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Walmart begins selling the Mac for the first time: M1 MacBook Air for $699
- dockerd 3y agohttps://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/03/15/macbook-air-walmart https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/03/15/macbook-air-wal...
- amelius 3y agoDoesn't Apple dictate the price?
- bombcar 3y agoNo, they dictate the MSRP and may not give you discounts if you violate it, but if you check Best Buy they always are at the Apple Store prices, or lower (often lower) - sometimes even so low as to beat out Apple refurbished with new.
- giancarlostoro 3y agoBest Buy on the other hand doesnt have every model that Apple sells, if you want a maxed out Mac anything you gotta go through Apple.
- mathgeek 3y agoKnowing how hard Walmart presses their suppliers on price, I would be surprised if there wasn’t some amount of compromise between the two companies here. I haven’t looked at model numbers but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a Walmart exclusive build (or if it isn’t… either makes sense).
- quesera 3y agoWalmart and Apple both have very well-earned reputations. Kind of an "unstoppable force meets immovable object" problem here. It may have looked like a compromise, but I feel certain that Apple walked away from the negotiation feeling that they got exactly what they wanted. My first question though: How long will Apple continue to manufacture M1s for sale at Walmart? The M1 has a ton of life in it for normal users. Yes, 8GB, but that's still plenty for most people doing most things. My guess is that this is a big-retail liquidation of devices Apple is ready to move on from, and not a new long-term price point. We'll see!
- bombcar 3y agoEven if Apple just got their normal distributor markup and nothing else, they just offloaded a metric ton of these things, got a bunch of PR, and have more visibility. Tons of families will notice a $700 Mac, and Walmart already sells iPhones and watches, so they have worked together.
- travem 3y agoWith respect to: > My guess is that this is a big-retail liquidation of devices Apple is ready to move on from, and not a new long-term price point. We'll see! I think this may have staying power. It provides a nice way of selling to a lower tier segment without impacting their higher tier offerings. It provides an on-route to the Apple computing ecosystem for those on slightly lower incomes who would otherwise have to go with the equivalent Windows laptop. Winning at that level gets people deeper into the Apple ecosystem earlier, and more likely in the future to stay in that ecosystem if their economic situation changes (classic example would be budget conscious students)
- quesera 3y agoGood points, and there is precedent right in the Apple ecosystem. I think it's brilliant that "last year's model" (iPhone, iPad) drops down the good-better-best chain with every product refresh. No new R&D or tooling, still a great product. There will always be a steady supply of last years' models. And customers to buy them. Apple just has to feel confident that a $700 M1 isn't cannibalizing their $1200 M2s or the upcoming M3s.
- tnel77 3y agoSay what you will about Apple, but their recent MacBooks have been solid and more affordable than their offerings a decade ago. It’s great to see the prices come down to a more reasonable level.
- Our_Benefactors 3y ago> It’s great to see the prices come down to a more reasonable level Purchased new, it is a nearly 4 year old laptop after all.
- HumblyTossed 3y agoAs long as they support them 8 or so years that gives you a good 4 years with it for the low low price of $699. Besides, in 4 years, 8GB RAM will not be enough, so it'll be time to upgrade anyway.
- quesera 3y agoApple typically provides parts and support for at least 5 years after sale, regardless of design/tech era. So we'll see how long the M1s are for sale at Walmart or anywhere, but these computers should be supported until 2029.
- superkuh 3y ago8GB of ram is already not enough now.
- tim333 3y agoI'm typing this on an M1 with 8GB and it flies along with very few problems. I'm not sure what application would overload it?
- superkuh 3y agoTry running a browser and adobe creative suite along with a darktable/lighttable. That kind of photography workflow also fills up the tiny available storage really fast so the macs end up being unwieldly octopuses of fragile USB/thunderbolt devices. I don't do it myself, but I do do tech support for them when they go wrong. And usually it's because they run out of the paltry 8GB of ram.
- breakfastduck 3y agoHonestly that price is an absolute steal for this machine.
