Why are people acting like the new "budget" MacBook is this completely new thing

[G5isAlive]

I just don't see the point in going down this same road once again. Where we are going to have the Air family priced at around $899 for entry/base model and now a 12.9 inch MB model or line priced I am assuming maybe a couple hundred dollars less.

My fear/prediction is that people looking to buy a Mac laptop are either the professional type that is going to buy the MBP or they will just spend a little more for the MBA.

Be open to something different, but the same. The clue is in the colors. This is not for the professional type who is happy with any color as long as it's boring. When Apple brings out the colors they are going for the family where the kids don't want the parent's boring computer. And the second clue is the price. Low. low enough for some parents to get one for the kiddos so they dont have to share a computer.

my prediction is it sells well enough. And perhaps helps hook in a new generation of Mac Addicts. That has always been Apple's strategy. Don't forget where the 128k Mac was first introduced. In colleges.

 

[capamac]

Don't forget where the 128k Mac was first introduced. In colleges.

Yeah I got started with Apple II in grade school ... made quite an impression on me.

Apple's trying to leverage its smartphone position to grow Macbook share of the market.

Apple's got issues on the software side with macOS though in regard to liquid ass and in-OS advertising which decreases the appeal of macOS. Hardware is only one part of the picture ... according to Steve Jobs, hardware is the easy, less-valuable aspect of computing. Software, Jobs said, is the hard part where true value is. It's also software where Apple has stumbled lately.

"Hardware churns every 18 months. It's pretty impossible to get a sustainable competitive advantage from hardware ... and it only last for six months. But software seems to take a lot longer for people to catch up with." -- Jobs, at MIT.

 

[weckart]

Parkinson's law: "Data expands to fill the space available for storage." You give people a larger SSD and they'll just fill it. Same with RAM; RAM capacity has grown over the years but application bloat often keeps pace, resulting in little apparent net gain. Boost the base level RAM and app developers realize this and bloat their code accordingly.

Apple is one of the worst offenders. Tiger fitted on four CDs. Now macOS clocks in at, what? 15GB or more? A lot of what gets shovelled into it could be left to third parties. An operating system should just allow you to install and run the applications you choose and keep out of your way.

 

[KPOM]

Macrumors are saying this is so completely different than anything Apple has ever released before, and apparently we need a special "Apple Experience" to introduce this new product to the world. But as far as I can tell, this looks to be nothing more than a rehash of the failed budget 12 inch MacBook that Apple released about a decade ago.

I mean sure it will have a slightly larger screen. It will obviously be faster and may have more RAM, probably be a little more configurable, be a little cheaper than the MBA, if some rumors are to be believed. But what the heck is so radically different that we need a special media event in three major cities around the world.

I mean I like the color options, though it would be nice to have those color options on the more capable MBP, but whatever.

Let's kindly remember that the last time Apple tried this it was a complete unmitigated disaster and they quietly buried it and discontinued production of the cheap MacBook line four years later.

I mean sure it will not have the "butterfly keyboard" fiasco as from last time. Apple learned real quick that lesson.

To me the only thing "special" about this is going to be its price. Apple will have to be careful here. If it's too cheap, around $599 mark, it will cut into the cheaper iPad models and even the iPad Air. If it's priced closer to $799 (which is going to be my prediction) it is just going to do what the last cheapo MacBook did, and that's make people appreciate the MBA even more and spend just a little more to get a better computer.

Anyway I just don't see what is so unique about Apple's next attempt to make a cheap MacBook appealing to a large consumer market.

Except it doesn’t look like that at all. I’m guessing this is more like the M1 MacBook Air with fancy colors. The 12” MacBook wasn’t positioned as a budget notebook. It was $1299 when the MacBook Air was $999. It was just over 2lbs. This one will be more like 2.7 lbs like the Air.

 

[seek3r]

Whether this new MacBook succeeds or fails will come down to the price. If they keep the price down and go for volume it will be popular. If they do what they did with the 16e and make it just a little less expensive than the MBA then buyers will be likley to just pay a little more and get an Air.

If they want to go for high volume, an event like this is a good start to get some attention on this.

