Apple plans low-cost MacBook based on iPhone processor

24

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 62
    This device can be great for use in schools and very competitive in the cheaper laptop market, assuming they price it reasonably (499-599 base pricing).
    Alex1N
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 22 of 62
    hammeroftruthhammeroftruth Posts: 1,415member
    It could be actually pretty decent if you take the processor from the 16e and put it into a laptop. Hell you could basically just put the logic board in there and add more ram to it and leave the modem and it would get decent geekbench numbers and great battery life. 
    From looking at the geekbench scores, the A18 in the 16e is almost as powerful as the M1 MacBook Air. Just give it more ram. 
    williamlondon
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 23 of 62
    thttht Posts: 6,017member
    Where your margin worries apply is that those competitors can pack more computer into those lower prices... because they are not chasing towards 50% margin on each unit sold. On the other hand, Apple seems to be a margin-foremost company, so a hypothetical $600-$800 A-series MB can't have total costs out the door of more than $300-$400 for the actual computer. 
    Apple targets (and hits) margins in the 36-38 percent range for products. (And 75% for services!).
    36-43 percent is the gross margin across the whole product line, including services. I think the average Mac margin is something like 20 to 25 percent.

    The cheaper the product, the lower the margin it has. Eg, a Mac mini at $600 has lower margin than a Mac mini with M Pro SoCs at $1300. Or an iPad Air at $600 has lower margin than a $1000 iPad Pro. 

    If they sell a Mac laptop with A18 Pro and a 13” LCD display, 12 GB RAM and 128 GB storage, they probably can hit $700 and still have 20% margins. It really should be 16 GB and 256 GB. That will make for a long running Mac, usable for 5, 6, 8 years. 

    $300 laptops are even further defeatured. 4 GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC storage, 100 PPI displays. Just crappy machines for our school age kids. Like, their phones are 2x more performant than their school issued laptops. Apple isn’t going to compete in this market, imo. 

    No profits, no margins on the hardware in this market. All the money made is in the support contract and the device management contract. A $600 to $700 product? Profits can be made on hardware sales, and on subscription services. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 24 of 62
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,643member
    If they wanted to offer an M1 style MacBook Air with the M4 chip at a couple of hundred dollars less I’m sure it’d be successful.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 25 of 62
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,498member
    It's probable that Apple has been testing Macs (more than one model) using A-series SoCs for 10+ years in their labs, that is, before the M-series silicon became a reality.

    For sure Apple is intimately familiar with A-series SoC capabilities and limitations. The benefits of releasing a Mac with an A-series SoC are probably A.) lower cost and B.) lower power consumption.

    The A-series SoCs have plenty of performance for the average user: iPhones have been editing 4K video for a decade now and that's probably the heaviest normal workload for Joe Consumer. It's not like office suites, e-mail, content consumption or web browsing require more horsepower.

    Presumably a lower price MacBook would open up more opportunities for enterprise/education sales where 3D gaming performance is not performance metric. A lower power SoC would result in better battery performance which might lead to a thinner form factor.
    macpluspluswilliamlondonpscooter63
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 26 of 62
    Sounds like a computer for K-12 education.
    AppleZuluToroidal
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 27 of 62
    BB92647bb92647 Posts: 14member
    The Airs and the Pros will move to higher end screens. The Air will get Mini LED, the Pros get the Tandem OLED. 
    These low cost laptops will get the LCD.
    My guess these laptops are for low cost education market (think eMac remember those!) and using the orders they have to make well in advance. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 28 of 62
    command_fcommand_f Posts: 439member
    The key to such a device is reducing the cost of the materials. The A18 Pro (according to Wikipedia) offers 8GB RAM and a (one) USB 3.2 controller. The RAM's enough to run Apple Intelligence and we've seen one-port notebooks before: the target audience will likely use it mostly for charging. HDMI comes in dongles, as does SD card and headphones if they're really necessary but the core device can just major on wireless (it's all in the A18 already).

    There's money to be saved by using a slower SSD, just 256GB presumably. Ditto on display quality. Smaller trackpad?