- martinky24 3y ago$699 for that laptop in 2024 is wild. That's an excellent laptop to use as a casual daily driver for the majority of the population. Performs well, excellent build quality, decent screen, strong battery life, small form factor... Checks most boxes for many people!
- SavageBeast 3y agoIve got N machines around the house for various tasks but unless Im sitting at my Main Battle Station, my M1 MBA is my goto machine. Competent for more than it should be, disappears in your backpack, great screen if you don't mind the size and battery sipping architecture. This thing was hard to beat at $1K and at $699 JUST GO BUY ONE ALREADY. 8GB memory initially scared me but I have the M1 Mini and the M1 MBA with the same guts and 8GB in M1 land is NOT the same as 8GB on other architectures. I run a full featured trading platform (Trader Workstation+my own code that does the heavy lifting) and right now Im sitting at 6.2 of 8GB "used" and its snappy as could be and apparently ZERO swap is being used too. I run an i9 MBP 16" as my main battle station and I really do think the UI experience on the M1 is snappier. One day I'll have the excuse to upgrade to the latest M* version for that too and Im looking forward to it. With the M1 you will never hear the processor fan kick on because there isn't one because its not even necessary. Im no AAPL fan boi here but this is a no-brainer 200%.
- bombcar 3y agoI have the M1 Max MBP at 32GB and it replaced a basically top-of-the-line Intel MBP and I couldn't be more content with it. Everything just works and works well, too well - I've not been able to justify even thinking about upgrading it, and it's almost 3 years old.
- Hamuko 3y ago$699 seems kinda high still. I got one for 880€ (incl. 24% VAT) in 2021.
- bombcar 3y ago$699 is $50 cheaper than Apple is selling the same laptop (refurbished) - https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGN63LL/A/refurbished-133-inch-macbook-air-apple-m1-chip-with-8%E2%80%91core-cpu-and-7%E2%80%91core-gpu-space-gray https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGN63LL/A/refurbished-133...
- djaouen 3y agoHonestly, I am no longer interested in Apple due to its discontinuance of MacOS updates for older systems. My next purchase will either be a Framework or a Tuxedo.
- HumblyTossed 3y agoHow long should they support an older system?
- djaouen 3y agoThey don't have to. I am just not their target demographic. I want my laptops to last 10+ years.
- lowercased 3y ago"Lasting" and "supported" are obviously different things. How much support do you get for a laptop from 2013/2014? I guess Linux stuff can still run, but I would imagine for most folks, there's going to be a practical limit re the software they want or need to run still working on hardware that old. Software will still run, but possibly not with newer security patches. And yep, with open source you can patch some of it yourself, but that market seems niche, and yes, that's not going to be Apple for your preferences.
- timbit42 3y agoYou can keep upgrading Windows indefinitely. You don't have to have TPM to install Windows 11.
- beretguy 3y agoThey just shouldn’t artificially prevent installation of newer software.
- martinky24 3y agoWait til this guy figures out that new versions of Android won't install on older systems.
- bombcar 3y agoReading into it, we see a few things: * Apple doesn't want to break the $999 barrier on their own site, so the M1 Air is just gone * Apple still has them (or can easily make them) where $699 is a fine price, and so is selling them to Walmart - will they appear elsewhere? * This will be quite competitive when next to the standard laptops Walmart stocks in-store (usually a few Chromebooks in the $150-300 range, Windows for a bit more but sometimes even a $1400 one). * The M1 has a lot of life in it, it's now 3+ years old - and works great for me still. They can probably juice it as long as they want just by adding some RAM. I wonder if this is a "one off" or if Apple will start doing this permanently - the Apple Store is for this generation and last, and everything else, even if still made, is for partners. I don't know when Apple actually stops making various phones.
- tiffanyh 3y agoSurplus? Is this purely Apple offloading their surplus discontinued Macs to Walmart?
- AdrienPoupa 3y agoI love my work-provided M1 MBP Max and would possibly consider getting a personal Air at this price range, but the 8gb RAM is still a no go for me, even for $699. My SO has a 2015 MBP that's still solid, and I credit that to its SSD and 16gb RAM. I can't see 8gb of RAM being usable in 2034.
