Earlier this week, DigiTimes reported (via MacRumors) that Apple was working on a bargain-basement MacBook in order to better compete with Chromebooks. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s an interesting theory — except it’s almost certainly baloney.
On the face of it, it seems believable. After all, Google is doing very well in the education market, cramming as many Chromebooks into classrooms as it physically can. Why wouldn’t Apple want to get a slice of the pie?
Well, there are a few reasons. For one thing, Apple simply doesn’t need to compete with $99 Chromebooks. Mac sales have been surging ever since Apple silicon launched in late 2020, Apple is one of the largest and most profitable firms in the world, and it’s all been done with a laptop lineup that starts at $999 for its cheapest entry.
Why would Apple feel the need to change a thing? To get into the classroom? It’s already doing that with the iPad range. Just a few weeks ago, Apple announced a new education project to get students drawing and painting using iPads, and it regularly partners with schools to outfit classrooms with its tablets. If Apple is desperate to compete with Chromebooks, it certainly doesn’t look that way.
I’ll play devil’s advocate for a moment. Let’s assume that Apple is deeply concerned about its education efforts and wants to find a way to kick Chromebooks off their low-priced pedestal. It would still face a major hurdle, even if this was the case: a mega-cheap MacBook feels about as far away from Apple’s ethos as possible. It just doesn’t pass the sniff test.
The reason is clear to anyone who’s ever gone into an Apple Store or held one of the company’s products. Apple is a premium brand, and its products are purposely pricey, desirable, and well-made. The company wants people to covet its devices. Releasing a cut-price laptop that looks like a forgotten holdover from a dreary going out of business sale runs directly counter to that.
Apple has spent many years working on this brand image, and it’s not about to throw all that away to compete with a device that CEO Tim Cook in all likelihood doesn’t care about. A MacBook that only costs a couple hundred dollars would destroy all that hard work for very little benefit.
As Apple pundit John Gruber pointed out just yesterday, Apple’s strategy is simple: “Don’t prioritize being first or being cheapest. Prioritize being the best.” Whether or not Apple always succeeds in making the best laptops can be debated, but the intention is clear. Tossing out a cheap laptop it doesn’t need to make is not the way to be best, and it never will be.
With that in mind, treat this rumor with a large helping of skepticism. Given what we know about Apple, it just makes too little sense.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.