- Apple could ship its affordable MacBook in quantities of up to 8 million
- New rumors say this would represent 25% of Mac sales by 2025
- In short, the company could have big plans for its wallet-friendly device, and the means to price it temptingly in this adverse climate
Apple’s rumored affordable MacBook could be a big part of the company’s laptop sales strategy based on recent talk from the grapevine.
Mac Observer spotted a post by yeux1122 dropping new information about the MacBook. This is a Korean tech blogger with supply chain links who has gotten things right in the past, but obviously still needs to be taken with a good dose of spice.
The leaker claims that Apple has big plans for this cheaper MacBook, and that (as translated by Google): “Annual shipments of this model are expected to reach around 5.5 million units [to] 7.9 million units, which is about 25% of last year’s total Mac series sales.”
In short, this won’t be a relatively niche release, similar to an iPhone SE – rather, it’s designed as a big push to drive Mac sales forward.
As we’ve heard before, this MacBook is expected to cut the price by using an iPhone processor (probably the A18 Pro chip), and also drop to 8GB of system RAM, which would be an obvious cost-saver in the current memory crisis.
We’re told that Apple’s ‘strong’ supply chain management – contracts for parts and existing component inventory – means it will still be able to mass-produce this cheaper MacBook, even with current RAM (and other) prices and supply headwinds.
That sentiment was echoed by another recent report from Taiwan’s Mirror Daily, highlighted by leaker Jukan on X, which claims that rising RAM prices won’t stop Apple’s new entry-level MacBook from launching this year. Again, we’re told it will use the A18 CPU and 8GB of RAM and be priced around $699 to $799 in the US (and in line with that in other currencies).
This second report also echoes the buoyant sales forecasts that yeux1122 launched, all of which lends further weight to the idea that this MacBook could be ready to launch soon. Previous rumors have indicated a spring 2026 launch, so it could be as soon as next month, in theory, and likely before May.
Analysis: a big opportunity for Apple – but is 8GB still sustainable?
It seems that Apple has plenty of spare inventory for MacBook production, so it can theoretically proceed with the launch of this new entry-level model without batting an eyelid at the now raging RAM crisis. That’s not terribly surprising given the MacBook maker’s clout, yet the claimed quantity for this launch, as shown here, is a shocker if true.
Another surprise here is that yeux1122 notes that the price of this MacBook “may be lower than expected”, although it’s hard to imagine Apple shooting for e.g. a $599 model with the state of the PC industry right now (with the prices of everything going up). It seems that Apple can settle for an MSRP of more than that and still look like a good value for money.
Of course, everything depends on the quality of this affordable MacBook. In addition to the iPhone chip and 8GB of RAM loading, we can also expect corners to be cut with the screen, and the chassis and overall build probably won’t be as premium as other MacBooks. There must of course be summaries, but it is a question of what effect these can have – and we have no idea in that regard at this stage of pure rumours.
One thing is clear enough though: If Apple returns to 8GB with a MacBook, it reverses its recent policy of not having any Mac with less than 16GB. As you probably haven’t noticed, 8 GB is seen as quite weak in the world of modern laptops. In fact, I wrote a long article about this amount of RAM and how suitable it is or isn’t for a 2026 notebook if you want to explore it in more depth.
In a nutshell, at least for day-to-day use, you can still get by with 8GB in 2026, but it’s far from ideal – especially when it comes to any kind of future-proofing considerations. And interestingly, yeux1122 notes that thanks to the way Apple has tightly integrated macOS and its hardware, you can expect a “smooth user experience even with 8GB of RAM” (again, translation nuances may need to be taken into account, but you get the gist).
Especially when it comes to AI features going forward, which are supposedly the next big thing after all, I find it hard to believe that 8GB of RAM will be enough – but apparently the affordable MacBook will happily support Apple Intelligence, says yeux1122. (Although in truth it will have to, really).
So there are some conflicting ideas with the (rumored) design and reality of this laptop, and I don’t think the path is completely clear for an 8GB MacBook going forward in 2030 – you’d obviously want the laptop to last a few years. But that said, there’s no doubt that a very temptingly priced MacBook could really boost Mac sales, and if Apple puts out the device in the volume theorized here, it’s not impossible that the laptop could account for a large chunk of the company’s PC sales, given the current climate of rising prices elsewhere with laptop makers.
With a release seemingly on the horizon now, it shouldn’t be long before more rumors start pouring in – and we find out more about the likely truth about this alleged entry-level MacBook. If Apple really plans to go all-in with this device as suggested, it will certainly mean interesting times ahead – and some much-needed relief on the value front in the laptop space this year.
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