- bombcar 3y agoFor normal "office use" (web browser, an app or two) 8GB does work well enough. More RAM is always nice, of course, but the $500 you save compared to the cheapest M2 16GB Air now available is quite a bit toward the later purchase of a new laptop in 3-4 years. Of course, sometimes refurbished M1s will appear.
- nateb2022 3y agoIn response to the comments regarding its "excellent value" at $699, Lenovo is currently selling its 14" ThinkPad P14s Gen 3 for $699. It comes with a Ryzen 7 6850U that roughly matches the M1 in performance[1], 16GB of LPDDR5 and a 512GB SSD. In terms of what the everyday consumer will want/need, having 8GB more RAM and 256GB more storage is arguably going to be more valuable both now and going forward. Edit: There have been a number of comments linking to reviews suggesting really poor battery life, however these reviews clearly mention 12th gen Intel processors, with an onboard nvidia GPU in one instance. None of these reviews pertain to the laptop I mentioned above, which features a Ryzen 6850U. [1]: https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m1-vs-amd-ryzen-7-pro-6850u https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m1-vs-amd-ryzen-...
- GSimon 3y agoMacBook: better screen, keyboard, speakers, battery life, milled aluminum unibody, has airdrop/App Store.
- odiroot 3y agoSorry but ThinkPad's keyboard is way better. Apple is too stubborn to improve theirs.
- bombcar 3y agoThe Mac keyboards have improved but there are so many more options on the Windows side it's not even funny - and I don't know if Apple has ever made a laptop with a numpad, which can be terribly important for some people.
- forgetfulness 3y agoSome manufacturers can be quite a crapshoot with the keyboard layout (fortunately that's plainly visible when shopping for a laptop), but Lenovo is pretty consistent with the ThinkPad layout, even if they're dubiously creating these low end plastic frame lines that pointlessly devalue their brand. Nobody remembers that brand as being "IBM's laptops", they don't have that to borrow value against, they should take care of the ThinkPad line's reputation.
- pkage 3y agoFor an identical price point you can get a brand-new ASUS vivobook[0] which features: - a 15" 1080p (!) screen - 6 hour battery life (vs 18h) - plastic frame (vs aluminum) - inferior cpu performance (Intel Core i7 1255U vs M1) Though it does have some pros: - 16gb of ram (vs 8gb) - 1tb of disk (vs 256gb) Seems like the M1 MBP is a great option and I'm glad it's more accessible. [0]: https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-VivoBook-15-15-6-Touchscreen-FHD-Laptop-Computer-12th-Gen-Intel-10-Core-i7-1255U-24GB-DDR4-RAM-1TB-PCIe-SSD-WiFi-6-Bluetooth-5-1-Backlit-Keyboar/572757538 https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-VivoBook-15-15-6-Touchscreen...
- bombcar 3y agoThat has a touchscreen, and isn't a bad deal for $700, depending on your use case. It's so hard to know if it's a good quality device or if it'll feel like a cheap plastic toy, but if it has survived being on the show floor at Walmart it's probably pretty durable.
- robocat 3y ago> touchscreen No point on a laptop. Some point if the laptop has a tablet design (removable keyboard or fold-underneath keyboard). I have a touchscreen on my laptop. Pretty useless to be honest when I used a Windows 10 VM (pointer pass-through) and really useless in Ubuntu. Presumably Windows 11 has better support?
- singhrac 3y agoSorry, the only use case I can come up with is if you strictly need a Windows laptop because some software only runs on Windows (e.g. a game or Matlab or something). But for practically everyone else this is a terrible purchase.
- the_snooze 3y agoMy view is that unless you're looking to do something really performance-sensitive (e.g., gaming), specs don't matter nearly as much as user experience: nice screen, nice keyboard and touchpad, decent battery life, good build quality. Entry-level CPUs and SSDs are so good these days that you're really not getting much by spending more on bigger numbers, unless you really care about performance-sensitive use cases.