BTW - the 12” MacBook was not a budget MacBook. It was clearly intended to replace the Air and to introduce the retina displays, but it was noticeably more expensive than the non-retina Air and had too many compromises in ports and performance to justify any kind of price premium. It would be fun if they used that case for this new MacBook but added more ports, used scissor switch keyboards, and squeezed in a (rumored) slightly larger screen.

I’m still convinced that the 12” MB was a design targeted at the future ARM chips they were clearly already working with in their labs that product pushed to ship early with a higher TDP Intel chip, maybe pushed by Ive. It’s the perfect design (keyboard, like all the keyboards of that era, aside) for this, I really hope they reuse it

 

[G5isAlive]

Apple's got issues on the software side with macOS though in regard to liquid ass and in-OS advertising which decreases the appeal of macOS. Hardware is only one part of the picture ... according to Steve Jobs, hardware is the easy, less-valuable aspect of computing. Software, Jobs said, is the hard part where true value is. It's also software where Apple has stumbled lately.

"Hardware churns every 18 months. It's pretty impossible to get a sustainable competitive advantage from hardware ... and it only last for six months. But software seems to take a lot longer for people to catch up with." -- Jobs, at MIT.

Well, I am not here to impune St Jobs, and acknowledge he was one smart cookie. But as for Tahoe, if it's a problem for the MacBook, it's a problem for all Macs so Tahoe is not a part of my MacBook buying equation.

No doubt folks will argue if you hold on to an old Mac you can stay on sequoia. A losing (and boring) battle. And I suppose Tahoe may not be as efficient with screen space (rounded windows), but eh, again, not part of my buying equation.

I don't see my switching to windows over Tahoe, and Apple isn't going to change for what I specifically whine about, so I find it more time efficient to just learn how to use what they put out.

I am looking forward to seeing if the new MacBook is light enough for me to buy one just for travel. Time will tell.

 

[capamac]

I don't see my switching to windows over Tahoe, and Apple isn't going to change for what I specifically whine about, so I find it more time efficient to just learn how to use what they put out.

Look at this chart:
MacOS January 2025: 15.02 percent market share.
MacOS January 2026: 7.05 percent.

Windows January 2025: 71.9 percent.
Windows January 2026: 67.6 percent.

Linux January 2025: 3.72 percent.
Linux January 2026: 4.01 percent.

Apple has to be competitive. And apparently Apple thinks producing worse software and annoying users with more ads is how they are to be competitive. Not working according that that page.

 

[Tessou]

It’s definitely nothing new, but if my hunch is correct and this is their attempt to recreate the staying power the M1 MBA has, I think it will be a successful product for the low end “I just need a computer” market, and possibly the education market. The A18 Pro is quite similar in performance to the base M1 chip. If they’re doing this to revitalize the low end SKU by prettying it up with some colors and a newer chassis, great. If they do the smartest thing on earth and give it a single SKU and the buyer only chooses the color? Even better.

 

[atarixle]

Apple is one of the worst offenders. Tiger fitted on four CDs. Now macOS clocks in at, what? 15GB or more? A lot of what gets shovelled into it could be left to third parties. An operating system should just allow you to install and run the applications you choose and keep out of your way.

A Mac is not just a computer that is able to be used with Mac OS X ... a Mac is a all-in-one-package, a bundle, which is meant to be useful from the start. A PC is just a computer ... well ... mostly bundled with that OS nobody really wants but everybody is hostage to it. But the OS - if pre-installed or bought separately - is not part of the computer, it comes from somewhere else.
A Mac always has been following more the philosophy of a mobile phone like early Nokia models, where hard- and software worked seamlessly together. Or a gaming-console like the Gameboy which came with Tetris bundled - you could start playing a very nice game right from the start. Or the Atari XEGS, which came with Missile Command on-board. May be a Mac can be compared with any other electronic product like a radio or an iron: you plug it in and it works. Such a device cannot come with an Operating System only that leaves space for third-party-apps only.
I mean, yes it is true, an OS shouldn't be bloated that way. I mean even a 20 years old computer is so insanely fast, human cannot realize how fast they are ... it is a bit like humans cannot realize universal distances which become just large numbers but without any meaning to us. An d the amount of RAM and storage we got today, incredible many pages of paper could be stored there. But somehow this all is not enough to satisfy today's Operating System. Following the rule of Moors Law, after 20 years the computer should be 2 to the power of 20 times faster than 20 years ago, if speed double each year, todays computers should be a billion times faster today (well not really but in theory) ... but still, they slow down with every major OS update.