    Once upon a time, only upmarket Mac notebooks had metal cases, the rest had polycarbonate, so that's a possibility too. Now everything looks like a MacBook, a "plastic" case might even be an attraction, colours could be great! The thermals, without a fan presumably, would still be comfortably better than an iPhone so sustained performance would be better.

    I can see a place for this as an entry machine, particularly if Applezulu is right about prospects in education too.
    9secondkox2
     0Likes 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 29 of 62
    inklinginkling Posts: 784member
    I suspect it's intended to compete with Google's Chromebooks in the K-12 market. That'd put the price in the $300 range when sold in bulk to schools. Competition with iPads and MacBooks will be reduced by not marketing it to the public. And I suspect the screen will be low-quality.
    9secondkox2pscooter63
     0Likes 2Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 30 of 62
    mfrydmfryd Posts: 273member
    There is a large, untapped, market for a low cost, entry level Mac.   As others have mentioned, this includes elementary students and many senior citizens.   There's a lot of people who are not power users.  They want to surf the web, send/receive email, watch videos, listen to music, look at their photos, and not much else.

    Many families would like to have everyone in the house on the same platform.  That makes things easier.  Macs are known for security and ease of use, which appeals to parents and seniors.  Built-in parental controls are also a plus.

    With cloud storage, you don't even need a lot of onboard storage.  Today's school kids use Google Drive, or similar for their schoolwork.

    An A series processor is likely more than enough for this market.  If Apple can keep the price low enough, they will have a real winner on their hands.

    Of course, I am jaded.  My first Mac had a full 512K of RAM and I added a 10MB hard drive.  I am amused when I hear claims that 8GB isn't enough for a basic, bare bones computer.


    9secondkox2muthuk_vanalingamMisterKitmacplusplusapple4thewin
     4Likes 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 31 of 62
    Appleishappleish Posts: 777member
    Totally possible. My iPad mini has an A17 Pro and is peppy as heck. I have my M series MacBook Pro for the heavy lifting.
    hammeroftruth
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 32 of 62
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,585moderator
    Sounds like a computer for K-12 education.
    They'd be suitable for any general use cases but definitely popular with students. Even entry-level Apple Silicon is really fast. iPhone chips are essentially 1/2 the entry M-series chips of the same generation.

    https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&os=iOS&api=metal&cpu-arch=ARM&hwtype=iGPU&hwname=Apple%20A18%20Pro%20GPU&did=123295110 (A18 Pro)
    https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&os=OS%20X&api=metal&cpu-arch=ARM&hwtype=GPU&hwname=Apple%20M4&did=123984676 (M4)
    https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&os=OS%20X&api=metal&cpu-arch=ARM&hwtype=GPU&hwname=Apple%20M1&did=90754264&D=Apple%20M1 (M1)

    A18 Pro is roughly 1/2 M4 and around the same as M1.

    This would be like Apple selling an old M1 Air at $100-150 less than the entry Air that uses half the power. This would be $649-699 for education buyers.
    williamlondonchiapscooter63
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 33 of 62
    CheeseFreezecheesefreeze Posts: 1,435member
    I don’t find this very plausible. 
    They could perhaps create a better “iPad + keyboard” combo that offers an attractive package.  But Apple already sells three kinds of laptops and three kinds of iPads. Why confuse the consumer with another one that overlaps both classes?
    williamlondonpscooter63bloggerblog
     1Like 2Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 34 of 62
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 3,670member
    Strange that this would come up now, when we’ve been hearing about the home hub, etc. from Apple. 

    Especially when Apple has the  superior Chromebook-like education offering. 

    Perhaps the 13” screen, etc. is related to the Home hub/Homrpod, etc. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 35 of 62
    mfrydmfryd Posts: 273member
    I don’t find this very plausible. 
    They could perhaps create a better “iPad + keyboard” combo that offers an attractive package.  But Apple already sells three kinds of laptops and three kinds of iPads. Why confuse the consumer with another one that overlaps both classes?
    The difference is that it would be a Mac.  At this point the defining attribute that differentiates a Mac from an iPad is that the Mac runs Mac OSX.

