I feel like “Destroying Chromebooks” requires competing with the Chromebook price point of around $300, despite the link near the top of the article to a list o

I feel like “Destroying Chromebooks” requires competing with the Chromebook price point of around $300, despite the link near the top of the article to a list of “the best Chromebooks in 2020” that goes up to $1200. (https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-chromebooks https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-chromebooks) Apple is picky about what it puts in its machines and what it makes them out of; can they make one of their signature milled aluminum cases cheaply enough to be a part of a BOM that lets them make a decent profit at $300? I can’t find much data on estimated BOMs for the Air (I feel that’s the closest thing in their line to this category) beyond a 2010 estimate of about $750 for machines sold starting at $1000. That price to users has remained consistent so I feel I can assume the cost to Apple hasn’t changed much. Some quick and sloppy searching shows that Intel’s prices on the CPUs in the current Airs are somewhere in the $150-300 range, if I make the best-case assumption that the cheapest Air’s CPU costs Apple $300 and that the cost of a desktop-level Apple CPU is zero, that’s still a BOM of ~350 for the rest of something built with the same specs as the cheapest Air. I guess you could bring in a mid-range Prestige Chromebook at that cost? Maybe? I have no idea what the Chromebook market is shaped like. A plastic enclosure would probably lower the cost, but would they do that? I think the last time we saw plastic MacBooks was the “toilet seat” iBook back in the days of the gumdrop plastic iMac.