For years there has been talk of Apple launching a "cheap laptop."
Three sources believe it will happen
When netbooks were a thing, the answer was the MacBook Air, a series of machines far more expensive than netbooks with a price of 1000 dollars against 200 to 400 dollars for netbooks. We all know what happened: netbooks disappeared (they kept going from 2007 to 2013), and the Air series became Apple's most popular laptop series.
Rumors about a cheaper laptop from Apple have mainly been linked to the student and school market, but Apple's answer has been the iPad and not laptops.
But then a rumor appeared from Digitimes that Apple was supposed to launch a cheap laptop. The reason we don't quote Digitimes is because they aren't credible, but now two sources are on the ball and think the same thing, and there are details in the alleged revelations.
How about a laptop for NOK 10,000?
According to news aggregator "yeux1122," picked up by MacRumors, there are many in the production network of the company who believe they know the following: there will be cheap 12-inch and 13-inch MacBooks that will cost $700 or less.
Apple's current cheapest model with an M1 chip and 13.3-inch screen costs 14,490 - if the price is around NOK 7,000 in the US (the reason for this particular price is that the fastest Chromebooks operate in the same price segment), can Apple manage to hit the NOK 10,000 price in Norway.
Source number three is Ming-Chi Kuo who thinks the same, and that Apple aims to sell eight to 10 million such portables a year. Analysts believe Apple managed to sell around 26 million MacBook Airs in 2022.
Perhaps there is a new 12-inch Apple to launch, which will not be marketed specifically towards students, but will still be a favorite in this user segment? The super-thin 12-inch was introduced in March 2015 but dropped in the summer of 2019 when the MacBook Air got a "Retina" screen.