Apple To Wage War On Chromebooks & Budget Windows Laptops With A Cheap MacBook
Murmurs of Apple releasing a lower-cost MacBook to compete in the budget laptop segment are growing louder. If such a device comes to fruition, Apple would find itself competing with the likes of cheaper Chromebooks and entry-level Windows PCs, whereas traditionally the company has primarily focused its efforts on more premium categories.
It's not unfathomable that Apple would partially shift its strategy, though. To some extent, we've already seen this play out in the smartphone space with the iPhone SE, the last of which came out in 2022, and more recently with its iPhone 16e starting at $599. The first iPhone SE, released in 2016, debuted at $399. But will it happen in the laptop arena? Yes indeed, according to "people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg reports.
It's important to note that nothing has been officially announced. However, the aforementioned sources indicate the device, codenamed J700, is already in the early production stage and is being tested at Apple. If all goes to plan, it will launch in the first half of 2026, the sources say.
A budget MacBook wouldn't be without compromises. Chief among them is a reported move away from Apple's custom M-based silicon in favor of an iPhone chip. The J700 is also said to employ a lower quality LCD panel and a display size that is a little bit smaller than the 13.6-inch MacBook Air.
Apple has never injected an iPhone processor into a MacBook, though it has done so on some iPad models. More recently, however, Apple's been leaning on its M-series silicon for its iPad devices. We're only speculating here, but it's conceivable that if a budget MacBook is a hit, Apple could eventually make the same shift.
One of the challenges Apple faces is cannibalization. Sources tell the site that Apple is targeting a price point that's well south of $1,000, but you can already the latest-generation 13-inch MacBook Air with an M4 chip on sale for $799, as is currently the case at Amazon. Technically, that's a $999 machine, but it's discounted more often than not.
If Apple can figure out a workable pricing strategy for its rumored low-cost MacBook, it could potentially grab a larger share of the PC market as a whole. According to a recent IDC report, Apple shipped 6.8 million Macs in the third quarter to claim a 9% share of the global PC market, compared to 13.3% for Dell, 19.8% for HP, and 25.5% for Lenovo.
