We are but one week away from Apple’s next hardware event, where the company is expected to announce its first ARM-powered Mac hardware. Apple will announce a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 based on its new ARM architecture, according to Mark Gurman and Debby Wu of Bloomberg, which may be joined by a revised version of the MacBook Pro 16.
Leaker @000leaker has gone one further, though. Posting on Twitter, the account claims that Apple will launch the ARM MacBook Air for as low as US$799, with prices rising to US$999 for what we presume will just be higher memory SKUs. We should stress that @000leaker does not have the best track record, but there have been rumours that Apple will price its ARM Mac hardware at cheaper price points than its current Intel ones.
Additionally, the account claims that the new MacBook Pro 13 will cost between US$1,099 and US$1,299. Meanwhile, a 12-inch MacBook will apparently follow in Q1/Q2 2021, before 14-inch and 16-inch Pro models arrive in Q2/Q3 2021. @000leaker adds that the MacBook Pro 14 will retail for upwards of US$1,799, which would be quite the price hike from the MacBook Pro 13.
Apple is expected to equip the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 with full bore versions of the A14 Bionic, the 5 nm chipset that it uses in the new iPad Air and iPhone 12 series. The company may not brand its first ARM laptop chip as the A14 Bionic though, but it is thought to offer between eight and twelve processor cores.