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On 10th November, Apple will hold another special event, and one which will almost certainly be their last of the year.
“One more thing,” says the invite, echoing the late Steve Jobs, who’d use the phrase as a tantalising revelation that there would be one more product announcement before he exited stage left.
By now, it’s pretty clear that this particular “one more thing” is going to be an Apple Mac which is powered exclusively by the company’s own chip.
We know that, because they told us earlier this year that there’d be such a device before 2021.
But what will that device be?
I have just one wish.
What I doubt we’ll see next week
The iMac is due a proper update. It received something of a ‘tweak’ in August when Apple significantly boosted the internals and improved the already stunning 5K display with a nano-texture option.
But that isn’t particularly exciting. What most people (including yours truly) want is a new design; one which rids the all-in-one computer of those huge bezels and adds some form of biometric security.
However, I highly doubt that this will be the first Apple silicon-powered Mac. That internal update earlier this year was Apple saying, “sorry, this is as far as we’re going with the iMac in 2020”.
The redesigned iMac will arrive next year, at which point it’ll probably be available in Intel and Apple silicon variants. We won’t see it (or even a glimpse of it) on November 10th.
For what it’s worth, I also highly doubt we’ll see the rumoured AirTags or over-the-ear headphones next week. Apple will want the entire attention for the event to be focused on their shiny new Mac.
What I want to see
I don’t want much from this first Apple silicon Mac. If raw power is something you need or desire, there’s now a solid line of high-end Macs available, from the portable 16” MacBook Pro to the ludicrously powered (and priced) Mac Pro.
However, if you want something which is light on its feet, and priced in a way that makes it highly attainable, there’s currently no viable option.
But, what about the MacBook Air, you ask. Well, granted, it’s perfectly sized, runs macOS and remains as beautifully designed as it always has been.
It’s still £999 for the base model, though. And that’s a lot of money – particularly in 2020.
By comparison, if I opt for a Chromebook, I can pick up the Acer Spin 13 (best rated by lots of the tech press) for just $491 on Amazon for just $491 on Amazon.
Unless you’re a macOS loyalist, why on earth wouldn’t you buy that Chromebook over the MacBook Air? This is where I think Apple is missing a trick and I hope beyond hope that they’re going to right it next week.
During their special event, I want them to launch a Chromebook killer; a 13” MacBook, powered by their own CPU. It doesn’t need to be particularly quick (although, it almost certainly will be, comparatively), and it doesn’t need any other frills such as biometric security.
All this new laptop needs is a highly competitive price tag.
Why should Apple do this?
There’s a huge market for it. In America, for instance, Chromebooks [have become the computer of choice] for the country’s student population.
Apple appears to have an appetite for this kind of market, too. You only need to look at what they’ve done with the Apple Watch to realise that the days of Apple being solely a premium brand for design agencies are long gone. You can now pick up a brand-new Apple Watch from just £199. That’s a great price for the best smartwatch on the market.
Can you imagine the Steve Jobs Apple doing that ten years ago?
Why don’t they do the same for the Mac? Like the Watch, it isn’t their biggest profit-maker; that crown still rests comfortably on the iPhone’s head.
They can afford to make a low-cost MacBook which is targeted solely at the Chromebook market. It’d be yet another entry point into the Apple ecosystem which which is becoming increasingly sticky, thanks to their growing range of services. Who cares how slim the margins might be (although, arguably, they’re still going to be pretty handsome if the bill of materials rests almost solely in-house).
Alas, Apple may not be thinking this way. They may simply release a MacBook powered by their own chips at a premium price point, or, at the very least, a whisker above the MacBook Air’s price tag.
Let’s see. I’ll return with my thoughts after the event in an exclusive video. Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel YouTube channel to catch that one!
