With Intel and other PC manufacturers looking to take a chunk out of Apple’s MacBook Air sales with their cheaply priced – and cheaply manufactured – Ultrabooks, word on the street has Apple thinking about lowering the price of its introductory MacBook Air.
The always wrong DigiTimes is reporting that Apple will release a sub $800.00 MacBook Air in the coming months:
Currently, Apple’s 11-inch 64GB MacBook Air is priced at US$999 with a 128GB version priced at US$1,199. The 13-inch 128GB version is priced at US$1,299 and 256GB version is US$1,599. If Apple decides to launch a US$799 MacBook Air, the sources believe the strategy will damage ultrabooks allowing Apple to continue to press its advantage.
It’s laughable, isn’t it? Would Apple rather that cheap asses purchase a cheaper MacBook Air, or an iPad? Our money is on the iPad, which is exactly why the company won’t realistically introduce a cheaper MacBook Air to the market in the third quarter of 2012.
Would a cheaper MacBook Air encourage customers to purchase the device over the competition? Yes. Do people already purchase the MacBook Air over the competition due to quality differences? Yes. The MacBook Air is bound to get an update, with a new CPU, and other specification goodness, but Apple won’t be releasing a cheaper model of the laptop. It’ll bring the price too close to the iPad, and right now, Apple’s all about selling post-PC devices, not cheaper PC devices. A cheaper MacBook Air would directly compete with people purchasing iPads, and Apple isn’t in the business of competing with itself.
Image Credit: Gizmodo
