Apple Plans First Sub-$999 MacBook Using iPhone Chip, Analyst Says (9to5mac.com) 61
Apple plans to release a cheaper MacBook powered by the A18 Pro chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro line, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The laptop will be priced below $999 -- first time for a MacBook Air -- and go into production in late 2025 or early 2026 on the new laptop, the analyst noted.
The device will feature the same 13-inch screen as the current MacBook Air, with the chip representing the primary difference between models. The A18 Pro chip delivers single-core performance around 3,500 on Geekbench, trailing the M4 chip only slightly, though multicore performance lags significantly at approximately 8,780 versus 15,000 for the M4. The A18's multicore performance matches the original 2020 M1 chip.
The device will feature the same 13-inch screen as the current MacBook Air, with the chip representing the primary difference between models. The A18 Pro chip delivers single-core performance around 3,500 on Geekbench, trailing the M4 chip only slightly, though multicore performance lags significantly at approximately 8,780 versus 15,000 for the M4. The A18's multicore performance matches the original 2020 M1 chip.
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Apple is going into the "Chromebook" business, at a 3x price point.... GOT IT! ;-D
That's kind of their thing, decade, after decade, after decade. It works. Why suddenly enter the commodity PC market?
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Apple revenue: $391 billion.
Microsoft revenue: $270 billion
Dell revenue: $88 billion.
Lenovo revenue: $69 billion
HP revene: $53 billion.
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Cute... Now add up every Windows PC hardware manufacturer together. ;-)
Why bother, we are already way past the "It works" point? Also, being the #3 company on the stock exchange suggests "it works". :-)
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Safe to say, more Windows hardware has been sold across the world, than anything Apple will ever produce.
And you strengthen the "it works" point, providing evidence that you don't need to compete everywhere. Despite all those additional units, Apple remains far more profitable than Microsoft. Both companies are for profit and measure success by revenue. Neither is a Raspberry Pi Foundation like entity that measures success by computers in people's hands. Especially in the RPi case where they are people learning about software and hardware.
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"Despite all those additional units, Apple remains far more profitable than Microsoft" As you ignore that one is a software company, and the other has THOUSANDS of compatible manufacturers...
Sorry, that still does not work. Look back at my original list of companies. The biggest of those manufacturers combined don't have the combined revenue of Apple. You have to go pretty far down the list to match Apple given diminishing returns.
Again, you strengthen the notion that Apple's business plan, well "it works".
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Re: So essentially... (Score:2)
Tell you what, let's compare revenue for system sales, not iTunes profits, Apple TV streaming revenue, and iPhone sales? Let's compare (ahem) apples to apples?
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Tell you what, let's compare revenue for system sales, not iTunes profits, Apple TV streaming revenue, and iPhone sales? Let's compare (ahem) apples to apples?
We did that. We compared Apple to Microsoft.
Re: So essentially... (Score:2)
Ah, Apple fanboi ignorance on display - pc makers are PAID by crapware companies to load their crapware on new computers... crapware doesn't hurt profitability, it adds to it.
Re: So essentially... (Score:2)
Wait, 13" MacBook Air w/ M4 has a $999 list price - how much less than that will this "sub-$999" iPhone cpu-based laptop sell for?
But can it run Linux? (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure it won't run Linux, otherwise an alternative OS for iPhones would probably exist already. But it would be cool if these new Macbooks could be liberated from MacOS.
Not that I care personally: if it doesn't have a Trackpoint or equivalent it's not for me. But a greater variety of Linux-capable hardware can only be a good thing.
It runs Unix, and FOSS, and commercial ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure it won't run Linux, ...
But it already runs Unix, and also runs nearly all FOSS software. Very little software is Linux specific. Most of the time the target really is POSIX and runs on BSD and macOS just fine. Many leading FOSS projects even offer pre-built macOS binaries just like they do for Windows.
Linux vs macOS is very much an argument over AT&T Unix user land commands vs BSD Unix user land commands.
Now in addition to all the Unix and FOSS goodness, we get commercial support too, conveniently on the same desktop.
...otherwise an alternative OS for iPhones would probably exist already.
An "alternate" OS exists because phones should have a different user interface than a desktop.
