According to industry sources Digitimes, Apple will most likely debut the new product line in order to differentiate it from the company’s existing MacBook Air and Pro ranges. According to the source, the outward appearance will still use a metal casing but will be built of “different materials” and the cost of the mechanical components will be lower.
The purported new MacBook series’ launch date appears to be predicated on a lack of related activity from major Apple suppliers such as Quanta Computer and Foxconn, making a launch in the first half of next year implausible.
According to DigiTimes Research, over 13.9 million Chromebooks were shipped in 2019, increasing to over 30.4 million in 2020 and 33.5 million in 2021, illustrating the appeal of Google’s low-cost laptops in the education sector, particularly during and around the global pandemic.
Chromebook shipments are claimed to have slowed with the end of lockdowns, but the volume remains higher than before COVID. The number of educational institutions that have adopted Chromebooks in recent years is also believed to have increased rapidly, especially when compared to Apple’s iPads, whose sales in the education market have lagged.
This is the first rumour that Apple is actively building a new MacBook series that will be priced lower than the company’s more luxury MacBook products, thus expectations should be kept modest until we hear confirmation from additional sources.