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.
> 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).
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.
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 $400 iPhone would certainly increase market share--but Apple does not seem to want that market. Too low margin, I would think, or maybe too high a risk of "cheapening" their overall brand. Or maybe both.
Why is a laptop different?
Now, lower cost carriers do less of this, and you need to get the high end plan, so it’s not good advice for everyone to get the free phone deal. It is one way a laptop is different. A decent chunk of people aren’t directly paying for their phone.
Without any contracts an unlocked (renewed) iPhone 15 through Amazon 400 - 500$.
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 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).
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.
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.
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".
znpy•1h ago