Back in 2015, Apple brought back the MacBook (not the Air or Pro versions we have today).. The super-slim MacBook weighed in at around 920g and came with an Intel Core M processor, 12-inch Retina display and a single USB-C port. While it wasn’t a powerful machine, it filled a market niche for a small, low cost notebook. It was perfect for the student market – I even bought one for my daughter when she started tertiary study.
Well, it seems Apple is planning to revive the MacBook. With the Intel era well and truly in the rearview mirror, it’s rumoured this new MacBook will ship with an A18 Pro chip and come in several colours.
This follows Apple’s product strategy of offering good, better and best options. If we look at the iPhone we have the iPhone 16e, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. The Apple Watch comes in Ultra, Series and SE versions. And there’s the iPad, iPad Air and iPad Pro.
My adding an entry level MacBook, Apple can push into a niche of people who want a Mac laptop but are turned off by the cost.
A MacBook could also come in different colours, eschewing the Space Black and Silver corporate colours of the MacBook Pro. The MacBook offers a little more variety with Sky Blue, Midnight and Starlight. But a MacBook could adopt some more funky colours like the blues, yellow, red and purples we see on some of Apple’s other products.
In Australia, an entry-level MacBook Air starts at $1549. If Apple, by using the A18 Pro chipset that’s expected to be in the iPhone 17, can bring the price back to $999 they could shake the laptop market up significantly. I can’t see Apple going for the sub-$500 market but if they can go under $1000 they will appeal to students and others looking for a low cost machine that will handle most of their day to day tasks.
The A-series processor in the iPad allows people to run popular applications like Microsoft Office. And while Apple doesn’t currently offer macOS on any A-series devices, it would be hard to believe Apple hasn’t already been prototyping MacBooks with the chipset originally made for the iPhone.
This makes sense from a product perspective. With the MacBook air coming in 13-inch and 15-inch versions, and the MacBook Pro having 14- and 16-inch versions, a new MacBook could fill the 12-inch MacBook void at a price point that achieves the good, better, best product strategy.
Apple doesn’t usually ship new MacBooks during the back of of the year. Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests the first quarter of next year is more likely.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.