I am looking forward to this Apple device. I am just hoping that it is portable and affordable at the same time, and we don't have to compromise on the features.
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What to Expect From Apple's Rumored New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip
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I would argue that if Jobs were to do that product matrix now, there would be another column:
'Prosumer'
Where anything 'Air' would go in (and maybe also the 1st tier of pro iPads and MacBooks and the APP).
But as you say, they have got themselves into a real mess using marketing-lead suffixes (arguably Jobs himself began this with the use of 'Air').
The most egregious example is the pro/ultra usage. Sometimes it's pro and sometimes it's ultra. Sometimes the product itself is arguably not 'pro' (APP).
And does 'ultra' mean - 'this is for 'weekend warriors' but anyone vaguely professional should not use this'?
But Apple is sorta kinda, getting better?:
iPad
iPad (basic iPad for those who neither know nor care about Apple Intelligence).
iPad mini (niche pro usage)
iPad Air (2 sizes - your prosumer product)
iPad Pro (2 sizes - professional but also prosumer)
After the iPad lineup being a hot mess for so long, it actually makes sense now. And this gives me faith that they will finally sort out other product lineups which are confusing (ahem AirPods).
Macbook
MacBook (presumably the name for this A18 machine & it'll be squarely for consumers - students, those who do light creative and productivity)
MacBook Air (2 sizes - see above re the iPad)
MacBook pro (2 sizes - See above re the iPad.)
iPhone
iPhone (regular iPhone & which is feeling squeezed out nowadays. Presumably there for those who go into a carrier shop and just want the latest iPhone - and to tempt people into buying a pro for just $200 more...)
iPhone 16E (MVP iPhone for those who want a new iPhone but who are price sensitive - presumably Apple wants to get this to $500)
iPhone Air (hopefully it's called this - it would make sense)
iPhone Pro (2 sizes & two names - hopefully this year, 'max' will become 'ultra' ... sigh. At least ultra is better than max.)
The outliers are the watch, Mac desktop, AirPods & TV which remain confusing:
Watch
Watch (2 sizes)
Watch Ultra ('Weekend Warrior' watch)
Mac (desktop)
iMac (you have to imagine that the current chassis is the final design for this product. I can't imagine that Apple sells much of them in the age of laptops. Surely Apple cannot justify having a product just so they have their logo in boutique hotel and ad agency receptions? I have had two iMacs and loved owning them very much, but still...)
Mac mini (lightweight dev machine that can be used headless - great!)
Mac Studio (the default dev machine for those that need to plug a lot of things in and who need some oomph - great!)
Mac Pro (dev machine for those few who have exotic cards that they need to plug inside the chassis - again, you have to imagine that this machine's days are numbered, as the customers for this must be vanishingly small now. I don't think that we'll ever see another chassis or internal redesign).
And the most confusing/messy category is:
AirPods
AirPods 4 (without noise cancellation - ummm ok)
AirPods 4 (with noise cancellation - ummm ok. Was the person in charge of AirPods 4 product naming on vacation that day?)
AirPods Pro (Or are they 'ultra'?)
AirPods Max (OK, these are big so they are 'Max' but still... Looks like that person was on vacation that day too.)
And oh yeah, Apple TV (I have one so I'm not damning it):
TV
TV
TV with thread networking and ethernet (the prosumer 'if you know you need it' SKU).
And oh yeah again:
Vision Pro
It's definitely at a pro price, but I bet the 100 or so people who bought one are prosumers...
I like your idea and I have very fond memories of the iBooks.
...And who doesn't want a laptop in translucent tangerine!? I'm being serious here!
I think though that the 'i' suffix days are over - after all, everything is now internet enabled - and it makes a lot of sense for this product to simply be called the 'MacBook'.
Especially as the MacBook line is the only line that doesn't have a machine name without any suffix or prefix.
I agree with you, but surely also the target is a little bit more than that?
