Apple plans to finally capitalise on the good-reputation that the Mac has built over some 40 years (first introduced in 1984 by Steve Jobs), according to the noted Apple analyst Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. While the Mac has been the cool or quality product, it has never gained major market share. Well, in the company’s defence, it has always stated that the goal with the Mac has never been to chase market share with low-cost products.
If the reports turn out to be true, it would mark a new period and a strategic realignment for Apple as it looks to capture a larger pie of the PC market. The Mac has quite a fantastic history fighting in the PC market, having almost being on the death-bed at times while having been one of the first to define the category. Over the years, the Mac has stabilised and is a de-facto option for many people who use it for writing, video editing, software development, hardware and software design, etc.
Mac continues to be seen as the ‘creative’ option amongst other PC offerings. The most defining change for Mac was in 2020 when Apple released the in-house developed M-series chips. The M1 MacBook Air redefined what a laptop is with strong performance and excellent battery life – a combination which was unseen until 2020. The move also meant that the iPhone and the Mac would share a similar architecture which would also reduce the costs for the company to produce these powerful chips.
The upcoming low-cost MacBook which is reportedly code-named J700 will be be powered by an iPhone chip (A-series). The chips powering the iPhones are plenty powerful, the same which the company uses in several iPad models except for the iPad Pro (which continues to the be the top-tier powered by Mac-grade chips). The laptop will be plenty powerful for people who would like to use a Mac for light-weight tasks such as writing, research, web-browsing, taking notes, etc.
The key target buyers would be students who look for budget-friendly options. A Mac is always better than a iPad hooked to an external keyboard. While the iPad was touted as a revolutionary product which will dominate the post-PC era, it has turned out to be the middle-chid suffering from existential crisis. A low-cost Mac may very well make Mac be a major contender to the Windows and Chromebooks of the PC market.
