Apple this morning took the wraps off redesigned MacBooks powered by the same kind of inhouse ARM processors you'll find in an iPhone or iPad, ditching the Intel chips the company has used for 15 years.
The move to ARM-based processors has a couple of major benefits. Your new MacBook will essentially be always on. It will wake instantly, just like your iPhone or iPad. It will also have a battery life; Apple says you'll get up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing on the new MacBook Air. You'll also be able to run iPad and iPhone apps directly on your Mac, which opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
Yet despite Apple's new M1 ARM processor being similar in design to the A14 chip you'll find in the iPhone 12 and iPad Air, Apple's new MacBooks don't have 4G connectivity.
The omission is puzzling, given Apple's entire fleet of iPads are available in both Wi-Fi only and 4G-ready models. Windows laptops powered by ARM processors - such as the Surface Pro X and the Samsung Galaxy Book S - tend to offer 4G connectivity. If your new laptops are powered by the heart of a smartphone, why not also include the modem?
I love my 4G iPad - it makes it so much easier to work on the go. I can open up OneNote and pick up from where I left off on my home computer without needing to think about tethering. Fundamentally, it's a luxury. After all, it's not that much more effort to turn on a portable hotspot, but it's a task you actively need to think about. It adds friction to the experience. And it will probably chew up your phone's battery.
You'd also never have to worry about finding public WiFi, and Find My Mac would always have the up to date location of your device, rather than relying on the last time you had The Fi.
A 4G MacBook would also almost certainly end up being available through the likes of a Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus. All three already sell 4G iPads on a plan, so it would be a logical step. Given the new MacBook Air starts at $1,599, being able to pay that kind of device off over 24 or even 36 months could help make them more accessible to more consumers.
Lastly, the lack of a 4G MacBook feels like Apple leaving money on the table. You're typically looking at spending around $200 extra if you want to get a 4G iPad over a Wi-Fi only model, so it would make sense if Apple charged a similar premium when it came to MacBooks. There's obviously margin factored into that $200, so a 4G MacBook could have been a nifty little upsell to suckers like me who can't bear to be without connectivity on every single device they own.
Thanks to the M1 processor, Apple's new MacBooks are more like iPhones than ever. And as with my iPhone, I'd just love to jam a SIM in one. Or you know, download an eSIM. Please just make a 4G MacBook, Tim.
Alex Choros