Surely it's also aimed at regular consumers who want a clamshell Apple laptop, who don't do much other than open up a web browser, do some email, watch Netflix, edit their photos and videos and who never plug anything into their machine, including an external display etc.
Quite frankly the above description probably is the vast majority of consumers who buy a laptop, with even the base MBA being vastly overqualified for the above scenario.
And your standard knowledge worker, who uses MS Office, cloud storage and web apps and (hopefully) is able to plug this machine into 1 external display, would be amply served by this machine too. Apple will have a good chance of this becoming the default laptop at companies who are in the creative sector (but who don't do anything much creative themselves).
I know, I know. Broken record but here we go… maybe Apple is reading this very column 🥸
Dear Apple,
the 11” MBAir was the closest I’ve ever come to liking a laptop. I was hopeful that a 12” MacBook would be that sweetest of things but having firmed up my financing, you canned it. Please revive the 12” MacBook with A series chip. Guaranteed sale.
Or, as others on this forum have mentioned, something noticeably smaller and lighter than the 13” MBAir.
Yours,
Me
Dear Apple,
the 11” MBAir was the closest I’ve ever come to liking a laptop. I was hopeful that a 12” MacBook would be that sweetest of things but having firmed up my financing, you canned it. Please revive the 12” MacBook with A series chip. Guaranteed sale.
Or, as others on this forum have mentioned, something noticeably smaller and lighter than the 13” MBAir.
Yours,
Me
And the G4 Cube, the 2008 MacBook/MacBook Pro unified body design, the original Apple TV. Jobs had some missteps, but those didn’t hurt Apple. If anything 2008 MacBook redesign killed the original MacBook as we knew it and the Air took its place after that entry line started to fizzle. Hence why the 12 inch MacBook became what the Air could have been.
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A smaller & lighter notebook is my perfect typewriter. I would buy!
The new cheaper MacBook is essentially a revival of the 12" MacBook but with the following changes:
1. A18 Pro SoC specially modified so it has 16 GB of RAM standard.
2. 256 and 512 GB local storage options.
3. Will look like a reduced size 13" MacBook Air with one USB Type C Thunderbolt 4/USB4 port on each side of the laptop, capable of supporting up to 100 W charging rate. There will be no MagSafe charging port.
1. A18 Pro SoC specially modified so it has 16 GB of RAM standard.
2. 256 and 512 GB local storage options.
3. Will look like a reduced size 13" MacBook Air with one USB Type C Thunderbolt 4/USB4 port on each side of the laptop, capable of supporting up to 100 W charging rate. There will be no MagSafe charging port.
This is really getting old. Apple back then was cash strapped, Microsoft saved it from bankruptcy. It's not some Steve Jobs magic that will make products better, but a standard practice with troubled companies. Apple today is not a troubled company. Market leaders need to expand product variety, not cut it back.
So no possibility of Apple Intelligence. I'm sold.😁
A debloated MacOS would be reason enough for me to get one. Gawd, I miss the days when MacOS ran comfortably in 2GB of RAM. I would replace my Linux laptop (4GB RAM, Celeron🫤) as my grab and go machine--more powerful, more efficient, more reliable.
i miss my 12” macbook every day. but i’m now spoiled by my M4 ipad pro’s OLED screen.
the dream would be a machine which combines both
the dream would be a machine which combines both
Why would they do that?
A18 pro is all round faster and better than M1.
It got 1.5x single core performance and slightly more multi core performance with much better media codecs.
Thanks. I had some suspicions on that. The Walmart Air appears to be an extreme outlier in the product stack that would eventually be retired, and this makes the most sense.