ok, back to the mac: I quite like all devices with the name "MacBook", that starts with my very first Apple device, a MacBook1,1 from 2006 (that very device which I am typing on right now), I got all models of the A1181, I got the 2008 MacBook which became the MBPro 13" (the higher end model with the HQ screen, the backlit keyboard), I got the A1342 (which btw is the working order of a 4 cylinder inline engine), and I got and quite like the MacBook7,1 from 2017. I think this is a very nice device. But the keyboard is terrible compared to all the other MacBook models. Also the Arrow-Down-key is hanging, but still working. On the other hand, the 12" design is pretty cool, it's a good successor to the 12" iBook, or 12" PowerBook G4.
A cheap Mac? Well, as much as I remember, the MacMini once used to be the most affordable Mac with the lowest price tag yet at like 699€ or so ... but I might recall that number incorrectly. I know that the price tag of the white MacBook (5,2 or 6,1 or 7,1) dropped down to 899$ (but still 999€ in Germany). So a MacBook at 799 or 699 or even less indeed would be something new to Apple for a mobile computer IMO.

 

[mk313]

Most of the relevant points have already been made, but I did want to point out that we are almost 2 full pages into this discussion and still not one comment about the "fact" that this new Mac, despite all logic, is going to use a new special locked-down version of Mac OS that no one with any track record is predicting, has never been tried before and is certain to doom the new computer to irrelevancy.

Perhaps that is the secret feature that requires a multi-city experience to launch.

 

[macbookj0e]

I get your points but wasn’t the 2015 MacBook over 1000? If this is 600-700 that’ll make a massive difference, especially with a good keyboard, more ports etc.

 

[lewchenko]

Ah, the 12" Macbook. I bought my wife one one of those , with a cpu bump & 8Gb ram no less as I knew the default 4Gb wouldnt go the distance. It was retired a couple of years ago (replaced with an M3 Macbook Air). She preferred the macbook (crazy I know).
If they price this wrong, older M2 and M3 Airs are going to eat its lunch.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Macrumors are saying this is so completely different than anything Apple has ever released before, and apparently we need a special "Apple Experience" to introduce this new product to the world. But as far as I can tell, this looks to be nothing more than a rehash of the failed budget 12 inch MacBook that Apple released about a decade ago.

I mean sure it will have a slightly larger screen. It will obviously be faster and may have more RAM, probably be a little more configurable, be a little cheaper than the MBA, if some rumors are to be believed. But what the heck is so radically different that we need a special media event in three major cities around the world.

I mean I like the color options, though it would be nice to have those color options on the more capable MBP, but whatever.

Let's kindly remember that the last time Apple tried this it was a complete unmitigated disaster and they quietly buried it and discontinued production of the cheap MacBook line four years later.

I mean sure it will not have the "butterfly keyboard" fiasco as from last time. Apple learned real quick that lesson.

To me the only thing "special" about this is going to be its price. Apple will have to be careful here. If it's too cheap, around $599 mark, it will cut into the cheaper iPad models and even the iPad Air. If it's priced closer to $799 (which is going to be my prediction) it is just going to do what the last cheapo MacBook did, and that's make people appreciate the MBA even more and spend just a little more to get a better computer.

Anyway I just don't see what is so unique about Apple's next attempt to make a cheap MacBook appealing to a large consumer market.

That price is not special either as, up until very recently, Apple’s been selling a MacBook Air for $599 at WalMart for awhile now.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

What's the bet that Tim Apple makes them too expensive to be competitive with Chromebooks?

Chromebooks are mostly crap. Of course a low end Macbook should be better and cost more than Chromebooks. Unlike your implication, Tim Cook is hopefully smart enough not to send Apple into the gutter to price-compete with the lowest-end Windows cockroaches.

 

[Yr Blues]

I really liked the polycarbonate MacBooks they used to make, but they cracked too easily. ThinkPad plastic cases never crack for me.

 

[capamac]

The LLM companies gobbled up all the RAM and SSD and HDD so I kinda doubt the CheapBook will be well-endowed.

