Apple is reportedly creating a budget-friendly MacBook to compete with the Google Chromebook, which costs a fraction of the price, with Chromebooks costing $149 compared to the MacBook’s starting price of $1,599.
By early 2022, Google had over 50 million students and teachers using Chromebooks, prompting them to release an education-oriented Chromebook line and a repair program. Due to their high cost, MacBooks have remained inaccessible to most schools.
According to GreatSchools, an education analyst nonprofit, 10 million schools worldwide employ Apple’s iPads.
Digitimes suggests that Apple’s upcoming budget-friendly MacBook will employ different materials from its current models to lower production costs and better appeal to the education sector.
Insiders say the affordable version of Apple’s MacBook could hit the market in 2024.
Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives said it “was a matter of when, not if, Apple aggressively goes after the Chromebook market with a low-cost MacBook.”
“The education market has been a tough nut to crack because it’s really owned by Google and Microsoft, but Apple’s playing the long game over the next three, five, seven years,” Ives added.
“Many consumer households are Apple — they’re everywhere else except the classroom. This is the last frontier for them to go after consumers.”
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