Some Apple rumors just don’t go away, hanging around in perpetuity either because they reflect things that Apple is actually testing in its labs or because hope springs eternal. A HomePod-like device with a screen? A replacement for the dear, departed 27-inch iMac? Touchscreen MacBooks? The return of TouchID fingerprint scanning via a sensor located beneath a screen? Maybe these things are coming, but they ain’t here yet.
However, few rumors have had the longevity or staying power of “Apple is planning a low-cost MacBook,” versions of which have been circulating since at least the late-2000s netbook craze. And yet, despite seismic shifts in just about everything—three distinct processor instruction sets, two CEOs, innumerable design changes, and global trade upheaval—Apple’s cheapest modern laptops have started around $1,000 for more than two decades.
Last week, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (whose Apple predictions aren’t always correct, but whose track record is better than your garden variety broken-clock prognosticators) kicked up another round of these rumors, claiming that Apple was preparing to manufacture a new low-cost MacBook based on the iPhone’s A18 Pro chip. Kuo claims it will come in multiple colors, similar to Apple’s lower-cost A16 iPad, and will use a 13-inch screen.
MacRumors chipped in with its own contribution, claiming that a “Mac17,1” model it had found listed in an older macOS update was actually that A18 Pro MacBook model, apparently far enough along in development that Apple’s beta operating systems were running on it.
The last round of “cheap MacBook” rumors happened in late 2023 (also instigated by Kuo, but without the corroboration from Apple’s own software). As we wrote then, Apple’s control over its own chips could make this kind of laptop more plausible. But if it existed, what would this laptop be good for? Who could buy it instead of a MacBook Air, and who would want to stick to Apple’s current $999 status quo? To commemorate the “budget MacBook” idea becoming infinitesimally more likely, let’s ruminate on those questions a bit.