BTW, it's only "alternate" at the UI level. Internally both macOS and iOS share the Darwin kernel and many other OS components. Including all the POSIX stuff.
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Back when jailbreaking iPhones was more of a thing, I would routinely do so. And once a person can ssh into their iPhone, its Unix underpinnings become much more obvious.
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Thanks for the info.
Because this new MacBook is based on iPhone, does that mean that it's possible - short of actually using the cellular phone capabilities - to install *nix on an iPhone the way so many people install Linux on Macs?
You can build/run FOSS on YOUR iPhone (Score:2)
Because this new MacBook is based on iPhone...
Its not. It's based on an Apple Silicon CPU designed for use on an iPhone. An A18 Pro CPU. The 'A' series CPUs are typically designed for mobile devices, the 'M' series CPUs designed for computers. Its the same instruction set, they are compatible from a software point of view. Previously there were exceptions when an 'M' series was used in a high end iPad. Now we have the other direction, an 'A' series going into a modest computer. Mobiles devices still run iOS, computers still run macOS.
... does that mean that it's possible - short of actually using the cellular phone capabilities - to install *nix on an iPhone the way so many people install Linux on Macs?
Apple's software
Re: But can it run Linux? (Score:2)
Why? Why is it important that over-priced, phone CPU-based laptops run something other than macOS? You can buy a $1K MacBook Air right now, which runs an M4 w/ 16 Gig storage, the new laptop coming next year will cost what, $100-200 less and have half the performance of the M4 MB Air.
You can get a wonderful Linux laptop for well under $999, he'll, have you seen the prices on Intel-based Macs?
Despite being called a macbook (Score:1, Flamebait)
macOS is not locked down ... (Score:5, Informative)
Will it run Marcos or iOS andcge locked down like the iPad & iphone so nobody can install anything outside of Apple playstore, because thats what I am thinking it is just an iPad without a touchscreen and just built in laptop hardware,
macOS is not locked down like iOS. You are not restricted to the Apple App Store. You are free to download and install apps directly from developers. Including major FOSS projects.
Things like HomeBrew allow you to install *nix libraries and build and run pretty much all FOSS software out there.
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Things like HomeBrew allow you to install *nix libraries and build and run pretty much all FOSS software out there.
You don't even need MacPorts / Fink / HomeBrew - those just make it easier. Really, you just need Apple's developer tools.
I've installed plenty of software on my Macs (on Intel and on Apple Silicon) via the configure && make && sudo make install route.
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You don't even need MacPorts / Fink / HomeBrew - those just make it easier. Really, you just need Apple's developer tools. I've installed plenty of software on my Macs (on Intel and on Apple Silicon) via the configure && make && sudo make install route.
To be honest, I've not even tried. I just take the Linux instructions and replace apt with brew and that usually works. :-)
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Every couple of years, I go back and forth between building stuff myself and just using MacPorts. Typically I end up back with MacPorts after a stretch of multiple repeated updates and rebuilds driven by multiple sequential security patches in a bunch of base packages (libressl, libssl, libevent, libtool etc. etc.) - since every update to those then needs to be followed by tedious rebuilds of everything else.
Plus I have had trouble with a few things specifically on Apple Silicon... pkg-config comes to mind.
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Plus I have had trouble with a few things specifically on Apple Silicon... pkg-config comes to mind.
My Espressif embedded toolchain got nuked when macOS removed python 2 during a software update, leaving only python 3. Fortunately a MBP from 2011 had moved to Linux after it no longer got macOS upgrades. :-)
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Why did you not read the summary? It would have saved you the time to write this nonsense.
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Re: Despite being called a macbook (Score:1)
The original Apple Silicon developer kit used an iPhone CPU, so itâs safe to say that that macOS does run on these CPUs (which is no surprise). And while we only know for sure when/if that new MBA is released, I doubt that Apple would lock down a Macboon.
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Re: Despite being called a macbook (Score:2)
Don't be so silly - CPU compatibility is just one measure of portability.
Could you run macOS on a windows laptop since macOS supports/supported Intel CPUs?