    Mac OSX allows a greater flexibility in available software.  With additional software, OSX can even run Windows in a virtual machine.

    OSX is a platform that can be used to teach programming.   To my knowledge, Apple doesn't allow users to write traditional software under iPad OS.  I have a C compiler for my Mac, I have not been able to find one for my iPad.

    Similarly, OSX allows one to drop into the command line and explore a bit to see how the machine works under the hood.  I don't think the iPad allows this.

    You can even run iPad apps on a Mac.

    All of these make OSX a better choice for many educational situations.


    9secondkox2russwright_said_fred
     2Likes 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 36 of 62
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 6,006member
    Seems like they could just put an M1 in it if they wanted a cheaper Mac....What I don't want to see if Apple start this race to the bottom with "cheap" devices. Apple is a premium brand and should be treated as such. They may be pricing some people out but that's just how it goes. I can't afford a BMW or Mercedes Benz but that doesn't mean they should be making $25,000 BMW's or Mercedes Benz's. It just cheapens the brand in the end. 

    That being said if they can keep quality up and use some older SoC's such as the M1 then why not? They make a $500 Mac mini that seems to be good quality however making a $500 Mac mini is a lot different than making a $500-600 MacBook as it has a keyboard/mouse, and screen. 

    I could see this being popular in K-12/College education. Sorta like the eMac of its time, only a laptop instead of a desktop. 
    edited June 30
    williamlondonnubus9secondkox2
     2Likes 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 37 of 62
    mfrydmfryd Posts: 273member
    macxpress said:
    Seems like they could just put an M1 in it if they wanted a cheaper Mac....What I don't want to see if Apple start this race to the bottom with "cheap" devices. Apple is a premium brand and should be treated as such. They may be pricing some people out but that's just how it goes. I can't afford a BMW or Mercedes Benz but that doesn't mean they should be making $25,000 BMW's or Mercedes Benz's. It just cheapens the brand in the end. 

    That being said if they can keep quality up and use some older SoC's such as the M1 then why not? They make a $500 Mac mini that seems to be good quality however making a $500 Mac mini is a lot different than making a $500-600 MacBook as it has a keyboard/mouse, and screen. 

    I could see this being popular in K-12/College education. Sorta like the eMac of its time, only a laptop instead of a desktop. 
    "Premium" is not the same as "Powerful".
    entropys
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 38 of 62
    longfanglongfang Posts: 555member
    Incredibly stupid idea. 

    Apple already has the MacBook Air. 

    Now they want to make an iPad with a keyboard but no touchscreen?

    the iPhone SOC is for the phone. 

    Don’t weaken the Mac just to have an even cheaper model. 

    Sounds really bad. 
    Why not? I’d love an updated sub 900g notebook for travel. As I age I just couldn’t be arsed to lug so much around unto aircraft. 
    chia9secondkox2russwright_said_fredwilliamlondonTRAG
     5Likes 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 39 of 62
    nubusnubus Posts: 914member
    I would love to see eMate back and for it to use iPadOS 26 now that the OS has windows.
    A18 Pro with 3nm and ray-tracing is too much of a processor for this thing. Go with A16 on 5nm instead. Limit it to 8 GB but make it fun to use.
    And one bold suggestion... drop the Retina Display. Get this thing down to $500 with keyboard, touch, rugged plastics, 8/128 storage, and 6 hours battery life.

    It would be something new. Something for all ages and those not capable of/interested in paying $1k for a laptop.
    williamlondon
     0Likes 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 40 of 62
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 3,670member
    longfang said:
    Incredibly stupid idea. 

    Apple already has the MacBook Air. 

    Now they want to make an iPad with a keyboard but no touchscreen?

    the iPhone SOC is for the phone. 

    Don’t weaken the Mac just to have an even cheaper model. 

    Sounds really bad. 
    Why not? I’d love an updated sub 900g notebook for travel. As I age I just couldn’t be arsed to lug so much around unto aircraft. 
    Sounds like an iPad would fit tje bill nicely. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
Sign In or Register to comment.