Part of me thinks this is a bad sign for Apple. They have always been a premium brand. I'm not a business major, but it just feels like a bad thing when premium enters low-end markets.

But on the other hand, this is kind of the culmination of them owning their hardware stack. They can avoid the commoditization race to the bottom since they are the exclusive owners of a significant amount of their hardware vertical, From chips to enclosure. Perhaps that will let them retain the margins that were previously driven by a consumer base that prized prestige over price.

While my intuition is that this may be the last big cash grab that Apple squeezes out of their premium image, they did have a massive hit back in the day with the original iMac (the CRT based one). They've defined "cheap and premium" categories before.

> it just feels like a bad thing when premium enters low-end markets

Depends on your money situation. For some people, spending 600 bucks on a laptop is a lot, even in the US

It's not really that low end though. Cheap Windows laptops and Chromebooks start at less than a third of the price. It's more mass market.

They dominate the premium market.

Tim Cook, as CEO of a public company, is incentivized to deliver shareholder value.

Entering this market with a good product does just that.

Beyond that, this is an entry point for people to use Apple products. It can be bridge to get this consumer to buy more premium hardware and software later on.

I'm not a business major, but it just feels like a bad thing when premium enters low-end markets.

Microsoft's malevolent stewardship of Windows has handed the market to them on the proverbial silver platter. It's only reasonable for Cook to take advantage of their generosity.

They have made something that can more easily be adopted by schools for students.

They are creating countless customers for life.