- madjam002 3y agoI got the M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM for £730 second hand off eBay as a backup laptop shortly after buying an M1 Pro 14”. Then when I travelled for a few months I only took the Air with me, and it’s incredible how I could pretty much do all of my day to day development on it. The single core performance being pretty much the same is such a huge win. After having a £3000 Surface Book 2 for a few years which is truly one of the worst devices I’ve ever owned, the M1 Air is by far the laptop I’ve got the most value out of.
- tssva 3y agoThey are selling for $650 at Costco.
- bombcar 3y agohttps://www.costco.com/macbook-air-13.3-inch---apple-m1-chip-8-core-cpu%2c-7-core-gpu---8gb-memory---256gb-ssd-space-gray.product.100688258.html https://www.costco.com/macbook-air-13.3-inch---apple-m1-chip... but interestingly it says $649 in search but $749 on the page for me, I suspect someone at Costco is scrambling to update the discount.
- paulmd 3y agoCostco’s website is bad, it often doesn’t show prices (at all) until you go to the product page and login. And half the time there’s still a resident IAM token, it doesn’t ask me for a password, just wants to loop through the auth flow to get a new session token or something.
- bombcar 3y agoIt is horribly bad and doesn't ever answer the simple question I want to know, which is if I drive over, what will I pay and is it in stock. Home Depot? Walmart? Target? They all can do this, with some acceptable variation. Costco? They don't even know. I wouldn't be surprised if they literally don't know what's on the floor.
- abhayhegde 3y agoThis should be higher up. They have it on Costco at $649 for a while now.
- twoWhlsGud 3y agoLooks like it's out of stock, though
- politelemon 3y agoPlease don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.
- martinky24 3y agoWhat signs do you have here that this is "promotion"? Apple selling a modern laptop for $699 is indeed worthy of curiosity as it relates to the consumer tech landscape -- which is a theme for this website. It might not interest you, which is fine, but in that case keep scrolling! Not every post about consumer tech is "promotion".
- bombcar 3y agoIt amuses me to think that this was posted by Rob Walton himself.
- beretguy 3y agoCan it run Linux? If yes, then it’s worth buying.
- 8b16380d 3y agoStill use this machine for full time + freelance dev work, alongside all my personal work (running mine + wife businesses). Also serves as my full time media consumption device. Hasn’t missed a beat; my only “want” would be an even small form factor
- shrubble 3y agoRuns OpenBSD also, it seems! https://www.kernelpanic.life/hardware/openbsd-m1-macbook-air.html https://www.kernelpanic.life/hardware/openbsd-m1-macbook-air... Should be very comfortable with 8GB - my FreeBSD x64 desktop rarely uses more than 4GB during operation of Emacs, heavy Chrome usage, syncthing, etc.
- unpopularopp 3y agoWish we have prices like that in Europe. Same Air would be $1050 in my country currently, though that includes VAT which is afaik missing from the Walmart price which is net not gross (tax differs from state to state) The US seems like extremely expensive for certain products, but also extremely cheaper for other products.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoOfficial Walmart release: https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/03/15/walmart-brings-the-popular-macbook-air-with-the-m1-chip-to-its-shelves https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/03/15/walmart-brings...
- sircastor 3y agoI have an M1 Pro for my work computer, and it's transformed my sense of what I think I can get away with for my next personal machine. Previously I would have just maxed out specs for the chip to what I could afford. My MBP M1 is so good at what it does that I'm now seriously considering just getting an M3 MacBook Air. Still a little annoyed they ditched the wedge shape. All of this to say that the M1 MBA at $699 feels like an amazing deal. I don't really have a need for one, but it feels like they're giving them away.
- jrochkind1 3y agoFor Macs, I have long bought the slowest processor, but increased storage and RAM. It's the storage and RAM that are potentially limiting on this offering (and I don't even know if Walmart lets you choose upgrades there, but Apple always charges unbelievable amounts for them). I think even being a few generations old the CPU is likely to actually be fine for quite a while, even for some (but not all) specialty uses (like development).
- seam_carver 3y agoThat's honestly a compelling price point. I got an M2 mini for $499.