Cheaper MacBook powered by iPhone chip coming in 2026, per new report
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
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.
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
But I actually believe they'll do a completely new shell for this device, and one reason being they could probably save even more money and cut even more costs than the current prod cost of M1 airs.
I feel that these inexpensive macs will increase market share, perhaps this will pressure Microsoft to improve the Windows performance and ad bloat.
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 $400 iPhone would certainly increase market share--but Apple does not seem to want that market. Too low margin, I would think, or maybe too high a risk of "cheapening" their overall brand. Or maybe both.
Why is a laptop different?
Now, lower cost carriers do less of this, and you need to get the high end plan, so it’s not good advice for everyone to get the free phone deal. It is one way a laptop is different. A decent chunk of people aren’t directly paying for their phone.
Without any contracts an unlocked (renewed) iPhone 15 through Amazon 400 - 500$.
There’s no free lunch here, cheap plans are noticeably worse in various ways, but like cable companies carriers don’t want to give you a good plan without bundling phone upgrades.
Visible’s $25/month plan mentions unlimited Hotspot for example, but good luck finding they always cap you at 5 Mbits on their website. Suddenly it makes more sense why someone might bump up to their $45/month plan for 3x the Hotspot speed. Even then 15Mbps isn’t that bad, but it’s a long way from 5G could provide.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2025-q4/FY25_Q4_Consol...
There’s bound to be multiple reasons, heck, it could even just be internal politics. I too am curious.
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.
If you want macOS, you buy a Mac. You want iPadOS, you buy an iPad. And if you want an iPad Pro that can double up as a Mac in a pinch, you feel awkward while Tim Cook death stares at you until you empty your pockets.
In all seriousness though, I have an iPad Pro and a MacBook (as a lot of people here do I'm sure) and it would make a poor laptop. And how do you switch between macOS and iPadOS? I don't see a way to have that not be clunky because of all the different metaphors. I'd rather just have both (actually I'd rather just have the MacBook as the iPad sits largely idle, as I'm also sure a lot of people's do).
Are you lost? Did you reply to the wrong comment? My comment says nothing about CPU or anything about hardware, at all.
The thread above my comment is talking about a "MacPad" which means running MacOS on Apple tablets and phones.
Of course Apple prevents this even though it's entirely possible to do it, because Apple is going to do Apple things.
>In all seriousness though, I have an iPad Pro and a MacBook (as a lot of people here do I'm sure)
Reality distortion field in effect?
> and it would make a poor laptop.
Uh... all you would need to do is add a keyboard and mouse and it's a laptop, and all of that is already possible to do and has been possible for a very long time.
>(actually I'd rather just have the MacBook as the iPad sits largely idle, as I'm also sure a lot of people's do).
You seem to be sure about a lot of things.
If you have a look around on the interwebs there are longstanding criticisms of how overpowered the iPad is relative to what you're actually empowered to do with it, and by extension the question of who is it supposed to be for. Like you said, Apple doing Apple.
I'm sure a lot of them sit idle because a constant complaint people have (again all over the interwebs) with them is that they aren't good at much besides media consumption, and are rarely people's first choice for that due to convenience.
Whatever though? It hardly matters. Enjoy your iPad I guess(?)
They can absolutely make the iPad Pro run macOS just fine and figure out the software solution quite easily.
They just need to make it run macOS by default but with an UI layer that could transform it in an iOS like UI in a pinch (while shutting down most of the daemons and stuff iPad OS doesn't use currently). You can already run iPad apps on Apple Silicon macs just fine.
It's purely and simply a commercial decision, to force people to buy multiple devices. If the iPad could run as a Mac they would lose a large amount of MacBook Air and low-end MacBook Pros, this is a simple as that.
Sure, they could adapt macOS and iPadOS enough to make it sort of workable, but I tend to agree with them that it would ultimately be a master-of-none device.
Clearly the reason they don’t want to do it is that it’ll cannibalise other sales. If macOS were written from scratch today it wouldn’t allow apps outside of the App Store or even multiple users. They’re Apple.
The surface make a poor tablet but that's mostly because the hardware isn't suitable for it anyway (because they lack the potential Apple Silicon has). It would be quite pointless for Microsoft to focus on tablet style software when the hardware wouldn't be able to make advantage of it and anyway, the touch layer they have on top is largely sufficient for most task you would want to do in tablet mode (especially since it is sold with a stylus and focus on that interaction method).
Android would make a poor desktop OS as is, but Google is merging ChromeOS with it and there is Samsung Dex that is quite competent already. With the increased competitiveness of Qualcomm chips I think they'll attain a quite decent middle ground at some point.
You say it would be a master of none device but isn't it what the iPad Pro already is ? Quite overkill for a content consumption tablet and too limited to be a full laptop replacement. This is particularly true for the 13 inch model, most use the 11 inch, which is kinda pointless for the price. Better to buy a cheaper iPad Air and a good enough laptop for the price asked.
But really the hardware isn't the problem, it's all about the software that Apple willingly gimp, they could very well make a dual mode device with legacy support for "classic" Mac Apps and a way to suspend to swap when you go into full tablet mode. Most of the app in the ecosystem already use the same underlying data and files format, it's all about differentiated UIs in the end. There is no real problem problem, only lack of will, because of greed as you mention.
Apple spent billions on an overpriced VR device, for which they will never be really competitive because one of its primary use case (gaming), largely require open development model that they will never allow because of their greed.
If Apple would figure out the software solution there would be no reason to buy both a Mac and an iPad for most common use case, and that's really the only reason for their lack of interest.
I think that's good because if the competition manage to figure out the hardware, they'll give them a run for their money.
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.
Also, that wedge design might be peak laptop. It's just soooo nice when lifting off a surface. I know that sounds ridiculous but the attention to detail that went into that design is next level.
Even though I'm not in the market, part of me really hopes the MacBook SE (or whatever they call it) uses the wedge design to clear chassis parts like they did with the SE iphones (although I doubt it).
A tiny Macbook that I can slip into a sling bag is more preferable to me than an iPad for many tasks.
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.
The iPad could be a fantastic machine but as is, it makes no sense for most workflow. It seems to be stuck at being a fancy notepad or expensive drawing tablet for hip artists (real pros use the much larger and more convenient Wacoms anyway).
> 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.
> have their customers best interest in mind, and it shows time and again.
Of course, neither does Dell, Lenovo or HP. Or especially Google for that matter (at least in that case Apple's and their customers interests somewhat align since they aren't making money by selling their data to third parties).
In any case, it has been harder and harder to advocate for any Apple products over the years. Funnily enough, once you are outside the marketing hype, you realised that most of their products are not very competitive for their price. I think they are trying to milk the silicon while they can because it is really the only As up their sleeve currently. When that advantage is gone, they will be in trouble and they know it.
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.
This would only cannibalize their higher tier sales with a low margin product. I don't get it.
This company is visionless.
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.
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.
The argument goes both ways.
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".
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.
In phones Apple have about 27% and a cheaper phone in the $599 16e.
I don't see why they shouldn't go for a similar strategy to the phones.