After four years and three generations, Apple has quietly discontinued their 12-inch Macbook line.
This is part of a product refresh that happened earlier this week, which also saw price changes and small upgrades made to their two remaining laptops, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
The discontinuation of the 12-inch Macbook seems like an attempt by Apple to simplify their catalogue of laptops, which had gotten rather convoluted in recent years.
Last year’s MacBook Air, for example, hovered around the same price point as the 12-inch Macbook, which created some confusion when it came to buying a portability-focused Macbook.
While some might lament the death of Apple’s lightest computer (personally, I was eyeing the next 12-inch to be my next laptop), to Apple’s credit the thought process has become much simpler.
If all you’re going to do be doing is checking emails, writing documents and watching Netflix, get a MacBook Air. For more processor-intensive tasks like video editing or gaming, get a MacBook Pro.
But what if you need something even more portable?
Well, it looks like Apple is subtly pushing customers towards the iPad Pro and the upcoming iPad OS, which promises to be more laptop-esque in terms of functionality.
On a more positive note, the aforementioned price changes and upgrades are a welcome one: the MacBook Air now starts at $1,599 ($1,449 for university students), and has added True Tone that’ll automatically adjust the ambient light and brightness according to your surroundings.
The MacBook Pro, on the other hand, starts at $1,899 ($1,749 for university students), and have been updated with the latest 8th-generation quad-core processors, which are said to be twice as powerful as the previous iteration.
That’s not all – while the Touch Bar was only available on higher end models previously, they now come with every version. Nice.
It looks like Apple is returning to a simpler time, where every product in their lineup serves a clear purpose.
If you’ve been meaning to get a new laptop, now would be a better time than most.
