Some Apple rumors just don't go away, hanging hanging around, either because they reflect things that Apple actually tests in his laboratories or because Hope jumps forever. A homepod-like device with a screen? A replacement for the sweet, left 27-inch iMac? Touchscreen MacBooks? The return of touchid fingerprint scanning via a sensor under a screen? Maybe these things are coming, but they are not there yet.
However, there are few rumors the lifespan or permanent power of “Apple plant a cheap MacBook”, the versions of which have been circulating since the craze of the Netbook-Rage of the late 2000s. And yet, despite seismic shifts in almost everything – three different processor instruction sets, two CEOs, countless design changes and the global trade – the cheapest modern laptops in Apple have started more than two decades.
Last week, Supply Chain Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (whose Apple forecasts are not always correct, but whose track record is Better than your garden variety broken-clock prognosticators) kicked another round of these rumors and claimed that Apple was preparing to produce a new cheap MacBook based on the A18 Pro chip of the iPhone. Kuo claims that it comes in multiple colors, similar to the cheaper A16 IPad from Apple, and will use a 13-inch screen.
Macrumors has engaged a personal contribution and claimed that an “Mac17.1” model that it had found in an older macOS update, actually that A18 Pro MacBook was model, apparently developing far enough that Apple's beta operating systems were on it.
The last round of rumors “Cheap MacBook” took place at the end of 2023 (also intended by KUO, but without the confirmation of Apple's own software). As we wrote then, Apple's control over his own chips could make this type 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 like to adhere to the current status quo of $ 999 from Apple? To commemorate the idea “Budget MacBook” that is becoming infinitely more likely, we let those ask a bit about those questions.