Walmart only started selling them in March 2024 when Apple released the M3 MacBook Air and stopped selling the M1 in its own stores. I'm guessing Apple wanted to test the market on a $700 (now $650) Mac to see if a) there was a market for it, and b) that these were added sales and not cannibalizing sales of the higher end MacBook Air models. I
It wouldn't surprise me if Walmart has some period of exclusivity (maybe 18 months or 2 years) that may dictate when the rumored A18 model is released. The M1 is the only "new" Mac sold at Walmart. The fact that it's over 4.5 years old and still popular is a testament to how much of a leap it was. True, Apple sold the 2014 MacBook Air until 2018 and the 2012 MacBook Pro (with Superdrive) until 2017, but definitely felt like "old" models being dragged along.
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Generally not true about Apple. Apple [generally] does not raise prices despite providing more competence with each new generation. E.g. my loaded 2011 (4 GB RAM), 2016 (16 GB RAM) and 2023 (96 GB RAM) MBPs each cost me ~$4k, but the increase in competence of each box was orders of magnitude of improvement. Value-wise a huge price decrease over the years.
That said, logically Apple would move MBA up in price a bit to make pricing room for some even lower-end laptop. But any new MBAs with higher pricing will also have higher competence - - because every new device has higher competence.
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This would have to outdo the Chromebooks for this to be Viable. Apple could pull it off with a 1440p display A18 and 12gb/16gb of ram.
There are a few factors at work. A) Apple likely committed a minimum volume of A18 purchases from TSMC. If the iPhone 16 series isn't selling as well, this is a way to get value from money they were going to spend anyway. B) If Apple reuses the existing M1 chassis and display, this reduces development and production costs. C) Apple is shipping no other products that still use the aging 5nm process. D) 2027 may be the last year the M1 is fully supported by a new version of macOS.
I can only speak from my own purchases, and from where I live, of course.
How much of that is inflation here, and how much Apple are increasing the prices?
I don’t know exactly, as I don’t have the same examples to compare between, as you have.
Apple products have always been expensive here. Regardless, I keep buying them - so obviously it’s worth it to me - at least most products have.
But HomePods for instance have definitely not been up to value to me. So I’ll get rid of/sell them to someone who likes them more than I do, when I buy/add different speakers later.
I have a lot more value of my old Apple Expresse’s connected to other speakers than Apple’s.
But Mac’s, they have definitely been worth it, and iPad’s and iPhones, sure - for those I’ve bought.
I actually agree with you, I think it would’ve been easier to keep the A name for the entire family of chips and felt that way when they introduced the M1. And it’s even more annoying nowadays because everyone acts like the iPad getting the M chips is some huge big deal, as if the iPads “went all out” with power. Even though iPads have always used “M chips” for years and years and years prior to the M1. They just had a different name, and it was A#X. People act like the M chips are some new huge thing just because the name change, it’s ridiculous.
Common sense would tell you that's impossible.
The M4 die size is 50% larger. It needs a pair of DRAM instead of a single package. Everything from voltage regulators to battery size can be smaller for A18 Pro.
Apple's naming structure makes sense if you actually think about it.
What would you call an M4? A18 Pro Pro?
What about M4 Pro? A18 Pro Max?
It gets ridiculous to keep using A-series naming when the chips span from base to Ultra and potentially Extreme.
You're absolutely right, looking at it as a user. This machine would be perfect for at leat 80% of MacBook users, if not more. The reality is that most people now buy computers, tablets and even phones that are far more powerful than they need. Apple knows this and uses this constantly - the "prestige" value. The base iPad is the iPad you give to a child, or give toy your (non tech-focused) mum or dad, but you buy yourself an iPad Air, or (if you have far too much money than you need) an iPad Pro. Because you are treating yourself and you want the "prestige" value. SO I think this "budget" Mac will be aimed specifically at kids - not that kids will buy it, but it will be bought for kids by parents or by educational inisituations, but the parents and teachers will buy themselves a MacBook Air or Pro. That's why I'm saying this will be pitched specifically as "educational", rather than "prestige" - Apple will push hard to upsell from this to an Air to anyone who is buying for themselves. I don't mean it wouldn't be useful and better option for the majority of people who buy MacBook Airs, but that Apple won't want to cannibalise the more expensive ranges.