 

[Tessou]

Most of the relevant points have already been made, but I did want to point out that we are almost 2 full pages into this discussion and still not one comment about the "fact" that this new Mac, despite all logic, is going to use a new special locked-down version of Mac OS that no one with any track record is predicting, has never been tried before and is certain to doom the new computer to irrelevancy.

Perhaps that is the secret feature that requires a multi-city experience to launch.

Where is there mention of this and why would Apple ever be stupid enough to pull a Windows tier stunt like that?

 

[Frazzles]

Why would you buy a A1* powered MacBook when you can find clearance an sale prices of previous generation macbooks

 

[capamac]

I think the clearance sales on M1 are coming to an end; sold-out.
A1* Macs will probalby support later macOS versions that M1 will not support, despite A1* and M1 having similar CPU performance ... Apple will drop M1 faster "just because," I bet.

A1* Macs will have fresher battery chemistry ... mebbe that's a factor, dunno. Do Mac batteries degrade if they sit new in a box for years like these M1 Airs still being sold?

 

[seek3r]

Ah, the 12" Macbook. I bought my wife one one of those , with a cpu bump & 8Gb ram no less as I knew the default 4Gb wouldnt go the distance. It was retired a couple of years ago (replaced with an M3 Macbook Air). She preferred the macbook (crazy I know).
If they price this wrong, older M2 and M3 Airs are going to eat its lunch.

My wife preferred her 12” macbook enough that she didnt even want a laptop if it would be bigger, the air was too big for her so she replaced the macbook with an M2 mac mini + an iPad

 

[seek3r]

I think the clearance sales on M1 are coming to an end; sold-out.
A1* Macs will probalby support later macOS versions that M1 will not support, despite A1* and M1 having similar CPU performance ... Apple will drop M1 faster "just because," I bet.

A1* Macs will have fresher battery chemistry ... mebbe that's a factor, dunno. Do Mac batteries degrade if they sit new in a box for years like these M1 Airs still being sold?

The M1 Airs being sold today arent old stock sitting around in a box for years, Apple was manufacturing them new for Walmart

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Anyway I just don't see what is so unique about Apple's next attempt to make a cheap MacBook appealing to a large consumer market.

Who (other than marketer hype) said that there was anything "unique about Apple's next attempt to make a cheap MacBook appealing to a large consumer market?" It is just simple, logical marketing.

 

[capamac]

Wikipedia states they were discontinued in March 2024 fwiw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air_(Apple_silicon)

If so, Wal-Mart is selling two-year-old stock, or older.

 

[digimc]

Who (other than marketer hype) said that there was anything "unique about Apple's next attempt to make a cheap MacBook appealing to a large consumer market?" It is just simple, logical marketing.

But again why hold a special event for the media unless you (Apple) think this is a game changer.

 

[Contact_Feanor]

Macrumors are saying this is so completely different than anything Apple has ever released before, and apparently we need a special "Apple Experience" to introduce this new product to the world. But as far as I can tell, this looks to be nothing more than a rehash of the failed budget 12 inch MacBook that Apple released about a decade ago.

I mean sure it will have a slightly larger screen. It will obviously be faster and may have more RAM, probably be a little more configurable, be a little cheaper than the MBA, if some rumors are to be believed. But what the heck is so radically different that we need a special media event in three major cities around the world.

I mean I like the color options, though it would be nice to have those color options on the more capable MBP, but whatever.

Let's kindly remember that the last time Apple tried this it was a complete unmitigated disaster and they quietly buried it and discontinued production of the cheap MacBook line four years later.

I mean sure it will not have the "butterfly keyboard" fiasco as from last time. Apple learned real quick that lesson.

To me the only thing "special" about this is going to be its price. Apple will have to be careful here. If it's too cheap, around $599 mark, it will cut into the cheaper iPad models and even the iPad Air. If it's priced closer to $799 (which is going to be my prediction) it is just going to do what the last cheapo MacBook did, and that's make people appreciate the MBA even more and spend just a little more to get a better computer.

Anyway I just don't see what is so unique about Apple's next attempt to make a cheap MacBook appealing to a large consumer market.

The 12 inch MacBook you're referring to was anything but budget and was way more expensive than a MacBook Air. This is rumored to be about 30% off the MacBook Air price, the Macbook of 2015 started at 30% MORE than the MacBook Air.