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Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

9to5mac.com

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Re: Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

#81

Post by geodel »

seec wrote: post #71
highwaylights wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairly confident the CPU has never been the reason you can't install whatever you want on an iOS/iPadOS device. Also not the reason you can't install macOS on it either. If you want macOS, you buy a Mac. You want iPadOS, you buy an iPad. And if you want an iPad Pro that can double up as a Mac in a pinch, you feel awkward while Tim Cook death stares at you until you empty your pockets. In all seriousness though, I hav…

You lack perspective and have a poor imagination. They can absolutely make the iPad Pro run macOS just fine and figure out the software solution quite easily. They just need to make it run macOS by default but with an UI layer that could transform it in an iOS like UI in a pinch (while shutting down most of the daemons and stuff iPad OS doesn't use currently). You can already run iPad apps on Apple Silicon macs just…

Yeah, like Blackberry had great phone with touch screen and keyboard both. It was blockbuster and gained huge popularity.

Re: Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

#82

Post by GeekyBear »

leptons wrote: post #31
etchalon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "MacPad" already exists. It's called the iPad Pro. It uses the M5 chip.

Except it doesn't run MacOS, and it doesn't allow you to install any application you want to - only those that Apple allows you to. And you're still forced to use Safari in every browser you install.

MacOS runs iOS/iPad apps today, and Apple is said to be offering touch screen OLED laptops in the M6 generation.

Re: Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

#83

Post by tim333 »

epolanski wrote: post #64
tim333 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing firstly it won't be a lot cheaper and secondly it may appeal to the very large number of people who buy cheaper windows laptops.

And who cares about such a segment? There's very little money to make there. It's highly competitive, the audience is budget oriented, in fact not sure if they are why would they consider the cheap but sure pricier MacBook.

There's a lot of them though. Apple's sales are about 22 mil macbooks/yr, total laptop sales are like 260 mil, or about 9%.

In phones Apple have about 27% and a cheaper phone in the $599 16e.

I don't see why they shouldn't go for a similar strategy to the phones.

Re: Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

#84

Post by kisper »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #25
_fzslm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a gap in Apple's offerings. Casual computer users like students probably can't justify dropping nearly a K on a MacBook, so they go for these 400-600$ dell/hp laptops, or a Chromebook. This fits that hole. iPhone processor is surely cheaper from an economies of scale perspective, they are likely way easier to produce en masse and they already produce bajillions of them for the iPhone. Over time the price of…

> There is a gap in Apple's offerings. Casual computer users like students probably can't justify dropping nearly a K on a MacBook, so they go for these 400-600$ dell/hp laptops, or a Chromebook. This fits that hole. I could say the same about their cell phone lineup. If I have $400 to spend on a phone, what can I get from Apple? A $400 iPhone would certainly increase market share--but Apple does not seem to want tha…

I wonder if the play is to be able to differentiate themselves from the other phone manufacturers. Perhaps they think a free bundled laptop (that is cheap enough to make financial sense to include), instead of a wearable or tablet, could get a significant amount of people on the fence to choose Apple. Then again, they could likely get a lot of them by having a cheaper phone; perhaps though, their fear is cannibalization of the higher end iPhone sales? According to their latest statement, net sales of computer were only a fifth of that iPhone sales. I suppose they think it’s a better risk carving out more sales in the computer market over what they might lose on the entry level MacBook Air sales.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2025-q4/FY25_Q4_Consol...

There’s bound to be multiple reasons, heck, it could even just be internal politics. I too am curious.

Re: Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

#85

Post by bigyabai »

GeekyBear wrote: post #82
leptons wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it doesn't run MacOS, and it doesn't allow you to install any application you want to - only those that Apple allows you to. And you're still forced to use Safari in every browser you install.

MacOS runs iOS/iPad apps today, and Apple is said to be offering touch screen OLED laptops in the M6 generation.

You're basically proving their point. One will replace the other, sooner or later. The iPad doesn't necessitate it's own existence, unless you make it the new Mac.

Re: Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report

#86

Post by rcarmo »

bluescrn wrote: post #69
rcarmo wrote: post #66

At this rate, someday the iPad will be the more powerful “computer” by default :)

Yet something like the Raspberry Pi will still have more 'power' to actually get useful things done, as it's not chained to an App Store, allows you to compile code, etc

Why not both? https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/09/09/1820
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