This was probably a good time for Apple to broaden their mac range, and expand their computer market share. Under the Steve Jobs era, the Mac was always a premi

This was probably a good time for Apple to broaden their mac range, and expand their computer market share. Under the Steve Jobs era, the Mac was always a premium product, and focused on capturing industry profits rather than market share. I think switching to focusing on market share would have been a very good change for them to make. As a high end product, the mac is likely not gonna make them much more profits than it already does. However, additional market share would further strengthen their customer base for the areas which will make them money. iPhones, iPads, and services. If Apple were to release a 5-600$ laptop it likely wouldn't make them much money, but it would create more mac users, and I suspect mac users are significantly more likely to own iPhones and pay for services like iCloud and Apple Music than Windows and Linux users. And TBH, Apple has a massive market in the enterprise just waiting for some competition. You can see this in the rapid and popular uptake of Google @ Work services, and Chrome OS in the enterprise and education services. People were looking for a simpler alternative to the entire MS Exchange ecosystem, and once again, while these may not have been massive money spinners on their own (though they definitely could have been that as well), they would form a strong solid base to sell iPhones to.