Apple is cooking something for March 5, is a new MacBook worth Rs 50,000 coming?
Apple is launching something on March 5th. There is speculation that it is planning to release a new low-cost MacBook that could bring many Chromebooks and budget Windows laptops into notice. We will take a look.
Apple is cooking something. We don’t know what it is, but rumors are rife that not one, but several products could be launched a few weeks from now. There are some of the usual suspects, like the highly anticipated iPhone 17e, but there’s also growing buzz about what could be Apple’s most affordable MacBook yet.
While Apple is known for launching new iPhones – next-generation models in tech parlance – in September, Cupertino spends the rest of the year “soft-launching” new products from iPads to Macs. What we mean by soft launch is that, these announcements are made either through a press release or relatively small-scale pre-recorded events. Apple is doing something different on March 5, 2026. It is inviting select members of the press from the US (New York), UK (London) and China (Shanghai) to “experience” something.
John Gruber and Mark Gurman, two reliable sources of Apple news in the industry, believe that the March 4 hands-on session will feature three days of newsroom announcements related to three different types of devices. 4th March is Wednesday. Therefore, Apple has been advised to make an announcement on Monday, an announcement on Tuesday, and another announcement on Wednesday, followed by a demo for journalists and other media. Gruber puts it this way: iPhone 17e on Monday, new iPads on Tuesday, and new MacBooks on Wednesday. Gurman also has the same hope.
MacBook has gone mainstream
The iPhone 17e is the most obvious contender (given that the iPhone 16e launched around this time last year) though it’s the upcoming entry-level MacBook that looks to be the most interesting – and exciting – Apple product worth looking at. This is because Apple has been able to make the iPhone more affordable over the years, but we haven’t had a low-cost MacBook until today. When Apple launched the Mac Mini for around Rs 50,000, it created a stir. (With new-age AI tools like OpenGL taking hold, demand is skyrocketing.) The Rs 50,000 MacBook has “bestseller” written all over it.
Currently, the cheapest MacBook you can buy in India is the MacBook Air. This is a great laptop. But it still starts at around Rs 1 lakh and for many people that is a huge amount. It remains difficult for many people to reach this. There is a possibility of change in this soon. A new model of MacBook – we don’t know what it’s called yet – is reportedly in the works that will help Apple break into the mainstream mass market. This laptop, to no one’s surprise, will have weaker specifications like an iPhone chip and possibly fewer ports.
The leak suggests that this MacBook will be powered by the A18 Pro chip or something along those lines. This is the processor which was inside the iPhone 16 Pro. Now, if you’re wondering how an iPhone chip would get inside a MacBook, you’re not alone, but at the same time it’s no rocket science. iPhone chips – like the A18 Pro – are ARM based, just like Apple’s M-series silicon powers Macs. Essentially, they are both mobile chips. The only difference is that the M-series chips – meant for laptops – are more powerful. The A-series chips are not loose. In fact, the benchmark scores put the A18 Pro closer to the M1, which technically makes a lot of sense for an affordable MacBook that will – presumably – take on Chromebooks and budget Windows laptops.
Reports also suggest that Apple may be using a new type of manufacturing process that is more efficient to create and place metal as an alternative to manufacturing materials for this lower-cost MacBook. The screen is also expected to be LCD to keep costs down. All this when paired with Apple’s recent effort at subscription bundles for creative tools that make Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro more affordable for end-users, there needs to be a machine that can keep Chromebooks and budget Windows laptops in mind if Apple sticks to the rumored starting price of $599. We will know soon. Watch this space for all the details about Apple’s upcoming launch.