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In addition, Apple has been pretty clear with their designs that they want to keep iOS on mobile and MacOS on Laptops/Desktops. The M4 iPads could probably run MacOS but they don't. This is not a technical hurdle but a policy dec
Going for market share instead of the cool factor. (Score:2)
Re: Going for market share instead of the cool fac (Score:2)
Every Apple product sold deprives competitors of unit sales.
Sounds interesting. (Score:5, Interesting)
Given my current M1 is all I need that's promising. Diminishing returns finally arrived to CPUs.
Battery life matters to me more than CPU. The M4 is massively overpowered for my needs. Something between a Raspberry Pi and an M4 Wouk's be good, but everyone is chasing either video editing or gaming.
Note, my desktop Linux box is about the same performance level as an M1.
RPi is awesome, but not quite entry level yet (Score:3)
That said, I don't think RPi is quite there yet as a general purpose entry level computer. I think we currently have to mov
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I don't even know what processor is in the MBA I bought in December. It's an "m-something or another". Doesn't really matter, it works great for whatever I am doing with it. The 24GB of RAM is way overkill too.
Re: MacBook all over again (Score:2)
The new device planned for 2026 is "sub-$999", the current MBA is commonly available for $899 (or less), making the current MBA "sub-$999" as well...
Why should I wait to buy a lower-powered MB next year?
So Apple returning to 3 models ... (Score:3)
MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro.
Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio. (Mac Pro just ridiculously expensive and niche, its really outside the traditional Mac categories).
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So Apple returning to 3 models in a category, their "good, better, best" branding.
I'd argue more descriptive categories would be "good, better, boutique" - Apple has pretty much obliterated any connection between the word "Pro" and actual usage by professionals. It's more a price descriptor than anything else.
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So Apple returning to 3 models in a category, their "good, better, best" branding.
I'd argue more descriptive categories would be "good, better, boutique" - Apple has pretty much obliterated any connection between the word "Pro" and actual usage by professionals. It's more a price descriptor than anything else.
Compare mini M4 and Studio specs. For example 120GB/s memory bandwidth vs 410GB/s memory bandwidth. I went mini since I'm a developer and don't want to write code that requires 'Studio" level performance. PC side, an Intel NUC11 i5 for the same reason. :-)
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iPhone 16 Pro Max. For Professional Phonies, I guess.
BS -- Analysts are usually wrong (Score:2)
Apple is not doing this stupid idea of A series powered laptop. Given Apple already is putting M series chips in iPads, it's not going to use an A series chip which wont really save any money and is less capable compared to simply using an older M chip and increase the M production volumes.
Re: BS -- Analysts are usually wrong (Score:2)
It's not less capable than any old M chip.
Got any actual points?
Re: BS -- Analysts are usually wrong (Score:2)
Did you even read the summary?
The device will feature the same 13-inch screen as the current MacBook Air, with the chip representing the primary difference between models. The A18 Pro chip delivers single-core performance around 3,500 on Geekbench, trailing the M4 chip only slightly, though multicore performance lags significantly at approximately 8,780 versus 15,000 for the M4. The A18's multicore performance matches the original 2020 M1 chip.
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FYI Geekbench multicore (Score:2)
FYI, I was using Geekbench as a quick comparison since you can easily find scores, but the current version (6) seems to have pretty much broken multicore [dev.to].
Otherwise, a lower-power version of the Macbook Air alongside the whatever-M for a lower price is not a bad idea, M1 level performance is plenty - still better than most current low-power Intel chips. I don't understand what sub-$999 means though. Are we talking about $799, $899 or... $998?
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First time... for an Apple Silicon Mac (Score:2)
In the past, there have been Intel MacBook Airs priced below $1K.
BTW anyone else remember, when the Apple Silicon transition was announced, how one of the fanboy talking points was how it would let Apple drop the prices on their computers? Hahaha that was a good one!
Re: First time... for an Apple Silicon Mac (Score:2)
In the past, there have been Intel MacBook Airs priced below $1K.
Current M4 MacBook Air starts at $999, and big box retailers knock $100 or more off that list price, sometimes more.
I can buy an M4 MBA for $899 today at Microcenter, $855 if I use their store credit card to save 5% more.
Can we say (Score:2)
Enshitified? I knew ya could