By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
While introducing new lower-cost MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro computers, Apple decided to discontinue its standard 12-inch MacBook. The new upgraded Mac’s will be even cheaper for college students.
Apple (AAPL) announced updating of its best sellers – MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air price is lowered to $1,099, but it will be offered to college students for $999. The computer will be sold in the same configurations as before, starting with 128 gigabytes of storage, but Apple decided to update the screen with new TrueTone technology.
It also includes the updated keyboard design that Apple first launched in updated MacBook Pros in May.
Also, the entry-level $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro is updated with the latest 8th-generation quad-core processors, making it two times more powerful than before. It also now features Touch Bar and Touch ID, a True Tone Retina display and the Apple T2 Security Chip, and is available for $1,199 for college students.
As they said from the company:
“MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are part of Apple’s Back to School promotion, which includes also a pair of Beats Studio 3 Wireless headphones with the purchase of a qualifying Mac notebook or iMac.”
Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac Product Marketing said:
“College students love the Mac — it’s the notebook they rely on from the dorm room to the classroom, and the No. 1 choice among higher education students. With a lower $999 student price for MacBook Air and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with faster performance, Touch Bar and Touch ID at $1,199 for students, there’s never been a better time to bring a Mac to college.”
However, be it as it may, at the same time they announced the new upgrades, the company said that they decided to discontinue their 12-inch MacBook. Even though it has been presented as Apple’s smallest and lightest laptop, it no longer makes much sense in Apple’s current computer lineup.
It was more expensive than the MacBook Air, but had slower performance and offered fewer features. Because of that, Apple said customers preferred the MacBook Air over the regular MacBook, even though the latter was slightly smaller.
Apple shares were downgraded two days ago when Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang downgraded the AAPL stock to sell from neutral. He then said:
“We believe there is less reward for owning Apple stock after the recent stock rebound from stock buybacks and stable second quarter guidance. We do not think Apple is a short but we believe Apple will face fundamental deterioration over the next six to 12 months.”
Zhang added that the iPhone XS may have been “one of the worst selling iPhone models in the history of Apple” and that overall iPhone sales appear to have been flat on a month-over-month basis from May to June.
However, yesterday AAPL stock turned upwards when J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee suggested a stronger iPhone replacement cycle in 2020 that previously expected. Chatterjee raised is 2020 iPhone shipment outlook to 195 million units from 185 million and his EPS estimate to $13.00 from $12.85.
At the time of writing, the stock was up 0,61% to $201.24.
Be it as it may, it’s nice that Apple is helping U.S. students who now can start the new school year with their new computer. 60 percent of them – without touch screen though.