{"id":1196735,"date":"2023-10-26T13:15:06","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1196735"},"modified":"2023-10-26T13:15:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:15:06","slug":"the-low-cost-macbook-rumor-just-wont-die-but-it-might-finally-make-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1196735","title":{"rendered":"The \u201clow-cost MacBook\u201d rumor just won\u2019t die, but it might finally make sense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Enlarge<\/a> \/<\/span> Could the 12-inch MacBook make a return as some kind of “lower-cost MacBook”? (credit: Andrew Cunningham)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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If you want a Mac laptop, you usually need to be ready to spend at least $1,000. Whether we’re talking about the white plastic MacBook from 2006<\/a>, the 11-inch MacBook Air from a decade ago, or the modern M1 MacBook Air, the list price for Apple’s cheapest MacBook is usually within $100 or so of that four-digit price barrier (not counting refurbished Macs or ones that go on sale).<\/p>\n

Apple has a stated aversion to releasing less-expensive hardware just to hit an attractive price\u2014”cheap is for other people because we try to build a better product,” Apple marketing SVP Greg Joswiak told us a few years ago<\/a>. But rumors of a low-cost MacBook pop up every few years, undeterred, usually conflating “entry-level” with “low-cost.” Here’s a prediction about an $800 MacBook<\/a> from October 2008 (actual entry-level prices: $999 and $1,299<\/a>). Here’s analyst Ming-Chi Kuo<\/a> and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman<\/a> in 2018 predicting a MacBook Air “with a lower price tag” that would “reignite sales”\u00a0(actual price: $1,199<\/a>, $200 more than the previous MacBook Air).<\/p>\n

This week, Kuo came back with an updated version of that same report, claiming<\/a> that Apple “may also consider (but hasn’t decided yet) introducing a more affordable MacBook model to boost shipments.” Mac revenue and unit shipments have indeed been down year over year for a few quarters<\/a>, though that has more to do with a pandemic- and Apple Silicon-fueled sales spike in 2021 and 2022 than anything (the revenue numbers are still on the high side of normal compared to 2019 and most of 2020).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read 18 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | Comments<\/a><\/p>\n


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\nSource: Ars Technica – The \u201clow-cost MacBook\u201d rumor just won\u2019t die, but it might finally make sense<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enlarge \/ Could the 12-inch MacBook make a return as some kind of “lower-cost MacBook”? (credit: Andrew Cunningham) If you want a Mac laptop, you usually need to be ready to spend at least $1,000. Whether we’re talking about the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1196736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1196735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1196736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}