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

https://9to5mac.com/2025/11/04/cheaper-macbook-powered-by-iphone-chip-coming-in-2026-per-new-report/

by spurgu • 9 months ago

54 82 9 months ago

znpy• 9 months ago

It would be nice to see a renaissance of 12” laptops

gchamonlive4• 9 months ago

Interesting. If they'll come with a cutdown version of the os like the iPads, it'll limit the target audience and the success of the device. On the other hand if it'll be powered by a fully fledged MacOS it'll make it more arbitrary the decision not to have the same features on iPads.

brendoelfrendo• 9 months ago

I already have an M3-powered iPad Air; Apple currently produces iPad hardware that could, theoretically, run full MacOS. The decision is already about as arbitrary as it gets.

bluescrn3• 9 months ago

Seems such a waste, such a powerful device held back by an OS chained to an App Store and still so touch-centric.

iPadOS has certainly got a lot better over recent updates, but there's no sign of 'apps' catching up with serious desktop software any time soon.

walterbell2• 9 months ago

JIT workaround helps UTM VMs and iSH/ashell (Linux emulation), https://onejailbreak.com/blog/stikdebug-ios/

StikDebug works around those restrictions by using a local VPN profile to manage the JIT process securely within the app. Once you approve the VPN configuration, StikDebug can communicate with sideloaded apps and activate JIT automatically when you launch them. This means that users on iOS 26 can finally enjoy the same performance benefits that developers used to unlock only through Xcode or jailbreaking.

pqtyw2• 9 months ago

Why? There are already iPads and iPhones more expensive that Macs and Apple is not trying to justify anything. The capabilities of the OS have nothing to do with the chip of course.

gchamonlive4• 9 months ago

If you think this is worth the investment in the ecosystem go for it. It just makes me quite sceptical to touch anything apple. I don't think they have their customers best interest in mind, and it shows time and again. Not a big fan of this paternalistic approach to product design, but this is just me.

CamJN• 9 months ago

I think that ship has sailed. They already make iPads (the pro line) with M-class processors just like the laptops that run full-featured macOS. This change is to add laptops that run A-class processors like run the iPhone. If all Apple cared about with regards to what capabilities they expose in an OS was what processor was in a device then the iPad Pros would be able to run macOS, but they don’t view their products that way.

gchamonlive4• 9 months ago

If all Apple cared about with regards to what capabilities they expose in an OS was what processor was in a device then the iPad Pros would be able to run macOS

That's my point, and I think this hybrid Mac with iPhone chip will make this even more blatant. You are effectively paying more for less features just because they know what's best for you.

hyperhello2• 9 months ago

I don’t really get it, from a consumer perspective, unless the idea is mass education sales. They already sell enough Macs for economy of scale to kick in.

Calling it an iPhone processor doesn’t explain anything by itself, and wouldn’t save much money. Is the screen cheaper? The keyboard? The SSD?

I suppose the point would be to farm and beta test a base of new, cheaper, slower, less reliable components, and then find the path to making them acceptable for retail.

_fzslm2• 9 months ago

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 even a high quality LCD like on the existing MacBook Air will have decreased enormously. Apple is setting up to move to OLED on the rest of the line, so using existing LCD tech is likely to save a lot too

hyperhello2• 9 months ago

Would it be consistent with this plan to continue to make the same M1 Air at the current price, stuffing it with whatever phone processor they happen to have a few extra million of?

kristianp2• 9 months ago

so they go for these 400-600$ dell/hp laptops

I feel that these inexpensive macs will increase market share, perhaps this will pressure Microsoft to improve the Windows performance and ad bloat.

quitit• 9 months ago

I imagine this will be the new "MacBook" which has been absent from the lineup since 2019.

Wowfunhappy• 9 months ago

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 that market. Too low margin, I would think, or maybe too high a risk of "cheapening" their overall brand. Or maybe both.

Why is a laptop different?

highwaylights6• 9 months ago

The budget offering is a used MacBook from the massive aftermarket stock, but I take your point - it doesn't scale and some people are averse to buying used goods.

nickthegreek• 9 months ago

My mom would never drop $1k on a laptop. Gen alpha is doesn't seem to have a mass interest in computers that aren't just Screen. A $1k entry point is basically a nonstarter for many people. Apple would be wise to reuse their older tech to devour the $500 laptop market.

bitwize• 9 months ago

Apple used to rule mass education sales by offering steep discounts on the Apple II line, a pricey option for home users, to schools. Their latest effort along that line was the eMac, an early 2000s all-in-one similar to the original iMac but done in inoffensive opaque white, whose spirit still remains with us as many Hackernews inadvertently let their iPhones autocorrect "Emacs" to "eMacs". The eMac was originally for the educational market but after a few months Apple would make it available to everyone. It'd be nice to see Apple target education again, though admittedly mainly for nostalgia's sake and as a hedge against data thieves like Google.

organsnyder• 9 months ago

My kid's high school provides each student with a MacBook while they're enrolled. I'm sure they'd be an ideal market for this.

tim3333• 9 months ago

I might be a buyer for something like that. I carry a laptop all the time so small and light is good, and mostly use it for web stuff and word/excel so nothing too demanding performance wise. I've got an M1 Air now but miss the size and weight of the 11" Air.

kristianp2• 9 months ago

Surprising to read the the original M1 Air is still sold through Walmart.

jrockway• 9 months ago

Honestly, I'm not even an Apple fangirl and that thing is a great computer. I bought one for work and it served me better than any other $999 computer ever did. It's apparently $599 now? Great value, in my opinion.

spurgu2• 9 months ago

Very much so. I still have my M1 bought in 2021, haven't felt like there is any need to upgrade to any of the newer ones.

endemic• 9 months ago

Amazon is selling them new for $440; refurb at Best Buy for $330.

