Will We See Apple Break This MacBook Taboo?

Apple CEO Tim Cook looks at a display of the redesigned MacBook Air laptop during WWDC 2022 (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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Apple has always relied on the prestige of the MacBook name to help drive sales and keep prices high. Still, the current plans for a new MacBook suggest that Apple is preparing to break one of its long-standing traditions. This could be the first MacBook to drop the Apple Store sticker price below $999.

Inside The Budget MacBook

This new MacBook has one significant difference that we currently know about. Rather than one of the M-seres Apple Silicon chipsets—which every ARM-based MacBook has used since Apple Silicon launched in 2020—Tim Cook and his team will launch this MacBook with the A18 Pro chipset.

This is expected to debut in the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max smartphones set for a September release. Someone looking for a MacBoko that can run all of the developer tools, edit 4K video, and work in hefty multimedia will already be invested in a more powerful MacBook. Still, the goal here is not to capture that market. The goal is to take on the mid-range Windows laptops and Chromebooks.

As the iPad market shows, the A17 Pro is more than capable of lighter computing, and certainly the email answering, web browsing, and office working that is comfortable on a laptop or Chromebook will be just as comfortable running on an Axx MacBook rather than an Mxx model.

The Budget MacBook Price

The biggest attraction to consumers is going to be the price. Details from the supply chain suggest the entry-level model will be priced between $599 and $699. That’s significantly below the $999 that the Apple Store has set out as the baseline MacBook price in the recent past.

Note that this is the Apple Store price. Apple is not averse to offering discounts, it just doesn’t push them on the ront page. The educational discount is a long-running offer across a wide range of products. In the case of the MacBook Air it cuts $100 off the price, giving a headline $899 price for students picking up a new macOS laptop.

Then you have the curious case of Walmart. The retail chain has been selling new M1-powered MacBook Airs at a hefty discount. The MacBooks arrived in March 2024 for $699, with a subsequent cut to $649 in March 2024. These aren’t available through the Apple Store or Apple.com; this is a Walmart exclusive. Yet they are new laptops, manufactured and supported by Apple.

What does Apple get out of the deal? Rather a lot of consumer data on what people use low-specced MacBooks for in 2025, and how much impact the price has on the profile of the buyers. All of which have surely fed back into the Axx MacBook project.

The Budget MacBook Launch Date

The key component to consider when discussing any potential release date is the chipset. The Apple silicon A18 Pro is going to be in high demand as it will be powering both the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Apple will want to focus on that inventory in the short term as production lines come up to speed to feed the initial demand.

As that calms down, the capacity for an A18 Pro MacBook will become available. The supply chain points to a late 2025 release date, although Apple may choose to build up inventory and hold until early 2026. The latter would give this new MacBook a clear run at the market, and those looking to buy a MacBook as a holiday gift would likely stick with the current $999 options.

Apple will also look to balance out the next M5-powered MacBook laptops. It’s becoming more apparent that the MacBook Air is being left to the end of a chip release cycle, so an M5 MacBook Air may not arrive until late 2026, a delay that will be minimized in the eyes of consumers by the cheaper MacBook.

The M5 MacBook Pro models will capture the high ground in 2025, the new budget MacBook will cover the lower steps of the portfolio, and the MacBook Air can run shortstop and pick up anything left at the end of the year.

If Apple is ready to drop below the $999 sticker in the Apple Store.

Now read the latest budget MacBook thoughts, iPhone leaks, and macOS changes in Forbes’ weekly Apple news digest…