" because very few consumers are "comparing older and newer M/M Pro/M Max/M Ultra chips" and none of them are in the target market for an A18 Macbook.
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What to Expect From Apple's Rumored New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip
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I believe they'll offer a shorter support window for this model. Not that it matters if this is for education. Those school laptops are basically disposable. All those dirty hands and accelerated wear and tear.
Well I assume this new low cost MacBook would likewise be on sale at times so sale or no sale you'd find them for less than the current MBAs.
You are correct of course. But a new A18 Macbook could be Apple's attempt to keep kids evolving to phone/tablet plus Macbook rather than building tablet-only generations.
I disagree here. If this is $649 MSRP, perhaps available on special for $599 or even $549, it should sell well. Clearly someone's buying the old M1s at Walmart even though they are no longer officially supported. This would have full support, be available at Apple Stores and authorized resellers, and be actively marketed.
Kids yes, but schools / educational organisations are still suspicious of iPads/tablets, especially after COVID ( I work in education, I hear this a lot from teachers who are not tech-focused). iPads are seen as big iPhones, distractions, not learning aids - social media / YouTube content consumption machines and gaming devices - the adults in the classroom would feel more comfortable with kids with laptops over kids with tablets.
This low-cost MacBook will be available to all consumers. Why would Apple voluntarily limit their total addressable market for this product? No reason to limit this to edu only.
In terms of macOS support, don't see why it would be any shorter than the 6-7 years Mac gets. It's not like the $349 iPad gets shortchanged.
Apple's lower end products need holiday sales, so "...they could have just pushed the product release to November or early 2026" does not work. As to why not A19, IMO it is all about what the various chip yields/costs and usages are, and we have no clue.
Do you know how many computers school districts buy? It's not small potatoes. Plus you are introducing young students to the virtues of Macs, who then grow up to be Mac users.
It may also be about using surplus chips. The 16 pro currently uses the A18. When the 17 pro comes out sales of iPhone 16 pros will go down. Depending on how well they planned chip production vs phone sales they may have a surplus and this new MacBook can use them.
Whatever the number is, it pales in comparison to making the low-cost MacBook available for sale to everyone globally.
If the idea is to make it affordable, it has to be based on economies of scale.
Since Apple is the world's 4th largest computer seller and uses its own OS, IMO some portion of any new A18 Macbook sales will by definition "take sales away from the windows based laptop market." Or at least will take some market share away from the Windows-based laptop market.
We agree. It is all about Apple's internal economies among various chip productions. And Tim Cook was one of the world's best supply chain managers prior to becoming CEO, so he probably has continued Apple's tight supply chain management.
Totally.
Every Windows laptop in this price range has a garbage display, keyboard/trackpad, speakers, build quality, and battery life. They’re basically disposable, the people buying them are usually aware that they will probably have a short service life with no support. If you walk into Best Buy with a $500 budget for a laptop, all of your choices are bad.
An offering from Apple in this segment would shake the whole market. I doubt there’s much profit to be made from the hardware, but still plenty in accessories and services.
Yea, and if memory serves right Apple was displaced in the educational sector 10 or so years ago by chronebooks... I guess we'll see if/when this happens
This doesn’t affect your conclusion, but the current Walmart M1 MacBook Airs are “officially supported” — they are sold new with a full warranty and will be supported for at least five years after they stop being sold.
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There's no guarantee they will be supported 5 years from now. All we know is that they are getting the newest macOS. No guarantee to get next year's version. Sadly, Apple doesn't operate like that.
No guarantees in Apple world.
The M1 is 5 nm process, it uses more power for the same performance as the A18 Pro which is 3 nm. I suggested a die-shrunk M1 some time ago, and it looks like this is the same idea.
Drop the A18 Pro in the M1 MacBook Air chassis and screen, add one more USB C port so you can run power, external display, and still plug something in without needing a dock, keep the headphone port so a schoolroom full of people don't have to fight over bluetooth frequencies, don't scrimp on the battery and I think you have a winner. And reusing the original M1 MacBook Air parts as much as possible keeps the development cost down.
The Chromebooks are only $200 but only have that odd and very slow storage. Those manufacturers are even bigger cheap-skates than Apple.
The M4 is great for video editing, but it's overkill for regular office work. That is a lot of transitors doing nothing while you answer an email. This rumored MacBook is not for the power-users that make up most of this forum.
I wonder if this is prompted by user telemetry that the CPU is normally less than 20% utilization.
With an assumed 8GB, I guess it’ll be like the base iPad and not support apple intelligence…
Something which earlier this year would’ve made everybody mad. Now no one cares.
However:
Does anyone know if the a18 pro can support more than 8GB of ram?
Something which earlier this year would’ve made everybody mad. Now no one cares.
However:
Does anyone know if the a18 pro can support more than 8GB of ram?
They do get the full warranty, but does Apple commit to 5 years of OS updates and serviceability? Will it become “vintage” based on whenever they stop selling it new at Walmart or when they stopped selling it at Apple Retail and at “authorized” resellers? I guess we’ll find out in 2028.
The M1 will be closed out, it's an obsolete process now. This will replace it. The question is will Apple drop the price to go after the people who want more than a Chromebook.
I should wander off and see what Dell has for an ultralight.
Edit, I did. For $500 you get:
- AMD Ryzen™ 5 7530U 6-core with Radeon™ Graphics
- Windows 11 Home
- AMD Radeon™ Graphics
- 16GB: 1x16GB, DDR4, 3200 MT/s
- 512 GB SSD
- And a crappy screen. 15" granted, but terrible specs.
The smaller option (12", same price) has 8 GB RAM, 128 GB UFS (?) storage, and Intel's usual gutless graphics. Passmark has the N200 at a whopping 4800.
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?? When has Apple failed to allow a new device "to get next year's version?"
Apple has of course royally screwed us on apps like MacProject and Aperture.
This has nothing about needing to be saved. Steve understood the importance of an easily distinct product line. Gil Amelio and John Sculley thought like stockholders. More SKUs more revenue. In practice in the short term that may be true, but then you become IBM or Gateway or DELL.