Handy-Man• 9 months ago

They are renewed, not new on Amazon.

highwaylights6• 9 months ago

Having just moved from my M1 Air to a M4 Air for the extra screen output and more ram, $330 for a M1 Air with a warranty is the deal of the century.

somethoughts2• 9 months ago

I think the reverse offering on the Apple device roadmap would be interesting.

A MacPad and a MacPhone. Given its eventually going to be completely the same silicon this would enable them to offer a non App Store experience for people who want to experiment with alternative app stores like Epic.

In that way they could keep the average Apple target iPhone/iPad customer within the walled garden of iOS while being able to point specifically to EU regulators that they are allowing alternative app stores on the MacPhone/MacPad platform.

etchalon• 9 months ago

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

leptons2• 9 months ago

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.

freedomben• 9 months ago

Offering something like that would be tantamount to admitting that they were wrong (or lying) about their motivation for locking the system down with no user choice, that it's for the protection of the user. I don't see that happening.

somethoughts2• 9 months ago

Interestingly it's popularity or unpopularity would prove out two things - both of which are somewhat of a win win for Apple:

1.) If MacPhone/MacPad is popular then it would prove that there does exist a currently untapped, unaddressed market who wants Apple HW and are willing to pay a premium but do not want the locked down iOS garden which means more money for minimal effort.

2.) If MacPhone/MacPad is unpopular then it would prove that their motivation and hypothesis was correct - people do indeed come to Apple and pay the premium precisely for the walled garden and the convenience it affords.

If its indeed unpopular you could keep it around for a couple of years as an EU regulatory compliance device. Then you can say to any future regulator who wants to tear down the iOS walled garden - we tried that back in 2026 and nobody wanted it.

epolanski4• 9 months ago

What's the point?

This would only cannibalize their higher tier sales with a low margin product. I don't get it.

This company is visionless.

zekrioca• 9 months ago

Yes, Apple is visionless.

ggm• 9 months ago

They're anything but visionless. This is a departure from an upwards sell trajectory but if it sold in volumes, it goes to the classic quote "quantity has a quality all of it's own" -usually taken in context it means giving up the quality drive, but in reality it's neutral to the other product line.

It may cannibalize SOME of the existing market, yes. all of it? I don't think my peers on M4 boxes with 32GB+ are going to go for this any more than they did when the Air came out and they had powerful boxes.

Reason077• 9 months ago

People who buy high-end MacBook Pros are still going to buy MacBook Pros. The idea here is to pick up sales that would otherwise go to cheaper PC laptop brands, by competing at a lower price point than the MacBook Air currently does.

Right now, Apple still (quietly) sells the MacBook Air M1 at $599 to keep a toe in that lower-end market, but I doubt many people who are considering a Pro or an M4 Air are persuaded to choose that instead.

epolanski4• 9 months ago

People who bought MacBooks and were forced into MBPs now can go back to MacBooks.

The argument goes both ways.

whynotminot2• 9 months ago

Maybe they should only offer MacBook Pros, then.

spurgu2• 9 months ago

It doesn't change anything with their higher tier sales. Those are bought for a reason that a lower tier device cannot satisfy.

My worry (from Apple's POV) is that all the people who buy the cheapest Mac (currently for $1k) will instead go for this new "base model". And I suspect there's a large cohort of people who "just want a Mac".

walterbell2• 9 months ago

Google is converging ChromeOS and Android in 2026 Qualcomm Arm laptops by HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc.

baq• 9 months ago

creative destruction at work.

ruralfam• 9 months ago

Not disagreeing re: vision for quality software and new products. However this segmentation is pretty good. Most everyone buying a Macbook today wants "M" performance. Most everyone who does not care about "benchmarks" and is price sensitive (likely a surprisingly large number of folks), is put off by MB pricing. So you gimp the processor, lower the price, take a bit of a margin hit on net profit for hware, but capture lots of sales and canabalize virtually no "M" sales. Plus I would guess the Apple has done enough market analysis to understand that the folks buying this new Macbook are likely to want to subscribe to something Apple offers which will offset the lower hware margin.

epolanski4• 9 months ago

"Most everyone" is pointless anecdotal talk. Most of the people I know have a mbp cuz their company buys it and they couldn't care less about a powerful computer if it wasn't for working or gaming (but that's not Apple's turf anyway).

phantasmish• 9 months ago

Probably to take back a bunch of the education market, which was lost to Chromebooks.

tim3333• 9 months ago

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.

epolanski4• 9 months ago

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.

amelius• 9 months ago

More locked down nanny-ware from Apple. Why the excitement?

whynotminot2• 9 months ago

It’s always funny to me when people on hackernews assume that all technology created is intended for their use.

Gualdrapo• 9 months ago

I think by "cheaper" they mean "just a tiny bit less expensive"

vondur• 9 months ago

How much difference is there between an M4 chip and something like the A18 regarding pricing? I assume a lower end screen and maybe a plastic body would reduce the price further.

rasz• 9 months ago

Arent M4 Airs already $800 on sale? Im afraid the low end model will again push 8GB ram.

risingsubmarine• 9 months ago

An 11" version of this proposed A-series chip Macbook is exactly what I would want to see, and would more likely expect to see from Apple's sales perspective, than an iPad that is capable of running MacOS.

A tiny Macbook that I can slip into a sling bag is more preferable to me than an iPad for many tasks.

trial3• 9 months ago

yup: i would instantly buy something like this if it ran full macOS

rcarmo2• 9 months ago

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

bluescrn3• 9 months ago

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

rcarmo2• 9 months ago

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

geodel2• 9 months ago

Phone Chip/Plastic Body/12" 3:2 or 4:3 screen/~400 dollar. I see my family as a customer for it.

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

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